It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but (A)it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping (B)the oath that he swore to your fathers, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

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(A)“Do not say in your heart, after the Lord your God has thrust them out before you, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,’ whereas it is (B)because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out before you. (C)Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the Lord your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may confirm (D)the word that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

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The Lord's Love for Israel

11 (A)When Israel was a child, (B)I loved him,
    and out of Egypt I (C)called (D)my son.
(E)The more they were called,
    the more they went away;
(F)they kept sacrificing to the Baals
    and burning offerings to idols.

Yet it was (G)I who taught Ephraim to walk;
    I took them up by their arms,
    but they did not know that (H)I healed them.
(I)I led them with cords of kindness,[a]
    with the bands of love,
and (J)I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,
    and (K)I bent down to them and fed them.

(L)They shall not[b] return to the land of Egypt,
    but (M)Assyria shall be their king,
    (N)because (O)they have refused to return to me.
(P)The sword shall rage against their cities,
    consume the bars of their gates,
    and devour them (Q)because of their own counsels.
My people are bent (R)on turning away from me,
    and though (S)they call out to the Most High,
    he shall not raise them up at all.

How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
    How can I hand you over, O Israel?
(T)How can I make you (U)like Admah?
    How can I treat you (V)like Zeboiim?
(W)My heart recoils within me;
    my compassion grows warm and tender.
I will not execute my burning anger;
    I will not again destroy Ephraim;
(X)for I am God and not a man,
    (Y)the Holy One in your midst,
    and I will not come in wrath.[c]

10 (Z)They shall go after the Lord;
    (AA)he will roar like a lion;
when he roars,
    his children shall come trembling (AB)from the west;
11 they shall come trembling like birds (AC)from Egypt,
    and (AD)like doves (AE)from the land of Assyria,
    and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord.

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Footnotes

  1. Hosea 11:4 Or humaneness; Hebrew man
  2. Hosea 11:5 Or surely
  3. Hosea 11:9 Or into the city

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