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Old Testament Reading - They Deserted God

¹“When Israel was a child, I loved him as a son and brought him out of Egypt. ²But the more I called to him, the more he rebelled, sacrificing to Baal and burning incense to idols. ³I trained him from infancy, I taught him to walk, I held him in my arms. But he doesn’t know or even care that it was I who raised him.

⁴“As a man would lead his favorite ox,^a so I led Israel with my ropes of love. I loosened his muzzle so he could eat. I myself have stooped and fed him. ⁵But my people shall return to Egypt and Assyria because they won’t return to me

⁶“War will swirl through their cities; their enemies will crash through their gates and trap them in their own fortresses. ⁷For 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?^b My heart cries out within me; how I long to help you! ⁹No, 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.

¹⁰“For the people shall walk after the Lord. I shall roar as a lion at their enemies and my people shall return trembling from the west. ¹¹Like a flock of birds, they will come from Egypt — like doves flying from Assyria. And I will bring them home again; it is a promise from the Lord.”

1. Implied
2. Cities of the plain that perished with Sodom and Gomorrah; see Deuteronomy 29:23.