Hosea 12

Chapter context

What is happening in Hosea 12?

covenant loveidolatryjudgmentmercy

Hosea 12 belongs to the middle movement of the book, especially the section often described as judgment and healing promises. Hosea uses marriage, broken love, judgment, and healing to expose idolatry and proclaim God’s astonishing steadfast mercy. Read this chapter with the wider themes of covenant love, idolatry, and judgment in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.

¹ Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt. ² The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him. ³ He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God: ⁴ Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spake with us; ⁵ Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial. ⁶ Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually. ⁷ He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress. ⁸ And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin. ⁹ And I that am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast. ¹⁰ I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets. ¹¹ Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields. ¹² And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. ¹³ And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved. ¹⁴ Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his LORD return unto him.

Study helps

Glossary

Assyria Place v. 1: Biblical region. Modern identification: Nineveh.
Egypt Place v. 1, 9, 13: The land of the Nile and the pyramids, the oldest kingdom of which we have any record, holds a place of great significance in Scripture. Modern identification: Ain Shams.
Bethel Place v. 4: House of God. (1. ) A place in Central Palestine, about 10 miles north of Jerusalem, at the head of the pass of Michmash and Ai. It was originally the royal Canaanite city of Luz ( Gen. 28:19 ). Modern identification: Beitin.
Gilead Place v. 11: Biblical region. Modern identification: Tell edh Dhahab esh Sherqiyeh.
Gilgal Place v. 11: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Khirbet el Mefjir.
Aram Place v. 12: Biblical region. Modern identification: Damascus.