Then said God, Call his name Loammi: 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 unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.

“[Hosea,] say to your brothers, ‘Ammi (you are my people),’ and to your sisters, ‘Ruhamah (you have been pitied and have obtained mercy).’

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

For fear that I may take away her robe from her, making her uncovered as in the day of her birth; making her like a waste place and a dry land, causing her death through need of water.

For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.

For this cause I will put thorns in her road, building up a wall round her so that she may not go on her way.

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

Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.

And now will I uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand.

And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof 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, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.

And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.

I will make a covenant with them at that time, a covenant with the wild animals of the field, with the birds of the air, and with the creatures of the ground. I will banish the battle bow, the sword, and war from the earth. I will cause my people to lie down where it is safe.

And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.

I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.

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

Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.

So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an 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 for another man: so will I also be for thee.

Yet let no one find fault, nor let any rebuke [others];
For your people are like those who 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.

They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.

They will have food, but they will not be full; they will be false to me, but they will not be increased, because they no longer give thought to the Lord.

"Sexual immorality, wine, and fresh wine seduce the heart of my people.

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

However, I'm not going to punish your daughters when they commit prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because their men are themselves immoral they offer sacrifices with prostitutes. These people who aren't discerning will stumble.

For Israel is uncontrolled, like a cow which may not be controlled; now will the Lord give them food like a lamb in a wide place.

The wind hath bound her up in its wings, - that they may be ashamed, because of their sacrifices.

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.

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

Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim
And like dry rot to the house of Judah [in My judgment against them].

I am unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a lion's whelp to the house of Judah. Even I, I will spoil them, and go my way. I will take them with me, and no man shall rescue them.

I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

“Come and let us return [in repentance] to the Lord,
For He has torn us, but He will heal us;
He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.

“After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up
That we may live before Him.

Then let us know - let us press on to know - Yahweh, Like the dawn, is his coming forth assured, - that he may come like a down-pour upon us, like the harvest-rain, and the seed-rain of the land.

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.

Because my desire is for mercy and not offerings; for the knowledge of God more than for burned offerings.

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

Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

When my desire was for the fate of my people to be changed and to make Israel well, then the sin of Ephraim was made clear, and the evil-doing of Samaria; for their ways are false, and the thief comes into the house, while the band of outlaws takes property by force in the streets.

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

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

Ephraim will mingle himself among my people; Ephraim was a cake not turned.

When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.

Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me.

Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.

They have gone to what is of no value; they are like a false bow; their captains will come to destruction by the sword, and their ruler by my wrath; for this, the land of Egypt will make sport of them.

Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.

Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know 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.

He has rejected your [pagan] calf, O Samaria, saying,
“My wrath burns against them.”
How long will they be incapable of innocence?

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

As for My sacrificial offerings,
They sacrifice the meat [as a mere formality] and eat it,
But the Lord is not pleased with them and does not accept them.
Now He will remember and take into account their wickedness and guilt,
And punish them for their sins.
They will return [in captivity] to [another] Egypt [that is, Assyria].

For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;
And Judah has multiplied fortified cities,
But I will send a fire on its cities that it may consume its palatial dwellings.

The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.

"I found Israel, as one finds grapes in the wilderness; Your ancestors seemed to me like the fruit gleaned from a fig tree's first harvest. When they went to Baal-peor, they devoted themselves to that filth, and they became loathsome, like what they loved.

But if they shall bring up their sons and I bereaved them from man: but also wo to them in my departing from them.

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

O Lord, what will you give them? Give them bodies which may not give birth and breasts without milk.

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

My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

Itself also, to Assyria, shall be borne along, as a present to a hostile king, - shame, shall Ephraim receive, that Israel, may be ashamed, of his own counsel.

It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall bind themselves in their two furrows.

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 to yourselves in righteousness, reap ye at thc bidding of lovingkindness, furrow to yourselves the newly-ploughed soil, - then will be the time to seek Yahweh, until he come, that he may rain down righteousness for you.

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

When I called them, they went from my face. They sacrificed to the Baals, and they sacrificed to idols.

Yet I taught Ephraim to walk; I took them on my arms; but they knew not that I healed them.

I made them come after me with the cords of a man, with the bands of love; I was to them as one who took the yoke from off their mouths, putting meat before them.

They shall not return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian shall be their king, because they refused to return to me .

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? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.

I do not the fierceness of My anger, I turn not back to destroy Ephraim, For God I am, and not a man. In thy midst the Holy One, and I enter not in enmity,

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:

that they may be scattered away from Egypt, as men scare birds: and frayed away, as doves used to be, from the Assyrians' land: and that because I would have them tarry at home, sayeth the LORD.

Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.

But, a controversy, hath Yahweh with Judah, - so that he may bring punishment on Jacob, according to his ways, According to his doings, repay him.

And Ephraim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found me out substance: in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.

My word came to the ears of the prophets and I gave them visions in great number, and by the mouths of the prophets I made use of comparisons.

Ephraim provoked Me to anger most bitterly; therefore he shall leave his blood on him, and his Lord shall turn his reproach to him.

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.

Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.

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

I will fall upon them as a bear bereaved, and will read asunder the enclosure of their heart, - that I may devour them there, like a lioness, the wild beast of the field, shall tear them in pieces.

O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.

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?

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

Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol (the place of the dead)?
Shall I redeem them from death?
O death, where are your thorns?
O Sheol, where is your sting?
Compassion is hidden from My eyes [because of their failure to repent].

For though he flourishes among the reeds (his fellow tribes),
An east wind (Assyria) will come,
The breath of the Lord rising from the desert;
And Ephraim’s spring will become dry
And his fountain will be dried up.
Assyria will plunder his treasury of every precious object.

Take words of repentance with you
and return to the Lord.
Say to Him: “Forgive all our sin
and accept what is good,
so that we may repay You
with praise from our lips.

I will heal their apostasy and faithlessness;
I will love them freely,
For My anger has turned away from Israel.

His branches, shall spread, that, like an olive-tree, may be his fresh beauty, - and his fragrance, like Lebanon.

{They will again dwell} in my shadow; they will grow grain and they will blossom like the plant vine; his fame [will be] like the wine of Lebanon.

Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.

Who is wise, that he may understand these things? prudent, that he may know them? for the ways of Jehovah are right, and the just shall walk in them; but transgressors shall fall therein.