Hosea 12
Big idea: Hosea puts Israel's ancestor on the stand. Jacob grasped his brother's heel in the womb, wrestled at the ford, wept and begged for a blessing — and his descendants have inherited the grasping without the wrestling. Beside him stands a merchant with weighted scales who thinks his wealth proves something.
The appeal to keep loyal love and justice is the same demand as 6:6, now put to a nation that thinks it has already succeeded. Chapter 13 answers the merchant's confidence with the harshest oracle in the book.
12:1–6 — He struggled with the angel
Feeding on wind and chasing the east wind is a picture of diplomacy: a treaty with Assyria and oil carried down to Egypt at the same time, which is exactly what the northern kingdom did. Then the case against Jacob — the ancestor whose name means grasper, who took a heel in the womb and a blessing at a ford.
1 Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt. 2 Yahweh also has a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his deeds he will repay him. 3 In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he contended with God. 4 Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us— 5 even Yahweh, the God of Armies. Yahweh is his name of renown! 6 Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God.
12:7–14 — A merchant with dishonest scales
The word for merchant is 'Canaan' — the trading nation — so the sentence reads as an accusation of having become what Israel was supposed to displace. The self-assessment that follows is the section's target: I have become rich, and in all my labours they will find no iniquity in me. Prosperity taken as a certificate of innocence.
7 A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to defraud. 8 Ephraim said, “Surely I have become rich. I have found myself wealth. In all my wealth they won’t find in me any iniquity that is sin.” 9 “But I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt. I will yet again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast. 10 I have also spoken to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets I have used parables. 11 If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field. 12 Jacob fled into the country of Aram. Israel served to get a wife. For a wife he tended flocks and herds. 13 By a prophet Yahweh brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved. 14 Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger. Therefore his blood will be left on him, and his Lord will repay his contempt.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).