Hosea 8

1 Put the trumpet to thy mouth! Like an eagle cometh an enemy against the house of Jehovah, Because they have transgressed my covenant, And have rebelled against my law.

2 They shall say to me, My God, we know thee, we, thine Israel!

3 Israel hath cast away what is good; The enemy shall pursue him.

4 They have set up kings, but not by me; They have made princes, and I knew it not. Of their silver and their gold have they made themselves idols, That they may be brought to destruction.

5 An abomination is thy calf, O Samaria! Mine anger is kindled against them; How long will it be ere they can attain to purity!

6 For from Israel it came; The workman made it, and it is no God; Yea, into fragments shall the calf of Samaria be broken.

7 They have sown the wind, And they shall reap the whirlwind. They shall have no standing harvest; The ear shall yield no meal; If perchance it yield, strangers shall devour it.

8 Israel is swallowed up; Soon shall they become among the nations As a vessel which no one desireth.

9 For they have gone up to Assyria, Like a solitary wild-ass; Ephraim hireth lovers;

10 But though they hire among the nations, Soon will I gather the nations against them; Then shall they rest a little while from the burden of their king, and their princes!

11 Ephraim hath built many altars for sin, Therefore shall he have altars for sin.

12 Though I write for him many laws, They are accounted as a strange thing;

13 As to the sacrifices which they should offer me, they slay flesh and eat it; Jehovah hath no pleasure in them. Now will he remember their iniquity, And punish their sins; To Egypt shall they return.

14 For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and builded palaces, And Judah hath multiplied fenced cities; But I will send a fire upon his cities, And it shall devour his palaces.