⁴ But I am the Lord your God
    from the land of Egypt;
you know no God but me,
    and besides me there is no savior.
⁵ It was I who knew you in the wilderness,
    in the land of drought;
⁶ but when they had grazed,^[a] they became full,
    they were filled, and their heart was lifted up;
    therefore they forgot me.
⁷ So I am to them like a lion;
    like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.
⁸ I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs;
    I will tear open their breast,
and there I will devour them like a lion,
    as a wild beast would rip them open.

⁹ He destroys^[b] you, O Israel,
    for you are against me, against your helper.
¹⁰ Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities?
    Where are all your rulers—
those of whom you said,
    “Give me a king and princes”?
¹¹ I gave you a king in my anger,
    and I took him away in my wrath.

¹² The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;
    his sin is kept in store.
¹³ The pangs of childbirth come for him,
    but he is an unwise son,
for at the right time he does not present himself
    at the opening of the womb.

¹⁴ I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
    I shall redeem them from Death.^[c]
O Death, where are your plagues?
    O Sheol, where is your sting?
    Compassion is hidden from my eyes.

¹⁵ Though he may flourish among his brothers,
    the east wind, the wind of the Lord, shall come,
    rising from the wilderness,
and his fountain shall dry up;
    his spring shall be parched;
it shall strip his treasury
    of every precious thing.
^16 [d] Samaria shall bear her guilt,
    because she has rebelled against her God;
they shall fall by the sword;
    their little ones shall be dashed in pieces,
    and their pregnant women ripped open.