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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.