What am I going to do with you, Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist and like the early dew that vanishes.
How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I surrender you, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? I have had a change of heart; my compassion is stirred!
Today you repented and did what pleased me, each of you proclaiming freedom for his neighbour. You made a covenant before me at the house that bears my name.
Why should I forgive you? Your children have abandoned me and sworn by those who are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery; they gashed themselves at the prostitute’s house.
I thought, ‘How I long to make you my sons and give you a desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations.’ I thought, ‘You will call me “My Father” and never turn away from me.’
when I heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim and the crimes of Samaria will be exposed. For they practise fraud; a thief breaks in; a raiding party pillages outside.
The Israelites again did what was evil in the Lord’s sight. He gave King Eglon of Moab power over Israel, because they had done what was evil in the Lord’s sight.