Yahweh’s Judgment on Idolatrous Israel
13 When Ephraim spoke,[a] there was terror;
he was exalted in Israel,
but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.
2 And now they sin again,
and they make for themselves a molten idol,
idols from their silver metal according to their understanding,
all of them the work of skilled craftsmen.
To these they say, “Sacrifice!”
People are kissing bull calves.
3 Therefore, they will be like the morning cloud,
and like the dew of early morning going away,
like chaff swirling from the threshing floor,
or like smoke from a window.
4 I am Yahweh your God
since[b] the land of Egypt;
you know no god except me,
and no one saves besides me.
5 I fed you[c] in the desert,
in the land of drought.
6 When I fed them,[d] they were satisfied;
they were satisfied and their heart was lifted up;
therefore they forgot me.
7 And I will be like a lion to them;
I lie in wait beside the way, like a leopard.
8 I will attack them like a bear robbed of her offspring,
and I will tear open the covering of their heart;
there I will devour them like a lion,
like an animal of the field would mutilate them.
9 I will destroy you,[e] O Israel;
who will help you?[f]
10 Where now is your king that he may save you?
Where in all your cities are your judges,
of whom you said, “Give to
me a king and rulers?”
11 I gave you a king in my anger,
and I took him in my wrath.
12 The sin of Ephraim is wrapped up;
his sin is concealed.
13 The labor pains of childbirth come for him;
he is an unwise son
because at the proper time, he does not present himself
at the mouth of the womb.[g]
14 Should I redeem them from the power[h] of Sheol? [i]
Should I deliver them from death?
Where are your plagues, O Death?
Where is your destruction, O Sheol?[j]
Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
15 Although he may flourish among reeds,[k]
the east wind will come, a wind of Yahweh
rising from the desert;
his fountain will dry up,
his spring will be parched.
It will plunder his treasury,[l]
every object of desire.
16 [m] Samaria will be guilty,
because she has rebelled against her God;
they will fall by the sword,
their children will be dashed to pieces,
and their pregnant women will be ripped open.
Footnotes
- Hosea 13:1 Hebrew “speaks”
- Hosea 13:4 Or “from”
- Hosea 13:5 So LXX; Hebrew “I knew you”
- Hosea 13:6 Hebrew “According to their pasture”
- Hosea 13:9 Hebrew “He destroys you”
- Hosea 13:9 Hebrew “for in me, in your help”
- Hosea 13:13 Literally “the place where the sons burst forth”
- Hosea 13:14 Literally “the hand”
- Hosea 13:14 “Sheol” is a Hebrew term for the place where the dead reside, i.e., the underworld
- Hosea 13:14 “Sheol” is a Hebrew term for the place where the dead reside, i.e., the underworld
- Hosea 13:15 Hebrew “brothers”
- Hosea 13:15 Or “its treasury”
- Hosea 13:16 Hosea 13:16–14:9 in the English Bible is 14:1–10 in the Hebrew Bible