4 What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim? what shall I do to thee, O Juda? your mercy is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth away in the morning.
5 For this reason have I hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments shall go forth as the light.
6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than holocausts.
7 But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant, there have they dealt treacherously against me.
8 Galaad is a city of workers of idols, supplanted with blood.
9 And like the jaws of highway robbers, they conspire with the priests who murder in the way those that pass out Sichem: for they have wrought wickedness.
10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: the fornications of Ephraim there: Israel is defiled.