And the Lord said to him, “Name him Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

Yet the number of the sons of Israel
Will be like the sand of the sea,
Which cannot be measured or numbered;
And in the place
Where it is said to them,
“You are not My people,”
It will be said to them,
“You are the sons of the living God.”

“She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;
And she will seek them, but will not find them.
Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband,
For it was better for me then than now!’

“For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil,
And lavished on her silver and gold,
Which they used for Baal.

“Therefore, I will take back My grain at harvest time
And My new wine in its season.
I will also take away My wool and My flax
Given to cover her nakedness.

“And then I will uncover her lewdness
In the sight of her lovers,
And no one will rescue her out of My hand.

“It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord,
“That you will call Me Ishi
And will no longer call Me Baali.

“It will come about in that day that I will respond,” declares the Lord.
“I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth,

Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”

Therefore the land mourns,
And everyone who lives in it languishes
Along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky,
And also the fish of the sea disappear.

Yet let no one find fault, and let none offer reproof;
For your people are like those who contend with the priest.

And it will be, like people, like priest;
So I will punish them for their ways
And repay them for their deeds.

They will eat, but not have enough;
They will play the harlot, but not increase,
Because they have stopped giving heed to the Lord.

Hear this, O priests!
Give heed, O house of Israel!
Listen, O house of the king!
For the judgment applies to you,
For you have been a snare at Mizpah
And a net spread out on Tabor.

Blow the horn in Gibeah,
The trumpet in Ramah.
Sound an alarm at Beth-aven:
“Behind you, Benjamin!”

Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke;
Among the tribes of Israel I declare what is sure.

The princes of Judah have become like those who move a boundary;
On them I will pour out My wrath like water.

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
For your loyalty is like a morning cloud
And like the dew which goes away early.

And as raiders wait for a man,
So a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem;
Surely they have committed crime.

They are all adulterers,
Like an oven heated by the baker
Who ceases to stir up the fire
From the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

On the day of our king, the princes became sick with the heat of wine;
He stretched out his hand with scoffers,

For their hearts are like an oven
As they approach their plotting;
Their anger smolders all night,
In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.

Strangers devour his strength,
Yet he does not know it;
Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him,
Yet he does not know it.

Though the pride of Israel testifies against him,
Yet they have not returned to the Lord their God,
Nor have they sought Him, for all this.

Although I trained and strengthened their arms,
Yet they devise evil against Me.

They cry out to Me,
“My God, we of Israel know You!”

They have set up kings, but not by Me;
They have appointed princes, but I did not know it.
With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves,
That they might be cut off.

For from Israel is even this!
A craftsman made it, so it is not God;
Surely the calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces.

For they sow the wind
And they reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads;
It yields no grain.
Should it yield, strangers would swallow it up.

As for My sacrificial gifts,
They sacrifice the flesh and eat it,
But the Lord has taken no delight in them.
Now He will remember their iniquity,
And punish them for their sins;
They will return to Egypt.

For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;
And Judah has multiplied fortified cities,
But I will send a fire on its cities that it may consume its palatial dwellings.

They will not remain in the Lord’s land,
But Ephraim will return to Egypt,
And in Assyria they will eat unclean food.

They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord,
Their sacrifices will not please Him.
Their bread will be like mourners’ bread;
All who eat of it will be defiled,
For their bread will be for themselves alone;
It will not enter 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?

Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;
Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,
And there is only hostility in the house of his God.

Though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them until not a man is left.
Yes, woe to them indeed when I depart from them!

Ephraim, as I have seen,
Is planted in a pleasant meadow like Tyre;
But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.

Give them, O Lord—what will You give?
Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

All their evil is at Gilgal;
Indeed, I came to hate them there!
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of My house!
I will love them no more;
All their princes are rebels.

Surely now they will say, “We have no king,
For we do not revere the Lord.
As for the king, what can he do for us?”

The inhabitants of Samaria will fear
For the calf of Beth-aven.
Indeed, its people will mourn for it,
And its idolatrous priests will cry out over it,
Over its glory, since it has departed from it.

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.

Sow with a view to righteousness,
Reap in accordance with kindness;
Break up your fallow ground,
For it is time to seek the Lord
Until He comes to rain righteousness on you.

Thus it will be done to you at Bethel because of your great wickedness.
At dawn the king of Israel will be completely cut off.

When Israel was a youth I loved him,
And out of Egypt I called My son.

Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them in My arms;
But they did not know that I healed them.

So My people are bent on turning from Me.
Though they call them to the One on high,
None at all exalts Him.

Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed;
He wept and sought His favor.
He found Him at Bethel
And there He spoke with us,

Therefore, return to your God,
Observe kindness and justice,
And wait for your God continually.

Yet I have been the Lord your God
Since the land of Egypt;
And you were not to know any god except Me,
For there is no savior besides Me.

So I will be like a lion to them;
Like a leopard I will lie in wait by the wayside.

It is your destruction, O Israel,
That you are against Me, against your help.

The pains of childbirth come upon him;
He is not a wise son,
For it is not the time that he should delay at the opening of the womb.

Though he flourishes among the reeds,
An east wind will come,
The wind of the Lord coming up from the wilderness;
And his fountain will become dry
And his spring will be dried up;
It will plunder his treasury of every precious article.

O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols?
It is I who answer and look after you.
I am like a luxuriant cypress;
From Me comes your fruit.