1 Of the vices and wantonness of the people. 12 Of their punishment.

When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they have dealt falsely: and [a]the thief cometh in, and the robber spoileth without.

And they consider not in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness: now their own inventions have beset them about: they are in my sight.

They make the [b]king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

They are all adulterers, and as a very [c]oven heated by the baker, which ceaseth from raising up, and from kneading the dough until it be leavened.

This is the [d]day of our king: the princes have made him sick with flagons of wine: he stretcheth out his hand to scorners.

For they have made ready their heart like an oven while they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night: in the morning it burneth as a flame of fire.

They are all hot as an oven, and have [e]devoured their judges: all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.

Ephraim hath [f]mixed himself among the people. Ephraim is as a cake on the hearth not turned.

Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, [g]gray hairs are here, and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.

10 And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face, and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this.

11 Ephraim also is like a dove deceived without [h]heart: they call to Egypt: they go to Assyria.

12 But when they shall go, I will spread my net upon them, and draw them down as the fowls of the heaven: I will chastise them as their [i]Congregation hath heard.

13 Woe unto them: for they have fled away from me: destruction shall be unto them, because they have transgressed against me: though I have [j]redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

14 And they have not cried unto me with their hearts, [k]when they howled upon their beds: [l]they assembled themselves for corn, and wine, and they rebel against me.

15 Though I have bound and strengthened their arm, yet do they imagine mischief against me.

16 They return, but not to the most high: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword, for the rage [m]of their tongues: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Footnotes

  1. Hosea 7:1 Meaning, that there was no one kind of vice among them, but that they were subject to all wickedness, both secret and open.
  2. Hosea 7:3 They esteem their wicked king Jeroboam above God, and seek but how to flatter and please him.
  3. Hosea 7:4 He compareth the rage of the people to a burning oven which the baker heateth, still till his dough be leavened and raised.
  4. Hosea 7:5 They used all riot and excess in their feasts, and solemnities whereby their king was overcome with surfeit, and brought into diseases, and delighted in flatteries.
  5. Hosea 7:7 By their occasion God hath deprived them of all good rulers.
  6. Hosea 7:8 That is, he counterfeited the religion of the Gentiles, yet is but as a cake baked on the one side, and raw on the other, that is, neither thoroughly hot, nor thoroughly cold, but partly a Jew, and partly a Gentile.
  7. Hosea 7:9 Which are a token of his manifold afflictions.
  8. Hosea 7:11 That is, without all judgment, as they that cannot tell whether it is better to cleave only to God, or to seek the help of man.
  9. Hosea 7:12 According to my curses made to the whole Congregation of Israel.
  10. Hosea 7:13 That is, divers times redeemed them, and delivered them from death.
  11. Hosea 7:14 When they were in affliction, and cried out for pain, they sought not unto me for help.
  12. Hosea 7:14 They only seek their own commodity and wealth, and pass not for me their God.
  13. Hosea 7:16 Because they boast of their own strength, and pass not what they speak against me and my servants, Ps. 73:9.

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