A message from the LORD came to Beeri's son Hosea during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Joash's son Jeroboam, who was king of Israel.

The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.

Now when Lo-ruhamah had been taken from the breast, the woman gave birth to a son.

And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint themselves one head, and shall go up from the land; for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

For fear that I may take away her robe from her, making her uncovered as in the day of her birth; making her like a waste place and a dry land, causing her death through need of water.

And now I will uncover her nakedness before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my hand.

I'll destroy her vines and her fig trees, about which she said, "These are the earnings that my lovers paid me. I'll make them grow into a forest, and the wild animals will eat from them.'

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.

And I have turned aside the names of the lords from her mouth, And they are not remembered any more by their name.

And I have made to them a covenant in that day, with the beast of the field, And with the fowl of the heavens, And the creeping thing of the ground, And bow, and sword, and war I break from off the land, And have caused them to lie down confidently.

Afterward the sons of Israel will return [in deep repentance] and seek the Lord their God and [seek from the line of] David their king [the King of kings—the Messiah]; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness and blessing in the last days.

Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel,
For the Lord has a [legal] case with the inhabitants of the land,
Because there is no faithfulness [no steadfast love, no dependability] or loyalty or kindness
Or knowledge of God [from personal experience with Him] in the land.

Cut off have been My people for lack of knowledge, Because thou knowledge hast rejected, I reject thee from being priest to Me, And thou forgettest the law of thy God, I forget thy sons, I also!

My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.

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.

They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them.

And see doth Ephraim his sickness, and Judah his wound, And Ephraim goeth unto Asshur, And sendeth unto a warlike king, And he is not able to give healing to you, Nor doth he remove from you a scar.

Therefore I cut them to pieces by the prophets, killing them by the words from my mouth. The verdict against you shines like a beacon.

Gilead is a city of workers of iniquity, Slippery from blood.

Also, O Judah, there is a harvest [of divine judgment] appointed for you,
When I restore the fortunes of My people [who have been slaves to the misery of sin].

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 king's festival day the princes got drunk from wine, so the king joined the mockers.

Men from other lands have made waste his strength, and he is not conscious of it; grey hairs have come on him here and there, and he has no knowledge of it.

Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

And they cried not unto me in their heart, when they howled upon their beds; they assemble themselves for corn and new wine; they have turned aside from me.

They turn back -- not to the Most High, They have been as a deceitful bow, Fall by sword do their princes, From the insolence of their tongue, This is their derision in the land of Egypt!

They set up kings, but not from Me [therefore without My blessing];
They have appointed princes, but I did not know it.
With their silver and their gold they made idols for themselves,
That they might be cut off.

For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

Also though they hire among nations, Now I gather them, and they are pained a little, From the burden of a king of princes.

I prescribed great things from my Law for them, but they considered them profane.

As for My sacrificial offerings,
They sacrifice the meat [as a mere formality] and eat it,
But the Lord is not pleased with them and does not accept them.
Now He will remember and take into account their wickedness and guilt,
And punish them for their sins.
They will return [in captivity] to [another] Egypt [that is, Assyria].

Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.

For, lo, they are gone away from destruction; yet Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them; their pleasant things of silver, nettles shall possess them; thorns shall be in their tents.

Ephraim is looking away from My God, The prophet! a snare of a fowler is over all his ways, Hatred is in the house of his God.

"I found Israel, as one finds grapes in the wilderness; Your ancestors seemed to me like the fruit gleaned from a fig tree's first harvest. When they went to Baal-peor, they devoted themselves to that filth, and they became loathsome, like what they loved.

As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.

Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!

As I have seen a beast whose young have been taken from her, so Ephraim will give birth to children only for them to be put to death.

Every evil of theirs [began] at Gilgal, so I [began] to hate them there; because of the evil of their deeds I will drive them out from my house. I will love them no more; all their officials [are] rebels.

Their hearts are divided; from now on they are to be found guilty. God will tear down their altars, he will destroy their stone idols.

From now on they will say, "We have no king, because we did not fear the LORD and what would a king do for us?'

The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.

The golden calf itself will be carried to Assyria
As tribute to King Jareb;
Ephraim will be seized with shame
And Israel will be ashamed of his own counsel [to worship the calf and separate Israel from Judah].

O Israel, thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.

When it is my desire [to defend My righteousness], I will chastise them;
And [hostile] peoples will be gathered against them
When they are bound and punished for their double guilt [their revolt against the Lord and their worship of idols].

So a great outcry will go up from among your people, and all your strong places will be broken, as Beth-arbel was broken by Shalman in the day of war, as the mother was broken on the rocks with her children.

Thus did the house of God to you from the face of the evil of your evil: in the morning the king of Israel being cut off, was cut off.

"When Israel was a young child I loved him, and from Egypt I called my son.

As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

I led them with human cords,
with ropes of love.
To them I was like one
who eases the yoke from their jaws;
I bent down to give them food.

Grievous hath been the sword in his cities, And it hath ended his bars, and consumed -- from their own counsels.

And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.

They shall walk after the LORD: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.

They will tremble like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria; and I will let them return to their homes-- a declaration of Yahweh.

Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from God, and is unfaithful to the Holy One.

And I that am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.

And by a prophet Yahweh brought Israel up from Egypt, and by a prophet he was watched over.

When the words of my law came from Ephraim, he was lifted up in Israel; but when he did evil through the Baal, death overtook him.

And now they sin again, and they make for themselves a molten idol, idols from their silver metal according to their understanding, all of them the work of skilled craftsmen. To these they say, "Sacrifice!" People are kissing bull calves.

Therefore they will be [swiftly dissipated] like the morning cloud
Or like dew which soon disappears,
Like chaff which swirls with the whirlwind from the threshing floor,
And like smoke from the chimney or through the window [worthless and without substance —they will vanish].

Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.

I will come face to face with them like a bear whose young ones have been taken from her, and their inmost hearts will be broken; there the dogs will make a meal of them; they will be wounded by the beasts of the field.

Well, I gave thee a king in my wrath, and in my displeasure will I take him from thee again.

I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.

Take words of repentance with you
and return to the Lord.
Say to Him: “Forgive all our sin
and accept what is good,
so that we may repay You
with praise from our lips.

I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.

Those who live under its protection will surely return. Their grain will flourish; they will blossom like a vine, and Israel's scent will be like wine from Lebanon.

Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.