Hosea 6

Hosea 5 Hosea 7

Hosea 6 New International Version (NIV)

Israel Unrepentant

6 “Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces
    but he will heal us;
he has injured us
    but he will bind up our wounds.
²After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will restore us,
    that we may live in his presence.
³Let us acknowledge the Lord;
    let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
    he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
    like the spring rains that water the earth.”

⁴“What can I do with you, Ephraim?
    What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
    like the early dew that disappears.
⁵Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,
    I killed you with the words of my mouth—
    then my judgments go forth like the sun.^[a]
⁶For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
    and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
⁷As at Adam,^[b] they have broken the covenant;
    they were unfaithful to me there.
⁸Gilead is a city of evildoers,
    stained with footprints of blood.
⁹As marauders lie in ambush for a victim,
    so do bands of priests;
they murder on the road to Shechem,
    carrying out their wicked schemes.
¹⁰I have seen a horrible thing in Israel:
    There Ephraim is given to prostitution,
    Israel is defiled.