UST GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR EZRA NEH EST JOB PSA PROV ECC SNG ISA JER LAM EZE DAN HOS JOEL AMOS OBA YNA MIC NAH HAB ZEP HAG ZEC MAL MAT MARK LUKE YHN ACTs ROM 1 COR 2 COR GAL EPH PHP COL 1 TH 2 TH 1 TIM 2 TIM TIT PHM HEB YAC 1 PET 2 PET 1 YHN 2 YHN 3 YHN YUD REV

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UST HOS Chapter 13

◄ HOS 13 ► ║ ═ ©

13 In the past, when the leaders of Ephraim spoke,

many people became afraid.

The leaders of Israel became arrogant.

Then they caused the people to sin by worshiping Baal,

and so they must die.

2 Now they keep on sinning more and more;

they use their silver to make metal idols for themselves.

They cleverly design the statues,

but all of them are only the work of human craftsmen.

The people who worship these idols talk to them.

They sacrifice human beings to them, and they kiss these calf-idols!

3 Because of these things, those people will quickly disappear

like clouds that form in the morning and then vanish,

like dew that the sun dries up early in the day,

like chaff that the wind blows away from the threshing floor,

like smoke that drifts out through a window.

4 Yahweh says to his people, “Even so, I am Yahweh your God,

the one who brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt.

You should acknowledge no god except me,

and no one else can save you.

5 I was the one who cared for your ancestors when they were in the very dry desert land.

6 When I fed them, they ate until they were full;

when they ate until they were full, they became proud.

That is why they stopped thinking about me.

7 So I will be as fierce toward them as a lion;

I will be like a leopard that lurks to ambush them beside the road.

8 I will attack them as furiously as a mother bear whose cubs someone has stolen;

it will be as though I will rip their chests open.

Right then and there I will completely destroy them, like a lioness devouring her prey,

like wild animals tearing their victims apart.

9 You have caused me to destroy you, people of Israel,

because you rebelled against me, your only helper.

10 You have a king, but it looks like he is unable to save you

in any of your cities.

Your ancestors said to me, ‘Give us a king and officials,’ and I did so.

But those rulers cannot help you now.

11 I become angry when you request a king, but I give you a king.

Later, I become angry again, so I take him away.

12 I have kept a record of all of the evil things that you people of Ephraim have done;

yes, I have stored up an account of all of your sins.

13 You people of Ephraim will suffer like a woman does when she gives birth,

but you are like a foolish baby

who refuses to come out when it is time to be born.

14 I would have rescued you from going to the grave;

yes, I wanted to save you from dying.

But now, you must suffer as with a plague and die!

The enemy must destroy you and send you to your graves!

I cannot decide differently about this.

15 Even though the people of Ephraim have prospered more than the other tribes,

I, Yahweh, will send enemies who will come from the east like a scorching wind out of the desert.

They will destroy all of Ephraim’s sources of wealth

and they are the ones who will carry away everything valuable that the people of Ephraim own.

16 The people of Samaria are guilty and so I must punish them

because they have rebelled against me, the God whom they promised to worship.

Their enemies will kill them with swords;

they will smash their little children on the ground,

and they will cut open their pregnant women.”

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