Osee Chapter 12

Israel is reproved for sin. God's favours to them.

12:1. Ephraim feedeth on the wind, and followeth the burning heat: all the day long he multiplied lies and desolation: and he hath made a covenant with the Assyrians, and carried oil into Egypt.

12:2. Therefore there is a judgment of the Lord with Juda, and a visitation for Jacob: he will render to him according to his ways, and according to his devices.

12:3. In the womb he supplanted his brother: and by his strength he had success with an angel.

12:4. And he prevailed over the angel, and was strengthened: he wept, and made supplication to him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us.

12:5. Even the Lord God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial.

12:6. Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and hope in thy God always.

12:7. He is like Chanaan, there is a deceitful balance in his hand, he hath loved oppression.

12:8. And Ephraim said: But yet I am become rich, I have found me an idol: all my labours shall not find me the iniquity that I have committed.

12:9. And I that am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, will yet cause thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the feast.

12:10. And I have spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and I have used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets.

12:11. If Galaad be an idol, then in vain were they in Galgal offering sacrifices with bullocks: for their altars also are as heaps in the furrows of the field.

If Galaad be an idol, etc. . .That is, if Galaad with all its idols and sacrifices be like a mere idol itself, being brought to nothing by Theglathphalasar: how vain is it to expect, that the idols worshipped in Galgal shall be of any service to the tribes that remain.

12:12. Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and was a keeper for a wife.

12:13. But the Lord by a prophet brought Israel out of Egypt: and he was preserved by a prophet.

12:14. Ephraim hath provoked me to wrath with his bitterness, and his blood shall come upon him, and his Lord will render his reproach unto him.