Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he continually multiplieth lies and desolation; and they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.
Jehovah hath also a controversy with Judah, and will {Hebrew: visit upon.}punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.
In the womb he took his brother by the heel; and in his {Or, strength}manhood he {Or, strove}had power with God:
yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him at Beth-el, and there he spake with us,
{Or, for Jehovah is the God of hosts}even Jehovah, the God of hosts; Jehovah is his memorial name.
Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep kindness and justice, and wait for thy God continually.
{Or, As for Canaan, the &c.}He is {Or, a Canaanite Hebrew: Canaan.}a trafficker, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to {Or, defraud}oppress.
And Ephraim said, Surely I am become rich, I have found me wealth: in all my labors they shall find in me no iniquity that were sin.
But I am Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt; I will yet again make thee to dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast.
I have also spoken unto the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and {Hebrew: by the hand.}by the ministry of the prophets have I used similitudes.
Is Gilead iniquity? they are altogether false; in Gilgal they sacrifice bullocks; yea, their altars {Or, shall be}are as heaps in the furrows of the field.
And Jacob fled into the field of Aram, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.
And by a prophet Jehovah brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he {Or, kept}preserved.
Ephraim hath provoked to anger most bitterly: therefore shall his blood be left upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him.
Querverweise zu Hosea 12,7 Hos 12,7
and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah unto Jerusalem: {Or, Thine origin}Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of the Canaanite; the Amorite was thy father, and thy mother was a Hittite.
Ye shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measures of length, of weight, or of quantity.
And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbor: the child shall behave himself proudly against the old man, and the base against the honorable.
Here I am: witness against me before Jehovah, and before his anointed: whose ox have I taken? or whose ass have I taken? or whom have I defrauded? whom have I oppressed? or of whose hand have I taken a {Or, bribe}ransom {Or, that I should hide mine eyes at him}to blind mine eyes therewith? and I will restore it you.
Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holy unto Jehovah of hosts; and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and boil therein: and in that day there shall be no more a Canaanite in the house of Jehovah of hosts.
Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery; yea, they have vexed the poor and needy, and have oppressed the sojourner wrongfully.
and to them that sold the doves he said, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house a house of merchandise.
{Hebrew: A balance of deceit.}A false balance is an abomination to Jehovah;But a just weight is his delight.
they that pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor, and turn aside the way of the meek: and a man and his father go unto the same maiden, to profane my holy name:
A just balance and scales are Jehovah's;All the weights of the bag are his work.
Publish ye {Or, upon}in the palaces at Ashdod, and {Or, upon}in the palaces in the land of Egypt, and say, Assemble yourselves upon the mountains of Samaria, and behold what great tumults are therein, and what oppressions in the midst thereof.
saying, When will the new moon be gone, that we may sell grain? and the sabbath, that we may {Hebrew: open.}set forth wheat, making the ephah small, and the shekel great, and dealing falsely with balances of deceit;
Hear this word, ye kine of Bashan, that are in the mountain of Samaria, that oppress the poor, that crush the needy, that say unto their lords, Bring, and let us drink.
that we may buy the poor for silver, and the needy for a pair of shoes, and sell the refuse of the wheat?
Forasmuch therefore as ye trample upon the poor, and take exactions from him of wheat: ye have built houses of hewn stone, but ye shall not dwell in them; ye have planted pleasant vineyards, but ye shall not drink the wine thereof.
Are there yet treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and a scant {Hebrew: ephah.}measure that is abominable?
Woe to them that devise iniquity and work evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they practise it, because it is in the power of their hand.
Shall I be pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights?
And I said, Hear, I pray you, ye heads of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel: is it not for you to know justice?
ye who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.
But they that are minded to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as drown men in destruction and perdition.
The godly man is perished out of the earth, and there is none upright among men: they all lie in wait for blood; they hunt every man his brother with a net.
For the love of money is a root of all {Or, evils.}kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
And I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and that turn aside the sojourner from his right, and fear not me, saith Jehovah of hosts.
Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.