Hosea 6

1 “Come, and we turn back to YHWH, For He has torn, and He heals us, He strikes, and He binds us up.

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 He revives us after two days, In the third day He raises us up, And we live before Him.

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 we know—we pursue to know YHWH, His going forth is prepared as the dawn, And He comes in as a shower to us, As spring rain [and] autumn rain to the earth.”

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 “What do I do to you, O Ephraim? What do I do to you, O Judah? Your goodness [is] as a cloud of the morning, And as dew rising early—going.

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 Therefore I have hewed by prophets, I have slain them by sayings of My mouth, And My judgments go forth to the light.

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

6 For kindness I desired, and not sacrifice, And a knowledge of God above burnt-offerings.

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

7 And they, as Adam, transgressed a covenant, There they dealt treacherously against Me.

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

8 Gilead [is] a city of workers of iniquity, Slippery from blood.

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

9 And as bands wait for a man, A company of priests murder—the way to Shechem, For they have done wickedness.

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 the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing, There [is] the whoredom of Ephraim—Israel is defiled.

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

11 Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed to you, In My turning back [to] the captivity of My people!”

And Judah has put up disgusting images for himself.