and he said, Call his name Lo-ammi; for ye are not my people, and I will not be for you.

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, it shall be said unto them, Sons of the living God.

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

And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they are the children of whoredoms.

For their mother has committed adultery; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, "I will seek out my lovers; they are the ones who give me my bread and my water, my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine.

And I will make desolate her vine and her fig-tree, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards which my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

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 will sow her to me in the earth. And I will have mercy upon her who had not obtained mercy. And I will say to those who were not my people, Thou are my people, and they shall say, My God.

And Jehovah saith unto me: 'Again, go, love a woman, loved of a friend, and an adulteress, like the loved of Jehovah, the sons of Israel, and they are turning unto other gods, and are lovers of grape-cakes.'

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.

There is cursing and broken faith, violent death and attacks on property, men are untrue in married life, houses are broken into, and there is blood touching blood.

Therefore mourn doth the land, And weak is every dweller in it, With the beast of the field, And with the fowl of the heavens, And the fishes of the sea -- they are removed.

Yet let no man strive, and let no man reprove; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; for thou hast rejected knowledge, and I will reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.

{They feed on the sin of my people}, {they are greedy} for their iniquity.

And they have eaten, and are not satisfied, They have gone a-whoring, and increase not, For they have left off taking heed to Jehovah.

They make sacrifices upon the high mountains, and burn their incense upon the hills, yea among the oaks, groves and bushes, for there are good shadows. Therefore your daughters are become harlots, and your spouses have broken their wedlock.

Therefore commit whoredom do your daughters, And your spouses commit adultery, I do not see after your daughters when they commit whoredom, And after your spouses when they commit adultery, For they with the harlots are separated, And with the whores they do sacrifice, A people that doth not understand kicketh.

Though thou, Israel, are disposed to play the harlot, yet shouldest not thou have offended, O Judah. Thou shouldest not have run to Gilgal, nor gone up to Bethaven, nor have sworn, 'The LORD liveth.'

Their drink has become bitter; they are completely false; her rulers take pleasure in shame.

Distressed her hath wind with its wings, And they are ashamed 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.

And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.

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

They are unfaithful to the LORD; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.

Let the horn be sounded in Gibeah and in Ramah; give a loud cry in Beth-aven, They are after you, O Benjamin.

The princes of Judah are become like them that remove the landmark: 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!'

O Ephraim, what shall I do with you?
O Judah, what shall I do with you?
For your [wavering] loyalty and kindness are [transient] like the morning cloud
And like the dew that goes away early.

Therefore I have hewed them by the prophets. I have slain them by the words of my mouth. And thy judgments are [as] the light that goes forth.

Gilead is a city full of evildoers; its streets are stained with bloody footprints!

And like a band of thieves waiting for a man, so are the priests watching secretly the way of those going quickly to Shechem, for they are working with an evil design.

In Israel I have seen a very evil thing; there false ways are seen in Ephraim, Israel is unclean;

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].

When my desire was for the fate of my people to be changed and to make Israel well, then the sin of Ephraim was made clear, and the evil-doing of Samaria; for their ways are false, and the thief comes into the house, while the band of outlaws takes property by force in the streets.

And they say not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now do their own doings encompass them; they are before my face.

They are all adulterers. They are as an oven heated by the baker. He ceases to stir [the fire], from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.

On the day of our king,
the princes are sick with the heat of wine—
there is a conspiracy with traitors.

They with the imagination of their heart are like an oven, their sleep is all night like the sleep of a baker, in the morning is he as hot as the flame of fire:

They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.

Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, and he knoweth it not.

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.

And they have not made prayer to me in their hearts, but they make loud cries on their beds; they are cutting themselves for food and wine, they are turned against me.

They return, but not to the Most 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.

They have made kings, and not by Me, They have made princes, and I have not known, Their silver and their gold they have made to them idols, So that they are cut off.

Cast off hath thy calf, O Samaria, Burned hath Mine anger against them, Till when are they not capable of purity?

Israel is swallowed up: now are they become among the nations as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.

For they are gone up to Assyria as a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.

