the Week of Proper 19 / Ordinary 24
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Christian Standard Bible ®
Hosea 12
God's Case against Jacob's Heirs
1 Ephraim chases[a] the wind(a)
and pursues the east wind.(b)
He continually multiplies lies and violence.
He makes a covenant with Assyria,(c)
and olive oil is carried to Egypt.(d)
2 The Lord also has a dispute with Judah.
He is about to punish Jacob according to his ways;(e)
He will repay him based on his actions.
3 In the womb he grasped his brother's heel,(f)
and as an adult he wrestled with God.(g)
4 Jacob struggled with the Angel and prevailed;
he wept and sought His favor.(h)
He found him[b] at Bethel,(i)
and there He spoke with him.[c](j)
5 Yahweh is the God of Hosts;
Yahweh is His name.(k)
6 But you must return to your God.(l)
Maintain love and justice,(m)
and always put your hope in God.(n)
7 A merchant loves to extort(o)
with dishonest scales in his hands.(p)
8 But Ephraim says:
"How rich I have become;(q)
I made it all myself.
In all my earnings,
no one can find any crime in me(r)
that I can be punished for!"[d]
Judgment on Apostate Israel
9 I have been Yahweh your God
ever since[e] the land of Egypt.(s)
I will make you live in tents again,(t)
as in the festival days.
10 I spoke through the prophets(u)
and granted many visions;
I gave parables through the prophets.(v)
11 Since Gilead is full of evil,(w)
they will certainly come to nothing.
They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal;(x)
even their altars will be like heaps of rocks(y)
on the furrows of a field.
Further Indictment of Jacob's Heirs
12 Jacob fled to the land of Aram.(z)
Israel worked to earn a wife;(aa)
he tended flocks for a wife.(ab)
13 The Lord brought Israel from Egypt by a prophet,(ac)
and Israel was tended by a prophet.
14 Ephraim has provoked bitter anger,(ad)
so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on him(ae)
and repay him for his contempt.(af)
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