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, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.

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

Plead earnestly with your mother (for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband), so that she might put an end to her adulterous lifestyle, and turn away from her sexually immoral behavior.

Otherwise, I will strip her naked, and expose her like she was when she was born. I will turn her land into a wilderness and make her country a parched land, so that I might kill her with thirst.

Therefore, this is what I will do:
I will block her way with thorns;
I will enclose her with a wall,
so that she cannot find her paths.

And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.

“Therefore, I will return and take back My grain at harvest time
And My new wine in its season.
I will also take away My wool and My flax
Given to cover her nakedness.

So now I'll reveal her lewdness to the eyes of her lovers, and no man will rescue her from my control.

“I will destroy her vines and her fig trees
Of which she has said, ‘These are my wages
Which my lovers have given me.’
And I will make them a forest,
And the animals of the open country will devour them.

And I will punish her for the days of the Baals
when she burned incense to them,
put on her rings and jewelry,
and went after her lovers,
but forgot Me.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

For this cause I will make her come into the waste land and will say words of comfort to her.

In that day—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
you will call Me, “My husband,”
and no longer call Me, “My Baal.”

For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and never again will she say their names.

And I will solemnize to them a covenant, in that day, with the wild-beast of the field, and with the bird of the heavens, and the creeping thing of the ground, - and, bow and sword and battle, will I break in pieces out of the land, so will I cause them to lie down, in security.

Yea I will take thee unto myself, in faithfulness, - So shalt thou know Yahweh.

On that day I will respond—
this is the Lord’s declaration.
I will respond to the sky,
and it will respond to the earth.

And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.

And Jehovah will say to me, Yet go, love a woman loving evil and an adulteress, as Jehovah loves the sons of Israel, and they took to other gods and love raisin-cakes.

So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:

And I said unto 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.

There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery.
They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.

So shouldst thou stumble in the daytime, and even the prophet stumble with thee, in the night, - and I should destroy thine own mother.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God's law, I will also forget your children.

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

And it shall be as the people so the priest; and I will visit their ways upon them, and recompense to them their doings;

Promiscuity, wine, and new wine
take away one’s understanding.

My people seek counsel from their piece of wood, and their diviner's rod speaks to them. For a spirit of prostitution causes them to go astray; in their immorality they desert their God.

They sacrifice on the mountaintops,
and they burn offerings on the hills,
and under oaks, poplars, and terebinths,
because their shade is pleasant.
And so your daughters act promiscuously
and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

Therefore commit whoredom do your daughters, And your spouses commit adultery, I do not see after your daughters when they commit whoredom, And after your spouses when they commit adultery, For they with the harlots are separated, And with the whores they do sacrifice, A people that doth not understand kicketh.

"Even though you prostitute yourself, Israel let not Judah incur guilt don't go to Gilgal, or visit Beth-aven, or swear an oath using the LORD's name.

Ephraim is joined to idols,
So let him alone [to suffer the consequences].

When their liquor is gone [and their drinking parties are over],
They habitually go to play the prostitute;
Ephraim’s rulers continue to dearly love shame [more than her glory which is the Lord, Israel’s God].

The wind [of God’s relentless wrath] has wrapped up Israel in its wings,
And [in captivity] they will be ashamed because of their sacrifices [to calves, to sun, to moon, to stars, and to pagan gods].

They are not minded to turn unto their God, for they have an whorish heart, so that they cannot know the LORD.

And Israel's pride doth testify to his face; and Israel and Ephraim shall fall by their iniquity: Judah also shall fall with them.

They will go, with their flocks and their herds, in search of the Lord, but they will not see him; he has taken himself out of their view.

Blow the horn in Gibeah,
The trumpet in Ramah [the lofty hills on Benjamin’s northern border].
Sound the alarm at Beth-aven:
“Behind you and coming after you [is the enemy], O Benjamin [be on guard]!”

Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment; because he was content to walk after man's command.

So I am like rot to Ephraim
and like decay to the house of Judah.

When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.

I am unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a lion's whelp to the house of Judah. Even I, I will spoil them, and go my way. I will take them with me, and no man shall rescue them.

“Come and let us return [in repentance] to the Lord,
For He has torn us, but He will heal us;
He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.

He will revive us after two days,
and on the third day He will raise us up
so we can live in His presence.

So let us acknowledge him! Let us seek to acknowledge the Lord! He will come to our rescue as certainly as the appearance of the dawn, as certainly as the winter rain comes, as certainly as the spring rain that waters the land."

What am I going to do with you, O Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, O Judah? For your faithfulness is as fleeting as the morning mist; it disappears as quickly as dawn's dew!

So I have had it cut in stones; I gave them teaching by the words of my mouth;

But even like as Adam did, so have they broken my covenant, and set me at naught.

