1Come, let us go back to the Lord; for he has given us wounds and he will make us well; he has given blows and he will give help.

2After two days he will give us life, and on the third day he will make us get up, and we will be living before him.

3And let us have knowledge, let us go after the knowledge of the Lord; his going out is certain as the dawn, his decisions go out like the light; he will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.

4O Ephraim, what am I to do to you? O Judah, what am I to do to you? For your love is like a morning cloud, and like the dew which goes early away.

5So I have had it cut in stones; I gave them teaching by the words of my mouth;

6Because my desire is for mercy and not offerings; for the knowledge of God more than for burned offerings.

7But like a man, they have gone against the agreement; there they were false to me.

8Gilead is a town of evil-doers, marked with blood.

9And like a band of thieves waiting for a man, so are the priests watching secretly the way of those going quickly to Shechem, for they are working with an evil design.

10In Israel I have seen a very evil thing; there false ways are seen in Ephraim, Israel is unclean;

11And Judah has put up disgusting images for himself.