Hosea 6

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.

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 give us life, and on the third day he will make us get up, and we will be living before him.

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

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.

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 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.

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 So I have had it cut in stones; I gave them teaching by the words of my mouth;

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 Because my desire is for mercy and not offerings; for the knowledge of God more than for burned offerings.

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

7 But like a man, they have gone against the agreement; there they were false to me.

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

8 Gilead is a town of evil-doers, marked with blood.

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

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 In Israel I have seen a very evil thing; there false ways are seen in Ephraim, Israel is unclean;

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

11 And Judah has put up disgusting images for himself.

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