Bible Strands
Hosea 12:1
Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; he multiplies lies and violence; he makes a covenant with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet addresses Ephraim and Jacob while delivering a divine charge against Judah in the surrounding chapter.
The words — The Hebrew terms רוּחַ (ruach, "wind") and קָדִים (qadim, "east wind") appear in the text to describe the futile daily pursuit.
The thread — The text states Ephraim multiplies lies and violence while making a covenant with Assyria and sending oil to Egypt. Hosea 11:12 records Ephraim surrounding God with lies, Jeremiah 22:22 warns that wind will drive away shepherds, and Ezekiel 17:10 describes a transplanted plant withering when the east wind strikes.
Why it lands — The passage states that political maneuvering and deceit replace covenant faithfulness. It requires the reader to acknowledge that substituting divine reliance with foreign treaties produces only violence and ruin.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
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.
Cross-references
- Hosea 11:12 Ephraim surrounds Me with lies, the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One.
- Jeremiah 22:22 The wind will drive away all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity. Then you will be ashamed and humiliated because of all your wickedness.
- Ezekiel 17:10 Even if it is transplanted, will it flourish? Will it not completely wither when the east wind strikes? It will wither on the bed where it sprouted.’”
- Hosea 5:13 When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim turned to Assyria and sent to the great king. But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.
- Hosea 8:7 For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.
- 2 Kings 15:19 Then Pul king of Assyria invaded the land, and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver in order to gain his support and strengthen his own grip on the kingdom.
- 2 Kings 17:4 But the king of Assyria discovered that Hoshea had conspired to send envoys to King So of Egypt, and that he had not paid tribute to the king of Assyria as in previous years. Therefore the king of Assyria arrested Hoshea and put him in prison.
- Job 15:2 “Does a wise man answer with empty counsel or fill his belly with the hot east wind?
- Isaiah 30:6 This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev: Through a land of hardship and distress, of lioness and lion, of viper and flying serpent, they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people of no profit to them.