1  “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,

1  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;²

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;³

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.