HOSEA CHAPTER 8 - 14

HOSEA 8

1 “Lift up the trumpet now to sound!
He shall come like an eagle found
Against the house of YHWH, because
They’ve transgressed covenant and laws.
2 “Israel will cry to Me, ‘My God,
We know You!’ 3 “Israel from the sod
Has rejected the good, and so
He is pursued by every foe.
4 “They set up kings, but not by Me,
They made princes, but futilely.
From their silver and gold they made
Them idols, ones that have not stayed.
5 “Samaria! See how your calf
Is rejected! On their behalf
My anger is aroused. How long
Until they find innocent song?
6 “For from Israel is even this:
A workman made it in artifice,
And it is not a god at all,
But the calf of Samaria’s fall
Is broken in a heap of pieces.
7 “They sow the wind, and it increases
To whirlwind when they come to reaping.
The stalk does not a bud reveal,
It never shall produce a meal.
If it should bring forth in a cup,
Strangers would come to swallow up.

The golden calf has always been in sight
Since the Egyptians taught it the sunlight
Is glory of divinity to wear
About the head of ox in sterling glare.
The idol of the rich and wise I find
Is still the focus of seeing and blind,
The way that seems the only way to go
As I whirl in my thoughts of gilded glow.
Beloved, the broken stalk shakes in the wind
With none to notice it because we’ve sinned
In thinking that the human mind alone
Suffices to set up the divine throne,
Is great enough to define god and tree,
Wise enough to limit reality.

8 “Israel is swallowed up, now they
Are going in the Gentiles’ way
Like vessel in which is no pleasure.
9 “For they have gone up from their treasure
To the Assyrian, Like wild ass
Alone and stubborn, Ephraim has
Hired lovers. 10 “Yes, though they have hired
Among the nations, now I’ve desired
To gather them, and they shall sorrow
A little, because of the borrow,
The burden of the king of princes.
11 “Because Ephraim has without winces
Made many altars for sin offering,
They’ve become altars for sin proffering.
12 I’ve written for him the great things
Of My law, they thought them strange things.
13 “For sacrifices of My offerings
They slay flesh and eat, but for scofferings
YHWH does not accept them. Now He
Will remember iniquity
And punish their sins. They’ll return
To Egypt. 14 “For Israel will spurn
Forgetting his Maker, and build
Temples, Judah also has filled
The land with cities fortified,
But I’ll send fire upon his pride
Of cities, and it shall devour
His palaces within the hour.”

Send fire upon my pride, Beloved, and I
Shall burn with sacrifices in the sty.
The Canaanitic myth of Trinity
Reflects the gross Egyptical Unity,
And I forget my Maker in turmoil
Of getting wealth and health from faded soil.
Send fire upon my pride, Beloved, and yet
Send fire unquenchable that in love’s bet
Burns on from breath to breath eternally,
Beyond the crumbling of desire and sea.
The roiling waves still hiss upon the flame
Of lava rolling on the tumbled main,
Until the hardened mass comes to my claim,
And my feet trample pumice in the rain.

HOSEA 9

1 Do not rejoice, O Israel,
With joy like other peoples tell,
For you have played the harlot and
Against your God lifted you hand.
You have made love for hire upon
Each threshing floor before the dawn.
2 The threshing floor and the winepress
Shall not feed them in their distress,
And the new grape juice shall fail her.
3 They shall not live in YHWH’s confer,
But Ephraim to Egypt returns,
To eat unclean another spurns
In Assyria. 4 They shall not offer
Grape juice offerings to YHWH, nor proffer
Their sacrifices pleasing Him.
Like bread of mourners at the rim,
All who eat it shall be defiled.
For their bread shall irreconciled
Be for their own life, it shall not
Come into YHWH’s house and be got.
5 What will you do in day appointed,
And in the feast day YHWH’s anointed?
6 For indeed they are gone because
Of destruction. Egyptian claws
Shall gather them up, Memphis shall
Bury them, nettles’ arsenal
Shall take their silver treasures, thorns
Shall be in their tents without bourns.

The foxes tell me that the mountain ash
With berries high upon the branch to stash
Is not as good as grapes to tongue and teeth,
But I am living on a barren heath.
The foxes say the berries there are sour,
But since my cherries nourish not an hour,
I join the jays to taste the flaming crash
Of mountain ash fruit through the bitter bower.
Beloved, though I know foxes have a way
Denying the reality in sway,
I cannot gather grapes from fir and birch,
And without mountain ash, I’m left in lurch.
And so I wait the coming of the tune
Of mountain ash under the autumn noon.

7 The days of punishment have come,
The days of recompense have come.
Israel knows! The prophet’s a fool,
The spiritual’s an insane tool,
Because of your iniquity
And greatness of your enmity.
8 The watchman of Ephraim’s with God,
But the prophet’s a fowler’s prod,
A snare in every way and dream,
Hate in house of his Ælohim.
9 They are deeply corrupted, as
In the days of Gibeah’s razz.
He’ll remember iniquity,
He’ll punish their sins, wait and see.
10 “I found Israel like desert grapes,
I saw your fathers as escapes
The first fruits on the fig tree in
Its first season. They went to sin
In Baal Peor, and separated
Themselves to shame, idol created,
They became an abomination
Like the thing they loved with elation.

With din of rock called music and the store
Of idols given Your name when the noise tore
Obedience from the heart and hand, the folk
Sank into civilized expedience’ stroke.
The whoredom of false worship is acclaimed
In every place that people are enflamed
With appetite for titillating pence,
Enthusiasm for new age of sense.
Beloved, I turn to fond simplicity
Of ten-step dance beneath eternity,
And as I whirl the heathen gods appear
No longer on horizons to my fear.
Let me be like the thing I love in You,
The Decalogue with all but sombre crew.

11 “As for Ephraim, their glory flies
Away like a bird, no replies
To birth, pregnancy, nor conceiving.
12 “Though they bring up children deceiving,
Yet I’ll bereave them to the last.
Yes, woe to them when I go past
Away from them! 13 “Just as I saw
Ephraim like Tyre, planted like straw
In pleasant places, so Ephraim
Will bring his children back to him
Who murders.” 14 Give them, O YHWH, what
Will You give them? A womb that’s shut
Give them and dry breasts! 15 “All their sin
Is in Gilgal, to their chagrin
I hated them there, because their
Deeds are evil I’ll drive them where
My house is not, love them no more.
All their rebellious princes score.
16 “Ephraim is stricken, root dried up,
They shall bear no fruit to the cup.
Yes, were they to bear children, I
Would kill the darlings where they lie.”
17 My God will cast them all away,
Because they did not Him obey,
And they’ll go to wander among
The nations and remain unsung.

A place where Your house is not is a place
Most difficult to find. Before Your face
All things exist that exist on the vine
Of universe reflected in design.
There is no place without Your house, and yet
The temple of the sky above pines set
Is empty to my sight, and in my view
There is a nothing pacing and not You.
Wherever I may be upon the dress
Of the terrestrial hopeful and its guess,
Your house is with me as soon as I lay
The cantillation of Your word in sway,
And You are sitting in my heart enthroned
Beneath the lovely words once more intoned.

