---
title: Hosea 12
slug: kjv/hosea-12
createdAt: 2024-08-25T02:53:45.380Z
---

**1 **Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.

**2 **The LORD hath also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.

**3 **He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:

**4 **Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him *in* Bethel, and there he spake with us;

**5 **Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD *is* his memorial.

**6 **Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.

**7 ***He is* a merchant, the balances of deceit *are* in his hand: he loveth to oppress.

**8 **And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: *in* all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that *were* sin.

**9 **And I *that am* the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.

**10 **I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.

**11 ***Is there* iniquity *in* Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars *are* as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

**12 **And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept *sheep*.

**13 **And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.

**14 **Ephraim provoked *him* to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach shall his Lord return unto him.