She will pursue her lovers, but she won't catch up with them. She will seek them, but she won't find them. Then she will say, "I'll go back and return to my first husband, because it was better for me then than now.'

There I will restore her vineyards to her, and the Valley of Achor will become a doorway to hope. There she will respond as she did in her youth, when she came up from Egypt."

After two days, he will restore us to life, on the third day he will raise us up, and we will live in his presence.

It never occurs to them that I remember all their sin. Now their actions have caught up with them, and they have my attention.

For they have stirred up themselves like an oven as they lie in ambush. Their baker sleeps through the night; in the morning, the oven will be blazing like a fire.

"Because they sow the wind, they will reap the wind storm. The plant has no stalk and its bud yields no grain. Even if there's a harvest, foreigners will gobble it up.

Look! They have gone away because of the destruction Egypt will gather them up, and Memphis will bury them. Weeds will overgrow their inheritance, and thorns will grow in their tents.

"My God will reject them, because they did not obey him, and they will become wanderers among the nations."

Their word is falsely given as they make their agreements; so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

Destroyed will be the high places of Aven, that are the sin of Israel. Both thorn and thistle will grow up over their altars. They will call out to the mountains, "Cover us!' and to the hills, "Fall on us!'

"Ephraim, the well-trained heifer, loves to thresh grain, so I will spare her neck. I will turn Ephraim into a pack animal. Judah will pull the plow, and Jacob will turn up the fallow ground.

Sow in righteousness in your own interest, reap in gracious love, break up your own unprepared ground; It is now time to inquire of the LORD, until he comes to pour out righteousness for you.

"How can I give up on you, Ephraim? I will deliver you, will I not, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? I can't make you like Zeboim, can I? My heart stirs within me; my compassion also fans into flame!

"Ephraim feeds on the wind, chasing after the eastern winds, storing up lies and desolation day after day. They are making a contract with the Assyrians, and sending oil to Egypt.

Ephraim has stirred up violent anger; therefore the guilt of his blood will remain on him, and his Lord will repay him for his contempt."

Even though he is fruitful compared to his relatives, an east wind will come, the LORD's wind storm from the wilderness, and his spring will evaporate. His fountain will dry up, and the LORD's wind storm will plunder all the expensive vessels of the treasury.