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Ephraim's Idolatry

^1 (C1)When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling and terror.
He ^(C2)exalted himself above the other tribes in Israel;
But through the worship of ^(C3)Baal he became guilty and died spiritually, and then came ruin, sealing Israel's doom as a nation.

² And now they sin more and more,
And make for themselves ^(C1)molten images,
Idols ^(C2)skillfully made from their silver as it pleased them,
All of them the ^(C3)work of the craftsmen.
They say of these very works of their hands, "Let those who sacrifice kiss and show respect to the ^(C4)calves as if they were living gods!"

³ Therefore they will be swiftly dissipated like the ^(C1)morning cloud
Or like dew which soon disappears,
Like ^(C2)chaff which swirls with the whirlwind from the threshing floor,
And like ^(C3)smoke from the chimney or through the window worthless and without substance —they will vanish.

⁴ Yet I have been the ^(C1)LORD your God
Since the time you became a nation in the land of Egypt;
And you were not to know ^(C2)any god except Me,
For there is no savior ^(C3)besides Me.

⁵ I ^(C1)knew and regarded you and cared for you in the wilderness,
^(C2)In the land of drought.

⁶ When they had their pasture, they became ^(C1)satisfied,
And being satisfied, their ^(C2)heart became proud (self-centered);
Therefore they ^(C3)forgot Me.

⁷ So I will be ^(C1)like a lion to them;
Like a ^(C2)leopard I will watch and lie in wait ready to attack by the road to Assyria.

⁸ I will encounter them ^(C1)like a bear robbed of her cubs,
And I will tear open their chests;
There I will also ^(C2)devour them like a lioness,
As a wild beast would tear them.

⁹ It is your destruction, O Israel,
Because you are ^(C1)against Me, and have rebelled against your ^(C2)help.

¹⁰ Where now is your ^(C1)king
That he may save you when you are attacked in all your cities?
And your ^(C2)judges of whom you asked,
"Give me a king and princes"?

¹¹ I ^(C1)gave you a king in My anger,
And I ^(C2)took him away in My wrath as punishment.

¹² The wickedness of Ephraim which is not yet completely punished is bound up as in a bag;
His sin is ^(C1)stored up for judgment and destruction.

¹³ The pains of ^(C1)childbirth come on him;
But he is not a ^(C2)wise son,
For it is not the time to ^(C3)delay his chance at a new birth as the womb opens but he ignores the opportunity to change.

¹⁴ Shall I ^(C1)ransom them from the power of Sheol (the place of the dead)?
Shall I redeem them from death?
^(F1)(C2)O death, where are your thorns?
O Sheol, where is your sting?
^(C3)Compassion is hidden from My eyes because of their failure to repent. ^(VR1)

¹⁵ For though he ^(C1)flourishes among the reeds (his fellow tribes),
An ^(C2)east wind (Assyria) will come,
The breath of the LORD rising from the desert;
And Ephraim's spring will ^(C3)become dry
And his fountain will be dried up.
Assyria will ^(C4)plunder his treasury of every precious object.

¹⁶ Samaria will be found ^(C1)guilty and become desolate,
Because she ^(C2)rebelled against her God;
^(C3)They will fall by the ^(C4)sword,
Their infants will be ^(C5)dashed in pieces,
And their pregnant ^(C6)women will be ripped open.