Hosea 12:7-14

The Lord Refutes Israel’s False Claim of Innocence

12:7 The businessmen love to cheat;

they use dishonest scales.

12:8 Ephraim boasts, “I am very rich!

I have become wealthy!

In all that I have done to gain my wealth,

no one can accuse me of any offense that is actually sinful.”

12:9 “I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt;

I will make you live in tents again as in the days of old.

12:10 I spoke to the prophets;

I myself revealed many visions;

I spoke in parables through the prophets.”

12:11 Is there idolatry in Gilead?

Certainly its inhabitants will come to nothing!

Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?

Surely their altars will be like stones heaped up on a plowed field!

Jacob in Aram, Israel in Egypt, and Ephraim in Trouble

12:12 Jacob fled to the country of Aram,

then Israel worked to acquire a wife;

he tended sheep to pay for her.

12:13 The Lord brought Israel out of Egypt by a prophet,

and due to a prophet Israel was preserved alive.

12:14 But Ephraim bitterly provoked him to anger;

so he will hold him accountable for the blood he has shed,

his Lord will repay him for the contempt he has shown.