The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

The beginning of the word of Yahweh with Hosea, was, - that Yahweh said unto Hosea, Go take thee a woman of unchastity, and the children of unchastity, for, unchastely indeed, hath the land been going away from following Yahweh.

The LORD told Hosea, "Name the child "Jezreel,' because in a little while I'll avenge the blood that was shed by Jehu's dynasty at Jezreel. I'll put an end to 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 Jehovah'said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah; for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, that I should in any wise pardon them.

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.

Tell your brethren, that they are my people; and your sistren, that they have obtained mercy.

“Contend with your mother (nation); contend,
For she is not my wife and I am not her husband;
And have her remove her [marks of] prostitution from her face
And her adultery from between her breasts

Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

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 though she run after her lovers, yet shall she not get them: she shall seek them, but not find them. Then shall she say, 'Well, I will go turn again to my first husband, for at that time was I better at ease, 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 I'll return and take back my grain at harvest time and my new wine in its season. I'll take back my wool and my flax that was to have covered her nakedness.

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.

“I will punish her for the days of the Baals
When she used to offer sacrifices to them
And adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the Lord.

And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.

For I will remove the names of the Baal idols from your lips, so that you will never again utter their names!"

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.

I will make you my wife forever I will make you my wife in a way that is righteous, in a manner that is just, by a love that is gracious, and by a motive that is mercy.

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 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 said unto her, "Thou shalt bide with me a long season, but see that thou playest not the harlot, and look thou meddle with none other man, and then will I keep myself for thee."

And after that, the children of Israel will come back and go in search of the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come in fear to the Lord and to his mercies in the days to come.

Hear the word of Yahweh, ye sons of Israel, - that, a controversy, hath Yahweh with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no faithfulness, nor lovingkindness, nor knowledge of God, in the land:

There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery.
They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.

Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.

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.

My people ask counsel at their stocks, their staff must tell them. For a whorish mind hath deceived them, so that they commit fornication against their God.

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, as a heifer that is stubborn, hath Israel, been stubborn, - Now, can Yahweh, turn them out to pasture, like a young ram in a wide place?

The wind hath bound her up in its wings, - that they may be ashamed, because of their sacrifices.

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.

They are not minded to turn unto their God, for they have an whorish heart, so that they cannot know the LORD.

Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.

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

I go -- I turn back unto My place, Till that they are desolate, and have sought My face. In their distress they do seek Me speedily!'

“Come and let us return [in repentance] to the Lord,
For He has torn us, but He will heal us;
He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.

“After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up
That we may live before Him.

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.

O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth early away.

Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.

For it is love that I seek, and not sacrifice; knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.

Like a gang of thieves that stalk a man, priests commit murder along the road to Shechem, committing shameful crimes.

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

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.

They are all adulterers. They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring, from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.

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 has mixed itself like flour among the nations; Ephraim is like a ruined cake of bread that is scorched on one side.

Ephraim is like a dove, that is beguiled, and hath no heart. Now call they upon the Egyptians, now go they to the Assyrians:

As they are going, I will spread My net over them;
I will bring them down like birds of the sky.
I will discipline them in accordance
with the news that reaches their assembly.

Woe be unto them, for they have forsaken me. They must be destroyed, for they have set me at naught. I am he that have redeemed them, and yet they dissemble with me.

They return, but not to him that is on high; they are like a deceitful bow; their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.

They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.

For, of Israel, is even that thing! A craftsman, made it, and, a No-god, it is! For, into fragments, shall the Calf of Samaria be broken.

For, to the wind, they sow, and, to the whirlwind, they reap: stalk, hath it none, That which shooteth forth, shall yield no meal, If so be it yield, foreigners, swallow it lip,

Israel is [as if] swallowed up [by enemies];
They are now among the nations
Like a vessel [of cheap, coarse pottery] that is useless.

They have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey that wanders off. Ephraim has hired prostitutes as lovers.

My sacrificial gifts, have they been sacrificing as common flesh, and have eaten, Yahweh, hath not accepted them, - Now, will he call to mind their iniquity, that he may punish their sin, they, to Egypt, will return.

For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;
And Judah has multiplied fortified cities,
But I will send a fire on its cities that it may consume its palatial dwellings.

They shall not dwell in Jehovah's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria shall they eat that which is unclean.

They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.

The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the man that hath the spirit is mad, for the abundance of thine iniquity, and because the enmity is great.

Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a [true] prophet [to warn the nation];
But the snare of a bird catcher was laid in all his paths.
And there is only deep hostility in the house of his God (the land of Israel).

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.

Ephraim flyeth like a bird, so shall their glory also: Insomuch that they shall neither beget, conceive nor bear children.

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!

Give them, Lord—
What should You give?
Give them a womb that miscarries
and breasts that are dry!

Ephraim is hewn down, their root is dried up, so that they shall bring no more fruit: yea and though they bring forth any, yet will I slay even the best beloved fruit of their body.

My God will reject them, because they hearkened not unto him, - that they may become wanderers throughout the nations.

Israel is a luxuriant vine, that putteth forth his fruit: according to the abundance of his fruit he hath multiplied his altars; according to the goodness of their land they have made goodly pillars.

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.

Itself also, to Assyria, shall be borne along, as a present to a hostile king, - shame, shall Ephraim receive, that Israel, may be ashamed, of his own counsel.

Destroyed will be the high places of Aven, that are the sin of Israel. Both thorn and thistle will grow up over their altars. They will call out to the mountains, "Cover us!' and to the hills, "Fall on us!'

O Israel, you have [willfully] sinned since the days of Gibeah;
There they (Israel) stand!
Will not the battle against the sons of wickedness overtake them at Gibeah?

It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.

And Ephraim is as an heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow, and Jacob shall break his clods.

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap ye at thc bidding of lovingkindness, furrow to yourselves the newly-ploughed soil, - then will be the time to seek Yahweh, until he come, that he may rain down righteousness for you.

there shall grow a sedition among thy people. All thy strong cities shall be laid waste, even as Shalman was destroyed with his familiars, through him that was avenged of Arbel in the day of battle: where the mother perished with her children.

So will it happen to you, O Bethel, because of your great wickedness! When that day dawns, the king of Israel will be destroyed.

I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.

I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.

that they should not go again into Egypt. And now is Assyria their king: for they would not turn unto me.

Therefore shall the sword begin in their cities, the store that they have laid up shall be destroyed and eaten up: and that because of their own imaginations.

And my people are bent on backsliding from me: though they call them to him that is on high, none at all will exalt him .

therefore have I not turned me to destroy Ephraim in my wrathful displeasure. For I am God, and no man: I am even that holy one in the midst of thee, though I came not within the city.

They will go after the Lord; his cry will be like that of a lion; his cry will be loud, and the children will come from the west, shaking with fear;

that they may be scattered away from Egypt, as men scare birds: and frayed away, as doves used to be, from the Assyrians' land: and that because I would have them tarry at home, sayeth the LORD.

But, a controversy, hath Yahweh with Judah, - so that he may bring punishment on Jacob, according to his ways, According to his doings, repay him.

He strove with the angel, and gat the victory: so that he prayed and desired him. He found him at Bethel, and there he talked with us.

And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.

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.

I have been bitterly moved to wrath by Ephraim; so that his blood will be on him, and the Lord will make his shame come back on him.

And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: that thou shouldest know no God but me only, and that thou shouldest have no Saviour but only me.

I took diligent heed of thee in the wilderness, that dry land.