First, when the LORD spake unto Hosea, he said unto him, "Go thy way, take a harlot to thy wife, and get children by her: for the land hath committed great whoredom against the LORD."

"But I will hedge her way with thorns, and stop it, that she shall not find her footsteps:

Then said the LORD to me, "Go yet thy way and vow an adulterous woman, whom thy neighbour loveth as the LORD doth the children of Israel: howbeit, they have respect to strange gods, and love the wine cans."

Thus the priest is become like the people. Wherefore I will punish them for their wicked ways, and reward them according to their own imaginations.

I am unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a lion's whelp to the house of Judah. Even I, I will spoil them, and go my way. I will take them with me, and no man shall rescue them.

But now they have plowed them wickedness, therefore shall they reap sin, and eat the fruit of lies. Seeing thou puttest thy confidence in thine own ways, and leanest to the multitude of thy worthies:

The LORD hath a court to hold with Judah, and will punish Jacob: After their own ways and according to their own inventions, shall he recompense them.

Therefore will I be unto them as a lion, and as a leopard in the way to the Assyrians.

Who is wise to understand these things and hath wit to perceive them? For the ways of the LORD are straight, and the righteous shall walk in them: but the wicked shall tumble in them.