4-7. “What am I to do with you, Ephraim?What do I make of you, Judah?Your declarations of love last no longerthan morning mist and predawn dew.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 judgmentblazing like light.I’m after love that lasts, not more religion.I want you to know God, not go to more prayer meetings.You broke the covenant—just like Adam!You broke faith with me—ungrateful wretches!
8-9. “Gilead has become Crime City—blood on the sidewalks, blood on the streets.It used to be robbers who mugged pedestrians.Now it’s gangs of priestsAssaulting 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.”