Hosea 13:7

I will be Rather, I have become. The evident decay of Israel as a nation shows that the punishment has begun (see Hosea 7:8-10).

the leopard Familiar to the Hebrews and Assyrians under the same name (nâmçr, nimru). Its habit of springing from an ambush is again referred to in Jeremiah 5:6.

by the way will I observe them According to another pronunciation of the consonants, the Septuagint, Peshito, and Vulgate (supported by some MSS. and many editions of the Hebrew Bible), render -in the way to Assyria", an allusion being supposed to Israel's dallying with the great northern empire (Hosea 5:13). So also Hitzig and Ewald. But the prophet has to deal now with the disease itself, not with a mere symptom.