Hosea

¹ When Ephraim speaketh tremblingly, He hath been lifted up in Israel, When he becometh guilty in Baal he dieth.

² And now do they add to sin, And make to them a molten image of their silver, By their own understanding — idols, A work of artisans — all of it, Of them they say, who [are] sacrificers among men, 'The calves let them kiss.'

³ Therefore they are as a cloud of the morning, And as dew, rising early, going away, As chaff tossed about out of a floor, And as smoke out of a window.

⁴ And I [am] Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt, And a God besides Me thou dost not know, And a Saviour — there is none save Me.

⁵ I — I have known thee in a wilderness, In a land of droughts.

⁶ According to their feedings they are satiated, They have been satiated, And their heart is lifted up, Therefore they have forgotten Me,

⁷ And I am to them as a lion, As a leopard by the way I look out.

⁸ I do meet them as a bereaved bear, And I rend the enclosure of their heart.

⁹ And I consume them there as a lioness, A beast of the field doth rend them.

¹⁰ Thou hast destroyed thyself, O Israel, But in Me [is] thy help, Where [is] thy king now — And he doth save thee in all thy cities? And thy judges of whom thou didst say, 'Give to me a king and heads?'

¹¹ I give to thee a king in Mine anger, And I take away in My wrath.

¹² Bound up [is] the iniquity of Ephraim, Hidden [is] his sin,

¹³ Pangs of a travailing woman come to him, He [is] a son not wise, For he remaineth not the time for the breaking forth of sons.

¹⁴ From the hand of Sheol I do ransom them, From death I redeem them, Where [is] thy plague, O death? Where thy destruction, O Sheol? Repentance is hid from Mine eyes.

¹⁵ Though he among brethren produceth fruit, Come in doth an east wind, a wind of Jehovah, From a wilderness it is coming up, And it drieth up his fountain, And become dry doth his spring, It — it spoileth a treasure — every desirable vessel.

¹⁶ Become desolate doth Samaria, Because she hath rebelled against her God, By sword they do fall, Their sucklings are dashed in pieces, And its pregnant ones are ripped up!