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 the LORD said unto him, "Call his name Jezreel, for I will shortly avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will bring the kingdom of the house of Israel to an end.

She conceived yet again, and bare a daughter. And he said unto him, "Call her name Loruhamah, that is, 'Not obtaining mercy,' for I will have no pity upon the house of Israel, but forget them, and put them clean out of remembrance.

Then said he, "Call his name Loammi. For why? Ye are not my people, therefore will I not be yours.

And though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, which can neither be measured nor told: yet in the place where it is said unto them, 'Ye be not my people': even there shall it be thus reported of them, 'They be the children of the living God.'

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.'

Then said the LORD to me, "Go yet thy way and vow an adulterous woman, whom thy neighbour loveth as the LORD doth the children of Israel: howbeit, they have respect to strange gods, and love the wine cans."

and said unto her, "Thou shalt bide with me a long season, but see that thou playest not the harlot, and look thou meddle with none other man, and then will I keep myself for thee."