# Hosea 7 (New King James Version)
Israel Has Rebelled Against God

##### Chapter 7
###### 1 "When I would have healed Israel,  
Then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered,  
And the wickedness of Samaria.  
For they have committed fraud;  
A thief comes in;  
A band of robbers takes spoil outside.  

###### 2 They do not consider in their hearts  
_That_ I remember all their wickedness;  
Now their own deeds have surrounded them;  
They are before My face.  

###### 3 They make a king glad with their wickedness,  
And princes with their lies.

###### 4 "They _are_ all adulterers.  
Like an oven heated by a baker--  
He ceases stirring _the fire_ after kneading the dough,  
Until it is leavened.  

###### 5 In the day of our king  
Princes have made _him_ sick, inflamed with wine;  
He stretched out his hand with scoffers.  

###### 6 They prepare their heart like an oven,  
While they lie in wait;  
Their baker sleeps all night;  
In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.  

###### 7 They are all hot, like an oven,  
And have devoured their judges;  
All their kings have fallen.  
None among them calls upon Me.

###### 8 "Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples;  
Ephraim is a cake unturned.  

###### 9 Aliens have devoured his strength,  
But he does not know _it;_  
Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him,  
Yet he does not know _it._  

###### 10 And the pride of Israel testifies to his face,  
But they do not return to the Lord their God,  
Nor seek Him for all this.Futile Reliance on the Nations

###### 11 "Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without sense--  
They call to Egypt,  
They go to Assyria.  

###### 12 Wherever they go, I will spread My net on them;  
I will bring them down like birds of the air;  
I will chastise them  
According to what their congregation has heard.

###### 13 "Woe to them, for they have fled from Me!  
Destruction to them,  
Because they have transgressed against Me!  
Though I redeemed them,  
Yet they have spoken lies against Me.  

###### 14 They did not cry out to Me with their heart  
When they wailed upon their beds.
"They assemble together for grain and new wine,  
They rebel against Me;  

###### 15 Though I disciplined _and_ strengthened their arms,  
Yet they devise evil against Me;  

###### 16 They return, _but_ not to the Most High;  
They are like a treacherous bow.  
Their princes shall fall by the sword  
For the cursings of their tongue.  
This _shall be_ their derision in the land of Egypt.