The beginning of Jehovah speaking by Hosea. And Jehovah said to Hosea, Go, take to yourself a wife of adultery and children of adultery. For the land has utterly gone lusting away from Jehovah.

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.

And she conceived again and bore a daughter. And God said to him, Call her name No-mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel. But I will utterly take them away.

And He said, Call his name Not-my-people. For you are not My people, and I will not be for you.

Then the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel shall be gathered together, and shall set over themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land. For great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Contend! Contend with your mother, for she is not my wife, nor am I her husband. Let her therefore put away her fornications out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts,

And I will not have mercy on her sons, for they are the sons of adulteries.

For their mother has prostituted herself. She who conceived them has done shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers who give my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.

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.

For she did not know that I gave her grain, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

And I will give her vineyards to her from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope. And she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they will no more be remembered by their name.

And in that day I will cut a covenant for them, with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the heavens, and with the creeping things of the ground. And I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.

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

And I said to her, You shall abide for me many days. You shall not be a harlot, nor be for a man. And I also will be for you.

For the sons of Israel shall live many days with no king, and no ruler, and with no sacrifice, and no pillars, and no ephod, or teraphim.

Afterward the sons of Israel shall return and seek Jehovah their God and David their king. And they shall fear Jehovah and His goodness in the ends of the days.

Hear the Word of Jehovah, sons of Israel. For Jehovah has a quarrel with the people of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another. For your people are as those who strive with the priest.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you from being priest to Me. Since you have forgotten the Law of your God, I will also forget your sons, even I.

And it has become, Like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them for their doings.

For they shall eat and not have enough. They shall fornicate and not increase, because they have stopped taking heed to Jehovah.

My people seek advice from their wooden idols, and their rod declares to them. For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to go astray, and they have gone lusting away from under their God.

I will not punish your daughters when they fornicate, nor your wives when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go aside with harlots, and they sacrifice with temple prostitutes. The people who do not understand are thrown down.

For Israel slides back like a backsliding heifer. Now Jehovah will feed them as a lamb in a large place.

Hear this, O priests, and listen, house of Israel. And give ear, house of the king. For judgment is toward you, because you have been a snare on Mizpah and a net spread on Tabor.

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me. For now, O Ephraim, you have fornicated; Israel is defiled.

Their doings will not allow them to turn to their God; for the spirit of fornication is in their midst, and they have not known Jehovah.

They have acted treacherously against Jehovah, for they have brought out strange sons. Now a new moon shall devour them with their portions.

For I will be to Ephraim as a lion, and as a strong lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away. I will take away, and none shall rescue him.

Come and let us return to Jehovah. For He has torn, and He will heal us; He has stricken, and He will bind us up.

O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? For your goodness is like a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goes away.

For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

And as troops of robbers wait for a man, the company of priests murder in the way of Shechem; for they committed wickedness.

When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria. For they have worked falsehood. And the thief comes in, the troop of robbers plunders outside.

For they have brought their heart near like an oven, while they lie in wait. Their baker sleeps at night; in the morning it burns like a flaming fire.

Woe to them! For they have fled from Me. Ruin to them! Because they have sinned against Me. Though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against Me.

And they have not cried to Me with their heart, when they howled on their beds; they gather themselves for grain and wine, and they rebel against Me.

For from Israel it came also. The craftsman made it, but it is not God. For the calf of Samaria shall be splinters.

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.

For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself. Ephraim has hired lovers.

They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of My offerings, and eat it; but Jehovah does not receive them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. They shall return to Egypt.

For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples. And Judah has multiplied cities. But I will send a fire on his cities, and it shall burn up her palaces.

O Israel, rejoice not for joy, like the peoples. For you have gone lusting away from your God; you have loved a reward on every grain floor.

They shall not pour wine to Jehovah, nor shall they be pleasing to Him. Their sacrifices shall be like the bread of sorrows to them; all who eat of them shall be defiled. For their bread is for their soul, it shall not come into the house of Jehovah.

For lo, they have left because of destruction. Egypt shall gather them up; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess the desirable things of their silver; thorns shall be in their tents.

All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them. I will drive them out of My house for the wickedness of their doings. I will love them no more; all their rulers are revolters.

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

Because of the calves of Beth-aven, the people of Samaria shall dread. For its people shall mourn over it, and its priest rejoiced on it for its glory, because it has departed from it.

It shall also be carried to Assyria for a present to King Jareb. Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

As for Samaria, her king is cut off as a bough on the water.

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.

I will not carry out the heat of My anger; I will not return to destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst; and I will not enter into the city.

And Ephraim said, Yet I have become rich, I have found much wealth for myself. In all my labors they shall find in me no iniquity that is sin.

And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept watch.

Yet I am Jehovah your God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me. For there is no Savior besides Me.

The pains of a woman in travail shall come to him. He is an unwise son; for he cannot stand still in the time of the breaking forth of sons.

Samaria shall become a waste, for she has rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword. Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women shall be ripped up.

O Israel, return to Jehovah your God, for you have fallen by your iniquity.

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.

I will heal their backslidings; I will love them freely; for My anger has turned away from him.

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.

Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? Understanding, and he shall know them? For the ways of Jehovah are right, and the just shall walk in them; but sinners shall fall in them.