6 Come, and let us return unto the Lord:
for he hath torn, and he will heal us;
he hath 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 shall live in his sight.
³ Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord:
his going forth is prepared as the morning;
and he shall come unto us as the rain,
as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

⁴ O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee?
O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?
for your goodness is as a morning cloud,
and as the early dew it goeth away.
⁵ Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of my mouth:
and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.
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 an horrible thing in the house of Israel:
there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.
¹¹ Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee,
when I returned the captivity of my people.