Hosea 7:1–7

¹When I heal Israel,

the iniquity of Ephraim^a will be exposed,

as well as the crimes of Samaria.

For they practice deceit and thieves break in;

bandits raid in the streets.

²But 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.

³They delight the king with their evil,

and the princes with their lies.

⁴They 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.

⁵The princes are inflamed with wine

on the day of our king;

so he joins hands

with those who mock him.

⁶For they prepare their heart like an oven

while they lie in wait;

all night their anger smolders;^b

in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

⁷All of them are hot as an oven,

and they devour their rulers.

All their kings fall;

not one of them calls upon Me.