Осия 6

1saying, ‘Come let us return to the , Lordfor he has torn us but he will heal us, he has injured us but he will bandage our wounds, 2he will revive in a couple of days, on the third day he will raise us up again, to live in his presence. 3Let us know, let us eagerly seek to know the . LordHis coming is as sure as the sunrise. He will come to us like the winter rain, as the spring rain that waters the earth.’ 4What can I make of you, Ephraim! What can I make of you, Judah! Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew which early goes away. 5That is why I have hewn them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth. My judgment is like the light that goes forth, 6for it is love that I delight in and not sacrifice, and knowledge of God and not burnt offerings. 7But they, after the manner of men, have transgressed the covenant, there they have played me false. 8Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with bloody footprints, 9and as bandits lie in wait for a man, so a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem. How terrible is the evil they do! 10In Bethel I have seen a horrible thing. There Ephraim plays the prostitute, Israel is defiled.