God’s love for Israel

11 “Before the Israeli people became a nation [MET],

I loved them like a man loves his son,

and I called them out of Egypt.

2 But while I continued to call them,

they continued to turn away from me more and more.

They offered sacrifices to their statues of Baal,

and they burned incense to honor them.

3 The people of Israel were like a little boy [MET],

and it was as though it was I who taught them to walk,

holding them by their hands.

But they did not realize that it was I who was taking care of them.

4 It was as though I fastened ropes around them to lead them,

while I loved them and was kind to them.

It was as though they were young oxen [MET],

and I lifted the yoke from their necks and bent down to feed them.

5 But the people of Israel will become slaves again,

like they were in Egypt,

and the people of Assyria will [RHQ] rule over them,

because the people of Israel refused to repent.

6 Their enemies will use their swords to attack the cities in Israel

and will destroy the bars in the gates of the city walls.

As a result, the people of Israeli will not be able to accomplish the things that they planned to do.

7 My people are determined to ◄turn away from/abandon► me.

They say that I am the great all-powerful God,

but they do not honor me at all.

8 You people of Israel, I certainly do not want to [RHQ] abandon you

and allow your enemies to capture you.

I do not [RHQ] want to act toward you like I acted toward Admah and Zeboiim,

cities that I completely destroyed when I destroyed Sodom.

I [SYN] have changed my mind about punishing you;

my desire to pity you has increased.

9 Although I am extremely angry,

I do not want to punish you severely;

I do not want to ◄devastate/completely ruin► Israel.

Humans would easily decide to do that,

but I am God, not a human.

I, the Holy One, am with you;

although I am very angry with you, I will not destroy you.

10 You will follow me when I roar like [SIM] a lion;

when I roar, some of you my children will tremble as you return to Israel from the islands and seacoasts toward the west.

11 Some of you will come swiftly from Egypt

like a flock of birds;

others will return from Assyria, like doves.

I will enable you to live in your homes in Israel again.

That will surely happen, because I, Yahweh, have said it.”