Hosea 6–7

The People Are Not Faithful

6“Come, let’s go back to the Lord.

He has hurt us, but he will heal us.

He has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds.

²In two days he will put new life in us;

on the third day he will raise us up

so that we may live in his presence ³and know him.

Let’s try to learn about the Lord;

he will come to us as surely as the dawn comes.

He will come to us like rain,

like the spring rain that waters the ground.”

⁴The Lord says, “Israel, what should I do with you?

Judah, what should I do with you?

Your faithfulness is like a morning mist,

like the dew that goes away early in the day.

⁵I have warned you by my prophets

that I will kill you and destroy you.

My justice comes out like bright light.

⁶I want faithful love

more than I want animal sacrifices.

I want people to know me

more than I want burnt offerings.

⁷But they have broken the agreement as Adam did;

they have been unfaithful to me.

⁸Gilead is a city of people who do evil;

their footprints are bloody.

⁹The priests are like robbers waiting to attack people;

they murder people on the road to Shechem ⁿ

and do wicked things.

¹⁰I have seen horrible things in Israel.

Look at Israel’s prostitution;

Israel has become unclean.

¹¹“Judah, I have set a harvest time for you

when I will make the lives of my people good again.

7When I heal Israel,

Israel’s sin will go away,

and so will Samaria’s evil.

“They cheat a lot!

Thieves break into houses,

and robbers are in the streets.

²It never enters their minds

that I remember all their evil deeds.

The bad things they do are all around them;

they are right in front of me.

Israel’s Evil Kings

³“They make the king happy with their wickedness;

their rulers are glad with their lies.

⁴But all of them are traitors.

They are like an oven heated by a baker.

While he mixes the dough,

he does not need to stir up the fire.

⁵The kings get so drunk they get sick every day.

The rulers become crazy with wine;

they make agreements with those who do not know the true God.

⁶They burn like an oven;

their hearts burn inside them.

All night long their anger is low,

but when morning comes, it becomes a roaring fire.

⁷All these people are as hot as an oven;

they burn up their rulers.

All their kings fall,

and no one calls on me.

Israel and the Other Nations

⁸“Israel mixes with other nations;

he is like a pancake cooked only on one side.

⁹Foreign nations have eaten up his strength,

but he doesn’t know it.

Israel is weak and feeble, like an old man,

but he doesn’t know it.

¹⁰Israel’s pride will cause their defeat;

they will not turn back to the Lord their God

or look to him for help in all this.

¹¹Israel has become like a pigeon—

easy to fool and stupid.

First they call to Egypt for help.

Then they run to Assyria.

¹²When they go, I will catch them in a net,

I will bring them down like birds from the sky;

I will punish them countless times for their evil.

¹³How terrible for them because they left me!

They will be destroyed, because they turned against me.

I want to save them,

but they have spoken lies against me.

¹⁴They do not call to me from their hearts.

They just lie on their beds and cry.

They come together to ask for grain and new wine,

but they really turn away from me.

¹⁵Though I trained them and gave them strength,

they have made evil plans against me.

¹⁶They did not turn to the Most High God.

They are like a loose bow that can’t shoot.

Because their leaders brag about their strength,

they will be killed with swords,

and the people in Egypt

will laugh at them.