Hosea 13 | New International Reader’s Version

The Lord is angry with Israel

1 When the tribe of Ephraim spoke, the other tribes trembled with fear. Ephraim was honoured in Israel. But its people sinned by worshipping Baal. So they were as good as dead. 2 Now they sin more and more. They use their silver to make statues of gods for themselves. The statues come from their own clever ideas. Skilled workers make all of them. The people pray to these gods. They offer human sacrifices to them. They kiss the gods that look like calves. 3 So these people will vanish like the morning mist. They will soon disappear like the early dew. They will be like straw that the wind blows around on a threshing-floor. They will be like smoke that escapes through a window. 4 The LORD says, ‘People of Israel, I have been the LORD your God ever since you came out of Egypt. You must not worship any god but me. You must not have any saviour except me. 5 I took care of you in the desert. It was a land of burning heat. 6 I fed them until they were satisfied. Then they became proud. They forgot all about me. 7 So I will leap on them like a lion. I will hide and wait beside the road like a leopard. 8 I will attack them like a bear that is robbed of her cubs. I will rip them wide open. Like a lion I will eat them up. Like a wild animal I will tear them apart. 9 ‘Israel, you will be destroyed. I helped you. But you turned against me. 10 Where is your king? Wasn’t he supposed to save you? Where are the rulers in all your towns? You said, “Give us a king and princes.” 11 So I became angry and gave you a king. Then I took him away from you. 12 Ephraim’s guilt is piling up. I am keeping a record of all their sins. 13 They will suffer pain like a woman having a baby. They are like foolish children. It is time for them to be born. But they don’t have the sense to come out of their mother’s body. 14 ‘I will set these people free from the power of the grave. I will save them from death. Death, where are your plagues? Grave, where is your power to destroy? ‘I will no longer pity Ephraim. 15 Even though they are doing well among the other tribes, trouble will come to them. I will send a hot and dry wind from the east. It will blow in from the desert. Their springs will not have any water. Their wells will dry up. All their treasures will be taken out of their storerooms. 16 The people of Samaria must pay for their sins. They have refused to obey me. They will be killed by swords. Their little children will be smashed on the ground. Their pregnant women will be ripped wide open.’

English Standard Version

The Lord’s Relentless Judgment on Israel

1 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel, but he incurred guilt through Baal and died. 2 And now they sin more and more, and make for themselves metal images, idols skillfully made of their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of them, “Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!” 3 Therefore they shall be like the morning mist or like the dew that goes early away, like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor or like smoke from a window. 4 But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior. 5 It was I who knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought; 6 but when they had grazed,* they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me. 7 So I am to them like a lion; like a leopard I will lurk beside the way. 8 I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rip them open. 9 He destroys* you, O Israel, for you are against me, against your helper. 10 Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities? Where are all your rulers— those of whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”? 11 I gave you a king in my anger, and I took him away in my wrath. 12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is kept in store. 13 The pangs of childbirth come for him, but he is an unwise son, for at the right time he does not present himself at the opening of the womb. 14 I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol; I shall redeem them from Death.* O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes. 15 Though he may flourish among his brothers, the east wind, the wind of the Lord, shall come, rising from the wilderness, and his fountain shall dry up; his spring shall be parched; it shall strip his treasury of every precious thing. 16 * Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.

Hosea 13 | New International Reader’s Version English Standard Version

The Lord is angry with Israel

The Lord’s Relentless Judgment on Israel