When the Lord first spoke to Hosea, He said this to him:

Go and marry a promiscuous wife
and have children of promiscuity,
for the land is committing blatant acts of promiscuity
by abandoning the Lord.

and Jehovah saith unto him, 'Call his name Jezreel, for yet a little, and I have charged the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and have caused to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel;

and it hath come to pass in that day that I have broken the bow of Israel, in the valley of Jezreel.'

And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And he said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah; for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, so that I should pardon them.

But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by Jehovah their God; and I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by battle, or by horses, or by horsemen.

and gathered have been the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel together, and they have appointed to themselves one head, and have gone up from the land, for great is the day of Jezreel.

Tell your brethren, that they are my people; and your sistren, that they have obtained mercy.

Lest I strip her naked. And have set her up as in the day of her birth, And have made her as a wilderness, And have set her as a dry land, And have put her to death with thirst.

And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they are the children of whoredoms.

Therefore, lo, I am hedging up thy way with thorns, And I have made for her a wall, And her paths she doth not find.

Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my new wine in its season, and will withdraw my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.

And I have caused to cease all her joy, Her festival, her new moon, and her sabbath, Even all her appointed times,

And I will make desolate her vine and her fig-tree, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards which my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

And I have charged on her the days of the Baalim, To whom she maketh perfume, And putteth on her ring and her ornament, And goeth after her lovers, And Me forgat -- an affirmation of Jehovah.

Therefore, lo, I am enticing her, And have caused her to go to the wilderness, And I have spoken unto her heart,

And I have turned aside the names of the lords from her mouth, And they are not remembered any more by their name.

And I have made to them a covenant in that day, with the beast of the field, And with the fowl of the heavens, And the creeping thing of the ground, And bow, and sword, and war I break from off the land, And have caused them to lie down confidently.

And I have betrothed thee to Me to the age, And betrothed thee to Me in righteousness, And in judgment, and kindness, and mercies,

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

And I will sow her unto me in the land; and I will have mercy upon Lo-ruhamah; and I will say to Lo-ammi, Thou art my people; and they shall say, My God.

Then said the LORD to me, "Go yet thy way and vow an adulterous woman, whom thy neighbour loveth as the LORD doth the children of Israel: howbeit, they have respect to strange gods, and love the wine cans."

And I said to her, You are to be mine for a long space of time; you are not to be false to me, and no other man is to have you for his wife; and so will I be to you.

Afterwards turned back have the sons of Israel, and sought Jehovah their God, and David their king, and have hastened unto Jehovah, and unto His goodness, in the latter end of the days.

but swearing, lying, manslaughter, theft, and adultery have gotten the overhand; and one bloodguiltiness followeth another.

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 have rejected knowledge, I also will reject thee, that thou shall be no priest to me. Since thou have forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy sons.

The more the priests increased in numbers, the more they rebelled against me. They have turned their glorious calling into a shameful disgrace!

They feed on the sin of My people;
they have an appetite for their transgressions.

And it hath been, like people, like priest, And I have charged on it its ways, And its habitual doings I return to it.

and they shall eat, and not have enough; they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: for they have left off taking heed to Jehovah.

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:

They make sacrifices upon the high mountains, and burn their incense upon the hills, yea among the oaks, groves and bushes, for there are good shadows. Therefore your daughters are become harlots, and your spouses have broken their wedlock.

I will not punish your daughters for being defiled, and your brides that became whores: seeing the fathers themselves have meddled with harlots, and offered with unthriftiness: but the people that will not understand must be punished.

Though thou, Israel, are disposed to play the harlot, yet shouldest not thou have offended, O Judah. Thou shouldest not have run to Gilgal, nor gone up to Bethaven, nor have sworn, 'The LORD liveth.'

Sour is their drink, They have gone diligently a-whoring, Her protectors have loved shame thoroughly.

Hear this, ye priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ear, O house of the king: for this judgment is for you; for ye have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.

And they have plunged themselves in the corruption of apostasy, but I will be a chastiser of them all.

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

They are not minded to turn unto their God, for they have an whorish heart, so that they cannot know the LORD.

And the pride of Israel gives an answer to his face; and Ephraim will have a fall through his sins, and the fall of Judah will be the same as theirs.

They have dealt treacherously against Jehovah; for they havebegotten strange children: now shall the new moon devour them, with their allotted possessions.

Ephraim shall be a desolation in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which is sure.

Princes of Judah have been as those removing a border, On them I do pour out as water My wrath.

Ephraim is oppressed, and can have no right of the law. For why? They follow the doctrines of men.

I go -- I turn back unto My place, Till that they are desolate, and have sought My face. In their distress they do seek Me speedily!'

Then shall we have understanding, and endeavor ourselves to know the LORD. He shall go forth as the spring of the day, and come unto us as the evening and morning rain upon the earth."

Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and my judgment goeth forth as the light.

