An exhortation to repentance.

¹⁾Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for he hath torn, and will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

²⁾After two days will he revive us; in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

³⁾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 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⁾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⁾For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

⁷⁾But they like men have transgressed the covenant; there have they dealt treacherously against me.

⁸⁾Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.

⁹⁾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⁾I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel; there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

¹¹⁾Also, O Judah, he hath set a harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.