Hosea 11:3-5

Contemporary English Version

³ I took Israel by the arm
    and taught them to walk.
But they would not admit
that I was the one
    who had healed them.
⁴ I led them with kindness
and with love,
    not with ropes.
I held them close to me;^[a]
    I bent down to feed them.

⁵ But they rejected me,
and so must return to Egypt;
    now Assyria will rule them.