1  “Come, let us ^yreturn to the Lord;

for ^zhe has torn us, that he may heal us;

he has struck us down, and ^ahe will bind us up.

2  After two days ^bhe will revive us;

on the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

3  ^cLet us know; ^clet us press on to know the Lord;

^dhis going out is sure as the dawn;

he will come to us ^eas the showers,

^fas the spring rains that water the earth.”

4  What shall I do with you, ^gO ^hEphraim?

What shall I do with you, O ^hJudah?

Your love is ⁱlike a morning cloud,

ⁱlike the dew that goes early away.

5  Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;

I have slain them ^jby the words of my mouth,

and my judgment goes forth as the light.

6  For ^kI desire steadfast love¹ and not sacrifice,

^lthe knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

7  But ^mlike Adam they ⁿtransgressed the covenant;

^othere they dealt faithlessly with me.

8  ^pGilead is a city of evildoers,

^qtracked with blood.

9  As robbers ^rlie in wait for a man,

so the priests band together;

they murder on the way to ^sShechem;

they commit villainy.

10  In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;

^tEphraim’s whoredom is there; ^uIsrael is defiled.

11  For you also, O ^uJudah, ^va harvest is appointed.

When ^wI restore the fortunes of my people,

1  ^xwhen I would heal Israel,

the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,

and the evil deeds of ^ySamaria,

for ^zthey deal falsely;

the thief breaks in,

and the bandits raid outside.

2  But they do not consider

that ^aI remember all their evil.

Now ^btheir deeds surround them;

^cthey are before my face.

3  By their evil ^dthey make ^dthe king glad,

and the princes by their treachery.

4  ^eThey are all adulterers;

they are like a heated oven

whose baker ceases to stir the fire,

from the kneading of the dough

until it is leavened.

5  On the day of ^four king, the princes

became sick with the heat of wine;

he stretched out his hand with mockers.

6  For with hearts like an oven ^gthey approach their intrigue;

all night their anger smolders;

in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

7  All of them are hot as an oven,

and they devour their rulers.

All ^htheir kings ⁱhave fallen,

and none of them calls upon me.

8  Ephraim ^jmixes himself with the peoples;

Ephraim is a cake not turned.

9  ^kStrangers devour his strength,

and ^lhe knows it not;

gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,

and ^lhe knows it not.

10  ^mThe pride of Israel testifies to his face;²

ⁿyet they do not return to the Lord their God,

nor seek him, for all this.

11  Ephraim is like a dove,

^osilly and without sense,

calling to ^pEgypt, going to ^qAssyria.

12  As they go, ^rI will spread over them my net;

I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;

^sI will discipline them ^taccording to the report made to their congregation.

13  ^uWoe to them, for they have strayed from me!

Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!

^vI would redeem them,

but ^wthey speak lies against me.

14  ^xThey do not cry to me from the heart,

but ^ythey wail upon their beds;

for grain and wine they gash themselves;

they rebel against me.

15  Although ^zI trained and strengthened their arms,

yet they devise evil against me.

16  They ^areturn, but not upward;³

they are ^blike a treacherous bow;

their princes shall fall by the sword

because of ^cthe insolence of their tongue.

This shall be their derision ^din the land of Egypt.

1  Set ^ethe trumpet to your lips!

One ^flike a vulture is over the house of the Lord,

because ^gthey have transgressed my covenant

and rebelled against my law.

2  To me they cry,

^h“My God, we—Israel—know you.”

3  Israel has spurned the good;

the enemy shall pursue him.

4  ⁱThey made kings, ^jbut not through me.

They set up princes, but I knew it not.

With their silver and gold they made idols

for their own destruction.

5  ^kI have⁴ spurned your calf, O Samaria.

My anger burns against them.

^lHow long will they be incapable of innocence?

6  For it is from Israel;

a craftsman made it;

it is not God.

^kThe calf of Samaria

^mshall be broken to pieces.⁵

7  For ⁿthey sow the wind,

and they shall reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain has no heads;

it shall yield no flour;

if it were to yield,

^ostrangers would devour it.

8  ^pIsrael is swallowed up;

already they are among the nations

as ^qa useless vessel.

9  For ^rthey have gone up to Assyria,

^sa wild donkey wandering alone;

Ephraim has hired lovers.

10  Though they hire allies among the nations,

I will soon gather them up.

