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¹The word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel.

²When the LORD first spoke to Hosea, he said this to him: Go and marry a woman of promiscuity, and have children of promiscuity, for the land is committing blatant acts of promiscuity by abandoning the LORD.

³So he went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

⁴Then the LORD said to him: Name him Jezreel, for in a little while I will bring the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu and put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

⁵On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.

⁶She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter, and the LORD said to him: Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel. I will certainly take them away.

⁷But I will have compassion on the house of Judah, and I will deliver them by the LORD their God. I will not deliver them by bow, sword, or war, or by horses and cavalry.

⁸After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and gave birth to a son.

⁹Then the LORD said: Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not my people, and I will not be your God.

¹⁰Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And in the place where they were told: You are not my people, they will be called: Sons of the living God.

¹¹And the Judeans and the Israelites will be gathered together. They will appoint for themselves a single ruler and go up from the land. For the day of Jezreel will be great.

¹Call your brothers: My People and your sisters: Compassion.

²Rebuke your mother; rebuke her. For she is not my wife and I am not her husband. Let her remove the promiscuous look from her face and her adultery from between her breasts.

³Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her as she was on the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and like a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.

⁴I will have no compassion on her children because they are the children of promiscuity.

⁵Yes, their mother is promiscuous; she conceived them and acted shamefully. For she thought, “I will follow my lovers, the men who give me my food and water, my wool and flax, my oil and drink.”

⁶Therefore, this is what I will do: I will block her way with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so that she cannot find her paths.

⁷She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will think, “I will go back to my former husband, for then it was better for me than now.”

⁸She does not recognize that it is I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil. I lavished silver and gold on her, which they used for Baal.

⁹Therefore, I will take back my grain in its time and my new wine in its season; I will take away my wool and linen, which were to cover her nakedness.

¹⁰Now I will expose her shame in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my power.

¹¹I will put an end to all her celebrations: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths — all her festivals.

¹²I will devastate her vines and fig trees. She thinks that these are her wages that her lovers have given her. I will turn them into a thicket, and the wild animals will eat them.

¹³And I will punish her for the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense. She put on her rings and her jewelry and followed her lovers, but she forgot me. This is the LORD’s declaration.

¹⁴Therefore, I am going to persuade her, lead her to the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.

¹⁵There I will give her vineyards back to her and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶In that day — this is the LORD’s declaration — you will call me, “My husband,” and no longer call me, “My Baal.”

¹⁷For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth; they will no longer be remembered by their names.

¹⁸On that day I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. I will shatter bow, sword, and weapons of war in the land and will enable the people to rest securely.

¹⁹I will take you to be my wife forever. I will take you to be my wife in righteousness, justice, love, and compassion.

²⁰I will take you to be my wife in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.

²¹On that day I will respond  — this is the LORD’s declaration. I will respond to the sky, and it will respond to the earth.

²²The earth will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.

²³I will sow her in the land for myself, and I will have compassion on Lo-ruhamah; I will say to Lo-ammi: You are my people, and he will say, “You are my God.”

¹Then the LORD said to me, “Go again; show love to a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, just as the LORD loves the Israelites though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”

²So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and five bushels of barley.

³I said to her, “You are to live with me many days. You must not be promiscuous or belong to any man, and I will act the same way toward you.”

⁴For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or household idols.

⁵Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come with awe to the LORD and to his goodness in the last days.

¹Hear the word of the LORD, people of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the inhabitants of the land: There is no truth, no faithful love, and no knowledge of God in the land!

²Cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.

³For this reason the land mourns, and everyone who lives in it languishes, along with the wild animals and the birds of the sky; even the fish of the sea disappear.

⁴But let no one dispute; let no one argue, for my case is against you priests.

⁵You will stumble by day; the prophet will also stumble with you by night. And I will destroy your mother.

⁶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you from serving as my priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your sons.

⁷The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against me. I will change their honor into disgrace.

⁸They feed on the sin of my people; they have an appetite for their iniquity.

⁹The same judgment will happen to both people and priests. I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.

¹⁰They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have abandoned their devotion to the LORD.

¹¹Promiscuity, wine, and new wine take away one’s understanding.

¹²My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of promiscuity leads them astray; they act promiscuously in disobedience to their God.

¹³They sacrifice on the mountaintops, and they burn offerings on the hills, and under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters act promiscuously and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they act promiscuously or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, for the men themselves go off with prostitutes and make sacrifices with cult prostitutes. People without discernment are doomed.

¹⁵Israel, if you act promiscuously, don’t let Judah become guilty! Do not go to Gilgal or make a pilgrimage to Beth-aven, and do not swear an oath: As the LORD lives!

¹⁶For Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn cow. Can the LORD now shepherd them like a lamb in an open meadow?

¹⁷Ephraim is attached to idols; leave him alone!

¹⁸When their drinking is over, they turn to promiscuity. Israel’s leaders fervently love disgrace.

¹⁹A wind with its wings will carry them off, and they will be ashamed of their sacrifices.