The Daily Audio Bible

6 Come, let us return to the Lord.
For he has torn us to pieces,
    but he will heal us.
    He has struck us,
    but he will bandage our wounds.
² After two days he will revive us.
    On the third day he will raise us up,
    so that we may live in his presence.
³ Let us acknowledge the Lord.
    Let us pursue knowledge of the Lord.
    As surely as the sun rises,
    the Lord will appear.
    He will come to us like a heavy rain,
    like the spring rain that waters the earth.

⁴ What am I going to do with you, Ephraim?
    What am I going to do with you, Judah?
    For your faithfulness^[a] is like a morning mist,
    like early dew that disappears.
⁵ That is why I cut them to pieces by means of the prophets.
    I killed them with the words of my mouth.
    The judgments against you go forth like the light.
⁶ For I desire mercy,^[b] and not sacrifice,
    and the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.
⁷ Like Adam,^[c] they have broken the covenant.
    They acted treacherously against me there.
⁸ Gilead is a city of evildoers,
    stained with bloody footprints.
⁹ As gangs of robbers wait to ambush a man,
    so do bands of priests.
    They commit murder on the road to Shechem.
    They have committed shameful crimes.
¹⁰ In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing.
    Ephraim practices sexual immorality there.
    Israel defiles itself.
¹¹ Judah, also for you, a harvest has been appointed,
    when I restore the fortunes of my people.^[d]

7 Whenever I want to heal Israel,
the guilt of Ephraim is uncovered,
    and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed,
    because they deal dishonestly.
    Thieves come inside,
    and bandits raid outside.
² In their hearts Ephraim does not realize that I remember all their wickedness.
    Now their deeds are all around them.
    They are in front of my face.
³ The people of Ephraim make the king glad with their wickedness.
    They make their officials happy with their lies.
⁴ They are all adulterers,
    burning like an oven.
    The baker does not need to stoke the fire
    from the time the dough is kneaded until it is leavened.
⁵ On the day^[e] of our^[f] king, the officials became sick from the intoxicating wine.
    He reaches out his hand to the blasphemers.
⁶ Indeed, their hearts are like an oven.
    They approach him, while plotting against him.
    Their anger sleeps all night,
    but in the morning it burns like a blazing fire.
⁷ They are all hot as an oven.
    They devour their rulers.
    All their kings have fallen.
    Not one of them calls on me.
⁸ Ephraim mixes itself with the nations.
    Ephraim is a flatbread not turned over.
⁹ Strangers have devoured his strength,
    but he does not realize it.
    There are gray hairs on his head,
    but he does not realize it.
¹⁰ The arrogance of Israel testifies against him,
    yet they have not returned to the Lord their God,
    and they have not sought him, despite all this.

¹¹ Ephraim is like a gullible dove, without sense.
    They call to Egypt.
    Then they appeal to Assyria.
¹² When they go out, I will spread my net over them.
    I will bring them down like birds from the sky.
    I will discipline them, on the basis of the report about their assembly.^[g]
13 Woe to them,
    because they have strayed from me!
    Destruction comes upon them,
    because they have rebelled against me!
    I want to redeem them,
    but they speak lies against me.
¹⁴ They do not cry out to me with their hearts,
    but they howl on their beds.
    They gather together^[h] for grain and new wine.
    They turn away from me.
¹⁵ Though I trained and strengthened their arms,
    they plot evil against me.
¹⁶ They return, but not upward.^[i]
    They are like an unreliable bow.
    Their officials will fall by the sword because of their angry tongues.
    Because of this, they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.

8 Raise a ram’s horn to your lips!
A vulture is circling over^[j] the Lord’s house,
    because they have broken my covenant
    and rebelled against my law.
² Israel cries out to me,
    “My God, we acknowledge^[k] you!”
³ But, in fact, Israel has rejected what is good.
    An enemy will pursue him.
⁴ They set up kings, but not with my approval.
    They installed officials, but I did not choose^[l] them.
    From their silver and their gold they made idols for themselves,
    so they will be cut off.
⁵ I reject^[m] your calf idol, Samaria!
    My anger burns against these people!
    How long will they be incapable of innocence?
⁶ That thing sitting there is from Israel!
    A craftsman made it, so it is not God.
    Certainly that calf of Samaria will be smashed to pieces!
⁷ Because they sow the wind,
    they will reap the whirlwind.
    The standing grain forms no heads,
    so it will yield no flour.
    Even if it would yield flour, foreigners would swallow it up.
⁸ Israel is swallowed up.
    Now among the nations they are like a pot no one wants.
⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey all by itself.
    Ephraim has hired lovers.
¹⁰ Even though they hire lovers among the nations,
    I will now gather them together.
    They will begin to suffer in a little while,
    because of oppression by a king with many officials.
¹¹ Ephraim has multiplied his altars for sin offerings,
    but for him they became altars for sinning.
¹² Though I wrote many teachings from my law for them,
    they regarded them as strange.
¹³ They offer sacrifices to me just to get the meat.^[n]
    They sacrifice flesh and eat it,
    but the Lord is not pleased with them.
    Now he will remember their guilt
    and punish their sins.
    They will return to Egypt.
¹⁴ Israel has forgotten its Maker and built palaces.^[o]
    Judah has multiplied its fortified cities,
    but I will send fire on its cities,
    which will devour its citadels.

9 Do not rejoice, Israel, with excessive celebration like the nations,
because you act promiscuously against your God.
    You love the wages you can earn as a prostitute at every threshing floor for grain.
² The threshing floor and winepress will not feed them,
    and the new wine will fail for them.
³ They will not remain in the Lord’s land.
    Ephraim will return to Egypt,
    and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
⁴ They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord.
    Their sacrifices will not be pleasing to him.
    For them, their bread will become like the bread eaten by mourners.
    Everyone who eats it will be unclean.
    This bread will only serve their own appetite.
    It will not enter the House of the Lord.
⁵ What will you do on the day of the appointed festivals
    and on the feast days of the Lord?
⁶ Know this! Even if they flee from destruction,
    Egypt will gather them up.
    Memphis will bury them.
    Thistles will overgrow their silver treasures.
    Thorns will grow inside their tents.
⁷ The days of reckoning have come.
    The days of retribution have come.
    Israel should know this!

    The prophet is treated like a fool,
    and the man of the Spirit is called crazy,
    because your guilt is enormous,
    and because your hostility is so great.
⁸ A prophet is to be a watchman over Ephraim for my God,
    but a fowler’s snare is laid for him on all of Ephraim’s paths,
    and he encounters hostility in the house of his God.^[p]
9 They have become extremely corrupt,
    as they were in the days of Gibeah.
    God will remember their guilt.
    He will punish them for their sins.

¹⁰ I regarded Israel like grapes found in the wilderness.
    I regarded your forefathers like the first ripe fruit on a fig tree in its first season,
    but they went to Baal Peor, and they devoted themselves to a shameful thing,
    and they became as disgusting as the thing they loved.
¹¹ Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird—
    no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
¹² Even if they bring up their children,
    I will deprive them of each one.
    Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!
¹³ I have seen Ephraim planted in a pleasant place like Tyre,
    but Ephraim will bring its children out to the executioner.
¹⁴ Give to them, Lord—but what will you give?
    Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
¹⁵ Because of all their evil in Gilgal,
    I hated them there.
    Because of their evil deeds,
    I will drive them out of my house!
    I will love them no more.
    All their officials are rebels.
¹⁶ Ephraim has been struck down.
    Their root has dried up.
    They will bear no fruit.
    Even if they give birth,
    I will put their precious offspring to death.

¹ When the Lord restored the captives to Zion,^[a]
    we were like dreamers.
² Then our mouths were filled with laughter,
and our tongues with shouts of joy.
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
³ The Lord has done great things for us.
We are glad.
⁴ Restore our fortunes, O Lord, like the dry gulches of the Negev.
⁵ Those who sow with weeping will reap with joyful shouts.
⁶ The one who walks along weeping, carrying a bag of seed to sow,
    will come back again with joyful shouts, carrying his sheaves.

¹² If a ruler listens to lies,
all his officials become wicked.
¹³ A poor person and an oppressor have this in common:
The Lord gives light to the eyes of both.
¹⁴ If a king judges poor people with truth,
his throne will be established permanently.