Hosea 11

8 How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.

God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. He is the father who led His children out of slavery, and yet those same children use Him for bail and then just leave him. if this were the case in real life, the dad would probably beat that kid up. Despite his people's foolishness, He continued to care for them as they grew, but they grew with even more stubbornness. The past 10-11 chapters I've been reading about God and how he's going to punish those people. How much trouble they're in for living this life of sin. But this verse once again shows how wonderful God is and despite all that wrath and anger He has for those people, he's a gentle loving Father who hates to punish his children. and that's why in the next verses, God says that he's going to stop releasing his anger on them.

9 I will not carry out my fierce anger, now will I devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man- the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities.