The beginning of the word of Jehovah through Hosea. And Jehovah said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms; for the land is entirely given up to whoredom, away from Jehovah.

Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not my wife, neither 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 thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing 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 of their stock, and their staff declareth unto them; for the spirit of whoredoms causeth them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God:

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me; for now, Ephraim, thou hast committed whoredom; Israel is defiled.

They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Jehovah; but they shall not find him: he hath withdrawn himself from them.

They all practise adultery, as an oven heated by the baker: he ceaseth from stirring the fire after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

Woe unto them! for they have wandered from me; destruction unto them! for they have transgressed against me. And I would redeem them; but they speak lies against me.

And they cried not unto me in their heart, when they howled upon their beds; they assemble themselves for corn and new wine; they have turned aside from me.

For from Israel is this also: a workman made it, and itis no God: for the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

Rejoice not, Israel, exultingly, as the peoples; for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved harlot's hire upon every corn-floor.

For even should they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that not a man remain: for woe also to them when I shall have departed from them!

The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calf of Beth-aven; for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the idolatrous priests thereof shall tremble for it, for its glory, because it is departed from it.

From the days of Gibeah hast thou sinned, O Israel: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.

As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto the Baals, and burned incense to graven images.

Yea, my people are bent upon backsliding from me: though they call them to the Most High, none at all exalteth him.

They shall walk after Jehovah; he shall roar like a lion; when he shall roar, then the children shall hasten from the west:

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

Yet I am Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou hast known no God but me; and there is no saviour besides me.

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

Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, a wind of Jehovah that cometh up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.

I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from him.

Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? (I answer him, and I will observe him.) I am like a green fir-tree. From me is thy fruit found.