Hosea 12

1 Ephraim has compassed me with falsehood, and the house of Israel and Juda with ungodliness: but now God knows them, and they shall be called God's holy people.

2 But Ephraim is an evil spirit, he has chased the east wind all the day: he has multiplied empty and vain things, and made a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil has gone in the way of traffic into Egypt. 3 And the Lord has a controversy with Juda, in order to punish Jacob: according to his ways and according to his practices will he recompense him.

4 He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and in his labours he had power with God. 5 And he prevailed with the angel and was strong: they wept, and intreated me: they found me in the house of On, and there a word was spoken to them. 6 But the Lord God Almighty shall be his memorial. 7 Thou therefore shalt return to thy God: keep thou mercy and judgment, and draw nigh to thy God continually.

8 As for Chanaan, in his hand is a balance of unrighteousness: he has loved to tyrannise. 9 And Ephraim said, Nevertheless I am rich, I have found refreshment to myself. None of his labours shall be found available to him, by reason of the sins which he has committed. 10 But I the Lord thy God brought thee up out of the land of Egypt: I will yet cause thee to dwell in tabernacles, according to the days of the feast. 11 And I will speak to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and by the means of the prophets I was represented. 12 If Galaad exists not, then the chiefs in Galaad when they sacrificed were false, and their altars were as heaps on the ground of the field.

13 And Jacob retreated into the plain of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and waited for a wife. 14 And the Lord brought Israel out of the land of Egypt by a prophet, and by a prophet was he preserved. 15 Ephraim was angry and excited, therefore his blood shall be poured out upon him, and the Lord shall recompense to him his reproach.