[1] Come, let us go back to the Lord; for he has given us wounds and he
will make us well; he has given blows and he will give help. [2] After two
days he will give us life, and on the third day he will make us get up, and
we will be living before him. [3] And let us have knowledge, let us go
after the knowledge of the Lord; his going out is certain as the dawn, his
decisions go out like the light; he will come to us like the rain, like the
spring rain watering the earth. [4] O Ephraim, what am I to do to you? O
Judah, what am I to do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and
like the dew which goes early away. [5] So I have had it cut in stones; I
gave them teaching by the words of my mouth; [6] Because my desire is for
mercy and not offerings; for the knowledge of God more than for burned
offerings. [7] But like a man, they have gone against the agreement; there
they were false to me. [8] Gilead is a town of evil-doers, marked with
blood. [9] And like a band of thieves waiting for a man, so are the priests
watching secretly the way of those going quickly to Shechem, for they are
working with an evil design. [10] In Israel I have seen a very evil thing;
there false ways are seen in Ephraim, Israel is unclean; [11] And Judah has
put up disgusting images for himself.