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

In the house of Israel I have seen something horrible; Ephraim's unfaithfulness [is] there. Israel is defiled.

"So, Judah, a harvest has been appointed for you when I restore my people from captivity."

When I would heal Israel,
The sin (guilt) of Ephraim is uncovered,
And the wickedness of Samaria,
Because they practice false dealing;
The thief enters,
Bandits ravage and raid outside.

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.

"On the king's festival day the princes got drunk from wine, so the king joined the mockers.

"Ephraim compromises with the nations; he's a half-baked cake.

Israel’s arrogance testifies against them,
yet they do not return to Yahweh their God,
and for all this, they do not seek Him.

So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove;
they call to Egypt, and they go to Assyria.

but while they be going here and there, I shall spread my net over them, and draw them down as the fowls of the air. And according as they have been warned, so will I punish them.

They turn to Baal; they are like an unreliable bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because their prayers to Baal have made me angry. So people will disdain them in the land of Egypt.

"Put the trumpet to your lips! Something like an eagle is over Yahweh's house, because they have broken my covenant, and rebelled against my law.

Israel can say unto me, "Thou art my God, we know thee,"

But Israel has rejected what is morally good; so an enemy will pursue him.

They have made kings, and not by Me, They have made princes, and I have not known, Their silver and their gold they have made to them idols, So that they are cut off.

Because from Israel it was fashioned by craftsmen, it is not God; therefore Samaria's calf will be broken in pieces.

For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.

Though I show them my law never so much, they count it but strange doctrine.

And so Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and hath built temples, and, Judah, hath multiplied fortified cities, - Therefore will I send a fire upon his cities, and it shall consume the palaces thereof.

Rejoice not, Israel, exultingly, as the peoples; for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved harlot's hire upon every corn-floor.

They shall not dwell in the LORD'S land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

They pour out no wine for a drink offering unto the LORD, neither give they him their slain offerings: but they be unto them as mourner's meats, wherein all they that eat them are defiled. For the bread that they have such lust unto, shall not come into the house of the LORD.

What do ye at the day appointed? And at the day of Jehovah's festival?

For see, they are going away into Assyria; Egypt will get them together, Memphis will be their last resting-place; their fair silver vessels will be covered over with field plants, and thorns will come up in their tents.

The days of punishment have come,
The days of retribution have come;
Let Israel know this!
The prophet is a fool,
The inspired man is demented,
Because of the grossness of your iniquity,
And because your hostility is so 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.

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baalpeor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.

Ephraim's glory [is] like a bird; it will fly away-- no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.

Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, so that not a man shall be left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!

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

Every evil of theirs [began] at Gilgal, so I [began] to hate them there; because of the evil of their deeds I will drive them out from my house. I will love them no more; all their officials [are] rebels.

Ephraim is hewn down, their root is dried up, so that they shall bring no more fruit: yea and though they bring forth any, yet will I slay even the best beloved fruit of their body.

My God will reject them, for they have not obeyed him; so they will be fugitives among the nations.

Israel is a branching vine, full of fruit; as his fruit is increased, so the number of his altars is increased; as the land is fair, so they have made fair pillars.

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

They speak mere words,
taking false oaths while making covenants.
So lawsuits break out
like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

Samaria’s king will disappear
like foam on the surface of 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.

O Israel, you have done evil from the days of Gibeah; there they took up their position, so that the fighting against the children of evil might not overtake them in Gibeah.

Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh; so I will put a yoke on her beautiful neck. I will set a rider on Ephraim. Judah will plow. Jacob will 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 come and rain righteousness upon you.

the roar of battle will rise against your people,
and all your fortifications will be demolished
in a day of war,
like Shalman’s destruction of Beth-arbel.
Mothers will be dashed to pieces
along with their children.

So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off.

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

But I was guiding Ephraim's footsteps; I took them up in my arms, but they were not conscious that I was ready to make them well.

With human cords, used I to draw them, with the bands of love, so became I unto them like those who remove the yoke that was on their jaws, - and, holding out food to him, I let him eat.

So My people are bent on turning from Me.
Though they call them to the One on high,
None at all exalts Him.

I will not act in my anger; I will not return to destroy Ephraim, For I am God, and not a human the Holy One among you so I will not enter the city in anger.

They will go after Yahweh; he roars like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from [the] sea.

They will be roused like birds from Egypt
and like doves from the land of Assyria.
Then I will settle them in their homes.
This is the Lord’s declaration.

Ephraim's food is the wind, and he goes after the east wind: deceit and destruction are increasing day by day; they make an agreement with Assyria, and take oil into Egypt.

But, a controversy, hath Yahweh with Judah, - so that he may bring punishment on Jacob, according to his ways, According to his doings, repay him.