Hosea 8 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Put the trumpet to your lips! Something circles like a vulture over the house of Yahweh — because they have broken my covenant and rebelled against my instruction.

They cry out to me, "Our God! We in Israel — we know you!"

Israel has thrown away what is good. Now the enemy will chase them down.

They set up kings, but not through me. They chose leaders, but I had no say in it. With their silver and gold they made idols for themselves — so they could be cut off.

Your calf disgusts me, Samaria! My anger burns hot against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?

Because this thing is from Israel! A craftsman made it — it is not God. Samaria's calf will be smashed to pieces.

They sow the wind and they will reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads — it will yield no flour. If it did produce anything, foreigners would swallow it up.

Israel is swallowed up! Now they sit among the nations like a pot nobody wants.

They have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.

Even though they sell themselves among the nations, I will now gather them up. They will begin to waste away under the burden of the great king.

Ephraim has built altar after altar for making wrong right — but those altars became the very place they went wrong.

I wrote out my instruction for them — ten thousand teachings! — but they treat them like something foreign.

They love their sacrificial feasts — they sacrifice meat and eat it — but Yahweh takes no pleasure in them. Now he will remember their corruption and hold them accountable for their failures. They will go back to Egypt.

Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces. Judah has fortified city after city. But I will send fire on their cities and it will devour their fortresses.