The Lord’s Relentless Judgment on Israel
When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;
ahe was exalted in Israel,
but he incurred guilt bthrough Baal and died.
2 And now they sin more and more,
and amake for themselves metal images,
idols skillfully made of their silver,
ball of them the work of craftsmen.
It is said of them,
“Those who offer human sacrifice ckiss calves!”
3 Therefore they shall be alike the morning mist
or alike the dew that goes early away,
blike the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor
or clike smoke from a window.
4 But aI am the Lord your God
from the land of Egypt;
byou know no God but me,
and cbesides me there is no savior.
5 aIt was I who knew you in the wilderness,
in the land of drought;
6 abut when they had grazed, they became full,
bthey were filled, and their heart was lifted up;
btherefore they forgot me.
7 So aI am to them like a lion;
blike a leopard I will lurk beside the way.
8 I will fall upon them alike a bear robbed of her cubs;
I will tear open their breast,
and there I will devour them like a lion,
bas a wild beast would rip them open.
9 He destroys you, O Israel,
for you are against me, against ayour helper.
10 aWhere now is your king, to save you in all your cities?
Where are all your rulers—
those of whom byou said,
“Give me a king and princes”?
11 aI gave you a king in my anger,
and bI took him away in my wrath.
12 The iniquity of Ephraim is abound up;
his sin is akept in store.
13 aThe pangs of childbirth come for him,
but he is an unwise son,
for at the right time he does not present himself
bat the opening of the womb.
14 aI shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
aI shall redeem them from Death.
bO cDeath, where are your plagues?
bO cSheol, where is your sting?
dCompassion is hidden from my eyes.
15 Though ahe may flourish among his brothers,
bthe east wind, the wind of the Lord, shall come,
rising from the wilderness,
cand his fountain shall dry up;
his spring shall be parched;
it shall strip dhis treasury
of every precious thing.
16 Samaria ashall bear her guilt,
because bshe has rebelled against her God;
they shall fall by the sword;
ctheir little ones shall be dashed in pieces,
and their dpregnant women ripped open.