First, when the LORD spake unto Hosea, he said unto him, "Go thy way, take a harlot to thy wife, and get children by her: for the land hath committed great whoredom against the LORD."

And the Lord said to him, “Name him Jezreel; for yet in a little while I will avenge the blood [that was shed in the Valley] of Jezreel and inflict the punishment for it on the house of Jehu, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.

But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.

Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye 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, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.

“Therefore, behold, I [the Lord God] will hedge up her way with thorns;
And I will build a wall against her [shutting off her way] so that she cannot find her paths.

and though she run after her lovers, yet shall she not get them: she shall seek them, but not find them. Then shall she say, 'Well, I will go turn again to my first husband, for at that time was I better at ease, than now.'

“For she (Israel) has not noticed nor understood nor realized that it was I [the Lord God] who gave her the grain and the new wine and the oil,
And lavished on her silver and gold,
Which they used for Baal and made into his image.

There I will give her vineyards back to her
and make the Valley of Achor
into a gateway of hope.
There she will respond as she did
in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt.

And in that day I will cut a covenant for them, with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the heavens, and with the creeping things of the ground. And I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.

I will take you as my bride in good faith, and you will have knowledge of the Lord.

then the ground will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil; and they will respond to 'God Plants' (Jezreel)!

And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.

So I got her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley;

Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.

Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

And thou hast stumbled in the day, And stumbled hath also a prophet with thee in the night, And I have cut off thy mother.

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

My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.

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

When their liquor is gone [and their drinking parties are over],
They habitually go to play the prostitute;
Ephraim’s rulers continue to dearly love shame [more than her glory which is the Lord, Israel’s God].

The wind [of God’s relentless wrath] has wrapped up Israel in its wings,
And [in captivity] they will be ashamed because of their sacrifices [to calves, to sun, to moon, to stars, and to pagan gods].

The revolters have gone deep into depravity,
But I [the Lord God] will chastise them all.

They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD.

After two days he will give us life, and on the third day he will make us get up, and we will be living before him.

This is why I have used the prophets
to cut them down;
I have killed them with the words of My mouth.
My judgment strikes like lightning.

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

"On the king's festival day the princes got drunk from wine, so the king joined the mockers.

Ephraim has allowed himself to get mixed up with the nations.
Ephraim is unturned bread baked on a griddle.

And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.

Set the horn to thy mouth, and blow: get thee swiftly as an Eagle into the house of the LORD: for they have broken my covenant, and transgressed my law.

Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.

Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.

They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.

For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

For they have gone up to Assyria like an ass going by himself; Ephraim has given money to get lovers.

Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.

For see, they are going away into Assyria; Egypt will get them together, Memphis will be their last resting-place; their fair silver vessels will be covered over with field plants, and thorns will come up in their tents.

The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.

They have corrupted themselves deeply, as did Gibeah in its day. Therefore God will remember their lawlessness, and he will pay them back for their sins.

My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Israel was a goodly vine, but he hath brought forth unprofitable fruit: yea, the more fruit he had the more altars he made; the more good I did to their land, the more friendship showed they to their Images.

Their hearts are divided; from now on they are to be found guilty. God will tear down their altars, he will destroy their stone idols.

The people of Samaria will fear and tremble
For the [idolatrous] calf of Beth-aven (House of Wickedness).
Indeed, its people will mourn over it
And its idolatrous priests will cry out and wail over it,
Over its glory, because the glory [of their calf god] has departed from it.

As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water.

Also the high places of Aven (Beth-aven), the sin of Israel, will be destroyed;
The thorn and the thistle will grow on their [pagan] altars,
And [in despair] they will say to the mountains,
“Cover us!” And to the hills, “Fall on us!”

When it is my desire [to defend My righteousness], I will chastise them;
And [hostile] peoples will be gathered against them
When they are bound and punished for their double guilt [their revolt against the Lord and their worship of idols].

And Ephraim a heifer being taught, loving to tread out the grain, and I passed over upon the good of her neck: I will cause Ephraim to ride; Judah shall be silent, and Jacob shall be strong to him.

Sow with a view to righteousness [that righteousness, like seed, may germinate];
Reap in accordance with mercy and lovingkindness.
Break up your uncultivated ground,
For it is time to seek and search diligently for the Lord [and to long for His blessing]
Until He comes to rain righteousness and His gift of salvation on you.

You have been ploughing sin, you have got in a store of evil, the fruit of deceit has been your food: for you put faith in your way, in the number of your men of war.

And an uproar arose among thy people, and all thy fortifications shall be laid waste, as Shaman laid waste the house of the ambush of God in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon the sons.

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

The sword will whirl against their cities,
And will demolish their gate bars
And consume them because of their counsels.

I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.

Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.

Ephraim fed upon the wind, and he pursued the east wind: all the day he multiplied falsehood and destruction; and they will cut out a covenant with Assur, and oil will be brought to Egypt

He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God:

He wrestled with the angel and prevailed;
He wept [in repentance] and sought His favor.
He met Him at Bethel
And there God spoke with [him and through him with] us—

Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial.

Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.

And Ephraim said, Now I have got wealth and much property; in all my works no sin may be seen in me.

And I that am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt will yet make thee to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.

Is there wickedness (idolatry) in Gilead?
Surely the people there are worthless.
In Gilgal [they defy Me when] they sacrifice bulls,
Yes, [after My judgment] their [pagan] altars are like the stone heaps
In the furrows of the fields.

Jacob fled into the country of Aram, and Israel served to get a wife, and for a wife he tended flocks and herds.

But Ephraim hath provoked him to displeasure through his abominations; therefore shall his blood be poured upon himself, and the LORD his God shall reward him his blasphemies.

"When the tribe of Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; and it was exalted within Israel. But when they offended God by Baal, they died,

Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.

Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

O Israel, return unto the LORD thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.

Take with you words, and return unto Jehovah: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and accept that which is good: so will we render as bullocks the offering 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, Thou art our God; because in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

He who is wise will see these things; he who has good sense will have knowledge of them. For the ways of the Lord are straight, and the upright will go in them, but sinners will be falling in them.