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 he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived and bore him a son.

And Jehovah said unto him, Call his name Jizreel; for yet a little, and I will visit the blood of Jizreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease.

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.

And the Lord said, Give him the name Lo-ammi; for you are not my people, and I will not be your God.

I will punish her also for the days of Baal, wherein she censed him, decking him with her earrings and chains: when she followed her lovers, and forgat me, sayeth the LORD.

So will I sow her unto me in the land, and will have compassion upon the uncompassionated one, - and will say to him who was No-people-of-mine, My people, thou art, and, he, shall say, My God!

Afterward the sons of Israel will return [in deep repentance] and seek the Lord their God and [seek from the line of] David their king [the King of kings—the Messiah]; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness and blessing in the last days.

Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel,
For the Lord has a [legal] case with the inhabitants of the land,
Because there is no faithfulness [no steadfast love, no dependability] or loyalty or kindness
Or knowledge of God [from personal experience with Him] in the land.

Howbeit let, no man, contend, nor let him rebuke another, - since, thy people, are as they who contend against a priest:

So doth it come to be - like people, like priest, - therefore will I visit upon him his ways, and, his doings, will I bring back to him;

They shall eat, and not have enough: they have used whoredom, therefore shall they not prosper: and why? They have forsaken the LORD, and not regarded him.

Ephraim is joined to idols: leave him alone.

But the pride of Israel will be rewarded him in his face, yea both Israel and Ephraim shall fall for their wickedness, and Judah with them also.

They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Jehovah; but they shall not find him: he hath withdrawn himself from them.

As for the LORD, they have refused him, and brought up bastard children: a month therefore shall devour them with their portions.

For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.

After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him.

So let us acknowledge him! Let us seek to acknowledge the Lord! He will come to our rescue as certainly as the appearance of the dawn, as certainly as the winter rain comes, as certainly as the spring rain that waters the land."

The royal advisers delight the king with their evil schemes, the princes make him glad with their lies.

In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

For they—their hearts like an oven—
draw him into their oven.
Their anger smolders all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

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 testifieth to his face; and they do not return to Jehovah their God, nor seek him for all this.

They return, but not to [him] on high. They are like a deceitful bow. Their rulers shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Israel hath cast off good: the enemy shall pursue him.

Israel shall perish, the Gentiles shall entreat him as a foul vessel.

Because Ephraim hath multiplied altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.

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

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.

They shall pour out no offerings of wine to Jehovah, neither shall their sacrifices be pleasing unto him: they shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be defiled: for their bread shall be for themselves; it shall not come into the house of Jehovah.

Be ye sure, O Israel: the time of visitation is come, the days of recompensing are at hand. As for the prophet, ye hold him for a fool; and him that is rich in the spirit, for a mad man: so great is your wickedness and malice.

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.

Ephraim, as I saw him, was a Tyre planted in a beautiful place; but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the slayer.

My God hath rejected them, because they hearkened not unto him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

A luxuriant vine, is Israel, fruit, beseemeth him, - According to the abundance of his fruit, hath he brought abundance to the altars, according to the goodliness of his land, hath he made goodly statues.

Ephraim was unto me, as a cow that is used to go to plow; therefore I loved him, and fell upon his fair neck. I drove Ephraim, Judah plowed, and Jacob played the husbandman:

Sow with a view to righteousness [that righteousness, like seed, may germinate];
Reap in accordance with mercy and lovingkindness.
Break up your uncultivated ground,
For it is time to seek and search diligently for the Lord [and to long for His blessing]
Until He comes to rain righteousness and His gift of salvation on you.

there shall grow a sedition among thy people. All thy strong cities shall be laid waste, even as Shalman was destroyed with his familiars, through him that was avenged of Arbel in the day of battle: where the mother perished with her children.

When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

With cords of man I do draw them, With thick cords of love, And I am to them as a raiser up of a yoke on their jaws, And I incline unto him -- I feed him.

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

I will not execute the fierceness of My anger;
I will not return to Ephraim to destroy him again.
For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst [who will not revoke My covenant],
And I will not come in wrath or enter the city [in judgment].

The LORD roareth like a lion, that they may follow him. Yea, as a lion roareth he, that they may be afraid like the children of the sea:

But Ephraim goeth about me with lies, and the house of Israel dissembleth. Only Judah holdeth him with God, and with the true holy things.

Jehovah hath also a controversy with Judah, and he will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.

Yea, he wrestled with the Angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us,

Yea, the LORD God of hosts, even the LORD himself remembered him:

Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly; and his Lord shall leave his blood upon him, and recompense unto him his reproach.

When the words of my law came from Ephraim, he was lifted up in Israel; but when he did evil through the Baal, death overtook him.

I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.

The pangs of a woman in travail shall come upon him: he is a son not wise; for at the time of the breaking forth of children, he was not there.

had not I defended him from the grave, and delivered him from death. O death, I will be thy death: O hell, I will be thy sting.

Take with you words, and turn to Jehovah; say unto him, Forgive all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips.

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

His sprouts shall go, and his strength shall be as the olive tree, and the odor to him as Lebanon.

They who dwell in his shade shall again show life like the corn, and break forth as the vine, - and, the remembrance of him, shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

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.

Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
Whoever is discerning, let him know them.
For the ways of the Lord are right,
And the righteous will walk in them,
But transgressors will stumble in them.