and he said, Call his name Lo-ammi; for ye are not my people, and I will not be for you.

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, it shall be said unto them, Sons of the living God.

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;

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.

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.

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 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.

And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, that thou shalt call me, My husband, and shalt call me no more, Baali;

And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; and I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies;

and I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know Jehovah.

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 Jehovah said unto me, Go again, love a woman beloved of a friend, and an adulteress, according to the love of Jehovah for the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love raisin-cakes.

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.

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

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

They eat the sin of my people, and their soul longeth for their iniquity.

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:

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me; for now, Ephraim, thou hast committed whoredom; Israel is defiled.

The princes of Judah are become like them that remove the landmark: I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

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

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.

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

Also, for thee, Judah, is a harvest appointed, when I shall turn again the captivity of my people.

And they say not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now do their own doings encompass them; they are before my face.

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

When they go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowl of the heavens; I will chastise them, according as their assembly hath heard.

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.

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.

They shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee; we, Israel.

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

Is Ephraim a watchman with my God? nay the prophet is a fowler's snare on all his ways, enmity in the house of his God.

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 rebellious.

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

At my pleasure will I chastise them; and the peoples shall be assembled against them, when they are bound for their two iniquities.

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

He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king; for they refused to return to me;

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

How shall I give thee over, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee up, 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.

Ephraim encompasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah yet walketh with God, and with the holy things of truth.

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

Yet I am Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou hast known no God but me; and there is no saviour besides me.

According to their pasture, they became full; they became full, and their heart was exalted: therefore have they forgotten me.

It is thy destruction, O Israel, that thou art against me, against thy help.

Where then is thy king, that he 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.

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.