Hosea 13

1 According to Ephraim’s word, he took rules for himself in Israel, set them up for Baal, and died.

2 Now they sin more and more. They made a cast-metal image from their silver in the likeness of idols, the finished work of craftsmen. They say, “Sacrifice people, for the calves have come to an end.”

3 Therefore they will be like a morning cloud, like early dew that disappears, like chaff blown from the threshing floor, and like vapor rising from locusts.

4 “But I am the Lord your God, who established the sky and created the earth. My hands formed the whole army of heaven, but I did not show them to you so that you would follow them. I brought you up from Egypt. You are to know no God but me, and there is no one who rescues besides me.

5 I shepherded you in the wilderness, in an uninhabited land.

6 They ate from their pastures and were completely filled. Their hearts rose high, and so they forgot me.

7 I will be like a panther to them, like a leopard along the Assyrian road.

8 I will meet them like a bewildered she-bear and tear open the covering of their hearts. Young lions of the thicket will devour them there, and wild animals will tear them apart.

9 In your destruction, Israel, who will help you?

10 Where is this king of yours? Let him save you in all your cities. Let him judge you—the one of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and a ruler.’

11 I gave you a king in my anger and held him back in my fury.

12 Ephraim is bound up in a conspiracy of wrongdoing; his sin is hidden away.

13 Pains like those of a woman in labor will come on him. This son of yours is not discerning, because he will not stand firm when children are crushed.

14 I will rescue them from the hand of Hades and ransom them from death. Where is your penalty, Death? Where is your sting, Hades? Comfort is hidden from my eyes.

15 Because he will divide his brothers, the Lord will bring a scorching wind from the wilderness upon him. It will dry his veins and empty his springs. It will dry up his land and ruin all his precious vessels.”