The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

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 unto them, you are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, you 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 harlotry out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

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

And I will give her her vineyards 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.

Hear the word of the LORD, you children of Israel: for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants 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 they that strive with the priest.

As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.

They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because its shadow is good: therefore your daughters shall commit harlotry, and your spouses shall commit adultery.

Though you, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not unto Gilgal, neither go up to Bethaven, nor swear, As the LORD lives.

For Israel slides back like a stubborn heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in an open pasture.

Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.

Their drink is sour: they have committed harlotry continually: her rulers love shame more than glory.

Hear you this, O priests; and hearken, you house of Israel; and give you ear, O house of the king; for judgment is for you, because you have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.

I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, you commit harlotry, and Israel is defiled.

They will not change their deeds to turn unto their God: for the spirit of harlotry is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD.

Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after a human commandment.

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

Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has smitten, and he will bind us up.

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

Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

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

Therefore have I hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and your judgments are as the light that goes forth.

Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is defiled with blood.

And as bands of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.

I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the harlotry of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceases to stir the fire after he has kneaded the dough, until it is leavened.

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

They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings have fallen: there is none among them that calls unto me.

Ephraim, he has mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

Ephraim also is like a silly dove without sense: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard.

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

Israel has cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.

Your calf, O Samaria, has cast you off; my anger is kindled against them: how long will it be before they attain to innocence?

For from Israel is even this: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel in which is no pleasure.

I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.

Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for you have played the harlot against your God, you have loved for hire upon every threshing floor.

The days of punishment have come, the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, because of the multitude of your iniquity, and the great hatred.

The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.

They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will punish their sins.

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and they became abominations like the thing they loved.

As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

Ephraim, as I saw Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.

All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more: all their princes are rebels.

Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even their beloved children.

Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.

Their heart is divided; now shall they be found guilty: he shall break down their altars, he shall ruin their images.

For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then could a king do for us?

As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water.

The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.

It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people shall be gathered against them, when they shall be bound for their two transgressions.

And Ephraim is as a heifer that is trained, and loves to tread out the grain; but I harnessed her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to pull a plow; Judah shall plow, and Jacob must break his clods.

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he comes and rains righteousness upon you.

Therefore shall a tumult arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Betharbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.

As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

I drew them with cords of compassion, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke from their jaws, and I laid food before them.

How shall I give you up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver you, Israel? how shall I make you as Admah? how shall I set you as Zeboiim? my heart is turned within me, my compassion is stirred.

They shall come trembling as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses, says the LORD.

Ephraim surrounds me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet walks with God, and is faithful with the saints.

Ephraim feeds on wind, and follows after the east wind: he daily increases lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.

Yea, he had power over the angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication unto him: he found him in Bethel, and there he spoke with us;

Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial name.

He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loves to oppress.

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

And I that am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt will yet make you to dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast.

Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the fields.

Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passes away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

Yet I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no god but me: for there is no savior besides me.

Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:

I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her cubs, and will tear the fat of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.

O Israel, you have destroyed yourself; but in me is your help.

I will be your king: where is any other that may save you in all your cities? and your judges of whom you said, Give me a king and princes?

The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.

The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long where children are born.

Though he is fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall plunder the treasury of every precious thing.

Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say unto him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we offer the sacrifices of our lips.

Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, you are our gods: for in you the fatherless finds mercy.

I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his fragrance as Lebanon.

They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the grain, and grow as the vine: their scent shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green cypress tree. In me is your fruit found.

Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall stumble in them.