Hosea 6

A Call to Repentance

¹Come, let us return to the Lord .[#Jr 50:4-5]

For He has torn us,

and He will heal us;

He has wounded us,

and He will bind up our wounds.

²He will revive us after two days,[#Ps 30:5]

and on the third day He will raise us up

so we can live in His presence.

³Let us strive to know the Lord .[#Is 2:3; Mc 4:2]

His appearance is as sure as the dawn.

He will come to us like the rain,

like the spring showers that water the land.

The Lord ’s First Lament

⁴What am I going to do with you, Ephraim?[#Hs 7:1; 11:8]

What am I going to do with you, Judah?

Your loyalty is like the morning mist

and like the early dew that vanishes.

⁵This is why I have used the prophets

to cut them down;

I have killed them with the words of My mouth.

My judgment strikes like lightning.

⁶For I desire loyalty and not sacrifice,

the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷But they, like Adam, have violated the covenant;[#Or they, as at Adam, or they, like men,; #Hs 8:1]

there they have betrayed Me.

⁸Gilead is a city of evildoers,[#Hs 12:11]

tracked with bloody footprints.

⁹Like raiders who wait in ambush for someone,[#Hs 7:1]

a band of priests murders on the road to Shechem.

They commit atrocities.

¹⁰I have seen something horrible in the house of Israel:[#Jr 5:30-31; 23:14]

Ephraim’s promiscuity is there; Israel is defiled.

¹¹A harvest is also appointed for you, Judah.[#Jr 51:33; Jl 3:13]

When I return My people from captivity,