For I have pleasure in loving-kindness, and not in offering: Yea in the knowledge of God, more than in burnt sacrifice.

But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way toward Shechem. Yea, they have committed iniquity.

In the house of Israel have I seen a horrible thing: the whoredom of Ephraim is there; Israel is defiled.

But Judah shall have a harvest for himself, when I return the captivity of my people.

'When I give healing to Israel, Then revealed is the iniquity of Ephraim, And the wickedness of Samaria, For they have wrought falsehood, And a thief doth come in, Stript off hath a troop in the street,

And they do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own doings have surrounded them; they are before my face.

They make the king and the princes, to have pleasure in their wickedness and lies.

A day of our king! Princes have polluted themselves with the poison of wine, He hath drawn out his hand with scorners.

For they have applied their heart like an oven to their lying in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth like a flaming fire.

they are altogether as hot as an oven. They have devoured their own judges, all their kings are fallen: yet is there none of them that calleth upon me.

Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, and he knoweth it not.

And the pride of Israel testifies to his face. Yet they have not returned to LORD their God, nor sought him for all this.

And Ephraim is as a simple dove without heart, Egypt they called on -- to Asshur they have gone.

but while they be going here and there, I shall spread my net over them, and draw them down as the fowls of the air. And according as they have been warned, so will I punish them.

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.

I have indeed trained, I have strengthened their arms, but they imagine mischief against me.

They turn themselves, but not aright, and are become as a broken bow. Their princes shall be slain with the sword for the malice of their tongues, such blasphemies have they learned in the land of Egypt.

Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He cometh as an eagle against the house of Jehovah, because they have transgressed my covenant, and rebelled against my law.

To Me they cry, 'My God, we -- Israel -- have known Thee.'

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.

I will have nothing to do with your young ox, O Samaria; my wrath is burning against them; how long will it be before the children of Israel make themselves clean?

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; should it sprout, it would yield no meal; if so be it yield, strangers shall swallow it up.

Israel hath been swallowed up, Now they have been among nations, As a vessel in which is no delight.

For they have gone up to Assyria [like] a wild donkey alone by himself. Ephraim has hired lovers.

Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes.

Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, altars have been to him for sinning.

I have prescribed unto him the manifold things of my law: they are counted as a strange thing.

Whereas they do sacrifice, offering the flesh and eating it, the LORD will have no pleasure therein: but will remember their wickedness, and punish their sins. Israel turneth again into Egypt:

they have forgotten him that made them, they build churches, and Judah maketh many strong cities: therefore will I send a fire into their cities, and it shall consume their places.

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.

They will have no resting-place in the Lord's land, but Ephraim will go back to Egypt, and they will take unclean food in Assyria.

They pour out no wine for a drink offering unto the LORD, neither give they him their slain offerings: but they be unto them as mourner's meats, wherein all they that eat them are defiled. For the bread that they have such lust unto, shall not come into the house of the LORD.

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.

The days of visitation have come. The days of recompense have come. Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the abundance of thine iniquity, and because the enmity is great.

The watchman of Ephraim, should have been with my God: As for the prophet, the snare of the fowler, is on all his ways, a prosecution awaiteth him , in the house of his God.

They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

As grapes in a wilderness I found Israel, As the first-fruit in a fig-tree, at its beginning, I have seen your fathers, They -- they have gone in to Baal-Peor, And are separated to a shameful thing, And are become abominable like their love.

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!

Ephraim, just as I have seen Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place, but Ephraim shall bring out his sons to the slayer.

All their evil is in Gilgal, Surely there I have hated them, Because of the evil of their doings, Out of My house I do drive them, I add not to love them, all their heads are apostates.

Ephraim hath been smitten, Their root hath dried up, fruit they yield not, Yea, though they bring forth, I have put to death the desired of their womb.

My God shall cast them away, for they have not been obedient unto him, therefore shall they go astray among the Heathen.

Israel is an unpruned vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the abundance of his fruit he hath multiplied altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly statues.

Their mind is taken away; now they will be made waste: he will have their altars broken down, he will give their pillars to destruction.

For now they will say, We have no king, for we feared not Jehovah; and a king, what can he do for us?

They have spoken words, To swear falsehood in making a covenant, And flourished as a poisonous herb hath judgment, on the furrows of a field.

They that dwell in Samaria have worshiped the calf of Bethaven: therefore shall the people mourn over them, yea and the priests also, that in their wealthiness rejoiced with them. And why? It shall pass away from them.

And destroyed have been high places of Aven, the sin of Israel. Thorn and bramble go up on their altars, And they have said to hills, Cover us, And to heights, Fall upon us.

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.

When I desire, then I do bind them, And gathered against them have peoples, When they bind themselves to their two iniquities.

And Ephraim is a trained heifer, that loveth to tread out the corn; I have passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to draw; Judah shall plough, Jacob shall break his clods.