Africa Study Bible Sampler - Flipbook - Page 66
65
Even in the womb,
Jacob struggled with his brother;
when he became a man,
he even fought with God.
4 Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won.
He wept and pleaded for a blessing
from him.
There at Bethel he met God face to face,
and God spoke to him*—
5 the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies,
the Lord is his name!
6 So now, come back to your God.
Act with love and justice,
and always depend on him.
3
But no, the people are like crafty
merchants
selling from dishonest scales—
they love to cheat.
8 Israel boasts, “I am rich!
I’ve made a fortune all by myself!
No one has caught me cheating!
My record is spotless!”
7
“But I am the Lord your God,
who rescued you from slavery in
Egypt.
And I will make you live in tents again,
as you do each year at the Festival of
Shelters.*
10 I sent my prophets to warn you
with many visions and parables.”
9
But the people of Gilead are worthless
because of their idol worship.
And in Gilgal, too, they sacrifice bulls;
their altars are lined up like the heaps
of stone
along the edges of a ploughed field.
12 Jacob fled to the land of Aram,
and there he* earned a wife by
tending sheep.
13 Then by a prophet
the Lord brought Jacob’s
descendants* out of Egypt;
and by that prophet
they were protected.
14 But the people of Israel
have bitterly provoked the Lord,
11
12:3
Gen 25:22-26
12:4
Gen 28:13-19;
32:24-30;
35:9-15
12:5
Exod 3:15
12:6
Mic 7:7
12:7
Prov 11:1
Amos 8:5
Mic 6:11
12:8
Hos 13:6
Rev 3:17
12:9
Lev 23:42
12:10
2 Kgs 17:13
Ezek 17:2;
20:49
Heb 1:1
12:12
Gen 28:5; 29:20
12:13
Exod 14:19-22
Isa 63:11-12
12:14
2 Kgs 17:7-18
Ezek 18:10-13
13:1
Hos 2:8-17
13:2
Isa 44:17-20;
46:6
Jer 10:2-5
Hos 8:6
13:3
Ps 68:2
Isa 17:13
Dan 2:35
Hos 6:4
13:4
Exod 20:2-3
Isa 43:11;
45:21-22
13:5
Deut 2:7; 8:15;
32:10
13:6
Hos 2:13; 4:6;
8:14
13:8
Ps 50:22
13:10
2 Kgs 17:4
Hos 8:4
HOSEA 13:10
so their Lord will now sentence them to
death
in payment for their sins.
The Lord’s Anger against Israel
1 When the tribe of Ephraim spoke,
the people shook with fear,
for that tribe was important in Israel.
But the people of Ephraim sinned by
worshipping Baal
and thus sealed their destruction.
2 Now they continue to sin by making
silver idols,
images shaped skilfully with human
hands.
“Sacrifice to these,” they cry,
“and kiss the calf idols!”
3 Therefore, they will disappear like the
morning mist,
like dew in the morning sun,
like chaff blown by the wind,
like smoke from a chimney.
13
“I have been the Lord your God
ever since I brought you out of
Egypt.
You must acknowledge no God but
me,
for there is no other saviour.
5 I took care of you in the wilderness,
in that dry and thirsty land.
6 But when you had eaten and were
satisfied,
you became proud and forgot me.
7 So now I will attack you like a lion,
like a leopard that lurks along the
road.
8 Like a bear whose cubs have been taken
away,
I will tear out your heart.
I will devour you like a hungry lioness
and mangle you like a wild animal.
4
“You are about to be destroyed,
O Israel—
yes, by me, your only helper.
10 Now where is* your king?
Let him save you!
9
12:4 As in Greek and Syriac versions; Hebrew reads to us.
12:9 Hebrew as in the days of your appointed feast.
12:12 Hebrew
Israel. See note on 10:11b. 12:13 Hebrew brought Israel. See note on 10:11b. 13:10 As in Greek and Syriac versions and Latin
Vulgate; Hebrew reads I will be.
Applica ti on
Our Feeling God • Hosea 13
We have just seen God’s great love in chapter 11, and here we
As parents, we get angry at our child when they steal a
see the great anger of God. With his covenant totally broken melon from the market because they are our child. We do not
and shattered by the disobedience of Ephraim (a symbol for the get angry in the same way at a neighbour’s child because
northern kingdom), God uses multiple metaphors or pictures we do not love them like our own child. This is how God feels
to describe his wrath and judgement. Do not think that God is about us. He is greatly angry because he loves so deeply. We
like a high judge unmoved in pronouncing judgement, above see clearly in Hosea that God is personal and feels for his
any feeling of anger. The Bible does not describe God like this. people. Obey and bring joy to God’s heart. Do not disobey
Instead, God is personal and involved, feeling anger against and arouse his anger.
those he loves who disobey him.