4 “O Israel and Judah,what should I do with you?” asks the lord.“For your love vanishes like the morning mistand disappears like dew in the sunlight.
5 I sent my prophets to cut you to pieces—to slaughter you with my words,with judgments as inescapable as light.
6 I want you to show love,not offer sacrifices.I want you to know memore than I want burnt offerings.
7 But like Adam, you broke my covenantand betrayed my trust.
8 “Gilead is a city of sinners,tracked with footprints of blood.
9 Priests form bands of robbers,waiting in ambush for their victims.They murder travelers along the road to Shechemand practice every kind of sin.
10 Yes, I have seen something horrible in Ephraim and Israel:My people are defiled by prostituting themselves with other gods!