6:4 What am I going to do with you, O Ephraim?
What am I going to do with you, O Judah?
For 6 your faithfulness is as fleeting as the morning mist; 7
it disappears as quickly as dawn’s dew! 8
1 tn Or “served.”
2 tn Heb “all the days of Joshua and all the days of the elders who outlived him.”
3 tn Heb “who knew all the work of the
4 tn Heb “And even in all this.”
5 tn Heb “ has not turned back to me with all her heart but only in falsehood.”
6 tn The vav prefixed to וְחַסְדְּכֶם (vÿkhasdÿkhem, “your faithfulness”) functions in an explanatory sense (“For”).
7 tn Heb “your faithfulness [so NCV; NASB “your loyalty”; NIV, NRSV, NLT “your love”] is like a morning cloud” (וְחַסְדְּכֶם כַּעֲנַן־בֹּקֶר, vÿkhasdÿkhem ka’anan-boqer).
8 tn Heb “the dew departing early” (BDB 1014 s.v. שָׁכַם); cf. NRSV “the dew that goes away early.” The Hiphil participle מַשְׁכִּים (mashkim) means “to depart early” (Gen 19:27; Josh 8:14; Judg 19:9). The idiom means “early morning” (1 Sam 17:16).