HOSEA 10

1 Israel empties his vine, he brings
Forth fruit for himself as he sings.
According to the multitude
Of his fruit he’s increased the rude
Altars, according to the bounty
Of his land and in every county
They’ve decorated sacred pillars
Of Ashtoreth as heathen fillers.
2 Their heart’s divided, now they are
Held guilty, He’ll break down altar,
And He will ruin their sacred pillars.
3 For now they say, “We have no killers
For kings, because we did not fear
YHWH. And if a king should appear,
What would he do for us?” 4 They’ve spoken
Words, swearing making a false token
Of covenant. So judgement springs
Up like hemlock in furrow rings
Of the field. 5 The inhabitants
Of Samaria fear askance
Because of the calf of Beth Aven.
For its people mourn at its haven,
And its priests shriek for it and wail
For its departed glory’s tale.
6 The idol also shall be carried
To Assyria, a present ferried
For King Jareb. Ephraim shall get
Shame, and Israel with shame beset
In his own counsel. 7 As for that
Samaria, her king has sat
Cut off like twig on serpentine.
8 Also the high places of Aven,
The sin of Israel, shall be broken.
The thorn and thistle as a token
Shall grow on their altars, they’ll say
To the mountains, “Hide us away!”
And to the hills, “Fall on our way!”

The land fails where the wicked king will rule,
But when democracy comes out of school
The vague hope that a righteous king may rise
Goes up in smoke before empty disguise.
The folk who claims not to have any king,
But reigns over itself in oppressing
Minorities impoverished for good,
Is floating in the ditch into the wood.
Beloved, the sins of Israel that stoke
The thorn and thistle and then goes for broke
Result in crying to the mountains’ gale
And hills to hide them from the hopeless wail.
The story is repeated where the sound
Of democratic fallacy is found.

9 “O Israel, you have sinned from days
Of Gibeah, stood in the ways.
The battle in Gibeah opposing
The children of evil enclosing
Did not overtake them bull-dozing.
10 When it’s My desire, I will chasten,
Folks shall be gathered and to hasten
Against them when I bind them for
Their two transgressions if not more.
11 Ephraim is a trained heifer that
Loves to thresh corn, but where she sat
I harnessed her fair neck, I’ll make
Ephraim pull a plough for My sake.
Judah shall plough, Jacob shall break
His clods.” 12 Sow for yourselves right doing,
Reap mercy, break your fallow stewing,
For it is time to seek YHWH, till
He comes and rains right doing’s fill
Upon you. 13 You have ploughed in sin,
You’ve reaped iniquity in bin.
You’ve eaten the fruit of your lies,
Because you trusted in your wise,
In multitude of mighty men.
14 Therefore tumult shall rise again
Among your people, all your forts
Are plundered as Shalman’s cohorts
Plundered Beth Arbel in the day
Of battle, a mother astray
Who dashed in pieces her offspring.
15 So it shall be done you a thing,
O Bethel, because of your sin
So great. At dawn now Israel’s king
Shall utterly be well done in.

The Middle Eastern way of war for spite
Is to crush infants’ heads in lark of night.
Each culture has its own in recompense,
And every people shows their lack of sense.
The reaping of iniquity is not
A punishment though prophet in his plot
Thinks so, or else You Yourself. I unseat
The fair illusion: punishment’s a treat
For those who caused catastrophe in wares
And in the human lives caught in despairs.
Beloved, You might as well be bound to plough
Yourself as trust in Ephraim for now,
And in the mark that Judah scratches well
In name of all the house of Israel.

HOSEA 11

1 “When Israel was a child, I loved
Him, and out of Egypt ungloved
I called him as My son. 2 As they
Called them, so they went from their way,
They sacrificed to Baals, and burned
Incense to carved images spurned.
3 “I taught Ephraim to walk, taking
Them by the hand, but ignoring
They did not know that I healed them.
4 I drew them with gentle cords’ hem,
With bands of love, I was to them
As those who take the yoke from their
Neck. I stooped and fed them with care.
5 “He shall not return to the land
Of Egypt, but the Assyrian’s hand
Shall be his ruler, because they
Refused to repent from their way.
6 And the sword shall slash in his cities,
Devour his districts without pities,
And consume them, because of their
Own counsels. 7 My people are fair
Bent on backsliding from Me. Though
They call to the Most High for show,
None at all exalt Him also.

