[a]How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee, as [b]Admah? how shall I set thee, as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me: [c]my repentings are rouled together.

I will not execute the fierceness of my wrath: I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man, the holy one in the midst of thee, and I will not [d]enter into the city.

10 They shall walk after the Lord: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children of the West shall fear.

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Footnotes

  1. Hosea 11:8 God considereth with himself, and that with a certain grief, how to punish them.
  2. Hosea 11:8 Which were two of the cities that were destroyed with Sodom, Deut. 29:23.
  3. Hosea 11:8 Meaning, that his love wherewith he first loved them, made him between doubt and assurance what to do: and herein appeareth his Fatherly affection: that his mercy toward his shall overcome his judgments, as he declareth in the next verse.
  4. Hosea 11:9 To consume thee, but will cause thee to yield, and so receive thee to mercy: and this is meant of the final number who shall walk after the Lord.

“How can I give you up,(A) Ephraim?(B)
    How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
    How can I make you like Zeboyim?(C)
My heart is changed within me;
    all my compassion(D) is aroused.(E)
I will not carry out my fierce anger,(F)
    nor will I devastate(G) Ephraim again.
For I am God, and not a man(H)
    the Holy One(I) among you.
    I will not come against their cities.
10 They will follow the Lord;
    he will roar(J) like a lion.(K)
When he roars,
    his children will come trembling(L) from the west.(M)

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