Ho:6:4: O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.
Ho:6:5: Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.
Ho:6:6: For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Ho:6:7: But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.
Ho:6:8: Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.
Ho:6:9: And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.
Ho:6:10: I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.
Ho:6:11: Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.
Chapter 7
Ho:7:1: When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.
Ho:7:2: And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.
Ho:7:3: They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
Ho:7:4: They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneeded the dough, until it be leavened.
Ho:7:5: In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.
Ho:7:6: For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.
Ho:7:7: They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.
Ho:7:8: Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
Ho:7:9: Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.
Ho:7:10: And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.
Ho:7:11: Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
Ho:7:12: When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.
Ho:7:13: Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.
Ho:7:14: And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me.
Ho:7:15: Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.
Ho:7:16: They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
Chapter 8
Ho:8:1: Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.
Ho:8:2: Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.
Ho:8:3: Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.
Ho:8:4: They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.
