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.✻

…

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

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

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.

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

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

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.✻

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.

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;✻

the Lord must lead, and man follow.✻

Loud he will call, like lion roaring, and at the sound of it, sons of his will come trembling from the distant sea;

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

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.✻