The word of the LORD that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

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

Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bore a son.

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

I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the prostitution of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if it shall yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.

Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be to him to sin.

The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.

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

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.

And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of artificers: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.

The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.