A reading from the book of Hosea.

Come, let us return to the Lord, for he has torn us that he may heal us.

He has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

After two days he will revive us, on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know,

let us press on to know the Lord. His going out is sure as the dawn. He will come to us as the showers,

as the spring rains that water the earth. What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?

What shall I do with you, O Judah?

Your love is like a morning cloud,

like the dew that goes early away.

Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets.

I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment

goes forth as the light.

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

But like Adam, they transgressed the covenant. There they dealt faithlessly with me.

Gilead is a city of evil-doers, tracked with blood. As robbers lie in wait for a man,

so the priests band together. They murder on the way to Shuckham. They commit villainy. In the house of Israel,

I have seen a horrible thing. Ephraim's hordom is there. Israel is defiled. For you also,

O Judah, a harvest is appointed. When I restore the fortunes of my people, when I would

heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria, for they deal

falsely. The thief breaks in, and the bandits raid outside. But they do not consider that I remember all their evil.

Now their deeds surround them. They are before my face. By their evil they make the king

glad and the princes by their treachery. They are all adulterers. They are like a heated

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