New Living Translation

New King James Version

Israel’s Love for Wickedness

“I want to heal Israel, but itsa sins are too great.
Samaria is filled with liars.
Thieves are on the inside
and bandits on the outside!

1

Israel Has Rebelled Against God

“When I would have healed Israel,
Then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered,
And the wickedness of Samaria.
For they have committed fraud;
A thief comes in;
A band of robbers [a]takes spoil outside.

2

Its people don’t realize
that I am watching them.
Their sinful deeds are all around them,
and I see them all.

2

They [b]do not consider in their hearts
That I remember all their wickedness;
Now their own deeds have surrounded them;
They are before My face.

3

“The people entertain the king with their wickedness,
and the princes laugh at their lies.

3

They make a king glad with their wickedness,
And princes with their lies.

4

They are all adulterers,
always aflame with lust.
They are like an oven that is kept hot
while the baker is kneading the dough.

4

“They are all adulterers.
Like an oven heated by a baker —
He ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough,
Until it is leavened.

5

On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine,
carousing with those who mock them.

5

In the day of our king
Princes have made him sick, [c]inflamed with wine;
He stretched out his hand with scoffers.

6

Their hearts are like an oven
blazing with intrigue.
Their plot smoldersb through the night,
and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire.

6

They prepare their heart like an oven,
While they lie in wait;
[d]Their baker sleeps all night;
In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.

7

Burning like an oven,
they consume their leaders.
They kill their kings one after another,
and no one cries to me for help.

7

They are all hot, like an oven,
And have devoured their judges;
All their kings have fallen.
None among them calls upon Me.

8

“The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners,
making themselves as worthless as a half-baked cake!

8

“Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples;
Ephraim is a cake unturned.

9

Worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength,
but they don’t even know it.
Their hair is gray,
but they don’t realize they’re old and weak.

9

Aliens have devoured his strength,
But he does not know it;
Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him,
Yet he does not know it.

10

Their arrogance testifies against them,
yet they don’t return to the LORD their God
or even try to find him.

10

And the pride of Israel testifies to his face,
But they do not return to the Lord their God,
Nor seek Him for all this.

11

“The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves,
first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help.

11

Futile Reliance on the Nations

“Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without [e]sense —
They call to Egypt,
They go to Assyria.

12

But as they fly about,
I will throw my net over them
and bring them down like a bird from the sky.
I will punish them for all the evil they do.c

12

Wherever they go, I will spread My net on them;
I will bring them down like birds of the air;
I will chastise them
According to what their congregation has heard.

13

“What sorrow awaits those who have deserted me!
Let them die, for they have rebelled against me.
I wanted to redeem them,
but they have told lies about me.

13

“Woe to them, for they have fled from Me!
Destruction to them,
Because they have transgressed against Me!
Though I redeemed them,
Yet they have spoken lies against Me.

14

They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts.
Instead, they sit on their couches and wail.
They cut themselves,d begging foreign gods for grain and new wine,
and they turn away from me.

14

They did not cry out to Me with their heart
When they wailed upon their beds.
“They [f]assemble together for grain and new wine,
[g]They rebel against Me;

15

I trained them and made them strong,
yet now they plot evil against me.

15

Though I disciplined and strengthened their arms,
Yet they devise evil against Me;

16

They look everywhere except to the Most High.
They are as useless as a crooked bow.
Their leaders will be killed by their enemies
because of their insolence toward me.
Then the people of Egypt
will laugh at them.

16

They return, but not [h]to the Most High;
They are like a treacherous bow.
Their princes shall fall by the sword
For the cursings of their tongue.
This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Parallel

New Living Translation

New King James Version

Hosea 7

Hosea 7