A Call to Repentance

¹ Come, and let us return to the LORD;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
² After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight.
³ Let us know,
Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD.
His going forth is established as the morning;
He will come to us like the rain,
Like the latter and former rain to the earth.

Impenitence of Israel and Judah

⁴ “ O Ephraim, what shall I do to you?
O Judah, what shall I do to you?
For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud,
And like the early dew it goes away.
⁵ Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
I have slain them by the words of My mouth;
And your judgments are like light that goes forth.
⁶ For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,
And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
⁷ “ But like men^[a] they transgressed the covenant;
There they dealt treacherously with Me.
⁸ Gilead is a city of evildoers
And defiled with blood.
⁹ As bands of robbers lie in wait for a man,
So the company of priests murder on the way to Shechem;
Surely they commit lewdness.
¹⁰ I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel:
There is the harlotry of Ephraim;
Israel is defiled.
¹¹ Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you,
When I return the captives of My people.