Beloved, you make the wrong appeal to men.
The bands of love may be thrown out again
And once again, but never catch or lure
The hearts of the busy and the impure.
You feed with care indeed, but human teeth
Were made to snap at the hand with the wreath,
And what the forest answers when You call
Is never the true echo of Your bawl,
But howling of the law of jungle’s thrall.
That You placed conscience on unholy plane
Of vermin is the true sin in the main,
As well as creation’s most valued gain.
Repent or not, Beloved, You fit the bill,
You pay the cost of everything You till.

8 “How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you off the rim,
O Israel? How can I make you
Like Admah? How can I set you
Like Zeboiim? My heart churns in
Me, My sympathy’s stirred within.
9 I will not execute the fire
Of My wrath, I do not desire
Again to destroy Ephraim.
For I’m indeed God, Ælohim,
And not a man, the Holy One
Among you, and I will not run
To you with terror. 10 “They shall walk
After YHWH, and He’ll roar and stalk
Just like a lion. When He roars,
Then His sons shall come on all fours
And trembling from the west, 11 They’ll come
Trembling like Egyptian bird’s hum,
Like a dove from Assyrian land.
And I will let them live in band
In their houses,” Says YHWH and cries.
12 “Ephraim’s encircled Me with lies,
The house of Israel with deceit,
But Judah still walks on his feet
With Ælohim, even with One
Holy and faithful when all’s done.

Like every teen-age girl that drops her skirt
To the boys in her class and to her hurt,
You now complain that love will not let go,
Despite the awful things Your lovers show.
Of course the girl may not have in her power
To blast her own seducers from the tower
As You have over humankind in store,
And yet I do not see You doing more
To punish guilty people for their score.
It’s more often the innocent will die
Under the retribution of the sky,
What with quaint faith the atheists embark
To call an act of God done in the dark.
The rest keep putting fingers in the pie.

HOSEA 12

1 “Ephraim feeds on the wind, pursues
The east wind, he daily imbues
His life with lies and desolation.
Also they make a pact with nation
Of the Assyrians, and with oil
Carried to Egypt for their spoil.
2 “YHWH also brings a charge of treason
Against Judah, and for his reason
Will punish Jacob by his deeds,
He’ll recompense him as He needs.
3 He took his brother by the heel
In the womb, and his strength to feel
He struggled with a great one too,
4 Yes, struggled with the Angel and
Prevailed, he wept, and sought at hand
His favour. In Bethel he found
Him, and there He spoke to us sound,
5 That is, YHWH God of hosts to be
YHWH as His name eternally
Shall be service of memory.
6 So you, by your God, now return,
Observe mercy and do not spurn
Justice, and wait always on God
Who blesses your way on the sod.

You are like all the world the way You blame
The weak for what they do as though in shame.
If Jacob before birth took hold of heel
Of brother for his woe and for his weal,
Is it just to pronounce on him the weight
Of evil sentence for eternal fate?
He’s always blamed he took the heel in hand.
For Christ’s sake he was just a babe uncanned!
Irrational of accusation rises
To levels that never cease in surprises.
I too stand oft accused, not for the true
Guilt I may have for evil things I do,
Nor even for the good that I implore,
But for some faith ridiculous in store.

7 “A cunning Canaanite! False scales
Are in his hand, and his hand fails
Not to oppress. 8 “And Ephraim said,
‘Surely I’ve become rich, well fed,
I have found wealth for myself, in
All my labours and without sin.’
9 “But I am YHWH your God, since when
You left the land of Egypt then,
I’ll make you live again in tents,
As in appointed feast day’s sense.
10 “I also spoke by every prophet,
And gave you visions not to scoff at,
I’ve given symbols through the word
Of witness that the prophets stirred.”
11 Though Gilead has idols, surely
His idols are all vanity,
Although they sacrifice bulls in
Gilgal, indeed their altars’ sin
Shall be heaps in the field’s furrows.
12 Jacob fled to where the wind blows
In Syrian land, served for a wife,
And for a spouse kept the sheep’s life.
13 By hand of prophet YHWH brought out
Israel from Egypt and from doubt,
And by prophet he was preserved.
14 Ephraim provoked Him undeserved
To bitter anger, therefore his
Lord will leave the guilt where it is,
His bloodshed upon him, return
His reproach upon him to spurn.

