The Response to God’s Rebuke
“aCome, let us return to the Lord.
For bHe has torn us, but cHe will heal us;
He has wounded us, but He will dbandage us.
2 “He will arevive us after two days;
He will braise us up on the third day,
That we may live before Him.
3 “So let us aknow, let us press on to know the Lord.
His bgoing forth is as certain as the dawn;
And He will come to us like the crain,
Like the spring rain watering the earth.”
4 What shall I do with you, O aEphraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
For your loyalty is like a bmorning cloud
And like the dew which goes away early.
5 Therefore I have ahewn them in pieces by the prophets;
I have slain them by the bwords of My mouth;
And the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth.
6 For aI delight in loyalty brather than sacrifice,
And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
7 But alike Adam they have btransgressed the covenant;
There they have cdealt treacherously against Me.
8 aGilead is a city of wrongdoers,
Tracked with bbloody footprints.
9 And as araiders wait for a man,
So a band of priests bmurder on the way to Shechem;
Surely they have committed ccrime.
10 In the house of Israel I have seen a ahorrible thing;
Ephraim’s bharlotry is there, Israel has defiled itself.
11 Also, O Judah, there is a aharvest appointed for you,
When I brestore the fortunes of My people.
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