When LORD spoke at the first by Hosea, LORD said to Hosea, Go, take to thee a wife of whoredom and children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom, departing from LORD.

And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint themselves one head, and shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Contend with your mother. Contend, for she is not my wife, nor am I her husband. And let her put away her whoredoms from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts,

And I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope. And she shall make answer there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

My people ask counsel at their stock, and their staff declares to them, for the spirit of whoredom has caused them to err, and they have played the harlot, [departing] from under their God.

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me. For now, O Ephraim, thou have played the harlot; Israel is defiled.

They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek LORD, but they shall not find him. He has withdrawn himself from them.

They are all adulterers. They are as an oven heated by the baker. He ceases to stir [the fire], from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.

Woe to them! For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them! For they have trespassed against me. Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

For even this is from Israel: the workman made it, and it is no God. Yea, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy like the peoples, for thou have played the harlot, [departing] from thy God. Thou have loved hire upon every grain-floor.

For, lo, they have gone away from destruction, [yet] Egypt shall gather them up. Memphis shall bury them. Their pleasant things of silver, nettles shall possess them. Thorns shall be in their tents.

Though they bring up their sons, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!

The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in terror for the calves of Beth-aven. For the people of it shall mourn over it, and the priests of it, who rejoiced over it for the glory of it, because it has departed from it.

O Israel, thou have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they stood. The battle against the sons of iniquity does not overtake them in Gibeah.

The more [the prophets] called them, the more they went from them. They sacrificed to the Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

And my people are bent on backsliding from me. Though they call them to [him who is] on high, none at all will exalt [him].

They shall walk after LORD, who will roar like a lion. For he will roar, and the sons shall come trembling from the west.

But I am LORD thy God from the land of Egypt. I will yet again make thee to dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast.

Yet I am LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shall know no god but me, and besides me there is no savior.

I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death. O death, where are thy plagues? O Sheol, where is thy sting? Repentance shall be hid from my eyes.

Though he be fruitful among his brothers, an east wind shall come, the breath of LORD coming up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up. He shall make spoil of the treasure of all go

I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely. For my anger is turned away from him.

Ephraim [shall say], What have I to do any more with idols? I have answered, and will regard him. I am like a green fir tree. From me thy fruit is found.