When the Lord first spoke to Hosea, He said this to him:

Go and marry a promiscuous wife
and have children of promiscuity,
for the land is committing blatant acts of promiscuity
by abandoning the Lord.

And he will go and take Gomer, daughter of Diblaim; and she will conceive and bring forth to him a son.

And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.

And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.

But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.

And she will wean the Not being compassionated, and she will conceive and bring forth a son.

Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.

The number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea that cannot be measured or counted; and in the place where it is said to them, "You are not my people," it will be said to them, "Children of [the] living God."

Then the children of Judah and Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint for themselves one head; and {they will take possession of} the land, for great [is] the day of Jezreel.

Then you will call your brother, "My People" (Ammi)! You will call your sister, "Pity" (Ruhamah)!

Lest I strip her naked and expose her like the day when she was born; I will make her like the desert and turn her into parched land; I will kill her with thirst.

And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.

For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.

Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.

For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.

And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.

I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.

And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.

Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.

And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

“It shall come about in that day,” says the Lord,
“That you will call Me Ishi (my husband)
And will no longer call Me Baali (my Baal).

For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.

And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.

And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.

I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.

And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;

And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.

And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.

And Jehovah will say to me, Yet go, love a woman loving evil and an adulteress, as Jehovah loves the sons of Israel, and they took to other gods and love raisin-cakes.

And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.

The children of Israel will remain for many days without a king and prince, without sacrifice and stone pillar, ephod and teraphim.

Afterward the children of Israel will return and seek Yahweh their God and David their king. They will come in fear to Yahweh and to his goodness at the end of days.

By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break all restraint, and bloodshed touches bloodshed.

Therefore the land [continually] mourns,
And everyone who lives in it languishes [in tragic suffering]
Together with the animals of the open country and the birds of the heavens;
Even the fish of the sea disappear.

Yet is there none, that will chasten nor reprove another. The priests which should reform other men, are become like the people.

Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.

They will eat up the sin of my people, and they will lift up their soul to their iniquity.

And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.

They will eat and not be satisfied; they will play the whore and not multiply, because they have forsaken Yahweh {to devote themselves to

Fornication and wine and new wine will take away the heart.

My people will ask in their counsel, and with their rod they will announce to them: for the spirit of fornications caused to err, and they will commit fornication from under their God.

On the tops of the mountains they sacrifice, and on the hills they make offerings, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and all your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.

For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.

And whereas Ephraim is become partaker of Idols: well, let him go.

While drinking to excess, they prostitute themselves. They're in love with dishonor.

A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they will be ashamed because of their altars.

O ye priests, hear this; take heed, O thou household of Israel; give ear, O thou kingly house. For this punishment will come upon you, that are become a snare unto Mizphah, and a spread net unto the mount of Tabor.

And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.

I know Ephraim all too well; the evil of Israel is not hidden from me. For you have engaged in prostitution, O Ephraim; Israel has defiled itself.

They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD.

But the pride and self-reliance of Israel testifies against him.
Therefore Israel, and [especially] Ephraim, stumble and fall in their wickedness and guilt;
Judah also has stumbled with them.

They will go with their flocks and with their herds
To seek the Lord [diligently searching for Him], but they will not find Him;
He has withdrawn from them [refusing to hear the prayers of the unrepentant].

They have dealt faithlessly with Yahweh because they have borne illegitimate children. Now [the] new moon will devour them with their fields.

Ephraim will be a desolation in the day of punishment; among the tribes of Israel I will reveal what is true.

The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

Ephraim will be oppressed, crushed under judgment, because he was determined to pursue worthless idols.

Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.

When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah'saw his wound, then went Ephraim to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound.

For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.

I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

And let us know, let us follow on to know Jehovah: his going forth is sure as the morning; and he will come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain that watereth the earth.

What will I do with you, Ephraim? What will I do with you, Judah? Your love [is] like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early in the morning.

Therefore, I will certainly cut you into pieces at the hands of the prophets; I will certainly kill you in fulfillment of my oracles of judgment; for my judgment will come forth like the light of the dawn.

For I delight in faithfulness, not simply in sacrifice; I delight in acknowledging God, not simply in whole burnt offerings.

And, like liers in wait for a man, in troops, is a band of priests, on the road, will they murder towards Shechem, - because, a shameful deed, they have done.

Judah too! a harvest is appointed for thee, - in that I will bring back the captivity of my people.

when I heal Israel,
the sins of Ephraim and the crimes of Samaria
will be exposed.
For they practice fraud;
a thief breaks in;
a raiding party pillages outside.

And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.

By their evil they will gladden the king, and the chiefs by their falsehoods.

They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

On the day of our king, the rulers made him ill with the heat of wine; his hand was stretched out with the men of pride.

For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.

Ephraim will mingle himself among my people; Ephraim was a cake not turned.

Strangers have devoured his strength, yet he regardeth it not: he waxeth full of gray hairs, yet will he not know it.

And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.

And Ephraim will be as an enticed dove, not a heart: they called Egypt, they went to Assur.

When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.

Wo! to them, for they fled from me: destruction to them because they transgressed against me: and I will redeem them and they spake falsehoods against me.

They do not cry out to Me from their heart
When they wail on their beds [in unbelieving despair];
For the sake of grain and new wine they assemble themselves [as if worshiping Baal];
They rebel against Me.

And I corrected and strengthened their arms, and they will purpose evil against me.

They turn, not to the Most High, like a slack bow; their officials will fall by the sword because of the anger of their tongue. This [is] their scorn in the land of Egypt.

"Sound the ram's horn! Like a vulture the enemy will come against the Temple of the LORD, because Israel violated my covenant, transgressing my Law.

Then they will cry out to Me,
“My God, we of Israel know You!”

Israel has spurned [the] good; [the] enemy will pursue him.

They set kings in place, but not by me. They established princes, whom I did not recognize. They crafted idols for themselves from their silver and gold; as a result, they will be destroyed.

Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency?

Because [it is] from Israel, an artisan made it, it [is] not a god; for the calf of Samaria will be broken [to] pieces.

Because they sow the wind, they will reap the whirlwind. [The] standing grain does not have heads; it will not yield flour. [And] if it would yield, strangers would devour it.

Israel has been devoured; now they will live among the nations like a worthless container.

For they have gone up to Assyria,
Like a wild donkey all alone;
Ephraim has hired lovers.