¹ Come, and let us return to the LORD: for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has smitten, and he will bind us up. ² After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we will live in his sight. ³ Then will we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forward is prepared as the morning; and he will come to us as the rain, as the latter and former rain to the earth. ⁴ O Ephraim, what will I do to you? O Judah, what will I do to you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes away. ⁵ Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and your judgments are as the light that goes forward. ⁶ For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. ⁷ But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me. ⁸ Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood. ⁹ And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent : for they commit lewdness. ¹⁰ I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled. ¹¹ Also, O Judah, he has set a harvest for you, when I returned the captivity of my people.