The Hebrew Prophets

Jacob fled to the land of Aram and Israel worked for a wife— for a wife he tended sheep.

But by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.

Ephraim has provoked bitter anger, so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt upon him and repay him for his contempt.

When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel. But he incurred guilt through Baal, and he died.

Now they sin more and more and make for themselves cast images, idols skillfully made from their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. People say of them, “They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves!”

Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes, like chaff blown from a threshing floor, like smoke through an open window.

Yet I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but Me, for there is no Savior besides Me.

I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought.

When they had pasture, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, their hearts became proud, and as a result they forgot Me.

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

Like a bear robbed of her cubs I will attack them, and I will tear open their chests. There I will devour them like a lion, like a wild beast would tear them apart.

You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against Me— against your helper.

Where is your king now to save you in all your cities, and the rulers to whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”?

So in My anger I gave you a king, and in My wrath I took him away.

The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is stored up.

Labor pains come upon him, but he is an unwise son. When the time arrives, he fails to present himself at the opening of the womb.

I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from Death. Where, O Death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol, is your sting? Compassion is hidden from My eyes.

Although he flourishes among his brothers, an east wind will come— a wind from the LORD rising up from the desert. His fountain will fail, and his spring will run dry. The wind will plunder his treasury of every precious article.

Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.

Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.

Bring your confessions and return to the LORD. Say to Him: “Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips.

Assyria will not save us, nor will we ride on horses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our own hands. For in You the fatherless find compassion.”

I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them.

I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

His shoots will sprout, and his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.