Hosea 8 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~730-722 BC, the final years before Assyria captured Samaria
Location
The northern kingdom of Israel, with its calf shrine at Samaria and its diplomatic dealings with Assyria
Audience
Israelites in the north facing imminent invasion
Situation
A trumpet call announces an enemy circling like a vulture. God condemns kings set up without his approval, the calf image of Samaria, treaties bought from Assyria, and altars multiplied for sinning rather than worship.
Key Background
The ram's horn trumpet was the standard alarm sounded from a city wall when an army was sighted, so the chapter opens at the pitch of an emergency. The calf refers to the gold bull images set up generations earlier at Bethel and Dan to keep northerners from traveling to Jerusalem to worship. Hiring lovers among the nations describes tribute payments, the annual silver a weaker kingdom sent to Assyria to avoid invasion, a cost that fell on ordinary farmers. Sowing wind and reaping a whirlwind was a proverb about a small foolish act bringing a disproportionate disaster.
Put the to your lips! Something circles like a vulture over the house of Yahweh — because they have broken my covenant and rebelled against my
They cry out to me, "Our God! We in Israel — we you!"
Israel has thrown away what is good. Now the enemy will chase them down.
They set up kings, but not through me. They chose leaders, but I had no say in it. With their silver and gold they made for themselves — so they could be cut off.
Your disgusts me, Samaria! My anger burns hot against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
Because this thing is from Israel! A craftsman made it — it is not God. Samaria's calf will be smashed to pieces.
They the wind and they will reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads — it will yield no flour. If it did produce anything, foreigners would swallow it up.
Israel is up! Now they sit among the nations like a pot nobody wants.
They have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has sold herself to
Even though they sell themselves among the nations, I will now gather them up. They will begin to waste away under the burden of the
Ephraim has built altar after altar for — but those altars became the very place they went
I wrote out my for them — ten thousand teachings! — but they treat them like something foreign.
They love their sacrificial feasts — they sacrifice meat and eat it — but Yahweh takes no pleasure in them. Now he will their corruption and hold them accountable for their failures. They will go back to
Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces. Judah has fortified city after city. But I will send fire on their cities and it will devour their