But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by Jehovah their God; and I will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by battle, or by horses, or by horsemen.

and he said, Call his name Lo-ammi; for ye are not my people, and I will not be for you.

Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea which cannot be measured or numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, it shall be said unto them, Sons of the living God.

Say unto your brethren Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: and let her put away her whoredoms from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they are the children of whoredoms.

And I will make desolate her vine and her fig-tree, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards which my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

Yet let no man strive, and let no man reprove; for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; for thou hast rejected knowledge, and I will reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.

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

My people ask counsel of their stock, and their staff declareth unto them; for the spirit of whoredoms causeth them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God:

they sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oak and poplar and terebinth, because the shade thereof is good; therefore your daughters play the harlot and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot, nor your daughters-in-law for their committing adultery; for they themselves go aside with harlots, and they sacrifice with prostitutes: and the people that doth not understand shall come to ruin.

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

The princes of Judah are become like them that remove the landmark: I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his sore, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb; but he was unable to heal you, nor hath he removed your sore.

What shall I do unto thee, Ephraim? What shall I do unto thee, Judah? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that early passeth away.

And they say not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now do their own doings encompass them; they are before my face.

In the day of our king, the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine: he stretched out his hand to scorners.

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

Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not; yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, and he knoweth it not.

They return, but not to the Most High: they are like a deceitful bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Israel is swallowed up: now are they become among the nations as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.

For they are gone up to Assyria as a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.

I have prescribed unto him the manifold things of my law: they are counted as a strange thing.

For behold, they are gone away because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Moph shall bury them: their pleasant things of silver, nettles shall possess them; thorns shall be in their tents.

The days of visitation are come; the days of recompence are come: Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the inspired man is mad, because of the greatness of thine iniquity, and the great enmity.

I found Israel as grapes in the wilderness; as first-ripe fruit on the fig-tree, I saw your fathers at the beginning: they went to Baal-Peor, and separated themselves unto that shame, and became abominations like their lover.

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 princes are rebellious.

At my pleasure will I chastise them; and the peoples shall be assembled against them, when they are bound for their two iniquities.

Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek Jehovah, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.

So shall Bethel do unto you because of the wickedness of your wickedness: at day-break shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.

Yea, my people are bent upon backsliding from me: though they call them to the Most High, none at all exalteth him.

How shall I give thee over, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee up, 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.

He is a merchant, balances of deceit are in his hand; he loveth to oppress.

And Ephraim saith, Nevertheless I am become rich, I have found me out substance; in all my labours they shall find none iniquity in me that were sin.

If Gilead is iniquity, surely they are but vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

Where then is thy king, that he may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes? --

I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death: where, O death, are thy plagues? where, O Sheol, is thy destruction? Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

Take with you words, and turn to Jehovah; say unto him, Forgive all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves 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, Thou art our God; because in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.

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