Commentary on Hosea

1While I was healing Israel, Then were discovered the iniquity of Ephraim, And the vices of Samaria; For they dealt falsely, and the thief entered in, The robber plundered abroad:

2And they said not in their heart, That I remember all their wickedness: Surrounded them have now their vices, — they are in my sight.

3By their wickedness they cheer the king, And by their falsehoods the princes. All are adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker;

4.Who ceases from stirring up, After mixing the dough, till it be fermented.

5The day of our king! — the princes Have made him sick with a bottle of wine; — He stretched forth his hand to scorners.

6For they have made ready, as an oven, Their heart, for lying in wait: All the night their baker sleeps; In the morning the oven burns as a flaming fire

7All are hot like an oven; They have consumed their own judges, — All their kings have fallen; — No one among them cries to me.

8Ephraim mingles himself with the nations; Ephraim is become bread baked under the ashes, Which has not been turned:

9Eaten have strangers his strength, and he knows it not; And hoariness has spread over him, and he knows it not;

10And testify does the pride of Israel to his face; But they have not returned to Jehovah their God, Nor sought him notwithstanding all these things.

11Ephraim is also like a silly dove, without understanding; They cry on Egypt, they go to Assyria:

12But when they go, I will expand over them my net, As a bird of heaven, I will bring them down, I will hold them fast, as their assembly have heard.

13Woe to them! for they have gone back from me; Desolation to them! for they have dealt perfidiously with me: Though I redeemed them, They have yet spoken lies against me:

14And they have not cried to me with their heart; For they howled on their beds; For corn and wine they assemble together; — They have revolted from me: (269)

15Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, Yet against me they contrive evil.

16They return not to God; They have been like a deceitful bow: Fallen by the sword have their princes, Through the pride of their tongue; — This will be their reproach in the land of Egypt.