I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.
Parallel translations
- WEB In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing. There is prostitution in Ephraim. Israel is defiled.
- BSB In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing: Ephraim practices prostitution there, and Israel is defiled.
- NKJV I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: There is the harlotry of Ephraim; Israel is defiled.
- NASB In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim’s infidelity is there, Israel has defiled itself.
- NLT Yes, I have seen something horrible in Ephraim and Israel: My people are defiled by prostituting themselves with other gods!
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
In Israel's house God has seen a horrible thing: Ephraim's spiritual prostitution has defiled the whole nation.
Overview
God describes Israel's idolatry as spiritual harlotry that has rendered the nation defiled and abhorrent in His sight. The word "horrible" conveys God's revulsion at covenant betrayal dressed up in religious forms. Such defilement can only be cleansed by the gospel, where Christ purifies an unfaithful people to present them as His own.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- Hos 5:3I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.
- Ezek 23:5And Aholah played the harlot when she was mine; and she doted on her lovers, on the Assyrians her neighbours,
- Jer 5:30–31A wonderful and horrible thing is committed in the land;
- Jer 23:14I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.
- 2 Kgs 17:7For so it was, that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, which had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods,
- Jer 18:13Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.
- Jer 3:6The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.
- 1 Kgs 12:8But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him:
- Jer 2:12–13Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.
- 1 Kgs 15:30Because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and which he made Israel sin, by his provocation wherewith he provoked the LORD God of Israel to anger.
- Hos 4:17Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.
- Hos 4:11Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
God's relentless love for an unfaithful bride dramatizes the gospel: 'Out of Egypt I called my son' is fulfilled in Jesus, who redeems an adulterous people at his own cost.
How Hosea 6:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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