¹The word of Jehovah which came to  ²Hosea 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 the king of Israel.

At the beginning of Jehovah's speaking to Hosea, Jehovah said to Hosea,
Go, take to yourself a  ¹wife of  ²harlotries
And children of harlotries,
For the land is entirely given over to harlotry,
And thus departs from Jehovah.

So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim. And she conceived and bore him a son.

And Jehovah said to him,
Call his name  ¹Jezreel,
For yet a little while
And I will  ²avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel
Upon the house of Jehu
And will bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

And in that day
I will break the bow of Israel
In the valley of Jezreel.

And she conceived again and bore a daughter. And He said to him,
Call her name  ¹Lo-ruhamah,
For I will no longer have compassion
On the house of Israel,
That I should forgive them at all.

But on the house of Judah I will have compassion and will save them by Jehovah their God, and I will not save them by bow or by sword or by battle, by horses or by horsemen.

When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son.

And He said,
Call his name  ¹Lo-ammi,
For you are not My people,
And I will not belong to you.

But the  ¹number of the children of Israel will be like the  ²sand of the sea,
Which cannot be measured or numbered;
And in the place where it will be said to them, You are not My people,
It will be said to them, You are the  ³sons of the living God.

And the children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together,
And they will appoint for themselves one head, and they will go up from the land,
For great will be the day of  ¹Jezreel.

Say to your brothers,  ¹Ammi,
And to your sisters,  ²Ruhamah.

Contend with your mother; contend.
For she is  ¹not my wife,
And I am  ¹not her husband.
And let her turn away her harlotries from her face,
And her adulteries from between her breasts,

Lest I strip her naked =And set her out as in the day she was born
And make her a wilderness
And make her a dry land
And slay her with thirst.

And on her children I will not have compassion,
For they are the children of harlotries.

For their mother has gone about as a harlot;
She who conceived them has acted shamefully;
For she has said,
I will go after my  ¹lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my flax,
My oil and my drink.

Therefore I will now hedge up
 ¹Her way with thorns;
And I will build up a wall against her,
So that she will not find her paths.

And she will pursue her lovers
But will not overtake them;
And she will seek them but not find them;
And she will say,  ¹I will go
And return to my first husband,
For it was better for me then than now.

For she did not know
That it was I who gave her
The grain and the new wine and the fresh oil,
And who multiplied to her silver
And gold, which they  ¹used for Baal.

Therefore I will take back
My grain in its time
And My new wine in its appointed season,
And I will snatch away My wool and My flax,
Which were to cover her nakedness.

And now I will uncover her lewdness
In the sight of her lovers,
And no one will deliver her from My hand.

And I will bring all her mirth to an end,
Her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths,
And all her appointed assemblies.

And I will desolate her vine and her fig tree,
Of which she said,
These are my payments
That my lovers have given me;
And I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field will devour them.

And I will visit the days of the Baals upon her,
In which she burned incense to them
And adorned herself with her nose rings and her jewels
And went after her lovers
And forgot Me,
Declares Jehovah.

Therefore I am now luring her,
And I will bring her into the wilderness
And will speak to her heart.

And I will give her her vineyards from there
And the valley of Achor as a door of hope;
And she will respond there as in the days of her youth
And as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

And in that day, declares Jehovah,
You will call Me My Husband
And will no longer call Me  ¹Baali.

For I will take away the names of the Baals from her mouth,
And they will no longer be remembered by their name.

And I will make a  ¹covenant for them
In that day
With the beasts of the field
And with the birds of heaven
And the creeping things of the earth;
And bow and sword and battle
I will break from the land,
And I will cause them to lie down in safety.

And I will betroth you to Myself forever;
Indeed I will betroth you to Myself
In righteousness and justice
And in lovingkindness and compassions;

Indeed I will betroth you to Myself in faithfulness,
And you will know Jehovah.

And in that day
I will answer, declares Jehovah;
I will answer the heavens,
And they will answer the earth,

And the earth will answer the  ¹grain
And the  ¹new wine and the  ¹fresh oil,
And they will answer Jezreel.

And I will sow her for Myself in the land;
And I will have compassion on  ¹Lo-ruhamah,
And I will say to  ²Lo-ammi, You are My people;
And they will say, My God.

Then Jehovah said to me, Go  ¹again, love a woman who is loved by her companion yet who is an adulteress, even as Jehovah has loved the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.

So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer of barley and a half-homer of barley.

And I said to her, You will abide for me for  ¹many days; you shall not go about as a harlot nor be another man's; and I will be the same toward you.

For the children of Israel will abide for many days without king and without prince and without sacrifice and without pillar and without ephod and teraphim.

Afterward the children of Israel will return and seek Jehovah their God and  ¹David their King, and they will come with fear to Jehovah and to His goodness in the  ²last days.

Hear the word of Jehovah,
O children of Israel;
For Jehovah has a controversy
With the inhabitants of the land.
For there is no  ¹faithfulness or kindness
And no knowledge of God in the land.

Rather there are swearing and deceiving and murder
And stealing and adultery;
They are violent,
And bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Because of this the land mourns,
And all the inhabitants languish within it,
With the beasts of the field
And with the birds of heaven;
Indeed, even the fish of the sea will be taken away.

Yet let no man contend,
And let no man reprove;
For your people are like those who contend with the priest.

And  ¹you will stumble in the day,
And the prophet also will stumble
With you in the night;
And I will destroy your mother.

My people are destroyed
Because of a lack of  ¹that knowledge.
For you have rejected  ¹that knowledge,
And I will reject you, so that you will not be a priest to Me;
Since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.

The more  ¹they were multiplied, the more they sinned against Me;
I will change their glory into shame.

They feed on the sin of My people,
And  ¹their soul desires their iniquity.

And it will be that as it is with the people,  ¹so it will be with the priest;
Thus I will visit their ways upon them,
And I will recompense their doings to them.

And they will eat but will not be filled;
And they will commit fornication but will not increase;
For they have ceased giving heed to Jehovah.

Fornication and wine
And new wine  ¹take away their heart.

My people inquire at their  ¹wooden post,
And their rod informs them of things;
For a spirit of harlotries makes them err,
And they have gone about as harlots away from their God.

Upon the tops of the mountains they offer sacrifices,
And upon the hills they burn incense,
Under oak, poplar, and terebinth,
Because its shade is good.
Therefore your daughters go about as harlots,
And your brides commit adultery.

I will not  ¹punish your daughters when they go about as harlots
Nor your brides when they commit adultery;
For the men themselves go off with harlots,
And they offer sacrifices with the  ²prostitutes;
And the people who have no understanding will be cast down.

Though you, Israel, go about as a harlot,
Let not Judah trespass;
And do not come to  ¹Gilgal,
Nor go up to  ²Beth-aven,
Nor swear, As Jehovah lives.

For Israel is stubborn,
Like a stubborn heifer;
Will Jehovah now pasture them
Like a lamb in a spacious place?

Ephraim is joined to idols;
Leave him alone.

Their liquor has ended;
They have given themselves up to harlotry;
Their  ¹rulers dearly love shame.

The wind has wrapped her up in its wings,
And they will be ashamed because of their sacrifices.