A Relationship that Lasts

¹ When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. ² The more I called them, the further they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and they burned incense to idols. ³ Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up in my arms, but they did not know that I healed them. ⁴ I led them with bands of human kindness, with cords of love. I treated them like those who lift infants to their cheeks; I bent down to them and fed them.