Chapter 6

6:1Come, let us return to the Lord.
For He has torn us,
and He will heal us;
He has wounded us,
and He will bind up our wounds.
2He will revive us after two days,
and on the third day He will raise us up
so we can live in His presence.
3Let us strive to know the Lord.
His appearance is as sure as the dawn.
He will come to us like the rain,
like the spring showers that water the land.
4What am I going to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I going to do with you, Judah?
Your loyalty is like the morning mist
and like the early dew that vanishes.
5This is why I have used the prophets
to cut them down;
I have killed them with the words of My mouth.
My judgment strikes like lightning.
6For I desire loyalty and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
7But they, like Adam, have violated the covenant;
there they have betrayed Me.
8Gilead is a city of evildoers,
tracked with bloody footprints.
9Like raiders who wait in ambush for someone,
a band of priests murders on the road to Shechem.
They commit atrocities.
10I have seen something horrible in the house of Israel:
Ephraim's promiscuity is there; Israel is defiled.
11A harvest is also appointed for you, Judah.
When I return My people from captivity,

Chapter 7

7:1when I heal Israel,
the sins of Ephraim and the crimes of Samaria
will be exposed.
For they practice fraud;
a thief breaks in;
a raiding party pillages outside.
2But they never consider that I remember all their evil.
Now their sins are all around them;
they are right in front of My face.
3They please the king with their evil,
the princes with their lies.
4All of them commit adultery;
they are like an oven heated by a baker
who stops stirring the fire
from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.
5On the day of our king,
the princes are sick with the heat of wine-
there is a conspiracy with traitors.
6For they-their hearts like an oven-
draw him into their oven.
Their anger smolders all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7All of them are as hot as an oven,
and they consume their rulers.
All their kings fall;
not one of them calls on Me.
8Ephraim has allowed himself to get mixed up with the nations.
Ephraim is unturned bread baked on a griddle.
9Foreigners consume his strength,
but he does not notice.
Even his hair is streaked with gray,
but he does not notice.
10Israel's arrogance testifies against them,
yet they do not return to Yahweh their God,
and for all this, they do not seek Him.
11So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove;
they call to Egypt, and they go to Assyria.
12As they are going, I will spread My net over them;
I will bring them down like birds of the sky.
I will discipline them in accordance
with the news that reaches their assembly.
13Woe to them, for they fled from Me;
destruction to them, for they rebelled against Me!
Though I want to redeem them,
they speak lies against Me.
14They do not cry to Me from their hearts;
rather, they wail on their beds.
They slash themselves for grain and new wine;
they turn away from Me.
15I trained and strengthened their arms,
but they plot evil against Me.
16They turn, but not to what is above;
they are like a faulty bow.
Their leaders will fall by the sword
because of the cursing of their tongue.
They will be ridiculed for this in the land of Egypt.