New Living Translation NLT
Wycliffe WYC
1 “Come, let us return to the LORD . He has torn us to pieces; now he will heal us. He has injured us; now he will bandage our wounds.
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Come ye, and turn we again to the Lord; for he took, and shall heal us; he shall smite, and shall make us whole. (Come ye, let us return to the Lord; for he hath torn us, but he shall heal us; he hath struck us down, but he shall make us whole again.)
2 In just a short time he will restore us, so that we may live in his presence.
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He shall quicken us after two days, and in the third day he shall raise us, and we shall live in his sight. (He shall revive us after two days, and on the third day he shall raise us up, and we shall live before him.)
3 Oh, that we might know the LORD ! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.”
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We shall know, and follow, (so) that we know the Lord. His going out is made ready at the morrowtide, and he shall come as a rain to us, which is timeful and lateful to the earth.
4 “O Israel and Judah, what should I do with you?” asks the LORD . “For your love vanishes like the morning mist and disappears like dew in the sunlight.
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Ephraim, what shall I do to thee? Judah, what shall I do to thee? Your mercy is as a cloud of the morrowtide, and as dew passing forth early. (Ephraim, what shall I do with thee? Judah, what shall I do with thee? Your love, or your loyalty, is like a morning cloud, and like dew that passeth away early in the morning.)
5 I sent my prophets to cut you to pieces— to slaughter you with my words, with judgments as inescapable as light.
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For this thing, I [have] hewed (them) in prophets, I (have) killed them in the words of my mouth; and thy dooms shall go out as light. (For this thing, I have cut them down by the prophets, I have killed them with the words of my mouth; and thy judgement shall go forth like the light.)
6 I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings.
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For I would mercy, and not sacrifice, and I would the knowing of God, more than burnt sacrifices. (For I desire love, and not sacrifices, yea, I desire the knowing of God, more than any burnt sacrifices.)
7 But like Adam, you broke my covenant and betrayed my trust.
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But they as Adam brake the covenant; there they trespassed against me. (But they, like other people, broke the covenant; they trespassed against me there.)
8 “Gilead is a city of sinners, tracked with footprints of blood.
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Gilead, the city of them that work idol, is supplanted with blood; (Gilead, their city where they do evil, is overcome with blood;)
9 Priests form bands of robbers, waiting in ambush for their victims. They murder travelers along the road to Shechem and practice every kind of sin.
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and as the cheeks of men that be thieves. (So be the) Partner(s) of priests slaying in the way men going from Shechem, for they wrought great trespass. (like thieves waiting in ambush, so be the companies of priests killing those going on the way to Shechem; for indeed they wrought great trespass.)
10 Yes, I have seen something horrible in Ephraim and Israel: My people are defiled by prostituting themselves with other gods!
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In the house of Israel I saw an horrible thing; there the fornications of Ephraim. Israel is defouled; (In the house of Israel I saw a horrible thing; there be the worshipping of idols by Ephraim. Yea, Israel is defiled;)
11 “O Judah, a harvest of punishment is also waiting for you, though I wanted to restore the fortunes of my people.
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but also thou, Judah, set [the] harvest to thee, when I shall turn (again) the captivity of my people. (and also thou, Judah, a time of reckoning hath been set for thee.)
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by
Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.