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.

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

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.

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.

For their mother has played the harlot: she that conceived them has done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.

Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and make a wall, so that she shall not find her paths.

For she did not know that I gave her grain, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she has said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

And it shall be at that day, says the LORD, that you shall call me Ishi; and shall call me no more Baali.

And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will abolish the bow and the sword and the battle from the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.

And it shall come to pass in that day, I will answer, says the LORD, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth;

And I will sow her for myself in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them who were not my people, you are my people; and they shall say, you are my God.

Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwells in it shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fish of the sea also shall be taken away.

Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for your people are as they that strive with the priest.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to me: because you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for the men themselves are gone apart with harlots, and they sacrifice with prostitutes: therefore the people that do not understand shall fall.

Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.

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

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 they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own deeds have surrounded them; they are before my face.

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.

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

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 offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them like the bread of mourners; all that eat of it shall be defiled: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.

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.

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

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.

I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.

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.

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.

And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of 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 passes away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

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.

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?

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.