Hosea 13:7-16 ▼

7 So I will be like a lion to them; Like a leopard I will lie in wait by the wayside.

8 I will encounter them like a bear robbed of her cubs, And I will tear open the chest enclosing their heart; There I will also devour them like a lioness, As a beast of the field would rip them open.

9 It is your ruin, O Israel, That you are against Me, against your help.

10 Where 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”?

11 I gave you a king in My anger And took him away in My wrath.

12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; His sin is stored up.

13 The pains of childbirth come upon him; He is not a wise son, For it is not the time that he should delay at the opening of the womb.

14 Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death? O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight.

15 Though he is fruitful among the reeds, An east wind will come, The wind of Yahweh coming up from the wilderness; And his fountain will become dry, And his spring will be dried up; It will plunder his treasury of every desirable article.

16 Samaria will be held guilty, For she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; Their infants will be dashed in pieces, And their pregnant women will be ripped open.