Hosea 6

Chapter 6

The Response to God’s Rebuke

¹“^aCome, let us return to the Lord.

For ^bHe has torn us, but ^cHe will heal us;

He has ¹wounded us, but He will ^dbandage us.

²“He will ^arevive us after two days;

He will ^braise us up on the third day,

That we may live before Him.

³“So let us ^aknow, let us press on to know the Lord.

His ^bgoing forth is as certain as the dawn;

And He will come to us like the ^crain,

Like the spring rain watering the earth.”

⁴What shall I do with you, O ^aEphraim?

What shall I do with you, O Judah?

For your ¹loyalty is like a ^bmorning cloud

And like the dew which goes away early.

⁵Therefore I have ^ahewn them in pieces by the prophets;

I have slain them by the ^bwords of My mouth;

And the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth.

⁶For ^aI delight in loyalty ^brather than sacrifice,

And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷But ^alike ¹Adam they have ^btransgressed the covenant;

There they have ^cdealt treacherously against Me.

^8aGilead is a city of wrongdoers,

Tracked with ^bbloody footprints.

⁹And as ^araiders wait for a man,

So a band of priests ^bmurder on the way to Shechem;

Surely they have committed ^1ccrime.

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

Ephraim’s ^bharlotry is there, Israel has defiled itself.

¹¹Also, O Judah, there is a ^aharvest appointed for you,

When I ^brestore the fortunes of My people.