Hosea 12

¹Ephraim feedeth on the wind, and followeth the burning heat: all the day long he multiplied lies and desolation: and he hath made a covenant with the Assyrians, and carried oil into Egypt.

²Therefore there is a judgment of the Lord with Juda, and a visitation for Jacob: he will render to him according to his ways, and according to his devices.

³In the womb he supplanted his brother: and by his strength he had success with an angel.

⁴And he prevailed over the angel, and was strengthened: he wept, and made supplication to him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us.

⁵Even the Lord the God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial.

⁶Therefore turn thou to thy God : keep mercy and judgment, and hope in thy God always.

⁷He is like Chanaan, there is a deceitful balance in his hand, he hath loved oppression.

⁸And Ephraim said: But yet I am be- come rich, I have found me an idol: all my labours shall not find me the iniquity that I have committed.

⁹And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, will yet cause thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the feast.

¹⁰And I have spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and I have used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets.

¹¹If Galaad be an idol, then in vain were they in Galgal offering sacrifices with bullocks: for their altars also are as heaps in the furrows of the field.

¹²Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and was a keeper for a wife.

¹³But the Lord by a prophet brought Israel out of Egypt: and he was pre- served by a prophet.

¹⁴Ephraim hath provoked me to wrath with his bitterness, and his blood shall come upon him, and his Lord will render his reproach unto him.