Hosea 10

1 Israel is a vine with flourishing branches and abundant fruit. As his fruit multiplied, he multiplied his altars; as his land prospered, he built pillars.

2 They divided their hearts, and now they will be wiped out. He will tear down their altars, and their pillars will suffer.

3 Now they will say,

“We have no king because we did not fear the Lord, and what could a king do for us?”

4 He speaks mere words, makes false excuses, and enters a covenant. Judgment will sprout like a weed in an untilled field.

5 The people of Samaria will live as strangers beside the calf of House of On. Its people mourned over it, yet those who provoked it will rejoice over its glory, because it has gone away from them.

6 They bound it and carried it to the Assyrians as a gift for King Jarim. Ephraim will receive a gift, and Israel will be ashamed of his plan.

7 Samaria cast away her king like a twig on the surface of the water.

8 The altars of On, Israel’s sins, will be removed. Thorns and thistles will grow over their altars. They will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

9 From the time the hills existed, Israel sinned. There they stood. Will war not catch the children of wrongdoing on the hill?

10 It came to correct them. Peoples will gather against them when they are corrected for their two wrongdoings.

11 “Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves strife, but I will come upon the finest part of her neck. I will mount Ephraim, pass by Judah in silence, and Jacob will prevail against him.

12 Sow for yourselves in righteousness; harvest the fruit of life. Light the light of knowledge for yourselves. Seek the Lord until the fruits of righteousness come upon you.

13 Why did you pass over ungodliness in silence and harvest its wrongdoings? You ate false fruit because you trusted in your chariots and in the abundance of your power.

14 Destruction will rise among your people, and all your fortified places will be ruined, as Shalman, a ruler from the house of Jerubbaal, did in the days of battle, when they dashed a mother to the ground on top of her children.

15 This is what I will do to you, house of Israel, because of your evils. At dawn they were cast off; the king of Israel was cast off.”