Hosea 12:7-14 ▼

7 The businessmen love to cheat; they use dishonest scales.

8 Ephraim boasts, |I am very rich! I have become wealthy! In all that I have done to gain my wealth, no one can accuse me of any offense that is actually sinful.|

9 I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again as in the days of old.

10 I spoke to the prophets; I myself revealed many visions; I spoke in parables through the prophets.|

11 Is there idolatry in Gilead? Certainly its inhabitants will come to nothing! Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Surely their altars will be like stones heaped up on a plowed field!

12 Jacob fled to the country of Aram, then Israel worked to acquire a wife; he tended sheep to pay for her.

13 The LORD brought Israel out of Egypt by a prophet, and due to a prophet Israel was preserved alive.

14 But Ephraim bitterly provoked him to anger; so he will hold him accountable for the blood he has shed, his Lord will repay him for the contempt he has shown.