6  “Come, ^xlet us return to the Lord;

for he has ^ytorn us, that he may heal us;

he has struck us down, and he will ^zbind us up.

2  After two days he will revive us;

^aon the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

3  Let us know; let us press on to ^bknow the Lord;

his going out is sure as the dawn;

he will come to us as the showers,

as the spring rains that water the earth.”

4  ^cWhat shall I do with you, O Ephraim?

What shall I do with you, O Judah?

Your love is ^dlike a morning cloud,

like the dew that goes early away.

5  Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;

I have slain them by the words of my mouth,

and my judgment goes forth as the light.

6  For ^eI desire steadfast love¹ and not sacrifice,

the knowledge of God ^frather than burnt offerings.

7  But ^glike Adam they transgressed the covenant;

there they ^hdealt faithlessly with me.

8  ⁱGilead is a city of evildoers,

tracked with blood.

9  As robbers lie in wait for a man,

so the ^jpriests band together;

they murder on the way to Shechem;

they commit villainy.

10  In the house of Israel I have seen a ^khorrible thing;

^lEphraim’s whoredom is there; Israel is defiled.

11  For you also, O Judah, a ^mharvest is appointed.

When I ⁿrestore the fortunes of my people,

7  when I would heal Israel,

the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,

and the evil deeds of Samaria,

for they ^odeal falsely;

the thief breaks in,

and the bandits raid outside.

2  But they do not consider

that I ^premember all their evil.

Now their deeds surround them;

they are before my face.

3  By their evil they make the king glad,

and the princes by their treachery.

4  ^qThey are all adulterers;

they are like a heated oven

whose baker ceases to stir the fire,

from the kneading of the dough

until it is leavened.

5  On the day of our king, the princes

became sick with the heat of wine;

he stretched out his hand with mockers.

6  For with hearts like an oven they approach their intrigue;

all night their anger smolders;

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,

and none of them calls upon me.

8  Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;

Ephraim is a cake not turned.

9  Strangers devour his strength,

and he knows it not;

gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,

and he knows it not.

10  ^rThe pride of Israel testifies to his face;¹

yet they do not return to the Lord their God,

nor seek him, for all this.

11  Ephraim is like a dove,

silly and without sense,

^scalling to Egypt, going to Assyria.

12  As they go, I will spread over them my ^tnet;

I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;

I will ^udiscipline them according to the report made to their congregation.

13  ^vWoe 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;

for grain and wine they ^wgash themselves;

they rebel against me.

15  Although I trained and strengthened their arms,

yet they ^xdevise evil against me.

16  They return, but not upward;²

they are ^ylike a treacherous bow;

their princes shall fall by the sword

because of the insolence of their tongue.

This shall be their derision ^zin the land of Egypt.

8  Set the trumpet to your lips!

One ^alike a vulture is over the house of the Lord,

because they have transgressed my covenant

and rebelled against my law.

2  To me they cry,

“My God, we—Israel—^bknow you.”

3  Israel has spurned the good;

the enemy shall pursue him.

4  They made kings, but not through me.

They set up princes, but I knew it not.

With their silver and gold they made idols

for their own destruction.

5  I have¹ spurned your ^ccalf, O Samaria.

My anger burns against them.

How long will they be incapable of innocence?

6  For it is from Israel;

a ^dcraftsman made it;

it is not God.

The calf of Samaria

shall be broken to pieces.²

7  For they sow the wind,

and they shall reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain has no heads;

it shall yield no flour;

if it were to yield,

strangers would devour it.

8  Israel is swallowed up;

already they are among the nations

^eas a useless vessel.

9  For they have ^fgone up to Assyria,

a ^gwild donkey wandering alone;

Ephraim has hired ^hlovers.

10  Though they hire allies among the nations,

I will soon gather them up.

And the king and princes shall soon writhe

because of the tribute.

11  Because Ephraim has multiplied ⁱaltars for sinning,

they have become to him altars for sinning.

12  Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,

they would be regarded as a strange thing.

13  As for my sacrificial offerings,

they sacrifice meat and eat it,

but ^jthe Lord does not accept them.

Now he will ^kremember their iniquity

and punish their sins;

^lthey shall return to Egypt.

