Hosea

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  8. 8
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  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14

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

  1. Hosea 13:1 Hebrew “speaks”
  2. Hosea 13:4 Or “from”
  3. Hosea 13:5 So LXX; Hebrew “I knew you”
  4. Hosea 13:6 Hebrew “According to their pasture”
  5. Hosea 13:9 Hebrew “He destroys you”
  6. Hosea 13:9 Hebrew “for in me, in your help”
  7. Hosea 13:13 Literally “the place where the sons burst forth”
  8. Hosea 13:14 Literally “the hand”
  9. Hosea 13:14 “Sheol” is a Hebrew term for the place where the dead reside, i.e., the underworld
  10. Hosea 13:14 “Sheol” is a Hebrew term for the place where the dead reside, i.e., the underworld
  11. Hosea 13:15 Hebrew “brothers”
  12. Hosea 13:15 Or “its treasury”
  13. Hosea 13:16 Hosea 13:16–14:9 in the English Bible is 14:1–10 in the Hebrew Bible