How does fleeting mercy contrast with the call to return?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Healing and renewed knowledge are followed by the demand for mercy and an indictment of bloodshed.

Chapter breakdown

In affliction the people will rise early: Come, let us return to the Lord. The one who has taken and struck them will heal and cure them. He revives them after two days and raises them on the third to live in his sight. They will know and continue seeking knowledge of the Lord; his going forth is prepared like morning light, and he comes as early and latter rain. The editorial argument connects affliction with bringing many to Christ, but the verse itself does not explicitly name Christ's resurrection.

God asks what to do with Ephraim and Juda: their mercy is like a morning cloud and dew that disappears. He has hewn them by prophets and slain them by his words; judgments go forth as light. He desires mercy rather than sacrifice, and knowledge of God more than holocausts. Like Adam they transgress the covenant and deal treacherously. Galaad is a city of idol-workers, supplanted with blood. The edition gives two explanations: ruin for bloodshed, including conspiracy with Bethel's priests to murder travelers leaving Sichem for Jerusalem's temple; or blood flowing so thickly that passing soles are stained.

The verse describes conspiracy with priests like highway robbers murdering those passing out of Sichem. The Lord has seen a horrible thing in Israel's house, Ephraim's fornications and Israel's defilement. Juda also is told to set a harvest when the people's captivity is brought back. The chapter supplies neither a Levitical-sanctuary designation for Galaad nor a guarantee about what that harvest entails.

The story inside

Mercy vanishes like morning cloud and dew. Knowledge of God is desired more than holocausts. The note offers two explanations of Galaad’s being supplanted with blood.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Mercy vanishes like morning cloud and dew.
2
Knowledge of God is desired more than holocausts.
3
The note offers two explanations of Galaad’s being supplanted with blood.

Test your recall

In which direction do the murdered travelers move from Sichem?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 99573–99583
6:1. In their affliction they will rise early to me: Come, and let us return to the Lord. 6:2. For he hath taken us, and he will heal us: he will strike, and he will cure us. 6:3. He will revive us after two days: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. We shall know, and we shall follow on, that we may know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning light, and he will come to us as the early and the latter rain to the earth.
Lines 99585–99594
6:4. What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim? what shall I do to thee, O Juda? your mercy is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth away in the morning. 6:5. For this reason have I hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments shall go forth as the light. 6:6. For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than holocausts.
Lines 99596–99607
6:7. But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant, there have they dealt treacherously against me. 6:8. Galaad is a city of workers of idols, supplanted with blood. Supplanted with blood.... that is, undermined and brought to ruin, for shedding of blood: and, as it is signified in the following verse, for conspiring with the priests (of Bethel) like robbers, to murder in the way such as passed out of Sichem to go towards the temple of Jerusalem. Or else ... supplanted with blood ... signifies flowing in such manner with blood, as to suffer none to walk there without imbruing the soles of their feet in blood.
Lines 99609–99617
6:9. And like the jaws of highway robbers, they conspire with the priests who murder in the way those that pass out of Sichem: for they have wrought wickedness. 6:10. I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: the fornications of Ephraim there: Israel is defiled. 6:11. And thou also, O Juda, set thee a harvest, when I shall bring back the captivity of my people.