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

And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jizreel.

And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And he said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah; for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel, so that I should pardon them.

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.

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 as a dry land, and slay 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, mine oil and my drink.

Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns; and I will fence her in with a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

And she did not know that I had given her the corn and the new wine and the oil, and had multiplied to her the silver and gold, which they employed for Baal.

And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, that thou shalt call me, My husband, and shalt call me no more, Baali;

And I will make a covenant for them in that day with the beasts of the field, and with the fowl of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will break bow and sword and battle out of the land; and I will make them to lie down safely.

And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith Jehovah, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;

For this shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowl of the heavens, yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.

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.

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.

Ephraim shall be a desolation in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which is sure.

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

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.

Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity; it is tracked with blood.

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.

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.

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 them idols, that they may be cut off.

They shall not dwell in Jehovah's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria shall they eat that which is unclean.

They shall pour out no offerings of wine to Jehovah, neither shall their sacrifices be pleasing unto him: they shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be defiled: for their bread shall be for themselves; it shall not come into the house of Jehovah.

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.

For even should they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that not a man remain: for woe also to them when I shall have departed from them!

And Ephraim is a trained heifer, that loveth to tread out the corn; I have passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to draw; Judah shall plough, Jacob shall break his clods.

And I it was that taught Ephraim to walk, He took them upon his arms, but they knew not that I healed them.

I drew them with bands of a man, with cords of love; and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I gently caused them to eat.

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.

But I that am Jehovah thy God from the land of Egypt will again make thee to dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast.

And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing-floor, and as the smoke out of the lattice.

It is thy destruction, O Israel, that thou art against me, against thy help.

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? --

Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, a wind of Jehovah that cometh up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.