The Message Bible MSG
King James Version KJV
1 "Come on, let's go back to God. He hurt us, but he'll heal us. He hit us hard, but he'll put us right again.
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Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
2 In a couple of days we'll feel better. By the third day he'll have made us brand-new, Alive and on our feet, fit to face him.
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After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.
3 We're ready to study God, eager for God-knowledge. As sure as dawn breaks, so sure is his daily arrival. He comes as rain comes, as spring rain refreshing the ground."
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Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
4 "What am I to do with you, Ephraim? What do I make of you, Judah? Your declarations of love last no longer than morning mist and predawn dew.
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O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.
5 That's why I use prophets to shake you to attention, why my words cut you to the quick: To wake you up to my judgment blazing like light.
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Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.
6 I'm after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.
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For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 You broke the covenant - just like Adam! You broke faith with me - ungrateful wretches!
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But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.
8 "Gilead has become Crime City - blood on the sidewalks, blood on the streets.
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Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.
9 It used to be robbers who mugged pedestrians. Now it's gangs of priests Assaulting worshipers on their way to Shechem. Nothing is sacred to them.
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And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.
10 "I saw a shocking thing in the country of Israel: Ephraim worshiping in a religious whorehouse, and Israel in the mud right there with him.
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I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.
11 "You're as bad as the worst of them, Judah. You've been sowing wild oats. Now it's harvest time.
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Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.
The King James Version is in the public domain.