The start of the word of the Lord by Hosea: And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take for yourself a wife of loose ways, and children of the same, for the land has been untrue to the Lord.

Take up the cause against your mother, take it up, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; let her put away her loose ways from her face, and her false ways from between her breasts;

And I will have no mercy on her children, for they are the children of her loose ways.

For this cause I will put thorns in her road, building up a wall round her so that she may not go on her way.

And the priest will be like the people; I will give them punishment for their evil ways, and the reward of their acts.

Loose ways and new wine take away wisdom.

They make offerings on the tops of mountains, burning perfumes in high places, under trees of every sort, because their shade is good: and so your daughters are given up to loose ways and your brides are false to their husbands.

They have gone deep in the evil ways of Shittim, but I am the judge of all.

And like a band of thieves waiting for a man, so are the priests watching secretly the way of those going quickly to Shechem, for they are working with an evil design.

In Israel I have seen a very evil thing; there false ways are seen in Ephraim, Israel is unclean;

When my desire was for the fate of my people to be changed and to make Israel well, then the sin of Ephraim was made clear, and the evil-doing of Samaria; for their ways are false, and the thief comes into the house, while the band of outlaws takes property by force in the streets.

There is great hate against the watchman of Ephraim, the people of my God; as for the prophet, there is a net in all his ways, and hate in the house of his God.

You have been ploughing sin, you have got in a store of evil, the fruit of deceit has been your food: for you put faith in your way, in the number of your men of war.

The Lord has a cause against Judah, and will give punishment to Jacob for his ways; he will give him the reward of his acts.

As for Canaan, the scales of deceit are in his hands; he takes pleasure in twisted ways.

He who is wise will see these things; he who has good sense will have knowledge of them. For the ways of the Lord are straight, and the upright will go in them, but sinners will be falling in them.