{At the beginning when Yahweh spoke} through Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, "Go, take for yourself a wife and children of whoredom, because the land commits great whoredom {forsaking Yahweh}."

Plead ye with your mother -- plead, (For she is not My wife, and I am not her husband,) And she turneth her whoredoms from before her, And her adulteries from between her breasts,

And I said to her, You are to be mine for a long space of time; you are not to be false to me, and no other man is to have you for his wife; and so will I be to you.

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.

A wind with its wings will carry them off,
and they will be ashamed of their sacrifices.

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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 carry off, and there shall be none to deliver.

For I desire and delight in [steadfast] loyalty [faithfulness in the covenant relationship], rather than sacrifice,
And in the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.