Israel has rebelled like a stubborn heifer! Soon the Lord will put them out to pasture like a lamb in a broad field!

So I will pounce on them like a lion; like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

The Lord brought Israel out of Egypt by a prophet, and due to a prophet Israel was preserved alive.

When Israel was a young man, I loved him like a son, and I summoned my son out of Egypt.

I will attack them like a bear robbed of her cubs – I will rip open their chests. I will devour them there like a lion – like a wild animal would tear them apart.

Gilead is a city full of evildoers; its streets are stained with bloody footprints!

I will be like a moth to Ephraim, like wood rot to the house of Judah.

I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily, he will send down his roots like a cedar of Lebanon.

Otherwise, I will strip her naked, and expose her like she was when she was born. I will turn her land into a wilderness and make her country a parched land, so that I might kill her with thirst.

Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, you Israelites! Listen closely, O king! For judgment is about to overtake you! For you were like a trap to Mizpah, like a net spread out to catch Tabor.

I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear them to pieces, then I will carry them off, and no one will be able to rescue them!

Jacob fled to the country of Aram, then Israel worked to acquire a wife; he tended sheep to pay for her.

So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. Then she conceived and gave birth to a son for him.

They have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey that wanders off. Ephraim has hired prostitutes as lovers.

He will restore us in a very short time; he will heal us in a little while, so that we may live in his presence.

Ephraim was a well-trained heifer who loved to thresh grain; I myself put a fine yokeon her neck. I will harness Ephraim. Let Judah plow! Let Jacob break up the unplowed ground for himself!

The company of priests is like a gang of robbers, lying in ambush to pounce on a victim. They commit murder on the road to Shechem; they have done heinous crimes!

I have seen a disgusting thing in the temple of Israel: there Ephraim practices temple prostitution and Judah defiles itself.

Israel will be swallowed up among the nations; they will be like a worthless piece of pottery.

I granted you a king in my anger, and I will take him away in my wrath!