1 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel. But he incurred guilt through Baal, and he died.

2 Now they sin more and more and make for themselves cast images, idols skillfully made from their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. People say of them, “They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves!”

3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes, like chaff blown from a threshing floor, like smoke through an open window.

4 Yet I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but Me, for there is no Savior besides Me.

5 I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought.

6 When they had pasture, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, their hearts became proud, and as a result they forgot Me.

7 So like a lion I will pounce on them; like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

8 Like a bear robbed of her cubs I will attack them, and I will tear open their chests. There I will devour them like a lion, like a wild beast would tear them apart.

9 You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against Me— against your helper.

10 Where is your king now to save you in all your cities, and the rulers to whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”?

11 So in My anger I gave you a king, and in My wrath I took him away.

12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is stored up.

13 Labor pains come upon him, but he is an unwise son. When the time arrives, he fails to present himself at the opening of the womb.

14 I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from Death. Where, O Death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol, is your sting? Compassion is hidden from My eyes.

15 Although he flourishes among his brothers, an east wind will come— a wind from the LORD rising up from the desert. His fountain will fail, and his spring will run dry. The wind will plunder his treasury of every precious article.

16 Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.