Ephraim's Glory Vanishes

1When Ephraim speaketh tremblingly, He hath been lifted up in Israel, When he becometh guilty in Baal he dieth.

2And now do they add to sin, And make to them a molten image of their silver, By their own understanding — idols, A work of artizans — all of it, Of them they say, who [are] sacrificers among men, ‘The calves let them kiss.’

3Therefore they are as a cloud of the morning, And as dew, rising early, going away, As chaff tossed about out of a floor, And as smoke out of a window.

God's Anger

4And I [am] Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt, And a God besides Me thou dost not know, And a Saviour — there is none save Me.

5I — I have known thee in a wilderness, In a land of droughts.

6According to their feedings they are satiated, They have been satiated, And their heart is lifted up, Therefore they have forgotten Me,

7And I am to them as a lion, As a leopard by the way I look out.

8I do meet them as a bereaved bear, And I rend the enclosure of their heart.

God's Mercy

9And I consume them there as a lioness, A beast of the field doth rend them.

10Thou hast destroyed thyself, O Israel, But in Me [is] thy help, Where [is] thy king now — And he doth save thee in all thy cities? And thy judges of whom thou didst say, ‘Give to me a king and heads?’

11I give to thee a king in Mine anger, And I take away in My wrath.

12Bound up [is] the iniquity of Ephraim, Hidden [is] his sin,

13Pangs of a travailing woman come to him, He [is] a son not wise, For he remaineth not the time for the breaking forth of sons.

14From the hand of Sheol I do ransom them, From death I redeem them, Where [is] thy plague, O death? Where thy destruction, O Sheol? Repentance is hid from Mine eyes.

The Judgment on Samaria

15Though he among brethren produceth fruit, Come in doth an east wind, a wind of Jehovah, From a wilderness it is coming up, And it drieth up his fountain, And become dry doth his spring, It — it spoileth a treasure — every desirable vessel.

16Become desolate doth Samaria, Because she hath rebelled against her God, By sword they do fall, Their sucklings are dashed in pieces, And its pregnant ones are ripped up!