Osee 6

1 In their affliction they will seek me early, saying, Let us go, and return to the Lord our God; for he has torn, and will heal us; he will strike, and bind us up.

saying, “Come let us return to the Lord, for he has torn us but he will heal us, he has injured us but he will bandage our wounds,

2 After two days he will heal us: in the third day we shall arise, and live before him, and shall know [him]:

he will revive in a couple of days, on the third day he will raise us up again, to live in his presence.

3 let us follow on to know the Lord: we shall find him ready as the morning, and he will come to us as the early and latter rain to the earth.

Let us know, let us eagerly seek to know the Lord. His coming is as sure as the sunrise. He will come to us like the winter rain, as the spring rain that waters the earth.”

4 What shall I do to you, Ephraim? What shall I do to you, Juda? whereas your mercy is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew that goes away.

What can I make of you, Ephraim! What can I make of you, Judah! Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew which early goes away.

5 Therefore have I mown down your prophets; I have slain them with the word of my mouth: and my judgment shall go forth as the light.

That is why I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth. My judgment is like the light that goes forth,

6 For I will [have] mercy rather than sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than whole burnt offerings.

for it is love that I delight in and not sacrifice, and knowledge of God and not burnt offerings.

7 But they are as a man transgressing a covenant:

But they after the manner of men have transgressed the covenant, there they have played me false.

8 there the city Galaad despised me, working vanity, troubling water.

Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with bloody footprints,

9 And your strength [is that] of a robber: the priests have hid the way, they have murdered [the people of] Sicima; for they have wrought iniquity in the house of Israel.

and as bandits lie in wait for a man, so a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem. How terrible is the evil they do!

10 I have seen horrible [things] there, [even] the fornication of Ephraim: Israel and Juda are defiled;

In Bethel I have seen a horrible thing. There Ephraim plays the prostitute, Israel is defiled.

11 begin together grapes for yourself, when I turn the captivity of my people.

Judah for you also a harvest is set. When I would restore the fortunes of my people,