Hos 12 | AB | STEP | But Ephraim is an evil spirit, he has chased the east wind all the day. He has multiplied empty and vain things, and made a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil has gone in the way of traffic into Egypt.

Hosea 12

1 But Ephraim is an evil spirit, he has chased the east wind all the day. He has multiplied empty and vain things, and made a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil has gone in the way of traffic into Egypt. 2 And the Lord has a controversy with Judah, in order to punish Jacob: according to His ways and according to His practices will He recompense him. 3 He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and in his labors he had power with God. 4 And he prevailed with the Angel and was strong. They wept, and entreated Me: they found Me in the house of On, and there a word was spoken to them. 5 But the Lord God Almighty shall be his memorial. 6 You therefore shall return to your God. Keep mercy and judgment, and draw near to your God continually. 7 As for Canaan, in his hand is a balance of unrighteousness: he has loved to tyrannize. 8 And Ephraim said, Nevertheless I am rich, I have found refreshment for myself. None of his labors shall be found available to him, by reason of the sins which he has committed. 9 But I the Lord your God brought you up out of the land of Egypt. I will yet cause you to dwell in tents, according to the days of the feast. 10 And I will speak to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and by the means of the prophets I was represented. 11 If Gilead exists not, then the chiefs in Gilead when they sacrificed were false, and their altars were as heaps on the ground of the field. 12 And Jacob retreated into the plain of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and waited for a wife. 13 And the Lord brought Israel out of the land of Egypt by a prophet, and by a prophet was he preserved. 14 Ephraim was angry and excited, therefore his blood shall be poured out upon him, and the Lord shall recompense to him his reproach.