Hosea 5:6-6:11

English Standard Version

⁶^(A)With their flocks and herds they shall go
    to seek the Lord,
^(B)but they will not find him;
    ^(C)he has withdrawn from them.
⁷^(D)They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord;
    for they have borne alien children.
    Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

⁸^(E)Blow the horn in ^(F)Gibeah,
    the trumpet in ^(G)Ramah.
Sound the alarm at ^(H)Beth-aven;
    we follow you,^[a] O Benjamin!
⁹Ephraim shall become a desolation
    in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
    I make known what is sure.
¹⁰The princes of Judah have become
    like ^(I)those who move the landmark;
upon them I will pour out
    my wrath like water.
¹¹Ephraim is ^(J)oppressed, crushed in judgment,
    because he was determined to go after filth.^[b]
¹²But I am ^(K)like a moth to Ephraim,
    and ^(L)like dry rot to the house of Judah.

¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness,
    and Judah ^(M)his wound,
then Ephraim went ^(N)to Assyria,
    and sent to the great king.^[c]
^(O)But he is not able to cure you
    or heal ^(P)your wound.
¹⁴For I will be ^(Q)like a lion to ^(R)Ephraim,
    and like a young lion to the house of ^(S)Judah.
^(T)I, even I, will tear and go away;
    I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.

¹⁵^(U)I will return again to my place,
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
and ^(V)in their distress earnestly seek me.

Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant

6 “Come, let us ^(W)return to the Lord;
    for ^(X)he has torn us, that he may heal us;
    he has struck us down, and ^(Y)he will bind us up.
²After two days ^(Z)he will revive us;
    on the third day he will raise us up,
    that we may live before him.
³^(AA)Let us know; ^(AB)let us press on to know the Lord;
    ^(AC)his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us ^(AD)as the showers,
    ^(AE)as the spring rains that water the earth.”

⁴What shall I do with you, ^(AF)O ^(AG)Ephraim?
    What shall I do with you, O ^(AH)Judah?
Your love is ^(AI)like a morning cloud,
    ^(AJ)like the dew that goes early away.
⁵Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
    I have slain them ^(AK)by the words of my mouth,
    and my judgment goes forth as the light.
⁶For ^(AL)I desire steadfast love^[d] and not sacrifice,
    ^(AM)the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷But ^(AN)like Adam they ^(AO)transgressed the covenant;
    ^(AP)there they dealt faithlessly with me.
⁸^(AQ)Gilead is a city of evildoers,
    ^(AR)tracked with blood.
⁹As robbers ^(AS)lie in wait for a man,
    so the priests band together;
they murder on the way to ^(AT)Shechem;
    they commit villainy.
¹⁰In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;
    ^(AU)Ephraim's whoredom is there; ^(AV)Israel is defiled.