The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go take to thee a wife addicted to lewdness and children of lewdness; for the land hath committed great lewdness, departing from the LORD.

And the 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 to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.

And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And God said to him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.

Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said to them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said to them, Ye are the sons of the living God.

Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her prostitutions out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.

For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.

And now will I disclose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand.

And I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees, of which she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

Then said the LORD to me, Go yet, love a woman beloved by her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD towards the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.

And I said to her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.

They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.

After two days will he revive us: in the third day will he raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

Also, O Judah, he hath set a harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.

They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made for themselves idols, that they may be cut off.

How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? my heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.

And Ephraim said, Yet I have become rich, I have found for myself substance: in all my labors they shall find no iniquity in me that were sin.

The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.