{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}."

And Yahweh said to him, "{Name him} Jezreel; because in a little while {I will punish} the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

Plead with your mother, plead-- because she [is] not my wife, and I [am] not her husband. Let her put away her whoring {from before her}, and her adultery from between her breasts.

And I will not have pity on her children, because [they are] children of whoredom.

Because their mother was unfaithful; she who conceived them has acted shamefully, for she said: "I will go after my lovers, the ones who give [me] my bread, my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink."

Then she will pursue {her lovers}, but she will not overtake them; she will seek them and not find [them]; and she will say, "I will go and return to my first husband because [it was] better for me then than now."

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from acting as a priest for me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

They will eat and not be satisfied; they will play the whore and not multiply, because they have forsaken Yahweh {to devote themselves to

My people, consult {their wooden idols}, and their divining rod gives them oracles; because a spirit of whoredom led [them] astray, and they played the whore from under their God.

On the tops of the mountains they sacrifice, and on the hills they make offerings, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and all your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

{I will not punish your daughters} when they play the whore, or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery; because they go aside with whores, and they sacrifice with temple prostitutes, a people that does not understand comes to ruin.

A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they will be ashamed because of their altars.

Hear this, priests! Give heed, house of Israel! Listen, house of the king! Because the judgment [applies] to you; because you have been a snare for Mizpah, and a net spread out on Tabor;

I myself know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; because now you have played the whore, Ephraim-- Israel is defiled.

Their deeds do not permit them to return them to God. Because a spirit of whoredom [is] in their midst, they do not know Yahweh.

They have dealt faithlessly with Yahweh because they have borne illegitimate children. Now [the] new moon will devour them with their fields.

Ephraim is oppressed, crushed [in] judgment, because he was determined to go after filth.

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.

Because I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Gilead [is] a city of evil, a cunning [city] because of blood.

when I would heal Israel, and the corruption of Ephraim is revealed, and the wicked deeds of Samaria; because they deal [in] falsehood, [the] thief breaks in, [and the] bandit raids the outside.

Because they are kindled like an oven, their heart burns within them; all night their anger {smolders}, [in the] morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me! I myself would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.

They do not cry out to me from their heart, but they wail on their beds; because of grain and new wine they lacerate themselves; they depart from me.

They turn, not to the Most High, like a slack bow; their officials will fall by the sword because of the anger of their tongue. This [is] their scorn in the land of Egypt.

[Put] to your lips [the] trumpet like a vulture over the house of Yahweh, because they have {broken my covenant} and rebelled against my law.

Because [it is] from Israel, an artisan made it, it [is] not a god; for the calf of Samaria will be broken [to] pieces.

Because they sow the wind, they will reap the whirlwind. [The] standing grain does not have heads; it will not yield flour. [And] if it would yield, strangers would devour it.

The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have come; Israel knows! The prophet [is] a fool, the man of the spirit [is] acting like a madman. Because of the greatness of your sin, [your] hostility [is] great.

Every evil of theirs [began] at Gilgal, so I [began] to hate them there; because of the evil of their deeds I will drive them out from my house. I will love them no more; all their officials [are] rebels.

My God will reject them because they did not listen to him, and they will be wanderers among the nations.

The inhabitants of Samaria tremble for the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, his people will mourn for it, and his idolatrous priests will wail over it-- over its glory because it has departed from it.

You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped injustice, you have eaten the fruit of lies, because you have trusted in your strength, in the multitude of your warriors.

So it will be done to you, Bethel, because of the evil of your wickedness; at dawn, the king of Israel will be utterly destroyed.

He will return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria will be his king, because they refused to return.

[The] sword rages in his cities; it consumes his false prophets and devours because of their plans.

{I will not execute} {my fierce anger}, I will not again destroy Ephraim; because I [am] God and not a mortal, [the] Holy [One] in your midst; and I will not come in wrath.

The labor pains of childbirth come for him; he [is] an unwise son because [at the] proper time, he does not present himself {at the mouth of the womb}.

Samaria will be guilty, because she has rebelled against her God; they will fall by [the] sword, their children will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.

Return to Yahweh your God, Israel, for you have stumbled because of your sin.

Assyria will not save us; we will not ride on horses, and we will say no more, "Our God," to the work of our hands because in you [the] fatherless child finds mercy.

I will heal their disloyalty; I will love them freely because my anger has turned back from them.