# Hosea 8 (New King James Version)
The Apostasy of Israel

##### Chapter 8
###### 1 "_Set_ the trumpet to your mouth!  
_He shall come_ like an eagle against the house of the Lord,  
Because they have transgressed My covenant  
And rebelled against My law.  

###### 2 Israel will cry to Me,  
'My God, we know You!'  

###### 3 Israel has rejected the good;  
The enemy will pursue him.

###### 4 "They set up kings, but not by Me;  
They made princes, but I did not acknowledge _them._  
From their silver and gold  
They made idols for themselves--  
That they might be cut off.  

###### 5 Your calf is rejected, O Samaria!  
My anger is aroused against them--  
How long until they attain to innocence?  

###### 6 For from Israel _is_ even this:  
A workman made it, and it _is_ not God;  
But the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.

###### 7 "They sow the wind,  
And reap the whirlwind.  
The stalk has no bud;  
It shall never produce meal.  
If it should produce,  
Aliens would swallow it up.  

###### 8 Israel is swallowed up;  
Now they are among the Gentiles  
Like a vessel in which _is_ no pleasure.  

###### 9 For they have gone up to Assyria,  
_Like_ a wild donkey alone by itself;  
Ephraim has hired lovers.  

###### 10 Yes, though they have hired among the nations,  
Now I will gather them;  
And they shall sorrow a little,  
Because of the burden of the king of princes.

###### 11 "Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin,  
They have become for him altars for sinning.  

###### 12 I have written for him the great things of My law,  
_But_ they were considered a strange thing.  

###### 13 _For_ the sacrifices of My offerings they sacrifice flesh and eat _it,_  
_But_ the Lord does not accept them.  
Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins.  
They shall return to Egypt.

###### 14 "For Israel has forgotten his Maker,  
And has built temples;  
Judah also has multiplied fortified cities;  
But I will send fire upon his cities,  
And it shall devour his palaces."