Charles Ellicott Commentary Hosea 13:7

"Therefore am I unto them as a lion; as a leopard will I watch by the way;" — Hosea 13:7 (ASV)

I will be ...—More correctly, have become ... as a panther in the way I lie in wait. The idea of this and the following verses is that of a Divine judgment suspended over Israel, destined soon to fall with overwhelming ruin (721 B.C.). The English version follows the interpretation of the Targum. But the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Syriac versions are based on a slightly different reading of the text contained in some Hebrew manuscripts. They render, “as a panther on the way to Assyria.”