Hosea 10

¹Israel is a branching vine, full of fruit; as his fruit is increased, so the number of his altars is increased; as the land is fair, so they have made fair pillars.

²Their mind is taken away; now they will be made waste: he will have their altars broken down, he will give their pillars to destruction.

³Now, truly, they will say, We have no king, we have no fear of the Lord; and the king, what is he able to do for us?

⁴Their words are foolish; they make agreements with false oaths, so punishment will come up like a poison-plant in a ploughed field.

⁵The people of Samaria will be full of fear because of the ox of Beth-aven; its people will have sorrow for it, and its priests will give cries of grief for its glory, for the glory has gone in flight.

⁶And they will take it to Assyria and give it to the great king; shame will come on Ephraim, and Israel will be shamed because of its image.

⁷As for Samaria, her king is cut off, like mist on the water.

⁸And the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will come to destruction; thorns and waste plants will come up on their altars; they will say to the mountains, Be a cover over us; and to the hills, Come down on us.

⁹O Israel, you have done evil from the days of Gibeah; there they took up their position, so that the fighting against the children of evil might not overtake them in Gibeah.

¹⁰I will come and give them punishment; and the peoples will come together against them when I give them the reward of their two sins.

¹¹And Ephraim is a trained cow, taking pleasure in crushing the grain; but I have put a yoke on her fair neck; I will put a horseman on the back of Ephraim; Judah will be working the plough, Jacob will be turning up the earth.

¹²Put in the seed of righteousness, get in your grain in mercy, let your unploughed earth be turned up: for it is time to make search for the Lord, till he comes and sends righteousness on you like rain.

¹³You have been ploughing sin, you have got in a store of evil, the fruit of deceit has been your food: for you put faith in your way, in the number of your men of war.

¹⁴So a great outcry will go up from among your people, and all your strong places will be broken, as Beth-arbel was broken by Shalman in the day of war, as the mother was broken on the rocks with her children.

¹⁵So will Beth-el do to you because of your evil-doing; at dawn will the king of Israel be cut off completely.