Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said to them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said to them, Ye are the sons of the living God.

Say ye to your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her prostitutions out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

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

And I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees, of which she hath said, These are my rewards that 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 Baalim, in which she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her ear-rings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the LORD.

And I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them who were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.

Yet let no man contend, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that contend with the priest.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.

My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth to them: for the spirit of lewdness hath caused them to err, and they have gone astray from under their God.

They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shade of them is agreeable: therefore your daughters shall be guilty of lewdness, and your spouses shall commit adultery.

I will not punish your daughters when they are guilty of lewdness, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for they themselves are separated with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.

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

And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.

The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim went to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet he could not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.

O Ephraim, what shall I do to thee? O Judah, what shall I do to thee? for your goodness is as the morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

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

And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them around; they are before my face.

They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it is leavened.

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

They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth to me.

Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yes, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.

They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; my anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocence?

I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.

For lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.

The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thy iniquity, and the great hatred.

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

All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he shall come and reign righteousness upon you.

So shall Beth-el do to you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel be utterly cut off.

And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.

How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? my heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.

He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.

And Ephraim said, Yet I have become rich, I have found for myself substance: in all my labors they shall find no iniquity in me that were sin.

Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yes, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.

I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?

Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say to him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.

Ashur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall in them.