1 Whenever Ephraim spoke, people trembled; he was lifted high in Israel. Then he became guilty through Baal, and he died.
2 Now they keep adding to their sin; they have cast images for themselves from their silver, idols shaped by their own skill, every one of them a craftsman's work. "Those who sacrifice," they say of them, "are men who kiss calves!"
3 Therefore they will be like the morning cloud, like dew that vanishes early, like chaff blown off the threshing floor, like smoke from a window.
4 Yet I have been the LORD your God since the land of Egypt; you are to know no god besides me, and apart from me there is no savior.
5 I knew you in the wilderness, in a land of scorching drought.
6 As they grazed they grew full; they grew full, and their heart grew proud; so they forgot me.
7 So to them I have become like a lion; I will lie in wait like a leopard by the road.
8 I will meet them like a bear robbed of her cubs and tear open the casing of their heart; there I will devour them like a lioness; the wild beast will rip them apart.
9 You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your help.
10 Where 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"?
11 In my anger I give you a king, and in my fury I take him away.
12 Ephraim's iniquity is tied up in a bundle; his sin is kept in storage.
13 The pangs of a woman in labor will come on him; he is an unwise son, for at the right time he does not present himself at the opening of the womb.
14 I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from death. O death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your destruction? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
15 Though he thrives among his brothers, an east wind is coming, the wind of the LORD, rising out of the wilderness; his spring will run dry and his well be drained. It will loot the storehouse of every costly thing.
16 Samaria will be held guilty, because she has defied her God. By the sword they will fall; their infants will be smashed, and their women with child torn open.