Ephraim’s Idolatry

1When Ephraim [†]spoke, there was trembling.

He lifted himself up in Israel,

But through Baal he became guilty and died.

2And now they sin more and more

And make for themselves molten images,

Idols made from their silver according to their understanding,

All of them the work of craftsmen.

They are saying of them, “Let the [†]men who sacrifice kiss the calves!”

3Therefore they will be like the morning cloud

And like dew which [†]soon disappears,

Like chaff which is blown away from the threshing floor

And like smoke from a [†]chimney.

4Yet I have been Yahweh your God

Since the land of Egypt;

And you were not to know any god except Me,

And there is no savior besides Me.

5I Myself knew you in the wilderness,

In the land of drought.

6As they had their pasture, then they became satisfied,

Indeed, they were satisfied, and their heart became raised up;

Therefore they forgot Me.

7So I will be like a lion to them;

Like a leopard I will [†]lie in wait by the wayside.

8I will encounter them like a bear robbed of her cubs,

And I will tear open [†]the chest enclosing their heart;

There I will also devour them like a lioness,

As a beast of the field would rip them open.

9It is your ruin, O Israel,

[†]That you are against Me, against your help.

10Where now is your king,

That he may save you in all your cities,

And your judges of whom you said,

“Give me a king and princes”?

11I gave you a king in My anger

And took him away in My wrath.

12The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;

His sin is stored up.

13The pains of childbirth come upon him;

He is not a wise son,

For [†]it is not the time that he should delay at the opening of the womb.

14Shall I ransom them from the [†]power of Sheol?

Shall I redeem them from death?

O Death, where are your thorns?

O Sheol, where is your sting?

Compassion will be hidden from My sight.

15Though he is fruitful among the [†]reeds,

An east wind will come,

The wind of Yahweh coming up from the wilderness;

And his fountain will become dry,

And his spring will be dried up;

It will plunder his treasury of every desirable article.

16[†]Samaria will be held guilty,

For she has rebelled against her God.

They will fall by the sword;

Their infants will be dashed in pieces,

And their pregnant women will be ripped open.