4
Forsooth I am thy Lord God from the land of Egypt; and thou shalt not know God, except me, and no saviour is, except me. (But I am the Lord thy God since thy days in the land of Egypt; and thou shalt know no other god, except me, and there is no other saviour, except me.)
5
I knew thee in the desert, in the land of wilderness.
6
By their pastures they were filled, and had abundance; they raised [up] their heart, and forgat me (then they raised up their hearts, and forgot me).
7
And I shall be as a lioness to them, as a leopard in the way of Assyrians. (And I shall be like a lioness to them, I shall watch them like a leopard by the wayside.)
8
I as a female bear, when the whelps be ravished, shall meet them; and shall break the inner things of the maw of them. And I as a lion shall waste them there; a beast of the field shall rend them. (I shall meet them like a female bear, robbed of her cubs, and I shall break the inner things of their maw/and I shall tear apart their innards. And like a lion I shall destroy them there; and I shall tear them apart like a wild beast.)
9
Israel, thy perdition is of thee; thine help is only of me. (Israel, thy perdition is from me; now who can help thee?/and now only I can help thee!)
10
Where is thy king? mostly save he thee now in all thy cities; and where be thy judges, of which thou saidest, Give thou to me a king and princes? (Where is thy king now? let him save thee in all thy cities; and where be thy rulers, of whom thou saidest, Give thou me a king and princes?)
11
I shall give to thee a king in my strong vengeance, and I shall take away in mine indignation. (I gave thee a king in my strong vengeance, and then in my indignation I took him away.)
12
The wickedness of Ephraim is bound together; his sin is hid. (The wickedness of Ephraim is recorded; and the records of his sins be hidden away.)
13
The sorrows of a woman travailing of child shall come to him; he is a son not wise. For now he shall not stand in the defouling of sons. (The sorrows of a woman labouring with child shall come to him; he is not a wise son, for he would not leave the place of his conceiving.)
14
I shall deliver them from the hand of death, and I shall again-buy them from death. Thou death, I shall be thy death; thou hell, I shall be thy morsel. Comfort is hid from mine eyes, (But I shall not save, or rescue, them from the hand of death, and I shall not buy them back from death. O death, bring on thy death; O Sheol/O grave, bring on thy destruction. Mercy is hid from my eyes,)