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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. 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; Ephraim’s 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. ¹⁰Israel’s 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.