The argument that idols cannot feed
Those who worship their stumps and come in greed
Is just not true. I see around the mess
Of degradation in the world’s address
That many who deny Your name and power,
Or use them and abuse them in their hour,
Applying Your name to the idol rust
That rises from the criminal caught dust
Live here to prosper above all the gain
Of those who keep Your law without a stain.
So I am glad Hosea came to bring
Another argument against the ring
Of foul idolatry, and that is just
Fidelity to the first wife’s a must.

HOSEA 13

1 When Ephraim spoke, trembling, he was
Exalted in Israel for cause,
But when he offended through Baal,
He died. 2 Now their sins more prevail,
And they have made them images
Moulded, idols where silver is,
According to their ill-met skill,
All of it’s work of craftsmen still.
They say of them, “Let the men who
Sacrifice kiss the calves, go to!”
3 Therefore they’ll be like morning cloud
And like early dew in a crowd
That pass away, like chaff blown off
From threshing floor and like smoke cough
From a chimney. 4 “Yet I am YHWH
Your God since the Egyptians spew
You out of the land, and so you
Shall know no gods but Me are true,
For there’s no Saviour besides Me,
And none to come eternally.

It may be indeed that idolatry
Works for all humankind set on the spree
But not for those caught up in Your love’s web,
Retrieved from worldly waters’ flow and ebb.
The argument’s that Ephraim in stow
Was prosperous when living in the glow
Of Decalogue, but when Baal took the show
The people failed and fell beneath the stroke.
Perhaps prosperity depends on folk.
Beloved, I am not born of Ephraim’s oak,
Nor am I son of Judah in the pale.
But I take hold of Your law in the gale
And trust You only where I come to sail.
It may mean that I simply come to croak.

5 I knew you in the wilderness,
And in the land of great dryness.
6 When they had pasture, they were filled,
They were filled and their heart unstilled
Exalted, so they forgot Me.
7 “And therefore to them I shall be
Like a lion, a leopard by
The road I’ll lurk, 8 and until I
Will meet them like a bear deprived,
I’ll tear open their breast who strived,
And there I will devour them like
A lion, wild beast to tear and strike.

The fatal jealousy of husband comes
Upon the wayward wife like lion’s hums
And claws of bear that open up the breast
To see if anything will bear the test.
Today the way of pay is rather short:
Fall in love, muck about and then abort.
It may not be a good plan here for life,
But it at least relieves the soul of strife.
Just turn the back as soon as sound of fife
Calls to another love, or love turns rife.
Beloved, I cannot free myself from You
Despite the stories of the prophets true.
Wherever I may turn, the empty sky
And empty earth is filled with where You fly.

9 “O Israel, you are destroyed,
But your help is from Me deployed.
10 “I’ll be your King, where is the one
To save you in your cities done?
And your judges to whom you said,
‘Give me a king and prince well-bred’?
11 “I gave you a king in My ire,
Took him away in My wrath’s fire.
12 “Iniquity of Ephraim’s bound,
His sin’s stored up. 13 “The sorrows found
Of woman in childbirth shall come
Upon him, unwise son and glum,
For he should not remain long where
Children are born to great and fair.
14 “I’ll ransom them from the grave’s power,
I will redeem them from death’s hour.
O Death, I will be for your plagues!
O Grave, I will be your destruction!
Pity is hidden in the dregs
And from My eyes is its obstruction.”
15 Though he is fruitful among brothers,
An east wind shall come, wind that smothers,
The spirit of YHWH shall come from
The wilderness, then his spring swum
Shall become dry, and his fountain
Shall be dried up, and He again
Shall plunder the treasure of each
Instrument of Muhammad’s reach.
16 Samaria’s held guilty, for
She has rebelled against her store
In Ælohim. So they shall fall
By the sword, and their infants all
Shall be dashed in pieces, and their
Women with child ripped open bare.

