Hosea

¹ When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. He lifted himself up in Israel, But through Baal he became guilty and died.

² And make for themselves molten images, Idols made from their silver according to their understanding, All of them the work of craftsmen. They are saying of them, “Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves!”

³ And like dew which soon disappears, Like chaff which is blown away from the threshing floor And like smoke from a chimney.

⁴ Since the land of Egypt; And you were not to know any god except Me, And there is no savior besides Me.

⁵ In the land of drought.

⁶ Indeed, they were satisfied, and their heart became raised up; Therefore they forgot Me.

⁷ Like a leopard I will lie in wait by the wayside.

⁸ And I will tear open the chest enclosing their heart; There I will also devour them like a lioness, As a beast of the field would rip them open.

⁹ That you are against Me, against your help.

¹⁰ That he may save you in all your cities, And your judges of whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”?

¹¹ And took him away in My wrath.

¹² His sin is stored up.

¹³ He is not a wise son, For it is not the time that he should delay at the opening of the womb.

¹⁴ Shall I redeem them from death? O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight.

¹⁵ An east wind will come, The wind of Yahweh coming up from the wilderness; And his fountain will become dry, And his spring will be dried up; It will plunder his treasury of every desirable article.

¹⁶ For she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; Their infants will be dashed in pieces, And their pregnant women will be ripped open.