Hosea 6:1-11

  • A call to return to Jehovah (1-3)

  • The people’s fleeting loyal love (4-6)

    • Loyal love better than sacrifice (6)

  • The people’s shameful conduct (7-11)

6  “Come, and let us return to Jehovah,For he has torn us to pieces,+ but he will heal us. He struck us, but he will bind our wounds.  2  He will revive us after two days. On the third day he will raise us up,And we will live before him.  3  We will know, we will earnestly seek to know Jehovah. His going out is as certain as the dawn;He will come to us like a pouring rain,Like a spring rain that saturates the earth.”  4  “What should I do with you, Eʹphra·im? What should I do with you, Judah? For your loyal love is like the morning clouds,Like the dew that quickly vanishes.  5  That is why I will cut them down by means of the prophets;+I will kill them with the words of my mouth.+ And the judgments on you will shine as the light.+  6  For in loyal love* I delight, not in sacrifice,And in the knowledge of God, rather than in whole burnt offerings.+  7  But they, like mere men, have violated the covenant.+ There they have betrayed me.  8  Gilʹe·ad is a town of evildoers,+Covered with footprints of blood.+  9  The company of priests are like marauder bands lying in ambush for a man. They murder on the road at Sheʹchem,+For their conduct is shameful. 10  I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel. There Eʹphra·im practices prostitution;+Israel has defiled itself.+ 11  Furthermore, O Judah, a harvest is set for you,When I gather back the captives of my people.”+

Footnotes

Or “in mercy.”