6 Come, let us return to Adonai.
For He has torn, but He will heal us.
He has smitten, but He will bind us up.
² After two days He will revive us.
On the third day He will raise us up,
and we will live in His presence.^[a]
3 So let us know, let us strive to know Adonai.
Like dawn His going forth is certain.
He will come to us like the rain,
    like the latter rain watering the earth.

⁴ “O Ephraim, what shall I do for you?
O Judah, what will I do for you?
For your loyalty is like a morning cloud
    or like dew rising early, vanishing.
⁵ Therefore I cut them down by the prophets.
I slew them by the words of My mouth.
Now the judgments pronounced against you:
    light will go forth.
⁶ For I delight in loyalty^[b] and not sacrifice,
knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
⁷ But like Adam, they transgressed a covenant.
There they dealt treacherously with Me.
⁸ Gilead is a city of evildoers,
tracked with bloody footprints.
⁹ Like marauding bands waiting for a man,
so a company of priests murders
    on the way toward Shechem.
For they have committed crime.
¹⁰ In the house of Israel
I have seen a horrible thing:
Ephraim’s prostitution is there,
Israel has become unclean.
¹¹ Also, Judah, there is a harvest for you,
when I return My people from captivity.”