Hosea 6:4-Hosea 7:2 - The Lord's First Lament

⁴ What am I going to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I going to do with you, Judah?
Your loyalty is like the morning mist
and like the early dew that vanishes.
⁵ This is why I have used the prophets
to cut them down;
I have killed them with the words of My mouth.
My judgment strikes like lightning.
⁶ For I desire loyalty and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷ But they, like Adam, have violated the covenant;
there they have betrayed Me.
⁸ Gilead is a city of evildoers,
tracked with bloody footprints.
⁹ Like raiders who wait in ambush for someone,
a band of priests murders on the road to Shechem.
They commit atrocities.
¹⁰ I have seen something horrible in the house of Israel:
Ephraim’s promiscuity is there; Israel is defiled.
¹¹ A harvest is also appointed for you, Judah.

When I return My people from captivity,

>

¹ when I heal Israel,
the sins of Ephraim and the crimes of Samaria
will be exposed.
For they practice fraud;
a thief breaks in;
a raiding party pillages outside.
² But they never consider that I remember all their evil.
Now their sins are all around them;
they are right in front of My face.