61 "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. 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. 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."
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. 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. 6 I'm after love that lasts, not more religion. I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings. 7 You broke the covenant - just like Adam! You broke faith with me - ungrateful wretches! 8 "Gilead has become Crime City - blood on the sidewalks, blood on the streets. 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. 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. 11 "You're as bad as the worst of them, Judah. You've been sowing wild oats. Now it's harvest time.
