They will return in fear and trembling ¹  like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria, and I will settle them in their homes,” declares the Lord.

“I will heal their waywardness ¹  and love them freely, ²  for my anger will turn ³  away from them.

Will I deliver them from the power of Sheol? No, I will not! ¹  Will I redeem them from death? No, I will not! O Death, bring on your plagues! ²  O Sheol, bring on your destruction! ³  My eyes will not show any compassion! ⁴ 

My people are obsessed ¹  with turning away from me; ²  they call to Baal, ³  but he will never exalt them!

I know Ephraim all too well; ¹  the evil of ²  Israel is not hidden from me. For you have engaged in prostitution, O Ephraim; Israel has defiled itself. ³ 

But the more I summoned ¹  them, the farther they departed from me. ²  They sacrificed to the Baal idols and burned incense to images.

He will roar like a lion, and they will follow the Lord; when he roars, his children will come trembling ¹  from the west.

I led them with leather ¹  cords, with leather ²  ropes; I lifted the yoke ³  from their neck, ⁴  and gently fed them. ⁵ 

Although they bring their flocks and herds ¹  to seek ²  the favor of the Lord, ³  They will not find him – he has withdrawn himself from them!

Even if they raise their children, I will take away every last one of them. ¹  Woe to them! For I will turn away from them.

They do not pray to me, ¹  but howl in distress on their beds; They slash themselves ²  for grain and new wine, but turn away from me.

For ¹  I will remove the names of the Baal idols ²  from your lips, ³  so that you will never again utter their names!” ⁴ 

Plead earnestly ¹  with your ²  mother (for ³  she is not my wife, and I am not her husband), so that ⁴  she might put an end to her adulterous lifestyle, ⁵  and turn away from her sexually immoral behavior. ⁶ 

Even though he flourishes like a reed plant, ¹  a scorching east wind will come, a wind from the Lord rising up from the desert. As a result, his spring will dry up; ²  his well will become dry. That wind ³  will spoil all his delightful foods in the containers in his storehouse.

Therefore they will disappear like ¹  the morning mist, ²  like early morning dew that evaporates, ³  like chaff that is blown away ⁴  from a threshing floor, like smoke that disappears through an open window.

Woe to them! For they have fled from me! Destruction to them! For they have rebelled against me! I want to deliver ¹  them, but they have lied to me.

Soon ¹  I will expose her lewd nakedness ²  in front of her lovers, and no one will be able to rescue her from me! ³ 

From there I will give back her vineyards to her, and turn the “Valley of Trouble” ¹  into an “Opportunity ²  for Hope.” There she will sing as she did when she was young, ³  when ⁴  she came up from the land of Egypt.

The inhabitants ¹  of Samaria will lament ²  over the calf idol ³  of Beth Aven. ⁴  Its people will mourn over it; its idolatrous priests will wail ⁵  over it, ⁶  because its splendor will be taken from them ⁷  into exile.

O Ephraim, I do not want to have anything to do ¹  with idols anymore! I will answer him and care for him. I am like ²  a luxuriant cypress tree; ³  your fruitfulness comes from me! ⁴