Hosea, 6

1. Come, let us return to Yahweh. He has rent us and he will heal us; he has struck us and he will bind up our wounds;

1. Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

2. after two days he will revive us, on the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his presence.

2. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

3. Let us know, let us strive to know Yahweh; that he will come is as certain as the dawn. He will come to us like a shower, like the rain of springtime to the earth.

3. Then shall we know, [if] we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter [and] former rain unto the earth.

4. What am I to do with you, Ephraim? What am I to do with you, Judah? For your love is like morning mist, like the dew that quickly disappears.

4. O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness [is] as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

5. This is why I have hacked them to pieces by means of the prophets, why I have killed them with words from my mouth, why my sentence will blaze forth like the dawn-

5. Therefore have I hewed [them] by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments [are as] the light [that] goeth forth.

6. for faithful love is what pleases me, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not burnt offerings.

6. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

7. But they have broken the covenant at Adam, there they have betrayed me.

7. But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

8. Gilead is a city of evil-doers, full of bloody footprints.

8. Gilead [is] a city of them that work iniquity, [and is] polluted with blood.

9. Like so many robbers in ambush, a gang of priests commits murder on the road to Shechem- what infamous behaviour!

9. And as troops of robbers wait for a man, [so] the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.

10. At Bethel I have seen a horrible thing; there Ephraim plays the whore, Israel is befouled.

10. I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there [is] the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

11. For you too, Judah, a harvest is in store, when I restore my people's fortunes.

11. Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.