Night in a dim stone hall: an empty wooden throne inlaid with ivory panels, a plain narrow gold circlet lying on its seat, one clay lamp guttering on a stand beside it.

Sowing the wind

Hosea 7

What smolders in you overnight and flares by morning?

16 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–3Hosea’s marriageA wife, three names, and love bought back
4–6:3The LORD’s caseNo knowledge of God in the land
6–11Sowing the windMist, kings, calves, and a love that won’t let goChapter 7
11–14Return, O IsraelJacob’s story, death undone, and the last call

Ephraim’s Iniquity

God

God

When I heal Israel,

the iniquity of Ephraim will be exposed,

as well as the crimes of Samaria.

For they practice deceit and thieves break in;

bandits raid in the streets.

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

God

But they fail to consider in their hearts

that I remember all their evil.

Now their deeds are all around them;

they are before My face.

God

Late night in a stone courtyard: a waist-high clay bread oven with its coals banked low and glowing, a wooden trough of dough rising under a cloth beside it, the baker asleep on a mat in the shadows.

They are all adulterers,

like an oven heated by a baker

who needs not stoke the fire

from the kneading to the rising of the dough.

God

The princes are inflamed with wine

on the day of our king;

so he joins hands

with those who mock him.

God

First light in a stone courtyard: the same kind of clay bread oven blazing up, flames standing out of its open top and sparks rising into the gray morning.

For they prepare their heart like an oven

while they lie in wait;

all night their anger smolders;

in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

All of them are hot as an oven,

and they devour their rulers.

All their kings fall;

not one of them calls upon Me.

0:17

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Reflect

Before morning

Of the plotters the LORD says, “all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.” Is there an anger or a desire that has been smoldering in you? Write it down, and bring it to the LORD before it flares.

God

God

Ephraim mixes with the nations;

Ephraim is an unturned cake.

God

Foreigners consume his strength,

but he does not notice.

Even his hair is streaked with gray,

but he does not know.

God

Israel’s arrogance testifies against them,

yet they do not return to the LORD their God;

despite all this, they do not seek Him.

Hosea 7:10

God

God

So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove—

calling out to Egypt, then turning to Assyria.

God

Morning in a stubble field: a wide cord net just dropped over a patch of ground, a few small brown birds under the mesh, unhurt; a wooden peg and cord in the foreground.

As they go, I will spread My net over them;

I will bring them down like birds of the air.

I will chastise them

when I hear them flocking together.

God

Though I would redeem them,

they speak lies against Me.

God

They do not cry out to Me from their hearts

when they wail upon their beds.

They slash themselves for grain and new wine,

but turn away from Me.

God

God

Although I trained and strengthened their arms,

they plot evil against Me.

They turn, but not to the Most High;

they are like a faulty bow.

Their leaders will fall by the sword

for the cursing of their tongue;

for this they will be ridiculed

in the land of Egypt.

Question

Quick question

Israel kept looking for help in all directions. Think about where it never looked before you answer.

What does the LORD compare Ephraim to in verse 11?

You’ve experienced

Hosea 7

0 of 14 chapters read

A verse to carry with you

Israel’s arrogance testifies against them, yet they do not return to the LORD their God; despite all this, they do not seek Him.

Hosea 7:10

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