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

And he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived and bore him a son.

And she weaned Lo-ruhamah; and she conceived and bore a son;

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

In the house of Israel have I seen a horrible thing: the whoredom of Ephraim is there; Israel is defiled.

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk; should it sprout, it would yield no meal; if so be it yield, strangers shall swallow it up.

Because Ephraim hath multiplied altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.

And the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up upon 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 out of Egypt I called my son.

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.

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

The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is laid by in store.

The pangs of a woman in travail shall come upon him: he is a son not wise; for at the time of the breaking forth of children, he was not there.