²¹ A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping [and] the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God.

¹⁰ For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world works death.

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

² Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see; where have you not been lain with? By the ways have you sat for them, as an Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.

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

¹⁰ For you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength; therefore you plant pleasant plants, and set it with strange slips.

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

¹⁰ I will pour on the house of David, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me{After "me," the Hebrew has the two letters "Aleph Tav" (the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet), not as a word, but as a grammatical marker.} whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn.

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

¹² The land will 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 who remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

⁹ Please listen to this, you heads of the house of Jacob, And rulers of the house of Israel, Who abhor justice, And pervert all equity.

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

¹⁴ For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; And Judah has multiplied fortified cities; But I will send a fire on his cities, And it will devour its fortresses."

³⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore bear you also your lewdness and your prostitution.

¹⁶ But those of those who 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, says Yahweh, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek Yahweh their God.

⁵ They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces turned toward it, [saying], Come you, and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten.

¹⁸ I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus], You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed [to the yoke]: turn you me, and I shall be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.

¹⁹ Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I struck on my thigh: I was ashamed, yes, 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 yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says Yahweh.

¹⁵ Why cry you for your hurt? your pain is incurable: for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased, I have done these things to you.

¹⁶ Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, everyone of them, shall go into captivity; and those who despoil you shall be a spoil, and all who prey on you will I give for a prey.

¹⁷ For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds, says Yahweh; because they have called you an outcast, [saying], It is Zion, whom no man seeks after.

³ The foolishness of man subverts his way; His heart rages against Yahweh.

⁹ He who walks blamelessly walks surely, But he who perverts his ways will be found out.

²⁷ He sings before men, and says, 'I have sinned, and perverted that which was right, And it didn't profit me.

³² The angel of Yahweh said to him, Why have you struck your donkey these three times? behold, I am come forth for an adversary, because your way is perverse before me: