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Hosea 13:7-16

Hosea 13:7-16 The Message (MSG)

“I’ll charge them like a lion, like a leopard stalking in the brush. I’ll jump them like a sow grizzly robbed of her cubs. I’ll rip out their guts. Coyotes will make a meal of them. Crows will clean their bones. I’m going to destroy you, Israel. Who is going to stop me? Where is your trusty king you thought would save you? Where are all the local leaders you wanted so badly? All these rulers you insisted on having, demanding, ‘Give me a king! Give me leaders!’? Well, long ago I gave you a king, but I wasn’t happy about it. Now, fed up, I’ve gotten rid of him. I have a detailed record of your infidelities— Ephraim’s sin documented and stored in a safe-deposit box. “When birth pangs signaled it was time to be born, Ephraim was too stupid to come out of the womb. When the passage into life opened up, he didn’t show. Shall I intervene and pull them into life? Shall I snatch them from a certain death? Who is afraid of you, Death? Who cares about your threats, Tomb? In the end I’m abolishing regret, banishing sorrow, Even though Ephraim ran wild, the black sheep of the family. “GOD’s tornado is on its way, roaring out of the desert. It will devastate the country, leaving a trail of ruin and wreckage. The cities will be gutted, dear possessions gone for good. Now Samaria has to face the charges because she has rebelled against her God: Her people will be killed, babies smashed on the rocks, pregnant women ripped open.”

Hosea 13:7-16 Amplified Bible (AMP)

So I will be like a lion to them; Like a leopard I will watch and lie in wait [ready to attack] by the road [to Assyria]. I will encounter them like a bear robbed of her cubs, And I will tear open their chests; There I will also devour them like a lioness, As a wild beast would tear them. ¶It is your destruction, O Israel, Because you are against Me, [and have rebelled] against your help. Where now is your king That he may save you [when you are attacked] in all your cities? And your judges of whom you asked, “Give me a king and princes”? I gave you a king in My anger, And I took him away in My wrath [as punishment]. ¶The wickedness of Ephraim [which is not yet completely punished] is bound up [as in a bag]; His sin is stored up [for judgment and destruction]. The pains of childbirth come on him; But he is not a wise son, For it is not the time to delay [his chance at a new birth] as the womb opens [but he ignores the opportunity to change]. Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol (the place of the dead)? Shall I redeem them from death? O death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from My eyes [because of their failure to repent]. [1 Cor 15:55] ¶For though he flourishes among the reeds (his fellow tribes), An east wind (Assyria) will come, The breath of the LORD rising from the desert; And Ephraim’s spring will become dry And his fountain will be dried up. Assyria will plunder his treasury of every precious object. Samaria will be found guilty [and become desolate], Because she rebelled against her God; They will fall by the sword, Their infants will be dashed in pieces, And their pregnant women will be ripped open.