Hosea 11:7-9

Living Bible

⁷ For my people are determined to desert me. And so I have sentenced them to slavery, and no one shall set them free.

⁸ “Oh, how can I give you up, my Ephraim? How can I let you go? How can I forsake you like Admah and Zeboiim?^[a] My heart cries out within me; how I long to help you! ⁹ No, I will not punish you as much as my fierce anger tells me to. This is the last time I will destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man; I am the Holy One living among you, and I did not come to destroy.