And ^tthe king and princes ^ushall soon writhe

because of the tribute.

11  Because Ephraim ^vhas multiplied altars for sinning,

they have become to him altars for sinning.

12  ^wWere I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,

they would be regarded as a strange thing.

13  As for my sacrificial offerings,

^xthey sacrifice meat and eat it,

but the Lord does not accept them.

^yNow he will remember their iniquity

and punish their sins;

^zthey shall return to Egypt.

14  For ^aIsrael has forgotten ^bhis Maker

and ^cbuilt palaces,

and ^aJudah has multiplied fortified cities;

so ^dI will send a fire upon his cities,

and it shall devour her strongholds.

1  Rejoice not, O Israel!

Exult not like the peoples;

^efor you have played the whore, forsaking your God.

^fYou have loved a prostitute’s wages

on all threshing floors.

2  ^gThreshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,

and ^gthe new wine shall fail them.

3  They shall not remain in ^hthe land of the Lord,

but ⁱEphraim shall return to Egypt,

and ^jthey shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

4  ^kThey shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,

^land their sacrifices shall not please him.

It shall be like ^mmourners’ bread to them;

all who eat of it shall be defiled;

for their bread shall be for their hunger only;

ⁿit shall not come to the house of the Lord.

5  ^oWhat will you do on the day of the appointed festival,

and on the day of the feast of the Lord?

6  For behold, they are going away from destruction;

but ^pEgypt shall gather them;

Memphis shall bury them.

Nettles shall possess ^qtheir precious things of silver;

^rthorns shall be in their tents.

7  ^sThe days of punishment have come;

the days of recompense have come;

Israel shall know it.

^tThe prophet is a fool;

the man of the spirit is mad,

because of your great iniquity

and great hatred.

8  The prophet is ^uthe watchman of Ephraim with my God;

yet ^va fowler’s snare is on all his ways,

and hatred in the house of his God.

9  ^wThey have deeply corrupted themselves

as ^xin the days of Gibeah:

^whe will remember their iniquity;

he will punish their sins.

10  Like grapes in the wilderness,

^yI found Israel.

Like the first fruit on the fig tree

in its first season,

I saw your fathers.

But ^zthey came to Baal-peor

and ^aconsecrated themselves to the thing of shame,

and ^bbecame detestable like the thing they loved.

11  Ephraim’s ^cglory shall fly away like a bird—

^dno birth, no pregnancy, no conception!

12  ^eEven if they bring up children,

I will bereave them till none is left.

^fWoe to them

when ^gI depart from them!

13  Ephraim, ^has I have seen, was like a young palm⁶ planted in a meadow;

but ^eEphraim must lead his children out to slaughter.⁷

14  Give them, O Lord—

what will you give?

Give them ⁱa miscarrying womb

and dry breasts.

15  Every evil of theirs is in ^jGilgal;

there I began to hate them.

Because of the wickedness of their deeds

I will drive them out of my house.

I will love them no more;

all ^ktheir princes are ^lrebels.

16  Ephraim is stricken;

^mtheir root is dried up;

they shall bear no fruit.

Even ⁿthough they give birth,

^eI will put their beloved children to death.

17  ^oMy God will reject them

because they have not listened to him;

^pthey shall be wanderers among the nations.

1  By the waters of Babylon,

there we sat down and wept,

when we remembered Zion.

2  On the willows¹ there

we hung up our lyres.

3  For there our captors

required of us songs,

and our tormentors, mirth, saying,

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

4  ^sHow shall we sing the Lord’s song

in a foreign land?

5  If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

^tlet my right hand forget its skill!

6  Let my ^utongue stick to the roof of my mouth,

if I do not remember you,

if I do not set Jerusalem

above my highest joy!

7  Remember, O Lord, against the ^vEdomites

^wthe day of Jerusalem,

how they said, ^x“Lay it bare, lay it bare,

down to its foundations!”

8  O daughter of Babylon, ^ydoomed to be destroyed,

blessed shall he be who ^zrepays you

with what you have done to us!

9  Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones

and ^adashes them against the rock!

^b“Whoever desires to love life

and see good days,

let him keep his tongue from evil

and his lips from speaking deceit;

11  let him turn away from evil and do good;

let him seek peace and pursue it.

12  For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,

and his ears are open to their prayer.

But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”

^k“If the righteous is scarcely saved,

what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”⁸