Hosea 12 — Legacy Standard Bible

12¹Ephraim feeds on ^awindAnd pursues the ^beast wind continually;He abounds in falsehood and destruction.Moreover, ²he cuts a covenant with Assyria,And oil is carried to Egypt.

Yahweh’s Contention with Judah

²And Yahweh has a ^acontention with JudahAnd will punish Jacob ^baccording to his ways;He will cause everything to return to him according to his deeds.³In the womb he ^atook his brother by the heel,And in his maturity he ¹^,^bwrestled with God.⁴Indeed, he ¹wrestled with the angel and prevailed;He wept and ^asought His favor.He found Him at ^bBethel,And there He spoke with us,⁵Even Yahweh, the God of hosts,Yahweh is His ¹^,^aname of remembrance.⁶Therefore, ^areturn to your God,^bKeep lovingkindness and justice,And ^chope in your God continually.⁷A ¹merchant, in whose hands are deceptive ^abalances,He loves to oppress.⁸And Ephraim said, “Surely I have become ^arich;I have found wealth for myself;In all my labors they will find in me^bNo iniquity, which would be sin.”⁹But I have been Yahweh your God since the land of Egypt;I will make you ^asettle in tents again,As in the days of the appointed festival.¹⁰And I have spoken to the ^aprophets,And I ¹made visions abound,And by the hand of the prophets I gave ^bparables.¹¹Is there wickedness in Gilead?Surely they are worthless.In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls;Yes, ^atheir altars are like the stone heapsBeside the furrows of the field.¹²Now ^aJacob fled to the field of Aram,And ^bIsrael worked for a wife,And for a wife he kept sheep.¹³But by a ^aprophet Yahweh brought Israel up from Egypt,And by a prophet he was kept.¹⁴^aEphraim has provoked to bitter anger;So his Lord will leave his ^bbloodguilt on himAnd cause his ^creproach to return to him.