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.

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, he said to him, "Go marry a prostitute who will bear illegitimate children conceived through prostitution, because the nation continually commits spiritual prostitution by turning away from the Lord."

So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; who conceived, and bore him a son.

Then the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel shall be gathered together,
And they will appoint for themselves one leader,
And they will go up from the land,
For great and glorious will be the day of Jezreel.

“For their mother has played the prostitute;
She who conceived them has acted shamefully,
For she said, ‘I will pursue my lovers
Who give me my food and my water,
My wool and my flax, my oil and my [refreshing] drinks.’

“For she (Israel) has not noticed nor understood nor realized that it was I [the Lord God] who gave her the grain and the new wine and the oil,
And lavished on her silver and gold,
Which they used for Baal and made into his image.

And I have charged on her the days of the Baalim, To whom she maketh perfume, And putteth on her ring and her ornament, And goeth after her lovers, And Me forgat -- an affirmation of Jehovah.

And the earth shall respond to the grain and the new wine and the oil [which beg it to bring them forth],
And they will respond to Jezreel [My Israel, who will now be restored].

“I will sow her for Myself in the land.
I will also have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;
And I will say to those who were not My people,
‘You are My people,’
And they will say, ‘You are my God!’”

Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.

"Hear this message from the LORD, people of Israel. Indeed, the LORD brings a charge against the people who live in the land for there is no truth and no gracious love or knowledge of God in the land.

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 let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse; For your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.

I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute
Or your brides when they commit adultery,
For the men themselves slip away with prostitutes,
And they offer sacrifices with temple prostitutes [who give their bodies in honor of the idol].
So the people without understanding [stumble and fall and] come to ruin.

Those who revolt are knee-deep in slaughter, but I will discipline them all.

The princes of Judah are like those who move a boundary marker;
I will pour out My wrath on them like [an unrestrained flood of] water.

Because I [will be] like a lion to Ephraim and like a fierce strong lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear and I will go; I will carry off, and there is no one who delivers.

Come, let us return to Yahweh; because [it is] he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck us down and will bind us up.

Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity; it is stained with blood.

Like raiders who wait in ambush for someone,
a band of priests murders on the road to Shechem.
They commit atrocities.

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.

They are all hot like an oven
And they consume their judges (rulers);
All their kings have fallen.
There is no one among them who calls to Me.

They would return - not to him who is on high! They have become like a deceitful bow, their rulers, shall fall by the sword, for the rage of their tongue, this, shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

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.

They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord;
Their sacrifices will not please Him.
Their bread will be like mourners’ bread [eaten at funerals];
All who eat it will be [ceremonially] unclean,
For their bread will be for themselves;
It will not enter the house of the Lord [to be consecrated].

The days of punishment have come;
The days of retribution are at hand;
Let Israel know this!
The prophet is [considered] a fool;
The man [of God] who is inspired is [treated as if] demented,
Because of the abundance of your wickedness and guilt,
And because your deep antagonism [toward God and the prophets] is so great.

The people of Samaria will fear and tremble
For the [idolatrous] calf of Beth-aven (House of Wickedness).
Indeed, its people will mourn over it
And its idolatrous priests will cry out and wail over it,
Over its glory, because the glory [of their calf god] has departed from it.

Ephraim was a well-trained heifer who loved to thresh grain; I myself put a fine yokeon her neck. I will harness Ephraim. Let Judah plow! Let Jacob break up the unplowed ground for himself!

It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them in My arms,
but they never knew that I healed them.

I led them gently with cords of a man, with bonds of love [guiding them],
And I was to them as one who lifts up and eases the yoke [of the law] over their jaws;
And I bent down to them and fed them.

My people are bent on turning from Me;
Though the prophets call them to the One on high,
None at all exalts Him.

They shall walk after Jehovah, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children shall come trembling from the west.

Ephraim surrounds Me with lies
And the house of Israel with deceit;
Judah is also unruly against God,
Even against the Holy One who is faithful.

Even the Lord, the God of hosts,
The name of Him [who spoke with Jacob] is the Lord.

But I have been the Lord your God since [you became a nation in] the land of Egypt;
I will make you live in tents again,
As in the days of the appointed and solemn festival.

And now do they add to sin, And make to them a molten image of their silver, By their own understanding -- idols, A work of artisans -- all of it, Of them they say, who are sacrificers among men, 'The calves let them kiss.'

But I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt. Therefore, you must not acknowledge any God but me; except me there is no Savior.

I will destroy you, Israel; who will help you?

I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?

Samaria will be made waste, for she has gone against her God: they will be cut down by the sword, their little children will be broken on the rocks, their women who are with child will be cut open.

Assyria will not be our salvation; we will not go on horses; we will not again say to the work of our hands, You are our gods; for in you there is mercy for the child who has no father.

They who dwell in his shade shall again show life like the corn, and break forth as the vine, - and, the remembrance of him, shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

Ephraim, why should I have anything more
to do with idols?
It is I who answer and watch over him.
I am like a flourishing pine tree;
your fruit comes from Me.

Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.