Hosea 6–7

A Call to Repentance

⁶“Come, let us return to the Lord,

for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;

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

²After two days he will revive us;

on the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

³Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord;

his appearing is as sure as the dawn;

he will come to us like the showers,

like the spring rains that water the earth.”^*

Impenitence of Israel and Judah

⁴What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?

What shall I do with you, O Judah?

Your love is like a morning cloud,

like the dew that goes away early.^*

⁵Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;

I have killed them by the words of my mouth,

and my^b judgment goes forth as the light.^*

⁶For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,

the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.^*

⁷But at^c Adam they transgressed the covenant;

there they dealt faithlessly with me.

⁸Gilead is a city of evildoers,

tracked with blood.

⁹As robbers lie in wait^d for someone,

so the priests are banded together;^e

they murder on the road to Shechem;

they commit a monstrous crime.^*

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

Ephraim’s prostitution is there; Israel is defiled.^*

¹¹For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.

When I would restore the fortunes of my people,^*

⁷when I would heal Israel,

the corruption of Ephraim is revealed,

and the wicked deeds of Samaria,

for they deal falsely;

the thief breaks in,

and the bandits raid outside.^*

²But they do not consider

that I remember all their wickedness.

Now their deeds surround them;

they are before my face.^*

³By their wickedness they make the king glad,

and the officials by their treachery.

⁴They are all adulterers;

they are like a heated oven

whose baker does not need to stir the fire

from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.^*

⁵On the day of our king the officials

became sick with the heat of wine;

he stretched out his hand with mockers.^*

⁶For they are kindled^f like an oven; their heart burns within them;

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 their kings have fallen;

none of them calls upon me.^*

⁸Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples;

Ephraim is a cake not turned.

⁹Foreigners devour his strength,

but he does not know it;

gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,

but he does not know it.^*

¹⁰Israel’s pride testifies against^g him;

yet they do not return to the Lord their God

or seek him, for all this.^*

Futile Reliance on the Nations

¹¹Ephraim has become like a dove,

silly and without sense;

they call upon Egypt, they go to Assyria.^*

¹²As they go, I will cast my net over them;

I will bring them down like birds of the air;

I will discipline them according to the report made to their assembly.^h*

¹³Woe 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.^*

¹⁴They do not cry to me from the heart,

but they wail upon their beds;

they gash themselves for grain and wine;

they rebel against me.^*

¹⁵It was I who trained and strengthened their arms,

yet they plot evil against me.^*

¹⁶They turn to that which does not profit;ⁱ

they have become like a defective bow;

their officials shall fall by the sword

because of the rage of their tongue.

So much for their babbling in the land of Egypt.^*