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 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.

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;

lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her as a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

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

Their mother hath broken her wedlock, and she that bare them, is come to confusion. For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, that give me my water and my bread, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.'

Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns; and I will fence her in with a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

And she shall pursue after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, and shall not find them: and she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now.

And she did not know that I had given her the corn and the new wine and the oil, and had multiplied to her the silver and gold, which they employed for Baal.

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 now will I discover her impiety in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand.

And I will cause all her mirth to cease: her feasts, her new moons, and her sabbaths! and all her solemnities.

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 will visit upon her the days of the Baals, wherein she burned incense to them, and decked herself with her rings and jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith Jehovah.

Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart.

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.

for I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.

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.

And LORD said to me, Go again, love a woman beloved of [her] friend, and an adulteress, even as LORD loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.

So I bought her to me for fifteen silver pieces, and for a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley.

And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be another man's, and I will also be for thee.

Therefore the land will mourn, and everyone who dwells therein will waste away, all living things in her, even the animals of the field and the birds of the sky; yes, the fish of the sea also die.

For Israel is gone back like a wanton cow. The LORD therefore shall make her feed, as the lamb that goeth astray.

Their drink is sour; they give themselves up to whoredom; her great men passionately love their shame.

The wind hath wrapped her up in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

With their flock and with their herd, They go to seek Jehovah, and do not find, He hath withdrawn from them.

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

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.

For they have gone up to Assyria,
Like a wild donkey wandering alone and taking her own way;
Ephraim has hired lovers (pagan allies).

Israel has forgotten his maker and built palaces, and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send fire on his cities and it will devour her strongholds.

The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail her.

The days of her judgment have come; the days of vengeance have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and the great hatred.

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.

Ephraim, as me think, is planted in wealthiness, like as Tyre, but now must she bring her own children forth to the manslayer.

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.

As for Samaria her king is cut off as chips upon the face of the waters.

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.

Therefore a tumult shall arise among thy people, and all thy fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel in the day of battle; the mother was dashed in pieces with her sons.

Jacob fled to the country of Aram, then Israel worked to acquire a wife; he tended sheep to pay for her.

I will meet them as a bear bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the covering of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lioness: the beast of the field shall tear them.

The pains of her bringing forth shall come to him: he a son not wise; for now he shall not stand in the breaking forth of sons.

Samaria shall bear her guilt; 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.