Then the children of Judah and Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint for themselves one head; and {they will take possession of} the land, for great [is] the day of Jezreel.

And I will not have pity on her children, because [they are] children of whoredom.

But she did not know that [it was] I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, and who gave her silver in abundance, and gold which they made into a Baal.

and I will lay waste to her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, "They [are] my payment for prostitution, which my lovers gave to me." I will make them a forest, and the wild animals of the field will devour them.

I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they will no longer be mentioned by their name.

On that day I will answer, {declares Yahweh}, I will answer the heavens, and they will answer the earth.

And the earth will answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they will answer Jezreel.

And Yahweh said to me again, "Go, love a woman {who has a lover} and [is] committing adultery, just like the love of Yahweh [for] the children of Israel, but they [are] turning to other gods and love raisin cakes."

Afterward the children of Israel will return and seek Yahweh their God and David their king. They will come in fear to Yahweh and to his goodness at the end of days.

When they became many, their sin increased against me; they changed their glory into shame.

{They feed on the sin of my people}, {they are greedy} for their iniquity.

They will eat and not be satisfied; they will play the whore and not multiply, because they have forsaken Yahweh {to devote themselves to

My people, consult {their wooden idols}, and their divining rod gives them oracles; because a spirit of whoredom led [them] astray, and they played the whore from under their God.

On the tops of the mountains they sacrifice, and on the hills they make offerings, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and all your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

{I will not punish your daughters} when they play the whore, or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery; because they go aside with whores, and they sacrifice with temple prostitutes, a people that does not understand comes to ruin.

When their drinking has ended, they surely indulge in sexual orgies. They love lewdness more than their glory.

A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they will be ashamed because of their altars.

they dug a deep pit [in] Shittim, but I [am] a punishment for all of them.

Their deeds do not permit them to return them to God. Because a spirit of whoredom [is] in their midst, they do not know Yahweh.

With their flocks and herds they will go to seek Yahweh, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.

They have dealt faithlessly with Yahweh because they have borne illegitimate children. Now [the] new moon will devour them with their fields.

{I will return again} to my place until they acknowledge [their] guilt and seek my face; in their distress they will search me.

But like Adam, they transgressed [the] covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me.

Like bandits lying in wait, [so is] a band of priests; they murder [on the] road to Shechem; indeed, they commit a monstrous crime.

when I would heal Israel, and the corruption of Ephraim is revealed, and the wicked deeds of Samaria; because they deal [in] falsehood, [the] thief breaks in, [and the] bandit raids the outside.

{But they did not consider} that I remember all their wickedness. Now their deeds surround them; they are before my face.

By their wickedness they make [the] king glad, and [the] officials by their treacheries.

Because they are kindled like an oven, their heart burns within them; all night their anger {smolders}, [in the] morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen; there is none who calls to me amongst them.

The pride of Israel {testifies against him}-- they do not return to Yahweh their God; they do not seek him for all of this.

Ephraim was like a dove, silly, {without sense}; they call [to] Egypt, they go [to] Assyria.

Just as they go, I will cast my net over them; I will bring them down like the birds of the heavens; I will discipline them according to a report to their assembly.

Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me! I myself would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.

They do not cry out to me from their heart, but they wail on their beds; because of grain and new wine they lacerate themselves; they depart from me.

And I myself trained and strengthened their arms; but they plan evil against me.

They turn, not to the Most High, like a slack bow; their officials will fall by the sword because of the anger of their tongue. This [is] their scorn in the land of Egypt.

[Put] to your lips [the] trumpet like a vulture over the house of Yahweh, because they have {broken my covenant} and rebelled against my law.

They cry out to me, "My God! We, Israel, know you!"

They appointed kings, but not through me; they made officials, but without my knowledge. [With] their silver and gold they made idols for themselves for their own {destruction}.

Your calf is rejected, Samaria; my anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?

Because they sow the wind, they will reap the whirlwind. [The] standing grain does not have heads; it will not yield flour. [And] if it would yield, strangers would devour it.

Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the nations, like an object that no one desires.

For they have gone up [to] Assyria, a wild donkey alone to itself; Ephraim has sold itself [for] lovers.

Even though they have sold themselves to the nations, now I will gather them. They will soon writhe from the burden of kings and princes.

When Ephraim multiplied altars to expiate sins, they became to him altars to sin [on].

I write for him myriads of my instruction; they are regarded as a strange thing.

They offer sacrifices of my choice and they eat flesh; Yahweh does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity and punish their sins; they will return [to] Egypt.

They will not remain in the land of Yahweh. But Ephraim will return [to] Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat unclean food.

They will not pour [drink offerings of] wine to Yahweh, and their sacrifices will not please him. [They are] like mourners' bread for them; all those who eat it will be defiled. For their bread will be {for their hunger}; it will not come [to] the house of Yahweh.

For look! [If] they flee from the destruction, Egypt will gather them; Memphis will bury them. Nettles will possess their precious things of silver; thorns [will be] in their tents.

{They deeply corrupted themselves} as [in] the days of Gibeah; he will remember their sin, he will punish their sins.

Like the grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like early ripened fruit on the fig tree in the first season, I saw your ancestors. They themselves came [to] Baal Peor, and they consecrated themselves to shame. And they became detestable things, like {the thing they love}.

Even though they bring up their children, I will bereave them before maturity. Woe to them indeed, when I depart from them!

Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up, they shall not bear fruit. Even if they give birth, I will kill the cherished offspring of their womb.

My God will reject them because they did not listen to him, and they will be wanderers among the nations.

Their heart is false; now they must bear [their] guilt. He himself will break down their altars; he will destroy their stone pillars.

For now they will say, "We have no king; indeed, we did not fear Yahweh, and what can a king do for us?"

They utter words of vain oaths [when] {making covenants}, and judgment blossoms like a poisonous plant on the furrows of the field.

The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. Thorn and thistle will grow on their altars. They will say to the mountains, "Cover us," and to the hills, "Fall on us."

From the days of Gibeah you have sinned, Israel; there {they have remained}. Will not war in Gibeah overtake them against the children of evil?

In my desire I will punish them; nations will be gathered against them when they are punished for {their double iniquities}.

When I called them, they went from my face. They sacrificed to the Baals, and they sacrificed to idols.

And I myself taught Ephraim to walk; I took them in my arms, but they did not know that I healed them.

He will return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria will be his king, because they refused to return.

My people are bent on backsliding from me. To the Most High they call, he does not raise them at all.

They will go after Yahweh; he roars like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from [the] sea.

They will tremble like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria; and I will let them return to their homes-- a declaration of Yahweh.

And Ephraim said, "Surely, I am rich, I gained wealth for myself; in all my toil they have not found guilt in me that is [sin].

If [in] Gilead [there is] evil, surely they will come to nothing. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls, also their altars will be like stone heaps on furrows of [the] field.

And now they sin again, and they make for themselves a molten idol, idols from their silver metal according to their understanding, all of them the work of skilled craftsmen. To these they say, "Sacrifice!" People are kissing bull calves.

Therefore, they will be like the morning cloud, and like [the] dew of early morning going [away], like chaff swirling from [the] threshing floor, or like smoke from a window.

When I fed them, they were satisfied; they were satisfied and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me.

Samaria will be guilty, because she has rebelled against her God; they will fall by [the] sword, their children will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.

{They will again dwell} in my shadow; they will grow grain and they will blossom like the plant vine; his fame [will be] like the wine of Lebanon.