Hosea 13:1–15

Relentless Judgment on Israel

¹³When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;

he was exalted in Israel,

but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.^*

²And now they keep on sinning

and make a cast image for themselves,

idols of silver made according to their understanding,

all of them the work of artisans.

“Sacrifice to these,” they say.^k

People are kissing calves!^*

³Therefore they shall be like the morning mist

or like the dew that goes away early,

like chaff that swirls from the threshing floor

or like smoke from a window.^*

⁴Yet I have been the Lord your God

ever since the land of Egypt;

you know no God but me,

and besides me there is no savior.^*

⁵It was I who fed^l you in the wilderness,

in the land of drought.^*

⁶When I fed^m them, they were satisfied;

they were satisfied, and their heart was proud;

therefore they forgot me.^*

⁷So I will become like a lion to them;

like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.^*

⁸I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs

and will tear open the covering of their heart;

there I will devour them like a lion,

as a wild animal would mangle them.

⁹I will destroy you, O Israel;

who can help you?ⁿ

¹⁰Where now is^o your king, that he may save you?

Where in all your cities are your rulers,

of whom you said,

“Give me a king and rulers”?^*

¹¹I gave you a king in my anger,

and I took him away in my wrath.^*

¹²Ephraim’s iniquity is bound up;

his sin is kept in store.^*

¹³The pangs of childbirth come for him,

but he is an unwise son,

for at the proper time he does not present himself

at the mouth of the womb.^*

¹⁴Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol?

Shall I redeem them from Death?

O Death, where are^p your plagues?

O Sheol, where is^q your destruction?

Compassion is hidden from my eyes.^*

¹⁵Although he may flourish among rushes,^r

the east wind shall come, a blast from the Lord,

rising from the wilderness,

and his fountain shall dry up;

his spring shall be parched.

It shall strip his treasury

of every precious thing.^*