Prophets Feature Sampler - Flipbook - Page 23
7:2-13
HOSEA
Its people don’t realize
that I am watching them.
Their sinful deeds are all around them,
and I see them all.
“The people entertain the king with their wickedness,
and the princes laugh at their lies.
They are all adulterers,
always aflame with lust.
They are like an oven that is kept hot
while the baker is kneading the dough.
On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine,
carousing with those who mock them.
Their hearts are like an oven
blazing with intrigue.
Their plot smolders through the night,
and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire.
Burning like an oven,
they consume their leaders.
They kill their kings one after another,
and no one cries to me for help.
“The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners,
making themselves as worthless as a halfbaked cake!
Worshiping 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.
Their arrogance testifies against them,
yet they don’t return to the Lord their God
or even try to find him.
“The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves,
first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help.
But as they fly about,
I will throw my net over them
and bring them down like a bird from the sky.
I will punish them for all the evil they do.
“What sorrow awaits those who have deserted me!
Let them die, for they have rebelled against me.
I wanted to redeem them,
but they have told lies about me.
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IMMERSE
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PROPHETS
They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts.
Instead, they sit on their couches and wail.
They cut themselves, begging foreign gods for grain and
new wine,
and they turn away from me.
I trained them and made them strong,
yet now they plot evil against me.
They look everywhere except to the Most High.
They are as useless as a crooked bow.
Their leaders will be killed by their enemies
because of their insolence toward me.
Then the people of Egypt
will laugh at them.
“Sound the alarm!
The enemy descends like an eagle on the people of the Lord,
for they have broken my covenant
and revolted against my law.
Now Israel pleads with me,
‘Help us, for you are our God!’
But it is too late.
The people of Israel have rejected what is good,
and now their enemies will chase after them.
The people have appointed kings without my consent,
and princes without my approval.
By making idols for themselves from their silver and gold,
they have brought about their own destruction.
“O Samaria, I reject this calf—
this idol you have made.
My fury burns against you.
How long will you be incapable of innocence?
This calf you worship, O Israel,
was crafted by your own hands!
It is not God!
Therefore, it must be smashed to bits.
“They have planted the wind
and will harvest the whirlwind.
The stalks of grain wither
and produce nothing to eat.
And even if there is any grain,
foreigners will eat it.
7:14–8:7
