6Come, 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. 2After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 3Let 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.
4What 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. 5Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. 6For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. 7But at Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me. 8Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood. 9As robbers lie in wait for someone, so the priests are banded together; they murder on the road to Shechem, they commit a monstrous crime. 10In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraims whoredom is there, Israel is defiled. 11For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed. When I would restore the fortunes of my people,
7when 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. 2But they do not consider that I remember all their wickedness. Now their deeds surround them, they are before my face. 3By their wickedness they make the king glad, and the officials by their treachery. 4They 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. 5On the day of our king the officials became sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with mockers. 6For they are kindled like an oven, their heart burns within them; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. 7All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen; none of them calls upon me.
8Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned. 9Foreigners devour his strength, but he does not know it; gray hairs are sprinkled upon him, but he does not know it. 10Israels pride testifies against him; yet they do not return to the Lord their God, or seek him, for all this. 11Ephraim has become like a dove, silly and without sense; they call upon Egypt, they go to Assyria. 12As 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. 13Woe 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. 14They 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. 15It was I who trained and strengthened their arms, yet they plot evil against me. 16They 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.
8Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord, because they have broken my covenant, and transgressed my law. 2Israel cries to me, My God, weIsraelknow you! 3Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him. 4They made kings, but not through me; they set up princes, but without my knowledge. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction. 5Your calf is rejected, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence? 6For it is from Israel, an artisan made it; it is not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces. 7For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads, it shall yield no meal; if it were to yield, foreigners would devour it.
8Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the nations as a useless vessel. 9For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild ass wandering alone; Ephraim has bargained for lovers. 10Though they bargain with the nations, I will now gather them up. They shall soon writhe under the burden of kings and princes. 11When Ephraim multiplied altars to expiate sin, they became to him altars for sinning. 12Though I write for him the multitude of my instructions, they are regarded as a strange thing. 13Though they offer choice sacrifices, though they eat flesh, the Lord does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt. 14Israel has forgotten his Maker, and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour his strongholds.
9Do not rejoice, O Israel! Do not exult as other nations do; for you have played the whore, departing from your God. You have loved a prostitutes pay on all threshing floors. 2Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them. 3They shall not remain in the land of the Lord; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria they shall eat unclean food. 4They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord, and their sacrifices shall not please him. Such sacrifices shall be like mourners bread; all who eat of it shall be defiled; for their bread shall be for their hunger only; it shall not come to the house of the Lord. 5What will you do on the day of appointed festival, and on the day of the festival of the Lord? 6For even if they escape destruction, Egypt shall gather them, Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver; thorns shall be in their tents.
7The days of punishment have come, the days of recompense have come; Israel cries, The prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad! Because of your great iniquity, your hostility is great. 8The prophet is a sentinel for my God over Ephraim, yet a fowlers snare is on all his ways, and hostility in the house of his God. 9They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; he will remember their iniquity, he will punish their sins. 10Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree, in its first season, I saw your ancestors. But they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved.
11Ephraims glory shall fly away like a bird no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! 12Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them until no one is left. Woe to them indeed when I depart from them! 13Once I saw Ephraim as a young palm planted in a lovely meadow, but now Ephraim must lead out his children for slaughter. 14Give them, O Lord what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. 15Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal; there I came to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their officials are rebels. 16Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will kill the cherished offspring of their womb. 17Because they have not listened to him, my God will reject them; they shall become wanderers among the nations.
10Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars. 2Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars, and destroy their pillars. 3For now they will say: We have no king, for we do not fear the Lord, and a kingwhat could he do for us? 4They utter mere words; with empty oaths they make covenants; so litigation springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field. 5The inhabitants of Samaria tremble for the calf of Beth-aven. Its people shall mourn for it, and its idolatrous priests shall wail over it, over its glory that has departed from it. 6The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king. Ephraim shall be put to shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol. 7Samarias king shall perish like a chip on the face of the waters. 8The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars. They shall say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us.
9Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel; there they have continued. Shall not war overtake them in Gibeah? 10I will come against the wayward people to punish them; and nations shall be gathered against them when they are punished for their double iniquity. 11Ephraim was a trained heifer that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck; but I will make Ephraim break the ground; Judah must plow; Jacob must harrow for himself. 12Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. 13You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped injustice, you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your power and in the multitude of your warriors, 14therefore the tumult of war shall rise against your people, and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle when mothers were dashed in pieces with their children. 15Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great wickedness. At dawn the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off.
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New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
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v 2.9.2
30 June 2021