Hosea 13:1-14

¹When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died. ²Now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves. ³Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the dew that passes early away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

⁴Yet I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt; and you shall know no god but me, and besides me there is no savior. ⁵I did know you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. ⁶According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted: therefore have they forgotten me. ⁷Therefore am I to them as a lion; as a leopard will I watch by the way; ⁸I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will tear the covering of their heart; and there will I devour them like a lioness; the wild animal shall tear them.

⁹It is your destruction, Israel, that [you are] against me, against your help. ¹⁰Where 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? ¹¹I have given you a king in my anger, and have taken him away in my wrath. ¹²The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is laid up in store. ¹³The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come on him: he is an unwise son; for it is time he should not stay in the place of the breaking forth of children. ¹⁴I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from death: death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? repentance shall be hid from my eyes.