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

And Jehovah said to him, Call his name God Will Sow. For still in a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease.

Yet the number of the sons of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered. And it shall be, in the place where it was said to them, You are not My people, there it shall be said to them, You are the sons of the living God.

Say to your brothers, A People; and to your sisters, Mercy.

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

So I will return and take away My grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.

And I will sow her to Me in the earth. And I will have mercy on No-mercy. And I will say to Not-my-people, You are My people. And they shall say, My God.

So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a homer of barley and a half homer of barley.

Therefore the land shall mourn, and everyone who dwells in it shall droop, with the beasts of the field and with the birds of the heavens. Yes, the fish of the sea shall also be taken away.

As they were increased, so they sinned against Me. I will change their glory into shame.

They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because its shade is good. So your daughters shall be harlots, and your brides shall commit adultery.

And the pride of Israel testifies to his face. So Israel and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.

When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim went to the Assyrian and sent to King Jareb. Yet he could not heal you nor cure you of your wound.

So I have cut them down by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth. And your judgments were as the light that goes forth.

And they do not say within their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their own doings have hemmed them in; they are before My face.

They have set up kings, but not by Me; they have made rulers, and I knew it not. They have made themselves idols with their silver and their gold, so that they may be cut off.

For they sow the wind, and they reap the whirlwind. It has no stalk; the bud shall yield no meal; if it does yield, strangers shall swallow it up.

They shall not dwell in Jehovah's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first-fruit in the fig tree at her first time. But they went to Baal-peor and set themselves apart to a shameful thing; and they became abominable like that which they loved.

For now they shall say, We have no king because we did not fear Jehovah; what then should a king do to us?

They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant. So judgment springs up like hemlock in the furrows of the field.

Also the high places 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.

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground. For it is time to seek Jehovah, until He comes and rains righteousness on you.

So He does to you, Bethel, because of your great evil. In a morning the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off.

As they called them, so they went from them. They sacrifice to the Baals, and burn incense to graven images.

And now they sin more and more, and have made themselves a molten image of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves.

According to their pasture, so were they filled. They were filled and their heart was lifted up. Therefore they have forgotten Me.

Take with you words, and turn to Jehovah. Say to Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously, that we may repay with the calves of our lips.

Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses. Nor shall we say any more to the work of our hands, Our gods, for in You the fatherless finds mercy.

Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him and watched him; I am like a green fir tree. Your fruit is found from Me.