Hosea 7:1-10

New Living Translation

Israel’s Love for Wickedness

7 “I want to heal Israel, but its^[a] sins are too great.
    Samaria is filled with liars.
Thieves are on the inside
    and bandits on the outside!
²Its people don’t realize
    that I am watching them.
Their sinful deeds are all around them,
    and I see them all.

³“The people entertain the king with their wickedness,
    and the princes laugh at their lies.
⁴They are all adulterers,
    always aflame with lust.
They are like an oven that is kept hot
    while the baker is kneading the dough.
⁵On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine,
    carousing with those who mock them.
⁶Their hearts are like an oven
    blazing with intrigue.
Their plot smolders^[b] through the night,
    and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire.
⁷Burning like an oven,
    they consume their leaders.
They kill their kings one after another,
    and no one cries to me for help.

⁸“The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners,
    making themselves as worthless as a half-baked cake!
⁹Worshiping 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.
¹⁰Their arrogance testifies against them,
    yet they don’t return to the Lord their God
    or even try to find him.