HoseaChapter 13

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¹When Ephraim spoke, people trembled.
He was honored in Israel.
But he became guilty through Baal,
and he died. ²Now they sin more and more.
They make metal idols for themselves.
They skillfully shape idols from their silver.
All of them are the work of craftsmen.
People say of them,
"They offer human sacrifices
and kiss the calves!" ³So they will be like the morning mist,
like the early dew that goes away,
like chaff blown from a threshing floor,
like smoke out of an open window. ⁴Yet I have been the LORD your God
ever since you were in the land of Egypt.
You know no God but me.
There is no Savior besides me. ⁵I knew you in the wilderness,
in the dry land with no rain. ⁶When they had pasture, they were full.
When they were full, their hearts became proud.
And so they forgot me. ⁷So I will pounce on them like a lion.
Like a leopard I will hide and wait by the path. ⁸Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them.
I will rip open their chests.
There I will eat them up like a lion,
like a wild animal tearing them apart. ⁹You are destroyed, Israel,
because you are against me—
against your helper. ¹⁰Where is your king now to save you
in all your cities?
Where are the rulers you asked for?
You said, "Give me a king and princes." ¹¹So in my anger I gave you a king,
and in my fury I took him away. ¹²Ephraim's wrongs are wrapped up and kept.
His sin is stored away. ¹³Labor pains come on him,
but he is a foolish son.
When it is time to be born,
he does not come out of the womb. ¹⁴I will pay to free them from the power of the grave.
I will redeem them from Death.
Death, where are your plagues?
Grave, where is your sting?
Pity is hidden from my eyes.a ¹⁵He may do well among his brothers,
but an east wind will come.
It is a wind from the LORD,
rising up from the desert.
His fountain will fail,
and his spring will dry up.
The wind will rob his storehouse
of every precious thing. ¹⁶Samaria will carry her guilt,
because she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword.
Their little ones will be smashed to pieces.
Their pregnant women will be ripped open.