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."

Therefore, lo, I am hedging up thy way with thorns, And I have made for her a wall, And her paths she doth not find.

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."

Howbeit let, no man, contend, nor let him rebuke another, - since, thy people, are as they who contend against a priest:

And thou hast stumbled in the day, And stumbled hath also a prophet with thee in the night, And I have cut off thy mother.

My people, are destroyed, for lack of knowledge, - Because, thou, hast rejected knowledge, therefore will I reject thee from ministering as priest unto me, and, because thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also, will forget thy children.

Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.

To thy mouth, with a horn! Like an eagle, on the house of Yahweh, - because they have violated my covenant, and, against my law, have they transgressed.

He hath cast away thy calf, O Samaria, kindled is mine anger upon them, - How long shall they not endure to be innocent?

Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation, like the peoples, for thou hast gone away unchastely from beside thy God, - thou hast loved a present, upon all the threshing-floors of corn!

The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thy iniquity, and the great hatred.

Ye have plowed lawlessness, perversity, have ye reaped, ye have eaten the fruit of deception, - because thou didst trust in thy chariots, in the multitude of thy mighty men.

Therefore shall there arise a tumult among thy peoples, and, all thy fortresses, shall be plundered, as Shalman plundered Beth-arbel, in the day of battle, - the mother, upon her children, dashed to the ground.

I do not the fierceness of My anger, I turn not back to destroy Ephraim, For God I am, and not a man. In thy midst the Holy One, and I enter not in enmity,

Thou, therefore, by thy God, shalt return, - lovingkindness and justice, do thou keep, so wait thou for thy God, continually.

But, I, Yahweh, have been thy God, from the land of Egypt, - I will yet make thee dwell in tents, as in the days of appointed meeting.

Yet, I, Yahweh, have been thy God from the land of Egypt, - and, god beside me, shalt thou not acknowledge, for, saviour, is there none besides me.

It hath utterly destroyed thee, O Israel, for it was against me, as thy helper!

Where is thy king, then, that he may save thee throughout all thy cities? and thy judges, concerning whom thou saidst, Oh give me a king and rulers?

Out of the hand of hades, will I ransom them, out of death, will I redeem them, - Where is thy pestilence, O death? Where thy plague, O hades? Repentance, shall be hid from mine eyes.

Return thou, O Israel, unto Yahweh thy God, - for thou hast stumbled by thine iniquity.

Ephraim saith - What to me any more are idols? I, have answered, and have closely observed him, I, am like a fir-tree that is green, From me, is thy fruit found.