Hosea 7 :: New Living Translation (NLT)

Israel’s Love for Wickedness

Hos 7:1“I want to heal Israel,[fn] but its sins are too great.
Samaria is filled with liars.
Thieves are on the inside
and bandits on the outside!

Hos 7:2

Hos 7:2Its people don’t realize
that I am watching them.
Their sinful deeds are all around them,
and I see them all.

Hos 7:3

Hos 7:3“The people entertain the king with their wickedness,
and the princes laugh at their lies.

Hos 7:4

Hos 7:4They are all adulterers,
always aflame with lust.
They are like an oven that is kept hot
while the baker is kneading the dough.

Hos 7:5

Hos 7:5On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine,
carousing with those who mock them.

Hos 7:6

Hos 7:6Their hearts are like an oven
blazing with intrigue.
Their plot smolders[fn] through the night,
and in the morning it breaks out like a raging fire.

Hos 7:7

Hos 7:7Burning like an oven,
they consume their leaders.
They kill their kings one after another,
and no one cries to me for help.

Hos 7:8

Hos 7:8“The people of Israel mingle with godless foreigners,
making themselves as worthless as a half-baked cake!

Hos 7:9

Hos 7:9Worshiping 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.

Hos 7:10

Hos 7:10Their arrogance testifies against them,
yet they don’t return to the LORD their God
or even try to find him.

Hos 7:11

Hos 7:11“The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves,
first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help.

Hos 7:12

Hos 7:12But 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.[fn]

Hos 7:13

Hos 7:13“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.

Hos 7:14

Hos 7:14They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts.
Instead, they sit on their couches and wail.
They cut themselves,[fn] begging foreign gods for grain and new wine,
and they turn away from me.

Hos 7:15

Hos 7:15I trained them and made them strong,
yet now they plot evil against me.

Hos 7:16

Hos 7:16They 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.