6:1   The people say, "Let's return to the LORD! He has hurt us, but he will be sure to heal us; he has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds, won't he?

6:2   In two or three days he will revive us, and we will live in his presence.

6:3   Let us try to know the LORD. He will come to us as surely as the day dawns, as surely as the spring rains fall upon the earth."

6:4   But the LORD says, "Israel and Judah, what am I going to do with you? Your love for me disappears as quickly as morning mist; it is like dew, that vanishes early in the day.

6:5   That is why I have sent my prophets to you with my message of judgment and destruction. What I want from you is plain and clear:

6:6   I want your constant love, not your animal sacrifices. I would rather have my people know me than burn offerings to me.

6:7   "But as soon as they entered the land at Adam, they broke the covenant I had made with them.

6:8   Gilead is a city full of evil people and murderers.

6:9   The priests are like a gang of robbers who wait in ambush for someone. Even on the road to the holy place at Shechem they commit murder. And they do all this evil deliberately!

6:10   I have seen a horrible thing in Israel: my people have defiled themselves by worshiping idols.

6:11   "And as for you, people of Judah, I have set a time to punish you also for what you are doing.