Hosea 5:8-6:6

The Voice

⁸     Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah,
        sound the trumpet in Ramah, and raise a war cry in Beth-aven.
    Even as your cities fall, Benjamin, more armies are behind you!
⁹     Ephraim will be devastated when they are punished with this invasion from the south.
        (This is sure to happen, and I’m announcing it to all the tribes of Israel!)
¹⁰     But I’ll also punish the leaders of Judah—
        I’ll pour out My wrath on them like water—
    Because they’re trying to snatch this territory of Benjamin’s.
        They’ve become like the dishonest people who move boundary-stones.
¹¹     Ephraim is oppressed, crushed by punishment,
        because he insists on pursuing empty ways and trusting others to save him.

¹²     In My judgments I’m like a disease that devours Ephraim as a moth eats wool,
        like an infected wound to the people of Judah.
¹³     But when Ephraim saw how sick he was
        and Judah saw his open sore,
    Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to the great king for relief.
        But a foreign ruler can’t cure you; he can’t heal your sore.

¹⁴     I’ll be like a lion to Ephraim,
        like a young lion to the people of Judah.
    I’ll tear them to pieces myself and make off with My kill.
        I’ll carry it away, and no one will be able to take it from Me.
¹⁵     I’ll go back to My lair and stay there until they admit their guilt and come looking for Me.
        In their distress, they’ll desperately try to find Me.

6 Come on, let’s renew our loyalty to the Eternal One!
He tore us like a lion, but He’ll heal us;
    He wounded us, but He’ll bandage us.
² He’ll bring us back to life after two days;
    He’ll raise us up on the third day, and we’ll live with Him.

³ So let’s know Him; let’s strive to know the Eternal.
    As surely as the sun rises, He’ll come out from His lair.
As surely as the rains come each year—
    those spring rains that drench the earth—He’ll come back to us.

⁴ Eternal One: What am I supposed to do with you, Ephraim?
        What am I supposed to do with you, Judah?
    Your loyalty to Me is like fog in the morning,
        like dew that evaporates at sunrise.
⁵     This is why I cut them with the words of the prophets
        and destroyed them with the words of My mouth.
        My judgment went forth like the light of the rising sun.
⁶     For I want not animal sacrifices, but mercy.^[a]
        I don’t want burnt offerings; I want people to know Me as God!