Then said he, Call his name Lo-ammi, - for ye are Lo-ammi "No people of mine" , and, I, will not be yours.

Yet shall the number of the sons of Israel become like the sand of the sea, which can neither he measured, nor numbered, - and it shall come to pass, in the place where it used to be said to them, No people of mine, are ye, it shall be said to them, Sons of a Living God!

“[Hosea,] say to your brothers, ‘Ammi (you are my people),’ and to your sisters, ‘Ruhamah (you have been pitied and have obtained mercy).’

And, on her children, not have compassion, - because, the children of paramours, they are.

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 will lay waste her vine and her fig- tree, as to which she hath said, A present, are they for myself, which my lovers, have given me, - and I will make of them a thicket, and the wild beasts of the field shall devour them.

And I have turned aside the names of the lords from her mouth, And they are not remembered any more by their name.

I will plant my people in the land for myself. I will show mercy on her who has received no mercy I will say to those who are not my people, "You are my people!' and they will say, "You are 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.

Swearing, lying, murder, theft, and adultery are rampant, and blood mingles with 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.

Howbeit let, no man, contend, nor let him rebuke another, - since, thy people, are as they who contend against a priest:

My people, are destroyed, for lack of knowledge, - Because, thou, hast rejected knowledge, therefore will I reject thee from ministering as priest unto me, and, because 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 offer sacrifices on the mountain tops, burning offerings on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinth trees, since their shade is very good. Therefore your daughters are prostitutes and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

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!

Give ear to this, O priests; give attention, O Israel, and you, family of the king; for you are to be judged; you have been a deceit at Mizpah and a net stretched out on Tabor.

The rebels are deep into their slaughter; I am punishing 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 Yahweh; 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 like those who move boundary markers. I will pour out my rage on them like a torrential flood!

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 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.

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.

I have seen a horrible thing [sins of every kind] in the house of Israel!
Ephraim’s prostitution (idolatry) is there; Israel has defiled itself.

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].

whenever I want to heal Israel, the sin of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed. For they do what is wrong; thieves break into houses, and gangs rob people out in the streets.

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 all, are adulterers, like an oven too hot for the baker, - who leaveth off stoking, after kneading the dough, till the whole be leavened.

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

They approach him, all the while plotting against him. Their hearts are like an oven; their anger smolders all night long, but in the morning it bursts into a flaming fire.

All of them are warm as an oven, And they have devoured their judges, All their kings have fallen, There is none calling unto Me among them.

Foreigners have, eaten up, his strength, and, he, knoweth it not, - even gray hairs, are sprinkled upon him, and, he, knoweth it not.

I will throw my bird net over them while they are flying, I will bring them down like birds in the sky; I will discipline them when I hear them flocking together.

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 defective weapon. Their princes will fall by the sword because of their raging tongue, and they will be a laughingstock 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;
They are now among the nations
Like a vessel in which no one delights.

"Because they went over to Assyria, they are like a wild donkey alone by itself. Ephraim has hired some lovers.

Also though they hire among nations, Now I gather them, and they are pained a little, From the burden of a king of princes.

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

I wrote for him the ten thousand precepts of My law,
But they are regarded as a strange thing [which does not concern him].

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 shall not pour out to Yahweh - wine, neither shall they be pleasing to him, their sacrifices, are as the food of mourning to them, all that eat thereof, shall defile themselves, because, their food for their appetite, entereth not into the house of Yahweh.

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, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.

Come are the days of visitation, come are the days of recompense, Let Israel know! The prophet is foolish, the man of the spirit doth rave, because of the greatness of thine iniquity, therefore great is the prosecution.

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.

As grapes in a wilderness I found Israel, As the first-fruit in a fig-tree, at its beginning, I have seen your fathers, They -- they have gone in to Baal-Peor, And are separated to a shameful thing, And are become abominable like their love.

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, yea, there, have I come to hate them, For the wickedness of their doings - out of my house, will I drive them forth, - no more will I love them, all their rulers, are unruly.

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!'

When it is My desire, I will chastise them;
And the peoples will be gathered against them
When they are bound for their double guilt.

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.

But, my people, are bent towards turning from me, though upwards they call them, none of them can lift them.

How can I give thee up, Ephraim? abandon thee Israel? How can I make thee as Admah? set thee as Zeboim? Mine own heart, turneth against me, at once, are kindled my compassions.

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

"Ephraim feeds on the wind, chasing after the eastern winds, storing up lies and desolation day after day. They are making a contract with the Assyrians, and sending oil to Egypt.

A trafficker! in his hand, are balances of deceit, to oppress, he loveth.

Surely Gilead is iniquity, Only, vanity they have been, In Gilead bullocks they have sacrificed, Also their altars are as heaps, on the furrows of a field.

Now, therefore they go on to sin, and have made them a Molten Thing out of their silver, after the notion of idols, the workmanship of craftsmen, all of it! Of them, are they saying - Ye sacrificers of men! The Great Calf, shall ye surely 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 your destruction, O Israel,
That you are against Me, against your help.

Now where is your king? Will he save you in all your cities? And where are your judges, about whom you demanded, "Give me a king and officials!'?

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.

"From the power of Sheol I will rescue them, from death I will redeem them. Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? My eyes will remain closed to your pleas for compassion.

Become desolate doth Samaria, Because she hath rebelled against her God, By sword they do fall, Their sucklings are dashed in pieces, And its pregnant ones are ripped up!

Assyria won't save us; we won't be riding on horses, Nor will we be saying anymore to the work of our hands, "You are our God." Indeed, in you the orphan finds mercy.'

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, that he may understand these things? intelligent, that he may take knowledge of them? For, straightforward, are the ways of Yahweh, and, the righteous, shall travel therein, but, transgressors, shall stumble therein.