Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for you are not my people, and I will not be your God.

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, you are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, you are the sons of the living God.

Say you unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her harlotry out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

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

Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and make a wall, so that she shall not find her paths.

And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she has 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.

And I will sow her for myself in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them who were not my people, you are my people; and they shall say, you are my God.

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

Therefore shall you fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with you in the night, and I will destroy your mother.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to me: because you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.

My people ask counsel of their idols of wood, and their staff advises unto them: for the spirit of harlotry has caused them to err, and they have played the harlot against their God.

They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because its shadow is good: therefore your daughters shall commit harlotry, and your spouses shall commit adultery.

I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for the men themselves are gone apart with harlots, and they sacrifice with prostitutes: therefore the people that do not understand shall fall.

Hear you this, O priests; and hearken, you house of Israel; and give you ear, O house of the king; for judgment is for you, because you have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.

And the revolters are deeply involved in slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.

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

When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.

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

Therefore have I hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and your judgments are as the light that goes forth.

And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own deeds have surrounded them; they are before my face.

They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceases to stir the fire after he has kneaded the dough, until it is leavened.

In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scoffers.

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

Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knows it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knows not.

They return, but not to the most High: they are like a treacherous bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the insolence of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Set the trumpet to your mouth. He shall come as an eagle over the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.

Your calf, O Samaria, has cast you off; my anger is kindled against them: how long will it be before they attain to innocence?

I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.

Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for you have played the harlot against your God, you have loved for hire upon every threshing floor.

For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the precious things of their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tents.

The days of punishment have come, the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, because of the multitude of your iniquity, and the great hatred.

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and they became abominations like the thing they loved.

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

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he comes and rains righteousness upon you.

You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity; you have eaten the fruit of lies: because you did trust in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.

Therefore shall a tumult arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.

So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.

And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.

Therefore turn you to your God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on your God continually.

He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loves to oppress.

And I that am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt will yet make you to dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast.

Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the fields.

Yet I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no god but me: for there is no savior besides me.

According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.

O Israel, you have destroyed yourself; but in me is your help.

I will be your king: where is any other that may save you in all your cities? and your judges of whom you said, Give me a king and princes?

The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long where children are born.

I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be your plagues; O grave, I will be your destruction: pity shall be hid from my eyes.

O Israel, return unto the LORD your God; for you have fallen because of your iniquity.

Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we offer the sacrifices of our lips.

Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, you are our gods: for in you the fatherless finds mercy.

Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green cypress tree. In me is your fruit found.

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 stumble in them.