¹ When Ephraim spoke, a horror seized Israel: and he sinned in Baal and died.

² And now they have sinned more and more : and they have made to themselves a molten thing of their silver as the likeness of idols: the whole is the work of craftsmen: to these that say: Sacrifice men, ye that adore calves.

³ Therefore they shall be as a morning aloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the dust that is driven with a whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

⁴ But I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt: and thou shalt know no God but me, and there is no saviour beside me.

⁵ I knew thee in the desert, in the land of the wilderness.

⁶ According to their pastures they were filled, and were made full: and they lifted up their heart, and have forgotten me.

⁷ And I will be to them as a lioness, as a leopard in the way of the Assyrians.

⁸ I will meet them as a bear that is robbed of her whelps, and I will rend the inner parts of their liver: and I will devour them there as a lion, the beast of the field shall tear them.

⁹ Destruction is thy own, 0 Israel: thy help is only in me.

¹⁰ Where is thy king? now especially let him save thee in all thy cities: and thy judges, of whom thou saidst: Q Give me kings and princes.

¹¹ I will give thee a king in my wrath, and will take him away in my indignation.

¹² The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, his sin is hidden.

¹³ The sorrows of a woman in labour snail come upon him, he is an unwise son: for now he shall not stand in the breach of the children.

¹⁴ I will deliver them out of the hand of death. I will redeem them from death : O death, I will be thy death; O hell, I will be thy bite: comfort is hidden from my eyes.

¹⁵ Because he shall make a separation between brothers: s the Lord will bring a burning wind that shall rise from the desert, and it shall dry up his springs, and shall make his fountain desolate, and he shall carry off the treasure of every desirable vessel.

¹ When I would have healed Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria, for they have committed falsehood, and the thief is come in to steal, the robber is without.

² And lest they may say in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness: their own devices now have beset them about, they have been done before my face.

³ They have made the king glad with their wickedness: and the princes with their lies.

⁴ They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker: the city rested a little from the mingling of the leaven, till the whole was leavened.

⁵ The day of our king, the princes began to be mad with wine: he stretched out his hand with scorners.

⁶ Because they have applied their heart like an oven, when he laid snares for them: he slept all the night baking them, in the morning he himself was heated as a flaming fire.

⁷ They were all heated like an oven, and have devoured their judges : all their kings have fallen: there is none amongst them that calleth unto me.

⁸ Ephraim himself is mixed among the nations: Ephraim is become as bread baked under the ashes, that is not turned.

⁹ Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knew it not: yea, grey hairs also are spread about upon him, and he is ignorant of it.

¹⁰ And the pride of Israel shall be humbled before his face: and they have not returned to the Lord their God, nor have they sought him in all these.

¹¹ And Ephraim is become as a dove that is decoyed, not having a heart: they called upon Egypt, they went to the Assyrians.

¹² And when they shall go, I will spread my net upon them: I will bring them down as the fowl of the air, I will strike them as their congregation hath heard.

¹³ Woe to them, for they have departed from me: they shall be wasted because they have transgressed against me: and I redeemed them : and they have spoken lies against me.

¹⁴ And they have not cried to me with their heart, but they howled in their beds: they have thought upon wheat and wine, they are departed from me.

¹⁵ And I have chastised them, and strengthened their arms: and they have imagined evil against me.

¹⁶ They returned, that they might be without yoke: they became like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword, for the rage of their tongue. This is their derision in the land of Egypt.