After the thirsty dryness of the air
That swept the folk of Israel from their share
And saw them flee to Yemen and the care
Of Ethiopia beside the sea,
The full treasure appeared for all to see,
The Desired one, Muhammad by Your hand,
Beloved, who promised treasures in the sand.
Beyond the guilt, the flight, the warring song
His bright words beam across the desert strong
And bring hope to the once rebellious throng,
Who find the precious message of peace where
The sword is dropped, the rose has sprung up there.
Your spirit, My Beloved, come from the east
To open the dry fountains for the least.

HOSEA 14

1 Israel, return to YHWH your God,
For you have stumbled as you plod
Because of your iniquity,
2 Take words with you, return to be
With YHWH. Say to Him, “Take away
All sin, receive us graciously,
For we will offer sacrifice
With our lips, and not once or twice.
3 “Assyria shall not save us, we
Will not ride on horses, nor be
Saying again to our hands’ work,
‘You are our gods.’ You do not shirk,
For in You the orphan will find
Mercy and love to heal and bind.”

There was no need to offer sacrifice
Of animal or child in arm like vice
Of Baal filled with the fires to burn the head
Of children agonized for molten led.
There was no need to offer up a god
Or man upon a cross above the sod.
There only is the need to turn around
And pray You take away our sins’ abound,
And give You sacrifices of the lip,
The praises king David on our ship.
And yet it was in ire You gave a king,
Both Saul and even David on the wing.
It was in ire. But turn that ire to spring
And hear the Psalms that I have come to sing.

4 “I will heal their backsliding, I
Will love them freely too, for My
Anger has turned away from him.
5 I’ll be like the dew of the rim
To Israel, He shall grow up like
The lily, and stretch his roots’ spike
Like Lebanon. 6 His branches spread,
His beauty shall be on his head
Like olive tree, and his fragrance
Like Lebanon. 7 Those who to dance
Live under his shadow return,
They’ll be revived grain not to burn
Nor like the chaff, but grow like vine,
Their scent like Lebanese new wine.

Backslidings I have had abundantly,
And even though I am not of the tree
Of Ephraim, still I have felt the lash
Of medicine to heal me from cold cash.
Backslidings of both feet and hand and heart
Have been my plough in every sort of art,
And still I’ve found You coming with a start
To heal my ways and doings from the brash.
You are indeed like dew, Beloved, who come
Without a word in silence for the drum
Of morning and as soon as sun is out
You disappear before the daytime shout.
I wait Your coming day to day as waits
The lily and the Lebanon at gates.

8 “Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I now
To do with idols anyhow?’
I’ve heard and observed him, I’m like
A green cypress tree by the pike,
Your fruit at last is found in Me.”
9 Who is wise? Let him these things see.
Who is prudent? Let him know them.
For the ways of YHWH’s stratagem
Are right, the righteous walk in them,
But transgressors stumble in them.

Like Ephraim I lay my hand and heart
Aside from idols from both end and start.
And like the son of Joseph have my part
In saying I am like a cypress tree
That bears its pungent fruit, the gift of me.
Such trees do not produce apples or pears,
The lemon and the grapefruit and such wares
Are not to be found on the cypress bough.
Instead inedible its berries bow.
The useless berries of my sonnets here
Are pungent when one bites them with a tear,
But taste of sweet fruit is a thing not found
In all the cantillations in my sound.

AUTHOR: THOMAS G. MCELWAIN

Copyright © 2007 Adams & McElwain Publishers and Thomas McElwain First Published in two volumes, The Beloved and I 2005, and Led of the Beloved, 2006. Second Edition, 2010 Third and revised edition, 2012 All rights reserved. No part of this verse commentary on the sacred Scriptures may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, without permission in writing from publisher.

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