Therefore are they scattered among the Heathen; There will I gather them up. They shall soon be weary of the burden of king and princes.

For Ephraim has constructed many altars for sin;
They are altars intended for sinning [which multiply his guilt].

I have prescribed unto him the manifold things of my law: they are counted as a strange thing.

O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly like the nations, for you are unfaithful to your God. You love to receive a prostitute's wages on all the floors where you thresh your grain.

The grain-floor and the place where the grapes are crushed will not give them food; there will be no new wine for them.

They pour out no wine for a drink offering unto the LORD, neither give they him their slain offerings: but they be unto them as mourner's meats, wherein all they that eat them are defiled. For the bread that they have such lust unto, shall not come into the house of the LORD.

What will you do on the day of the appointed festival
And on the day of the feast of the Lord [when you are in exile]?

For behold, they are gone away because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Moph shall bury them: their pleasant things of silver, nettles shall possess them; thorns shall be in their tents.

The days of visitation are come; the days of recompence are come: Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the inspired man is mad, because of the greatness of thine iniquity, and the great enmity.

The prophet is a watchman over Ephraim on behalf of God, yet traps are laid for him along all of his paths; animosity rages against him in the land of his God.

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness, and saw their fathers as the first figs in the top of the fig tree. But they are gone to Baalpeor, and run away from me to that shameful Idol, and are become as abominable as their lovers.

Just as lion cubs are born predators, so Ephraim will bear his sons for slaughter.

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

All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings, I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more: all their princes are rebellious.

Ephraim is struck down;
their roots are withered;
they cannot bear fruit.
Even if they bear children,
I will kill the precious offspring of their wombs.

Reject them doth my God, Because they have not hearkened to Him, And they are wanderers among nations!

Their heart hath been divided, now they are guilty, He doth break down their altars, He doth destroy their standing-pillars.

In fact, they are now saying,
“We have no king!
For we do not fear the Lord.
What can a king do for us?”

Their words are foolish; they make agreements with false oaths, so punishment will come up like a poison-plant in a ploughed field.

As for Samaria, her king will be cut off and float away
Like a twig on the surface of the water.

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!'

At my pleasure will I chastise them; and the peoples shall be assembled against them, when they are bound for their two iniquities.

And rise doth a tumult among thy people, And all thy fortresses are spoiled, As the spoiling of Shalman of Beth-Arbel, In a day of battle, Mother against sons dashed in pieces.

Yea, my people are bent upon backsliding from me: though they call them to the Most High, none at all exalteth him.

How shall I give thee over, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee up, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? My heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.

The deceit of Ephraim and the false words of Israel are about me on every side. ...

Ephraim's food is the wind, and he goes after the east wind: deceit and destruction are increasing day by day; they make an agreement with Assyria, and take oil into Egypt.

He is a merchant, balances of deceit are in his hand; he loveth to oppress.

If Gilead is iniquity, surely they are but vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

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.'

Therefore they are as a cloud of the morning, And as dew, rising early, going away, As chaff tossed about out of a floor, And as smoke out of a window.

According to their feedings they are satiated, They have been satiated, And their heart is lifted up, Therefore they have forgotten Me,

It is thy destruction, O Israel, that [thou are] against me, against thy help.

Where are thy kings now, that shouldest help thee in all thy cities? Yea and thy judges, of whom thou sayest, "Give me a king and princes?"

The pangs of a woman in labour, shall overtake him, - he, is a son, not wise, for, now, he cannot stand still, when children are about to be born.

I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death: where, O death, are thy plagues? where, O Sheol, is thy destruction? Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

As for Samaria, they shall be made waste. And why? They are disobedient unto their God. They shall perish with the sword, their children shall be slain, and their women great with child shall be ripped up.

Assyria shall not save us, neither will we ride on horses: neither will we say to the works of our own hands, 'Ye are our Gods,' for thou hast compassion on the friendless.

Ephraim saith - What to me any more are idols? I, have answered, and have closely observed him, I, am like a fir-tree that is green, From me, is thy fruit found.

Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? intelligent, and he shall know them? For the ways of Jehovah are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein.