¹“When Efrayim spoke, there was trembling;

he was a power in Isra’el.

But when he incurred guilt through Ba‘al,

he died.

²So now they keep adding sin to sin,

casting images from their silver;

idols they invent for themselves,

all of them the work of craftsmen.

‘Sacrifice to them,’ they say.

Men give kisses to calves!

³Therefore they will be like a morning cloud,

like the dew that disappears early,

like chaff blown by wind from the threshing-floor,

or like smoke that goes out the window.

⁴Still, I am Adonai your God,

from the land of Egypt;

and you don’t know any God but me

or, other than me, any Savior.

⁵I knew you in the desert,

in a land of terrible drought.

⁶When they were fed, they were satisfied;

when satisfied, they became proud.

Therefore they forgot me.

⁷So now I have become like a lion to them;

like a leopard I will lurk by the road;

⁸I will meet them like a bear

whose cubs have been taken away.

I will tear their hearts from their bodies.

I will devour them there like a lion,

like a wild animal ripping them up.

⁹It is your destruction, Isra’el,

although your help is in me.

¹⁰So now, where is your king,

to save you in all your cities?

Where are your judges, of whom you said,

‘Give me a king and leaders’?

¹¹I gave you a king in my anger;

and in my fury I took him away.

¹²“Efrayim’s guilt has been wrapped up,

his sin is stored away.

¹³The pain of being born will come to him;

but he is an unwise son.

The time has come; and he shouldn’t delay,

there at the mouth of the womb.

¹⁴Should I ransom them from the power of Sh’ol?

Should I redeem them from death?

Where are your plagues, death;

where is your destruction, Sh’ol?

My eyes are closed to compassion.

¹⁵For though he flourishes among the reeds,

an east wind will come, a wind from Adonai ,

blowing up from the desert.

Then his water source will dry up,

then his spring will fail —

it will plunder his treasury,

removing every precious thing.”