Hosea 12

Lawsuit Against a Straying People

8 passages

Overview

Drawing on the memory of Jacob's cunning and wrestling, the Exodus liberation, and the persistent prophetic call to return to YHWH, Hosea prosecutes a formal covenant lawsuit against Israel and Judah, exposing their empty alliances, fraudulent commerce, and persistent idolatry, and concluding that Ephraim's bitter provocation has made divine judgment unavoidable.

Passages

1–2Chasing Wind, Breaking Covenant 3–5Jacob the Supplanter: Ancestral Wrestling and Divine Encounter 6Return to the Living God 7–8Ephraim the Dishonest Merchant 9–10I Am the LORD Your God: The Faithful Voice That Never Ceases 11Gilead's Wickedness and the Futility of Idolatry 12–13Jacob's Exile and Moses the Prophet: Typology of Servitude and Redemption 14Ephraim's Bitter Provocation and Coming Judgment

Study Resources

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Hosea 12

¹Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.

²Yahweh also has a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his deeds he will repay him.

³In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he contended with God.

⁴Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us—

⁵even Yahweh, the God of Armies. Yahweh is his name of renown!

⁶Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God.

⁷A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to defraud.

⁸Ephraim said, “Surely I have become rich. I have found myself wealth. In all my wealth they won’t find in me any iniquity that is sin.”

⁹“But I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt. I will yet again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast.

¹⁰I have also spoken to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets I have used parables.

¹¹If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field.

¹²Jacob fled into the country of Aram. Israel served to get a wife. For a wife he tended flocks and herds.

¹³By a prophet Yahweh brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.

¹⁴Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger. Therefore his blood will be left on him, and his Lord will repay his contempt.

Hosea 11 Hosea 13