The word of the Lord which came to 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.

So he took as his wife Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she gave birth to a son.

Now when Lo-ruhamah had been taken from the breast, the woman gave birth to a son.

The sin of my people is like food to them; and their desire is for their wrongdoing.

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.

And they do not say to themselves that I keep in mind all their sin; now their evil acts come round them on every side; they are before my face.

In their sin they make a king for themselves, and rulers in their deceit.

When they go, my net will be stretched out over them; I will take them like the birds of heaven, I will give them punishment, I will take them away in the net for their sin.

Because Ephraim has been increasing altars for sin, altars have become a cause of sin to him.

The days of punishment, the days of reward are come; Israel will be put to shame; the prophet is foolish, the man who has the spirit is off his head, because of your great sin.

As I have seen a beast whose young have been taken from her, so Ephraim will give birth to children only for them to be put to death.

And the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will come to destruction; thorns and waste plants will come up on their altars; they will say to the mountains, Be a cover over us; and to the hills, Come down on us.

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.

When Israel was a child he was dear to me; and I took my son out of Egypt.

And Ephraim said, Now I have got wealth and much property; in all my works no sin may be seen in me.

The wrongdoing of Ephraim is shut up; his sin is put away in secret.

The pains of a woman in childbirth will come on him: he is an unwise son, for at this time it is not right for him to keep his place when children come to birth.