When LORD spoke at the first by Hosea, LORD said to Hosea, Go, take to thee a wife of whoredom and children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom, departing from LORD.

And LORD said to him, Call his name Jezreel, for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon 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 [LORD] said to him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah, for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, that I should in any way pardon them.

And [LORD] said, Call his name Lo-ammi, for ye are not my people, and I will not be yours.

And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint themselves one head, and shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Contend with your mother. Contend, for she is not my wife, nor am I her husband. And let her put away her whoredoms from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts,

Yea, I will have no mercy upon her sons, for they are sons of whoredom,

for their mother has played the harlot. She who conceived them has done shamefully, for she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me 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. And she shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better with me then than now.

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

And I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope. And she shall make answer 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 Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be mentioned by their name.

And in that day I will make 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 land, and

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

And I said to her, Thou shall abide for me many days. Thou shall not play the harlot, and thou shall not be any man's wife. So I will also be toward thee.

For the sons of Israel shall abide many days without king, and without ruler, and without sacrifice, and without pillar, and without ephod or teraphim.

Afterward the sons of Israel shall return and seek LORD their God and David their king, and shall come with fear to LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.

Hear the word of LORD, ye sons of Israel, for LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.

Yet, let no man strive, nor let any man reprove, for thy people are as those who strive with the priest.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because thou have rejected knowledge, I also will reject thee, that thou shall be no priest to me. Since thou have forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy sons.

And it shall be, like people, like priest. And I will punish them for their ways, and will requite them their doings.

My people ask counsel at their stock, and their staff declares to them, for the spirit of whoredom has caused them to err, and they have played the harlot, [departing] from under their God.

I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot, nor your brides when they commit adultery. For themselves go apart with harlots, and they sacrifice with the prostitutes. And the people who do not understand shall be ove

For Israel has behaved himself stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer. Now LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.

Hear this, O ye priests, and hearken, O house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king, for to you pertains the judgment. For ye have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me. For now, O Ephraim, thou have played the harlot; Israel is defiled.

Their doings will not allow them to turn to their God, for the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they do not know LORD.

They have dealt treacherously against LORD, for they have borne strange sons. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

For I will be to Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away, I will carry off, and there shall be none to deliver.

Come, and let us return to LORD, for he has torn, and he will heal us. He has smitten, and he will bind us up.

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

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

And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way toward Shechem. Yea, they have committed iniquity.

Also, O Judah, there is a harvest appointed for thee when I bring back the captivity of my people.

When I would heal Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria. For they commit falsehood, and the thief enters in, and the troop of robbers ravages outside.

They are all adulterers. They are as an oven heated by the baker. He ceases to stir [the fire], from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.

For they have made their heart ready like an oven, while they lay in wait. Their baker sleeps all the night. In the morning it burns as a flaming fire.

And the pride of Israel testifies to his face. Yet they have not returned to LORD their God, nor sought him for all this.

Woe to them! For they have wandered from me. Destruction to them! For they have trespassed against me. Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

And they have not cried to me with their heart, but they howl upon their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and new wine. They rebel against me.

They return, but not to [him] on high. They are like a deceitful bow. Their rulers shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

For even this is from Israel: the workman made it, and it is no God. Yea, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain. The blade shall yield no meal. If so be it yields, strangers shall swallow it up.

For they have gone up to Assyria [like] a wild donkey alone by himself. Ephraim has hired lovers.

Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, altars have been to him for sinning.

I wrote for him the ten thousand things of my law, but they are counted as a strange thing.

As for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it, but LORD does not accept them. He will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. They shall return to Egypt.

For Israel has forgotten his maker, and built palaces. And Judah has multiplied fortified cities. But I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the castles thereof.

Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy like the peoples, for thou have played the harlot, [departing] from thy God. Thou have loved hire upon every grain-floor.

They shall not pour out wine-offerings to LORD, nor shall they be pleasing to him. Their sacrifices shall be to them as the bread of mourners. All who eat of it shall be polluted, for their bread shall be for their appetite. It sha

For, lo, they have gone away from destruction, [yet] Egypt shall gather them up. Memphis shall bury them. Their pleasant things of silver, nettles shall possess them. Thorns shall be in their tents.

The days of visitation have come. The days of recompense have come. Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the abundance of thine iniquity, and because the enmity is great.

Ephraim [was] a watchman with my God. As for the prophet, a fowler's snare is in all his ways, [and] enmity in the house of his God.

As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird. There shall be no birth, and none with child, and no conception.

All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more. All their rulers are rebels.

Surely now they shall say, We have no king, for we fear not LORD. And the king, what can he do for us?

The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in terror for the calves of Beth-aven. For the people of it shall mourn over it, and the priests of it, who rejoiced over it for the glory of it, 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 foam upon the water.

And Ephraim is a heifer that is taught, that loves to tread out [the grain]. But I have passed over upon her fair neck. I will set a rider on Ephraim. Judah shall plow. Jacob shall break his clods.

Sow to yourselves in righteousness. Reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek LORD, till he comes and rains righteousness upon you.

Ye have plowed wickedness. Ye have reaped iniquity. Ye have eaten the fruit of lies. For thou trusted in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.

I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim. For I am God, and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee, and I will not come in wrath.

They shall walk after LORD, who will roar like a lion. For he will roar, and the sons shall come trembling from the west.

Therefore turn thou to thy God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait for thy God continually.

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

And Jacob fled into the field of Aram, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept [sheep].

The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, for it is time he should not tarry in the place of the breaking forth of sons.

Samaria shall bear her guilt, for she has rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword. Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

O Israel, return to LORD thy God, for thou have fallen by thine iniquity.

Assyria shall not save us. We will not ride upon horses, nor will we say any more to the work of our hands, Our gods. For in thee the fatherless finds mercy.

I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely. For my anger is turned away from him.

Ephraim [shall say], What have I to do any more with idols? I have answered, and will regard him. I am like a green fir tree. From me thy fruit is found.

Who is wise, that he may understand these things, prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them. But transgressors shall fall therein.