Hosea 7
7
God’s Righteous Judgment of Israel
6:11b“Whenever I long to make my people prosperous again, # 6:11b See the footnote for
6:11a
.
1whenever I desire to heal Israel,
I am confronted by Ephraim’s guilt,
and all I can see is Samaria’s sin.
For they all practice deceit.
No place is secure. They break into homes and steal.
Gangs raid in the open.
2But it never occurs to them # 7:2 Or literally “They do not speak to their hearts.”
that I, Yahweh , remember all their evil deeds.
They are all prisoners of their own wickedness,
and their sin stares me in the face.”
Conspiracy in the King’s Court
3 Yahweh says, “They deceive the king with their wickedness # 7:3 The Hebrew is ambiguous. It could also be translated “People make the king happy with the wickedness.”
and the rulers with their lies. # 7:3 This section speaks of the assassination plots against the kings of Israel. Four kings from the Northern Kingdom of Israel were assassinated between 743 and 732 BC (Zechariah, Shallum, Pekahiah, and Pekah).
4They are all unfaithful to the king.
Their anger is like an overheated oven. # 7:4 Mutiny was common in the Northern Kingdom during this era, and many of its kings were assassinated.
Their oven burns so hot that the baker could knead his bread at night
until it rises in the morning
and he still wouldn’t need to stoke the fire.
5On the king’s day of celebration ,
his officials are drunk with wine, # 7:5 Or “his officials became sick from the poison in the wine.”
and the king trusted the traitors.
6Their hearts are like an oven that burns with treachery.
All night long, their anger # 7:6 Or “all night long their baker smolders.” The Hebrew words for “anger” and “baker” are homonyms. It is possible that the palace baker was the central figure in the plot. smolders;
then in the morning, it bursts into flame.
7Yes, they are all as hot as an oven,
ready to consume their rulers.
All their kings have fallen in this way,
yet not one of them has ever called on me.”
Israel Fails to Ask Yahweh for Help
8Yahweh says, “Ephraim mixes with the nations. # 7:8 In vv.
8–16
, Yahweh condemned Israel for three reasons: (1) seeking help from other nations (Egypt, Assyria) instead of turning to God, (2) worshiping pagan gods, and (3) turning away from Yahweh to adopt a powerless pagan god. Verses
8–10
show Israel as feeble, like an old man. Verses
11–12
show Israel as nervous and flighty, like a foolish dove. And in vv.
13–16
, Yahweh pronounced doom on those who rebel against him.
My people are like half-done flatbread,
burnt on one side and raw dough on the other.
9Ephraim does not realize alliances with foreigners
devoured his strength;
even his hair has turned gray,
but he has no clue.
10Israel’s arrogance has become his own accuser.
Yet in spite of all these troubles,
they do not seek me, Yahweh their God,
nor come back to me.
11“Ephraim is like a dove, silly and senseless, # 7:11 Or “without wisdom and without a heart.”
first calling on Egypt for help
then turning to Assyria. # 7:11 The two superpowers then continued to clash in chariot battles back and forth across Israel and the Fertile Crescent. Assyria, Babylon, and Persia took turns ruling Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), which had great wealth because of irrigation from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. The same was true of Egypt and the Nile. Israel had no such river system to ensure harvests and was often a political football between the two super-regions, having done time as slaves in Egypt and exiles in Babylon/Persia.
12Wherever they turn,
I will spread out my net and catch them.
I will bring them down like the birds from the air.
I will punish them for the evil they have done.” # 7:12 Or “according to the report to their congregation.”
Debauchery and Drunkenness
13“They are doomed for having fled from me.
Destruction will seize them for having rebelled against me.
I longed to pay their ransom time and time again,
but they have believed and spoken lies about me.
14Their cries to me are not with a sincere heart,
and they wail like heathens on their beds. # 7:14 “Their beds” may be a reference to cultic prostitution.
When they ritually mutilate themselves
to cause their grain and grapes to grow,
they know they are rebelling against me.
15Though I held them up, giving strength to their arms,
they plotted evil against me.
16They turned in the wrong direction
to a god who is no god at all.
They are like a warped bow that can’t shoot straight.
Their leaders will be killed in war
because of all their arrogant, defiant words.
Oh, how the Egyptians will mock them!”
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Hosea 7: TPT
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