Osee

Chapter 11

  1. 1

    Soon fades the dawn; soon passes king of Israel. Israel in his boyhood, what love I bore him! Away from Egypt I beckoned him, henceforth my son.1 …

  2. 2

    They called them, the more they refused obedience; gods of the country-side must have their victims, dumb idols their incense!

  3. 3

    Yet it was I, none other, guided those first steps of theirs, and took them in my arms, and healed, all unobserved, their injuries.

  4. 4

    Sons of Adam, they should be drawn with leading-strings of love; never waggoner was at more pains to ease bridle on jaw, fed beast so carefully.

  5. 5

    Never again to Egypt; Assyria shall rule him now, the unrepentant;

  6. 6

    already the sword is let loose in those towns of his, the brave shall engulf, the wise shall devour.

  7. 7

    Can my people be reconciled with me? All hangs in doubt, until at last I put a yoke on all alike, never to be taken away from them.

  8. 8

    What, Ephraim, must I abandon thee? Must I keep Israel under watch and ward? Can I let thee go the way of Adama, share the doom of Seboim? All at once my heart misgives me, and from its embers pity revives.

  9. 9

    How should I wreak my vengeance, of Ephraim take full toll? God am I, not a man in the midst of you, the Holy One, that may not enter those city walls;

  10. 10

    the Lord must lead, and man follow.5 Loud he will call, like lion roaring, and at the sound of it, sons of his will come trembling from the distant sea;

  11. 11

    fluttering like sparrow or dove from Egypt, from the Assyrian country, and in their own home, the Lord says, I will give them rest.

  12. 12

    Ephraim so false, Israel so treacherous, all about me! But Juda governs his folk with God to aid him; Juda takes part with the holy ones, loyal yet.