Hosea 12 Holman Christian Standard Bible

God’s Case against Jacob’s Heirs

12 Ephraim chases^[a] the wind^(A)
and pursues the east wind.^(B)
He continually multiplies lies and violence.
He makes a covenant with Assyria,^(C)
and olive oil is carried to Egypt.^(D)

²The Lord also has a dispute with Judah.
He is about to punish Jacob according to his ways;^(E)
He will repay him based on his actions.
³In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel,^(F)
and as an adult he wrestled with God.^(G)
⁴Jacob struggled with the Angel and prevailed;
he wept and sought His favor.^(H)
He found him^[b] at Bethel,^(I)
and there He spoke with him.^[c]^(J)
⁵Yahweh is the God of Hosts;
Yahweh is His name.^(K)
⁶But you must return to your God.^(L)
Maintain love and justice,^(M)
and always put your hope in God.^(N)

⁷A merchant loves to extort^(O)
with dishonest scales in his hands.^(P)
⁸But Ephraim says:
“How rich I have become;^(Q)
I made it all myself.
In all my earnings,
no one can find any crime in me^(R)
that I can be punished for!”^[d]

Judgment on Apostate Israel

⁹I have been Yahweh your God
ever since^[e] the land of Egypt.^(S)
I will make you live in tents again,^(T)
as in the festival days.
¹⁰I spoke through the prophets^(U)
and granted many visions;
I gave parables through the prophets.^(V)
¹¹Since Gilead is full of evil,^(W)
they will certainly come to nothing.
They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal;^(X)
even their altars will be like heaps of rocks^(Y)
on the furrows of a field.

Further Indictment of Jacob’s Heirs

¹²Jacob fled to the land of Aram.^(Z)
Israel worked to earn a wife;^(AA)
he tended flocks for a wife.^(AB)
¹³The Lord brought Israel from Egypt by a prophet,^(AC)
and Israel was tended by a prophet.