'First' in the Bible

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and have children of [her] prostitution; for the land commits great acts of prostitution by not following the Lord.”

“She will [passionately] pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;And she will seek them, but will not find them.Then she will say, ‘Let me go and return to my first husband,For it was better for me then than now!’

Ephraim mixes himself with the [Gentile] nations [seeking favor with one country, then another];Ephraim is a cake not turned [worthless; ready to be thrown away].

They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord;Their sacrifices will not please Him.Their bread will be like mourners’ bread [eaten at funerals];All who eat it will be [ceremonially] unclean,For their bread will be for themselves;It will not enter the house of the Lord [to be consecrated].

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness [an unexpected and refreshing delight];I saw your fathers (ancestors) as the first ripe fruit on the fig tree in its first season,But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to shamefulness [the worship of Baal],And [because of their spiritual and physical adultery] they became as detestable and loathsome as the thing they loved.