Parallel Bible results for "hosea 12"

Hosea 12

The Message Bible MSG

1 Ephraim, obsessed with god-fantasies, chases ghosts and phantoms. He tells lies nonstop, soul-destroying lies. Both Ephraim and Judah made deals with Assyria and tried to get an inside track with Egypt.

2 God is bringing charges against Israel. Jacob's children are hauled into court to be punished.

3 In the womb, that heel, Jacob, got the best of his brother. When he grew up, he tried to get the best of God.

4 But God would not be bested. God bested him. Brought to his knees, Jacob wept and prayed. God found him at Bethel. That's where he spoke with him.

5 God is God-of-the-Angel-Armies, God-Revealed, God-Known.

6 What are you waiting for? Return to your God! Commit yourself in love, in justice! Wait for your God, and don't give up on him - ever!

7 The businessmen engage in wholesale fraud. They love to rip people off!

8 Ephraim boasted, "Look, I'm rich! I've made it big! And look how well I've covered my tracks: not a hint of fraud, not a sign of sin!"

9 "But not so fast! I'm God, your God! Your God from the days in Egypt! I'm going to put you back to living in tents, as in the old days when you worshiped in the wilderness.

10 I speak through the prophets to give clear pictures of the way things are. Using prophets, I tell revealing stories.

11 I show Gilead rampant with religious scandal and Gilgal teeming with empty-headed religion. I expose their worship centers as stinking piles of garbage in their gardens."

12 Are you going to repeat the life of your ancestor Jacob? He ran off guilty to Aram, Then sold his soul to get ahead, and made it big through treachery and deceit.

13 Your real identity is formed through God-sent prophets, who led you out of Egypt and served as faithful pastors.

14 As it is, Ephraim has continually and inexcusably insulted God. Now he has to pay for his life-destroying ways. His Master will do to him what he has done.

New Living Translation NLT

1 The people of Israel feed on the wind; they chase after the east wind all day long. They pile up lies and violence; they are making an alliance with Assyria while sending olive oil to buy support from Egypt.

2 Now the LORD is bringing charges against Judah. He is about to punish Jacob for all his deceitful ways, and pay him back for all he has done.

3 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.

7 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!”

9 “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.”

11 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 plowed 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, so their Lord will now sentence them to death in payment for their sins.