The Lord’s Relentless Judgment on Israel

13 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;

bhe was exalted in Israel,

but he incurred guilt cthrough Baal and died.

2  And now they sin more and more,

and dmake for themselves metal images,

idols skillfully made of their silver,

eall of them the work of craftsmen.

It is said of them,

“Those who offer human sacrifice fkiss calves!”

3  Therefore they shall be glike the morning mist

or glike the dew that goes early away,

hlike the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor

or ilike smoke from a window.

4  But jI am the Lord your God

from the land of Egypt;

kyou know no God but me,

and lbesides me there is no savior.

5  mIt was I who knew you in the wilderness,

in the land of drought;

6  nbut when they had grazed,1 they became full,

othey were filled, and their heart was lifted up;

otherefore they forgot me.

7  So pI am to them like a lion;

qlike a leopard I will lurk beside the way.

8  I will fall upon them rlike a bear robbed of her cubs;

I will tear open their breast,

and there I will devour them like a lion,

sas a wild beast would rip them open.