Bible Browser

A Call to Repentance

6‘Come, let us return to the Lord;
   for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;
   he has struck down, and he will bind us up.
² After two days he will revive us;
   on the third day he will raise us up,
   that we may live before him.
³ Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;
   his appearing is as sure as the dawn;
he will come to us like the showers,
   like the spring rains that water the earth.’

Impenitence of Israel and Judah

⁴ What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
   What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
   like the dew that goes away early.
⁵ Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
   I have killed them by the words of my mouth,
   and my^* judgement goes forth as the light.
⁶ For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
   the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings.

⁷ But at^* Adam they transgressed the covenant;
   there they dealt faithlessly with me.
⁸ Gilead is a city of evildoers,
   tracked with blood.
⁹ As robbers lie in wait^* for someone,
   so the priests are banded together;^*
they murder on the road to Shechem,
   they commit a monstrous crime.
¹⁰ In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;
   Ephraim’s whoredom is there, Israel is defiled.

¹¹ For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.

When I would restore the fortunes of my people,

7¹when I would heal Israel,
   the corruption of Ephraim is revealed,
   and the wicked deeds of Samaria;
for they deal falsely,
   the thief breaks in,
   and the bandits raid outside.
² But they do not consider
   that I remember all their wickedness.
Now their deeds surround them,
   they are before my face.
³ By their wickedness they make the king glad,
   and the officials by their treachery.
⁴ They are all adulterers;
   they are like a heated oven,
whose baker does not need to stir the fire,
   from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.
⁵ On the day of our king the officials
   became sick with the heat of wine;
   he stretched out his hand with mockers.
⁶ For they are kindled^* like an oven, their heart burns within them;
   all night their anger smoulders;
   in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
⁷ All of them are hot as an oven,
   and they devour their rulers.
All their kings have fallen;
   none of them calls upon me.

⁸ Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;
   Ephraim is a cake not turned.
⁹ Foreigners devour his strength,
   but he does not know it;
grey hairs are sprinkled upon him,
   but he does not know it.
¹⁰ Israel’s pride testifies against^* him;
   yet they do not return to the Lord their God,
   or seek him, for all this.

Futile Reliance on the Nations

¹¹ Ephraim has become like a dove,
   silly and without sense;
   they call upon Egypt, they go to Assyria.
¹² As they go, I will cast my net over them;
   I will bring them down like birds of the air;
   I will discipline them according to the report made to their assembly.^*
13 Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!
   Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!
I would redeem them,
   but they speak lies against me.

¹⁴ They do not cry to me from the heart,
   but they wail upon their beds;
they gash themselves for grain and wine;
   they rebel against me.
¹⁵ It was I who trained and strengthened their arms,
   yet they plot evil against me.
¹⁶ They turn to that which does not profit;^*
   they have become like a defective bow;
their officials shall fall by the sword
   because of the rage of their tongue.
So much for their babbling in the land of Egypt.