14  For Israel has ^mforgotten his Maker

and built palaces,

and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;

so ⁿI will send a fire upon his cities,

^oand it shall devour her strongholds.

9  Rejoice not, O Israel!

Exult not like the peoples;

for you have ^pplayed the whore, forsaking your God.

You have loved a prostitute’s wages

on all threshing floors.

2  Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,

and the new wine shall fail them.

3  They shall not remain in the land of the Lord,

but Ephraim shall ^qreturn to Egypt,

and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

4  They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,

and their ^rsacrifices shall not please him.

It shall be like ^smourners’ bread to them;

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.

5  What will you do on the day of the ^tappointed festival,

and on the day of the feast of the Lord?

6  For behold, they are going away from destruction;

but Egypt shall gather them;

Memphis shall bury them.

Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;

thorns shall be in their tents.

7  The ^udays of punishment have come;

the days of recompense have come;

Israel shall know it.

The prophet is a fool;

the man of the spirit is mad,

because of your great iniquity

and great hatred.

8  The prophet is the ^vwatchman of Ephraim with my God;

yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,

and hatred in the house of his God.

9  They have deeply corrupted themselves

^was in the days of Gibeah:

he will ^xremember their iniquity;

he will punish their sins.

10  Like grapes in the wilderness,

I found Israel.

Like the first fruit on the fig tree

in its first season,

I saw your fathers.

^yBut they came to Baal-peor

and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,

and became detestable like the thing they loved.

11  Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—

no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!

12  Even if they bring up children,

I will bereave them till none is left.

^zWoe to them

when I depart from them!

13  Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm¹ planted in a meadow;

but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.²

14  Give them, O Lord—

what will you give?

Give them a miscarrying womb

and dry breasts.

15  Every evil of theirs is in ^aGilgal;

there I began to hate them.

Because of the wickedness of their deeds

I will drive them out of my house.

I will love them no more;

^ball their princes are rebels.

16  Ephraim is stricken;

their root is dried up;

they shall bear no fruit.

Even though they give birth,

I will put their beloved children to death.

17  My God will reject them

because they have not listened to him;

they shall be wanderers among the nations.

10  Israel is a luxuriant vine

that yields its fruit.

^cThe more his fruit increased,

the more ^daltars he built;

as his country improved,

he improved his pillars.

2  Their heart is false;

now they must bear their guilt.

The Lord¹ will break down their altars

and destroy their pillars.

3  For now they will say:

“We have no king,

for we do not fear the Lord;

and a king—what could he do for us?”

4  They utter mere words;

with empty^{2 e}oaths they make covenants;

so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds

in the furrows of the field.

5  The inhabitants of Samaria tremble

for the calf³ of ^fBeth-aven.

Its people mourn for it, and so do its ^gidolatrous priests—

those who rejoiced over it and over its glory—

for it has departed⁴ from them.

6  The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria

as tribute to the ^hgreat king.⁵

Ephraim shall be put to shame,

and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.⁶

7  ⁱSamaria’s king shall perish

like a twig on the face of the waters.

8  The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,

shall be destroyed.

Thorn and thistle shall grow up

on their altars,

and ^jthey shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,”

and to the hills, “Fall on us.”

9  From the days of ^kGibeah, you have sinned, O Israel;

there they have continued.

Shall not the war against the unjust⁷ overtake them in Gibeah?

10  When I please, I will discipline them,

and nations shall be gathered against them

when they are bound up for their double iniquity.

11  Ephraim was a trained calf

that loved to thresh,

and I spared her fair neck;

but I will put Ephraim to the yoke;

Judah must plow;

Jacob must harrow for himself.

12  Sow for yourselves righteousness;

reap steadfast love;

^lbreak up your fallow ground,

for it is the time to seek the Lord,

that he may ^mcome and rain ⁿrighteousness upon you.

13  ^oYou have plowed iniquity;

you have reaped injustice;

you have eaten the fruit of lies.

Because you have trusted in your own way

and in the multitude of your warriors,

14  therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people,

and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,

as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle;

mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.

15  Thus it shall be done to you, O ^pBethel,

because of your great evil.

At dawn the king of Israel

shall be utterly cut off.