Login Go Premium

Hosea 13:1-8

Read this passage and open each verse for the full verse feed and commentary tools.

Ephraim’s Idolatry

1When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling.

He exalted himself in Israel,

But through Baal he incurred guilt and died.

2And now they sin more and more,

And make for themselves cast metal images,

Idols skillfully made from their silver,

All of them the work of craftsmen.

They say of them, “Let the people 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 the Lord your God

Since the land of Egypt;

And you were not to know any god except Me,

For there is no savior besides Me.

5I cared for you in the wilderness,

In the land of drought.

6As they had their pasture, they became satisfied,

And as they became satisfied, their heart became proud;

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 confront them like a bear deprived of her cubs,

And I will tear open their chests;

I will also devour them there like a lioness,

As a wild animal would tear them to pieces.