God Yearns over His People
When Israel was a youth I loved him,
And aout of Egypt I bcalled My son.
2 The more athey called them,
The more they went from them;
They kept bsacrificing to the Baals
And cburning incense to idols.
3 Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I atook them in My arms;
But they did not know that I bhealed them.
4 I 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.
5 They will not return to the land of Egypt;
But Assyria—he will be their king
Because they arefused to return to Me.
6 The asword will whirl against their cities,
And will demolish their gate bars
And bconsume them because of their ccounsels.
7 So My people are bent on aturning from Me.
Though they call them to the One on high,
None at all exalts Him.
8 aHow can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I surrender you, O Israel?
How can I make you like bAdmah?
How can I treat you like bZeboiim?
My heart is turned over within Me,
All My compassions are kindled.
9 I 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 wrath.
10 They will awalk after the Lord,
He will broar like a lion;
Indeed He will roar
And His sons will come ctrembling from the west.
11 They will come trembling like birds from aEgypt
And like bdoves from the land of aAssyria;
And I will csettle them in their houses, declares the Lord.
12 Ephraim 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.
Ephraim Reminded
Ephraim feeds on awind,
And pursues the beast wind continually;
He multiplies lies and violence.
Moreover, he makes a covenant with Assyria,
And oil is carried to Egypt.
2 The Lord also has a adispute with Judah,
And will punish Jacob baccording to his ways;
He will repay him according to his deeds.
3 In the womb he atook his brother by the heel,
And in his maturity he bcontended with God.
4 Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed;
He wept and asought His favor.
He found Him at bBethel
And there He spoke with us,
5 Even the Lord, the God of hosts,
The Lord is His aname.
6 Therefore, areturn to your God,
bObserve kindness and justice,
And cwait for your God continually.
7 A merchant, in whose hands are false abalances,
He loves to oppress.
8 And 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.”
9 But 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.
10 I have also spoken to the aprophets,
And I gave numerous visions,
And through the prophets I gave bparables.
11 Is 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.
12 Now aJacob fled to the land of Aram,
And bIsrael worked for a wife,
And for a wife he kept sheep.
13 But by a aprophet the Lord brought Israel from Egypt,
And by a prophet he was kept.
14 aEphraim has provoked to bitter anger;
So his Lord will leave his bbloodguilt on him
And bring back his creproach to him.
Ephraim’s Idolatry
aWhen Ephraim spoke, there was trembling.
He bexalted himself in Israel,
But through cBaal he did wrong and died.
2 And now they sin more and more,
And make for themselves amolten images,
Idols bskillfully made from their silver,
All of them the cwork of craftsmen.
They say of them, “Let the men who sacrifice kiss the dcalves!”
3 Therefore they will be like the amorning cloud
And like dew which soon disappears,
Like bchaff which is blown away from the threshing floor
And like csmoke from a chimney.
4 Yet 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.
5 I acared for you in the wilderness,
bIn the land of drought.
6 As they had their pasture, they became asatisfied,
And being satisfied, their bheart became proud;
Therefore they cforgot Me.
7 So I will be alike a lion to them;
Like a bleopard I will lie in wait by the wayside.
8 I will encounter them alike a bear robbed of her cubs,
And I will tear open their chests;
There I will also bdevour them like a lioness,
As a wild beast would tear them.
9 It is your destruction, O Israel,
That you are aagainst Me, against your bhelp.
10 Where now is your aking
That he may save you in all your cities,
And your bjudges of whom you requested,
“Give me a king and princes”?
11 I agave you a king in My anger
And btook him away in My wrath.
12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;
His sin is astored up.
13 The pains of achildbirth come upon him;
He is bnot a wise son,
For it is not the time that he should cdelay at the opening of the womb.
14 Shall I aransom them from the power 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.
15 Though he aflourishes among the reeds,
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.
16 Samaria 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.