Hosea 7

¹When I would heal Israel , the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed , and the evil deeds of Samaria ; for they deal falsely ; the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid outside .

²But they do not consider that I remember all their evil . Now their deeds surround them; they are before my face .

³By their evil they make the king glad , and the princes by their treachery .

⁴They 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 .

⁵On the day of our king , the princes became sick with the heat of wine ; he stretched out his hand with mockers .

⁶For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue ; all night their anger smolders ; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire .

⁷All of them are hot as an oven , and they devour their rulers . All their kings have fallen , and none of them calls upon me.

⁸Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples ; Ephraim is a cake not turned .

⁹Strangers devour his strength , and he knows it not; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, and he knows it not.

¹⁰The pride of Israel testifies to his face ; yet they do not return to the Lord their God , nor seek him, for all this .

¹¹Ephraim is like a dove , silly and without sense , calling to Egypt , going to Assyria .

¹²As they go , I will spread over them my net ; I will bring them down like birds of the heavens ; I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation .

¹³Woe 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.

¹⁴They 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.

¹⁵Although I trained and strengthened their arms , yet they devise evil against me.

¹⁶They return , but not upward ; 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 .