What shall I do with you, o Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away.

"What in the world am I going to do with you?" Have you ever heard that before or said it? A mother shakes her head at a child who is always getting dirty and asks, "What am I going to do with you?" A husband, like Hosea, has a faithless wife, and each time he takes her back, he despairingly asks, "What am I going to do with you?" A criminal appears before a judge for the third time for the same offense, and the judge wearily asks, "What am I going to do with you? Prison doesn’t seem to change you."

In exasperation and desperation, even God looks at humankind and asks, "What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? Your love for me is as shortlived as the dew o…