6
1 saying, “Come let us return to the Lord ,
for he has torn us
but he will heal us,
he has injured us
but he will bandage our wounds,
2 he will revive in a couple of days,
on the third day he will raise us up again,
to live in his presence.
3 Let us know, let us eagerly seek to know the Lord .
His coming is as sure as the sunrise.
He will come to us like the winter rain,
as the spring rain that waters the earth.”
4 What can I make of you, Ephraim!
What can I make of you, Judah!
Your love is like a morning cloud,
like the dew which early goes away.
5 That is why I have hewn them by the prophets,
I have slain them by the words of my mouth.
My judgment is like the light that goes forth,
6 for it is love that I delight in and not sacrifice,
and knowledge of God and not burnt offerings.
7 But they after the manner of men have transgressed the covenant,
there they have played me false.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,
tracked with bloody footprints,
9 and as bandits lie in wait for a man,
so a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem.
How terrible is the evil they do!
10 In Bethel I have seen a horrible thing.
There Ephraim plays the prostitute,
Israel is defiled.
11 Judah for you also a harvest is set.