Catholic Evangelization Training Center
Training in the NEW Evangelization
Hosea Chapter 5-8
1 Hear this, O priests! Give heed, O house of Israel! Hearken, O house of the king! For the judgment pertains to you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.
2 And they have made deep the pit of Shittim; but I will chastise all of them.
3 I know E'phraim, and Israel is not hid from me; for now, O E'phraim, you have played the harlot, Israel is defiled.
4 Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of harlotry is within them, and they know not the LORD.
5 The pride of Israel testifies to his face; E'phraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with them.
6 With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the LORD, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.
7 They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.
8 Blow the horn in Gib'e-ah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth-a'ven; tremble, O Benjamin!
9 E'phraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment; among the tribes of Israel I declare what is sure.
10 The princes of Judah have become like those who remove the landmark; upon them I will pour out my wrath like water.
11 E'phraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after vanity.
12 Therefore I am like a moth to E'phraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah.
13 When E'phraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then E'phraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound.
14 For I will be like a lion to E'phraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will rend and go away, I will carry off, and none shall rescue.
15 I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress they seek me, saying,
1 "Come, let us return to the LORD; for he has torn, that he may heal us; he has stricken, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.
3 Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD; his going forth is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth."
4 What shall I do with you, O E'phraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light.
6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.
7 But at Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood.
9 As robbers lie in wait for a man, so the priests are banded together; they murder on the way to Shechem, yea, they commit villainy.
10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; E'phraim's harlotry is there, Israel is defiled.
11 For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed. When I would restore the fortunes of my people,
1 when I would heal Israel, the corruption of E'phraim is revealed, and the wicked deeds of Sama'ria; for they deal falsely, the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid without.
2 But they do not consider that I remember all their evil works. Now their deeds encompass them, they are before my face.
3 By their wickedness they make the king glad, and the princes by their treachery.
4 They are all adulterers; they are like a heated oven, whose baker ceases to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.
5 On the day of our king the princes became sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with mockers.
6 For like an oven their hearts burn with intrigue; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7 All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen; and none of them calls upon me.
8 E'phraim mixes himself with the peoples; E'phraim is a cake not turned.
9 Aliens devour his strength, and he knows it not; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not.
10 The pride of Israel witnesses against him; yet they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him, for all this.
11 E'phraim is like a dove, silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria.
12 As they go, I will spread over them my net; I will bring them down like birds of the air; I will chastise them for their wicked deeds.
13 Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.
14 They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves, they rebel against me.
15 Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me.
16 They turn to Ba'al; they are like a treacherous bow, their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
1 Set the trumpet to your lips, for a vulture is over the house of the LORD, because they have broken my covenant, and transgressed my law.
2 To me they cry, My God, we Israel know thee.
3 Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him.
4 They made kings, but not through me. They set up princes, but without my knowledge. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction.
5 I have spurned your calf, O Sama'ria. My anger burns against them. How long will it be till they are pure
6 in Israel? A workman made it; it is not God. The calf of Sama'ria shall be broken to pieces.
7 For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads, it shall yield no meal; if it were to yield, aliens would devour it.
8 Israel is swallowed up; already they are among the nations as a useless vessel.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild ass wandering alone; E'phraim has hired lovers.
10 Though they hire allies among the nations, I will soon gather them up. And they shall cease for a little while from anointing king and princes.
11 Because E'phraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they have become to him altars for sinning.
12 Were I to write for him my laws by ten thousands, they would be regarded as a strange thing.
13 They love sacrifice; they sacrifice flesh and eat it; but the LORD has no delight in them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt.
14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour his strongholds.