⁴ Will you not, from this time, make your prayer to me, crying, My father, you are the friend of my early years?

¹⁹ But I said, How am I to put you among the children, and give you a desired land, a heritage of glory among the armies of the nations? and I said, You are to say to me, My father; and not be turned away from me.

² Go and say in the ears of Jerusalem, The Lord says, I still keep the memory of your kind heart when you were young, and your love when you became my bride; how you went after me in the waste of sand, in an unplanted land.

¹⁵ And I will give her vine-gardens from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will give her answer there as in the days when she was young, and as in the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

⁹ They will come with weeping, and going before them I will be their guide: guiding them by streams of water in a straight way where there is no falling: for I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is the first of my sons.

¹⁷ Who is false to the husband of her early years, and does not keep the agreement of her God in mind:

¹⁷ O God, you have been my teacher from the time when I was young; and I have been talking of your works of wonder even till now.

¹⁴ But you say, For what reason? Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your early years, to whom you have been untrue, though she is your friend and the wife to whom you have given your word.

¹ Samaria will be made waste, for she has gone against her God: they will be cut down by the sword, their little children will be broken on the rocks, their women who are with child will be cut open.

² O Israel, come back to the Lord your God; for your evil-doing has been the cause of your fall.

³ Take with you words, and come back to the Lord; say to him, Let there be forgiveness for all wrongdoing, so that we may take what is good, and give in payment the fruit of our lips.

¹⁸ Certainly Ephraim's words of grief have come to my ears, You have given me training and I have undergone it like a young cow unused to the yoke: let me be turned and come back, for you are the Lord my God.

¹⁹ Truly, after I had been turned, I had regret for my ways; and after I had got knowledge, I made signs of sorrow: I was put to shame, truly, I was covered with shame, because I had to undergo the shame of my early years.

²⁰ Is Ephraim my dear son? is he the child of my delight? for whenever I say things against him, I still keep him in my memory: so my heart is troubled for him; I will certainly have mercy on him, says the Lord.

²⁷ Who say to a tree, You are my father; and to a stone, You have given me life: for their backs have been turned to me, not their faces: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Up! and be our saviour.

⁴ To make the simple-minded sharp, and to give the young man knowledge, and serious purpose:

⁹ <BETH> How may a young man make his way clean? by guiding it after your word.

⁵ For you are my hope, O Lord God; I have had faith in you from the time when I was young.

¹⁴ Because this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide.