Chapter 6
Hosea calls Israel to return and serve the Lord—The mercy and knowledge of God are more important than ritualistic sacrifices.
1 Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will aheal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days will he arevive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his bsight.
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 alatter 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 adew it goeth away.
5 Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have aslain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.
6 For aI desired bmercy, and not sacrifice; and the cknowledge of God more than burnt dofferings.
7 But they like amen have btransgressed 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 ain the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.
10 I have seen an ahorrible 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.