Hosea 12:4-14 ▼

4 He even fought the angel and won; he cried and prayed to him. Then at Bethel he found him, and there he spoke with us—

5 the LORD God of the Heavenly Armies— the LORD is his name.

6 So you, return to your God; guard grace and justice, and look to your God always.

7 |Now as for the merchant, deceitful balances remain in his hand, and he loves to defraud.

8 Ephraim claims, 'I have become rich, I have made a fortune! Because of all my wealth, no one will find any iniquity or sin in me.'

9 |Yet I remain the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. I will make you live in tents again, as in the festival of that name.

10 I spoke to the prophets, giving revelation after revelation, and employing parables in the prophetic writings.

11 |There's iniquity in Gilead, isn't there? They have become truly vain. They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal; their altars are like piles of stone in furrowed fields.

12 Jacob fled into the land of Aram; Israel served there to obtain his wife, tending sheep to gain his wife.

13 |By a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was rescued.

14 Ephraim has stirred up violent anger; therefore the guilt of his blood will remain on him, and his Lord will repay him for his contempt.|