Hosea 6–7

Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant

6“Come, let us ^yreturn to the Lord;

for ^zhe has torn us, that he may heal us;

he has struck us down, and ^ahe will bind us up.

²After two days ^bhe will revive us;

on the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

^3cLet us know; ^clet us press on to know the Lord;

^dhis going out is sure as the dawn;

he will come to us ^eas the showers,

^fas the spring rains that water the earth.”

⁴What shall I do with you, ^gO ^hEphraim?

What shall I do with you, O ^hJudah?

Your love is ⁱlike a morning cloud,

ⁱlike the dew that goes early away.

⁵Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;

I have slain them ^jby the words of my mouth,

and my judgment goes forth as the light.

⁶For ^kI desire steadfast love¹ and not sacrifice,

^lthe knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷But ^mlike Adam they ⁿtransgressed the covenant;

^othere they dealt faithlessly with me.

^8pGilead is a city of evildoers,

^qtracked with blood.

⁹As robbers ^rlie in wait for a man,

so the priests band together;

they murder on the way to ^sShechem;

they commit villainy.

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

^tEphraim’s whoredom is there; ^uIsrael is defiled.

¹¹For you also, O ^uJudah, ^va harvest is appointed.

When ^wI restore the fortunes of my people,

7^xwhen I would heal Israel,

the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,

and the evil deeds of ^ySamaria,

for ^zthey deal falsely;

the thief breaks in,

and the bandits raid outside.

²But they do not consider

that ^aI remember all their evil.

Now ^btheir deeds surround them;

^cthey are before my face.

³By their evil ^dthey make ^dthe king glad,

and the princes by their treachery.

^4eThey 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.

⁵On the day of ^four king, the princes

became sick with the heat of wine;

he stretched out his hand with mockers.

⁶For with hearts like an oven ^gthey approach their intrigue;

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 ^htheir kings ⁱhave fallen,

and none of them calls upon me.

⁸Ephraim ^jmixes himself with the peoples;

Ephraim is a cake not turned.

^9kStrangers devour his strength,

and ^lhe knows it not;

gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,

and ^lhe knows it not.

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

ⁿyet they do not return to the Lord their God,

nor seek him, for all this.

¹¹Ephraim is like a dove,

^osilly and without sense,

calling to ^pEgypt, going to ^qAssyria.

¹²As they go, ^rI will spread over them my net;

I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;

^sI will discipline them ^taccording to the report made to their congregation.

^13uWoe to them, for they have strayed from me!

Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!

^vI would redeem them,

but ^wthey speak lies against me.

^14xThey do not cry to me from the heart,

but ^ythey wail upon their beds;

for grain and wine they gash themselves;

they rebel against me.

¹⁵Although ^zI trained and strengthened their arms,

yet they devise evil against me.

¹⁶They ^areturn, but not upward;²

they are ^blike a treacherous bow;

their princes shall fall by the sword

because of ^cthe insolence of their tongue.

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