CHAPTER 6
1 Come ye, and turn we again to the Lord; for he took, and shall heal us; he shall smite, and shall make us whole.
2 He shall quicken us after two days, and in the third day he shall raise us, and we shall live in his sight.
3 We shall know, and follow, that we know the Lord. His going out is made ready at the morrowtide, and he shall come as a rain to us, which is timeful and lateful to the earth.
4 Ephraim, what shall I do to thee? Judah, what shall I do to thee? Your mercy is as a cloud of the morrow-tide, and as dew passing forth early.
5 For this thing, I [have] hewed them in prophets, I killed them in the words of my mouth; and thy dooms shall go out as light.
6 For I would or desire mercy, and not sacrifice, and I would the knowing of God, more than burnt sacrifices.
7 But they as Adam brake the covenant; there they trespassed against me.
8 Gilead, the city of them that work idol, is supplanted with blood;
9 and as the cheeks of men that be thieves. So be the partners of priests slaying in the way men going from Shechem, for they wrought great trespass.
10 In the house of Israel I saw an horrible thing; there the fornications of Ephraim. Israel is defouled;
11 but also thou, Judah, set [the] harvest to thee, when I shall turn the captivity of my people.