Osee 10

¹Israel a vine thick of branches, the fruit is made equal to it: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath multiplied altars, according to the plenty of his land he hath abounded in idols.

²Their heart is divided, now they shall perish: he shall break their idols, he shall destroy their altars.

³Because they will now say: We have no king: for we fear not our Lord: and what shall a king do to us?

⁴You speak words of unprofitable vision, and you shall make a covenant: and judgement shall spring as bitterness upon the furrows of the field.

⁵The kine of Bethaven have the inhabitants of Samaria worshipped: Because his people mourned upon him, and his temple wardens rejoiced upon him in his glory, because it departed from him.

⁶For he also was carried unto Assur, a gift to the king Revenger: confusion shall take Ephraim, and Israel shall be confused in his own will.

⁷Samaria hath made her king to pass as froth upon the face of water.

⁸And the excelses of the idol the sin of Israel shall be destroyed: the bur and the thistle shall grow up over their altars: and they shall say to the mountains: Cover us, & to the little hills: Fall upon us.

⁹From the Days of Gabaa, Israel hath sinned, there they stood: the battle in Gabaa upon the children of iniquity shall not apprehend them.

¹⁰According to my desire I will chastise them: & the peoples shall be gathered together upon them, when they shall be chastised for their two iniquities.

¹¹Ephraim an heifer taught to love threshing, & I have passed over the beauty of her neck: I will ascend upon Ephraim, Judas shall plough, Jacob shall break the furrows to himself.

¹²Sow to yourselves in justice, and reap in the mouth of mercy, fallow ground: but the time to seek our Lord, when he shall come that shall teach you justice.

¹³You have ploughed impiety, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lying: because thou hast trusted in thy ways, in the multitude of thy strong ones.

¹⁴A tumult shall arise in thy people: and all thy munitions shall be destroyed as Salmana was destroyed by his house, that took vengeance on Baal in the day of battle, the mother being dashed in pieces upon the children.

¹⁵So hath Bethel done to you, because of the malice of your iniquities.