New Living Translation (NLT)
Hosea 12
7 But no, the people are like crafty merchants selling from dishonest scales— they love to cheat.
8 Israel boasts, “I am rich! I’ve made a fortune all by myself! No one has caught me cheating! My record is spotless!”
9 “But I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from slavery in Egypt. And I will make you live in tents again, as you do each year at the Festival of Shelters.
10 I sent my prophets to warn you with many visions and parables.”
11 But the people of Gilead are worthless because of their idol worship. And in Gilgal, too, they sacrifice bulls; their altars are lined up like the heaps of stone along the edges of a plowed field.
12 Jacob fled to the land of Aram, and there he earned a wife by tending sheep.
13 Then by a prophet the LORD brought Jacob’s descendants out of Egypt; and by that prophet they were protected.
14 But the people of Israel have bitterly provoked the LORD, so their Lord will now sentence them to death in payment for their sins.
Hosea 13
1 When the tribe of Ephraim spoke, the people shook with fear, for that tribe was important in Israel. But the people of Ephraim sinned by worshiping Baal and thus sealed their destruction.
2 Now they continue to sin by making silver idols, images shaped skillfully with human hands. “Sacrifice to these,” they cry, “and kiss the calf idols!”
3 Therefore, they will disappear like the morning mist, like dew in the morning sun, like chaff blown by the wind, like smoke from a chimney.
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