Hosea 11:1–13:16

God Yearns over His People

¹When Israel was a youth I loved him,

And ^aout of Egypt I ^bcalled My son.

²The more ^1athey called them,

The more they went from them;

They kept ^bsacrificing to the Baals

And ^cburning incense to idols.

³Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk,

¹I ^atook them in My arms;

But they did not know that I ^bhealed them.

⁴I ^aled them with cords of a man, with bonds of love,

And ^bI became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws;

And I bent down and ^cfed them.

⁵¹They will not return to the land of Egypt;

But Assyria—he will be ²their king

Because they ^arefused to return to Me.

⁶The ^asword will whirl against ¹their cities,

And will demolish their gate bars

And ^bconsume them because of their ^ccounsels.

⁷So My people are bent on ^aturning from Me.

Though ¹they call ²them to the One on high,

None at all exalts Him.

^8aHow can I give you up, O Ephraim?

How can I surrender you, O Israel?

How can I ¹make you like ^bAdmah?

How can I treat you like Zeboiim?

My heart is turned over within Me,

²All My compassions are kindled.

⁹I will ^anot execute My fierce anger;

I will not destroy Ephraim ^bagain.

For ^cI am God and not man, the ^dHoly One in your midst,

And I will not come in ¹wrath.

¹⁰They will ^awalk after the Lord,

He will ^broar like a lion;

Indeed He will roar

And His sons will come ^ctrembling from the west.

¹¹They will come trembling like birds from ^aEgypt

And like ^bdoves from the land of Assyria;

And I will ^csettle them in their houses, declares the Lord.

¹²¹Ephraim surrounds Me with ^alies

And the house of Israel with deceit;

Judah is also unruly against God,

Even against the Holy One who is faithful.

Chapter 12

Ephraim Reminded

¹¹Ephraim feeds on ^awind,

And pursues the ^beast wind continually;

He multiplies lies and violence.

Moreover, ²he makes a covenant with Assyria,

And oil is carried to Egypt.

²The Lord also has a ^adispute with Judah,

And will punish Jacob ^baccording to his ways;

He will repay him according to his deeds.

³In the womb he ^atook his brother by the heel,

And in his maturity he ^bcontended with God.

⁴Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed;

He wept and ^asought His favor.

He found Him at ^bBethel

And there He spoke with us,

⁵Even the Lord, the God of hosts,

The Lord is His ^1aname.

⁶Therefore, ^areturn to your God,

^bObserve ¹kindness and justice,

And ^cwait for your God continually.

⁷A ¹merchant, in whose hands are false ^abalances,

He loves to oppress.

⁸And Ephraim said, “Surely I have become ^arich,

I have found wealth for myself;

In all my labors they will find in me

^bNo iniquity, which would be sin.”

⁹But I have been the Lord your God since the land of Egypt;

I will make you ^alive in tents again,

As in the days of the appointed festival.

¹⁰I have also spoken to the ^aprophets,

And I ¹gave numerous visions,

And through the prophets I gave ^bparables.

¹¹Is there iniquity in Gilead?

Surely they are worthless.

In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls,

Yes, ^atheir altars are like the stone heaps

Beside the furrows of the field.

¹²Now ^aJacob fled to the ¹land of Aram,

And ^bIsrael worked for a wife,

And for a wife he kept sheep.

¹³But by a ^aprophet the Lord brought Israel from Egypt,

And by a prophet he was kept.

^14aEphraim has provoked to bitter anger;

So his Lord will leave his ^bbloodguilt on him

And bring back his ^creproach to him.

Chapter 13

Ephraim’s Idolatry

^1aWhen Ephraim ¹spoke, there was trembling.

He ^bexalted himself in Israel,

But through ^cBaal he ²did wrong and died.

²And now they sin more and more,

And make for themselves ^amolten images,

Idols ^1bskillfully made from their silver,

All of them the ^cwork of craftsmen.

They say of them, “Let the ²men who sacrifice kiss the ^dcalves!”

³Therefore they will be like the ^amorning cloud

And like dew which ¹soon disappears,

Like ^bchaff which is blown away from the threshing floor

And like ^csmoke from a ²chimney.

⁴Yet I have been the ^aLord your God

Since the land of Egypt;

And you were not to know ^bany god except Me,

For there is no savior ^cbesides Me.

⁵I ^1acared for you in the wilderness,

^bIn the land of drought.

⁶As they had their pasture, they became ^asatisfied,

And being satisfied, their ^bheart became proud;

Therefore they ^cforgot Me.

⁷So I will be ^alike a lion to them;

Like a ^bleopard I will ¹lie in wait by the wayside.

⁸I will encounter them ^alike a bear robbed of her cubs,

And I will tear open ¹their chests;

There I will also ^bdevour them like a lioness,

As a wild beast would tear them.

⁹It is your destruction, O Israel,

¹That you are ^aagainst Me, against your ^bhelp.

¹⁰Where now is your ^aking

That he may save you in all your cities,

And your ^bjudges of whom you ¹requested,

“Give me a king and princes”?

¹¹I ^agave you a king in My anger

And ^btook him away in My wrath.

¹²The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;

His sin is ^astored up.

¹³The pains of ^achildbirth come upon him;

He is ^bnot a wise son,

For ¹it is not the time that he should ^cdelay at the opening of the womb.

¹⁴Shall I ^aransom them from the ¹power of Sheol?

Shall I redeem them from death?

^bO Death, where are your thorns?

O Sheol, where is your sting?

^cCompassion will be hidden from My sight.

¹⁵Though he ^aflourishes among the ¹reeds,

An ^beast wind will come,

The wind of the Lord coming up from the wilderness;

And his fountain will ^cbecome dry

And his spring will be dried up;

It will ^dplunder his treasury of every precious article.

¹⁶¹Samaria will be held ^aguilty,

For she has ^brebelled against her God.

^cThey will fall by the ^dsword,

Their little ones will be ^edashed in pieces,

And their pregnant ^fwomen will be ripped open.