²¹ A voice is heard upon the bare heights, the weeping `and' the supplications of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Jehovah their God.

¹⁰ For godly sorrow worketh repentance unto salvation, `a repentance' which bringeth no regret: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

⁹ They shall come with weeping; and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters, in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble; for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first-born.

² Lift up thine eyes unto the bare heights, and see; where hast thou not been lain with? By the ways hast thou sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

³² Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.

¹⁰ For thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength; therefore thou plantest pleasant plants, and settest it with strange slips.

² They are gone up to Bayith, and to Dibon, to the high places, to weep: Moab waileth over Nebo, and over Medeba; on all their heads is baldness, every beard is cut off.

¹⁰ And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they shall look unto me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born.

¹¹ In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

¹² And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;

¹³ the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart;

¹⁴ all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

⁹ Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and rulers of the house of Israel, that abhor justice, and pervert all equity.

⁶ According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted: therefore have they forgotten me.

¹⁴ For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and builded palaces; and Judah hath multiplied fortified cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the castles thereof.

³⁵ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast forgotten me, and cast me behind thy back, therefore bear thou also thy lewdness and thy whoredoms.

¹⁶ But those of them that escape shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, every one in his iniquity.

⁴ In those days, and in that time, saith Jehovah, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek Jehovah their God.

⁵ They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces thitherward, `saying', Come ye, and join yourselves to Jehovah in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten.

¹⁸ I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself `thus', Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed `to the yoke': turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art Jehovah my God.

¹⁹ Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth.

²⁰ Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a darling child? for as often as I speak against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my heart yearneth for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith Jehovah.

¹⁵ Why criest thou for thy hurt? thy pain is incurable: for the greatness of thine iniquity, because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee.

¹⁶ Therefore all they that devour thee shall be devoured; and all thine adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; and they that despoil thee shall be a spoil, and all that prey upon thee will I give for a prey.

¹⁷ For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith Jehovah; because they have called thee an outcast, `saying', It is Zion, whom no man seeketh after.

³ The foolishness of man subverteth his way; And his heart fretteth against Jehovah.

⁹ He that walketh uprightly walketh surely; But he that perverteth his ways shall be known.

²⁷ He singeth before men, and saith, I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, And it profited me not:

³² And the angel of Jehovah said unto him, Wherefore hast thou smitten thine ass these three times? behold, I am come forth for an adversary, because thy way is perverse before me: