God’s love toward sinful Israel
11
📚✭“When Israel was a child,I loved him,
and called my son✭ out of Egypt.
2 📚But the more they✭ called
them, the more they
went away from them✭.
They sacrificed to the Baals✭,
and burned incense to carved images.
3 📚✭And I taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by their arms;
but they did not know
that I healed✭ them.
4 📚✭I drew them with human cords,
with bands of love.
And I was for them like those
who take off the yoke
from their jaws,
and I bent down and fed them.
5 📚“Will he not return
to the land of Egypt?
And the Assyrian will be his king,
because they refused
to return✭ to me.
6 📚And the sword will whirl
over his cities,
and will make an end of his branches,
and destroy them,
because of their own plans.
7 📚And my people are bent✭
on backsliding from me.
Though they called them
to the Most High✭ ,
none at all would exalt him.
8 📚✭“How✭ can I give you up,
Ephraim? How can I
give you up, Israel?
How can I make you
like Admah?
How can I deal with you
like Zeboim?
My heart turns over within me,
my compassions✭ are kindled.
9 📚I will not execute the fierceness
of my anger✭.
I will not destroy Ephraim again,
for I am God,
and not man✭;
the Holy One✭ in your midst.
And I will not enter the city.
10 📚They will follow the LORD.
He will roar like a lion✭.
When he roars,
the children will come trembling
from the west.
11 📚They will come trembling like
a bird from Egypt,
and like a dove from the land
of Assyria;
and I will settle them in their houses,
says the LORD”.
Israel’s guilt, the goodness God had shown to them in the past
12 📚✭Ephraim has surrounded
me with lies,
and the house of Israel
with deceit✭.
And Judah still wanders restlessly
against God,
and against the faithful holy ones.