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[1]When Ephraim spake, there was trembling: he exalted himself in Israel, but he hath sinned in Baal, and is dead.
[2]And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding: they were all the work of the craftsmen: they say one to another whiles they sacrifice a man, Let them kiss the calves.
[3]Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the morning dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with a whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke that goeth out of the chimney.
[4]Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no God but me: for there is no Savior beside me.
[5]I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of drought.
[6]As in their pastures, so were they filled: they were filled, and their heart was exalted: therefore have they forgotten me.
[7]And I will be unto them as a very lion, and as a leopard in the way of Assyria.
[8]I will meet them, as a bear that is robbed of her whelps, and I will break the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.
[9]O Israel, one hath destroyed thee, but in me is thine help.
[10]I am: where is thy king that should help thee in all thy cities? And thy judges, of whom thou saidest, Give me a king, and princes?
[11]I gave thee a king in mine anger, and I took him away in my wrath.
[12]The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up: his sin is hid.
[13]The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son, else would he not stand still at the time, even at the breaking forth of the children.
[14]I will redeem them from the power of the grave: I will deliver them from death: O death, I will be thy death: O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance is hid from mine eyes.
[15]Though he grew up among his brethren, an east wind shall come, even the wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and dry up his vein, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.
[16]Samaria shall be desolate: for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped.
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