Hosea 12:3-14 ▼

3 In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel, and as an adult he wrestled with God.

4 Jacob struggled with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought his favor. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with him.

5 The LORD is the God of Armies; the LORD is his name.

6 But you must return to your God. Maintain love and justice, and always put your hope in God.

7 A merchant loves to extort with dishonest scales in his hands.

8 But Ephraim thinks, “How rich I have become; I made it all myself. In all my earnings, no one can find any iniquity in me that I can be punished for! ”

9 I have been the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt. I will make you live in tents again, as in the festival days.

10 I will speak through the prophets and grant many visions; I will give parables through the prophets.

11 Since Gilead is full of evil, they will certainly come to nothing. They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal; even their altars will be like piles of rocks on the furrows of a field.

12 Jacob fled to the territory of Aram. Israel worked to earn a wife; he tended flocks for a wife.

13 The LORD brought Israel from Egypt by a prophet, and Israel was tended by a prophet.

14 Ephraim has provoked bitter anger, so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on him and repay him for his contempt.