Repentir et rechute
V. 1-3: cf. Os 5:15; 14:1, etc.1 Venez, retournons à l’Éternel!
Car il a déchiré, mais il nous guérira;
Il a frappé, mais il bandera nos plaies.
2 Il nous rendra la vie dans deux jours;
Le troisième jour il nous relèvera,
Et nous vivrons devant lui.
3 Connaissons, cherchons à connaître l’Éternel;
Sa venue est aussi certaine que celle de l’aurore.
Il viendra pour nous comme la pluie,
Comme la pluie du printemps qui arrose la terre.
V. 4-11: cf. Ps 78:34-37.4 Que te ferai-je, Éphraïm?
Que te ferai-je, Juda?
Votre piété est comme la nuée du matin,
Comme la rosée qui bientôt se dissipe.
5 C’est pourquoi je les frapperai par les prophètes,
Je les tuerai par les paroles de ma bouche,
Et mes jugements éclateront comme la lumière.
6 Car j’aime la piété et non les sacrifices,
Et la connaissance de Dieu plus que les holocaustes.
7 Ils ont, comme le vulgaire, transgressé l’alliance;
C’est alors qu’ils m’ont été infidèles.
8 Galaad est une ville de malfaiteurs,
Elle porte des traces de sang.
9 La troupe des sacrificateurs est comme une bande en embuscade,
Commettant des assassinats sur le chemin de Sichem;
Car ils se livrent au crime.
10 Dans la maison d’Israël j’ai vu des choses horribles:
Là Éphraïm se prostitue, Israël se souille.
11 A toi aussi, Juda, une moisson est préparée,
Quand je ramènerai les captifs de mon peuple.
The People's Insincere Repentance
1 The people say, “Let's return to the Lord! He has hurt us, but he will be sure to heal us; he has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds, won't he? 2 In two or three days he will revive us, and we will live in his presence. 3 Let us try to know the Lord. He will come to us as surely as the day dawns, as surely as the spring rains fall upon the earth.”
4 But the Lord says, “Israel and Judah, what am I going to do with you? Your love for me disappears as quickly as morning mist; it is like dew, that vanishes early in the day. 5 That is why I have sent my prophets to you with my message of judgment and destruction. What I want from you is plain and clear: 6 I want your constant love, not your animal sacrifices. I would rather have my people know me than burn offerings to me.
7 “But as soon as they entered the land at Adam, they broke the covenant I had made with them. 8 Gilead is a city full of evil people and murderers. 9 The priests are like a gang of robbers who wait in ambush for someone. Even on the road to the holy place at Shechem they commit murder. And they do all this evil deliberately! 10 I have seen a horrible thing in Israel: my people have defiled themselves by worshiping idols.
11 “And as for you, people of Judah, I have set a time to punish you also for what you are doing.
