¹ And Jehovah said to me, Go again, love a woman loved by a friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of Jehovah toward the sons of Israel, who turn to other gods, and love raisin cakes of grapes.

² And I bargained over her for me with fifteen pieces of silver, and for a homer of barley, and a half of barley.

³ And I said to her, You shall live with me many days. You shall not be an adulteress, and not be to a man, and I also will be for you.

⁴ For the sons of Israel shall live many days with no king and no ruler, and with no sacrifice, and no pillars, and no ephod or teraphim.

⁵ Afterward the sons of Israel shall turn back and seek Jehovah their God and David their king. And they shall fear Jehovah and His goodness in the ends of the days.

4

¹ Sons of Israel, hear the Word of Jehovah, for Jehovah has a quarrel with those living in the land; for there is no truth, and no mercy, and no knowledge of God in the land.

² Swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and the doing of adultery increase. And blood touches against blood.

³ On account of this the land shall mourn, and every one living in it shall droop, with the beasts of the field and the birds of the heaven; yes, also the fish of the sea shall be removed.

⁴ Yet let not a man strive with nor reprove a man. For your people are as those striving with a priest.

⁵ And you shall stumble in the day, and the prophet also shall stumble with you at night, and I will cut off your mother.

⁶ My people are cut off for lack of knowledge; because you rejected the knowledge, I also rejected you from being priest to Me. Since you have forgotten the Law of your God, I will forget your sons, even I.

⁷ As they were increased, so they sinned against Me. I will change their glory into shame.

⁸ They eat up the sin of My people, and they lift their soul to their iniquity.

⁹ And it will be, Like people, like priest. And I will visit their ways on them and their doings I will return to them.

¹⁰ For they shall eat and not have enough. They shall fornicate and not increase, because they have ceased heeding Jehovah.

¹¹ Fornication and wine and new wine take away the heart.

¹² My people seek advice by their wood, and their rod declares to them. For the spirit of fornication has led them astray, and they fornicated from under their God.

¹³ They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burn incense on the hills, under oak and poplar and terebinth trees, because its shade is good. On account of this, your daughters shall be prostitutes, and your brides shall commit adultery.

¹⁴ I will not punish your daughters when they fornicate, and not your brides when they commit adultery. For they themselves go apart with ones who prostitute, and they sacrifice with temple prostitutes. The people not understanding are thrust down.

¹⁵ Israel, though you fornicate, do not let Judah become guilty. And do not come to Gilgal, and not go up to Beth-aven, and not swear, As Jehovah lives.

¹⁶ For as a heifer, rebelling Israel rebels. Now Jehovah will feed them as a lamb in a roomy place.

¹⁷ Ephraim is joined to idols. Let him alone.

¹⁸ Their drink has turned them aside; fornicating they fornicate; her shields dearly love shame.

¹⁹ The wind binds her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

5

¹ Hear this, O priests, and attend, house of Israel. And give ear, house of the king. For the judgment is toward you, because you have been a snare to Mizpeh, and a net spread on Tabor.

² And revolters have gone deep in slaughtering, and I chasten all of them.

³ I know Ephraim, and Israel has not hidden from me. For now, O Ephraim, you have fornicated; Israel is defiled.

⁴ They will not give up their doings to turn back to their God; for the spirit of fornication is in their midst, and they do not know Jehovah.

⁵ And the pride of Israel answers to his face. So Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in their iniquity; Judah shall also stumble with them.

⁶ They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Jehovah, but they shall not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them.

⁷ They have acted deceitfully against Jehovah, for they have borne strange sons. Now a new moon shall devour them with their portions.

⁸ Blow a rams' horn in Gibeah, a trumpet in Ramah. Cry aloud, Beth-aven; after you, O Benjamin.

⁹ Ephraim shall become a waste in the day of correction. Among the tribes of Israel, I have made known that which is confirmed.

¹⁰ The rulers of Judah were as ones removing a border; I will pour out My wrath on them like water.

¹¹ Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment; because he was pleased, he walked after the command.

¹² And I am as a moth to Ephraim, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.

¹³ When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to King Jareb. And he was not able to heal you, and not did he cure you of your wound.

¹⁴ For I am to Ephraim as the lion, and as the young lion to the house of Judah; I, even I, tear and go; I bear away, and no one rescues.

¹⁵ I will go; I will return to My place until they confess their guilt and seek My face. In the oppressing one they will seek Me diligently.

6

¹ Come and let us return to Jehovah. For He has torn, and He will heal us. He has stricken, and He will bind us up.

² After two days He will bring us to life. In the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live before Him.

³ And we shall know, we who follow on to know Jehovah. His going forth is prepared as the dawn. And He shall come to us as the rain, as the latter and former rain to the earth.

⁴ O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud, and it goes away like the early dew.

⁵ On account of this I have cut them down by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; and your judgments have been as the light that goes forth.

⁶ For I desired faithfulness, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

⁷ But, like Adam, they have passed over the covenant; they have acted deceitfully against Me there.

⁸ Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity, slippery from blood.

⁹ And as troops of robbers wait for a man, the company of priests murder in the way to Shechem; for they have done wickedness.

¹⁰ I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: the fornication of Ephraim is there; Israel is defiled.

¹¹ Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed to you, when I return the captivity of My people.

7

¹ When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered, and the evil of Samaria. For they have worked falsehood; and a thief comes; a troop of robbers plunders outside.

² And they do not say within their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their own doings have turned about them; they are before My face.

³ They make the king glad with their evil, and the rulers with their lies.

⁴ They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker; he ceases from stirring, from kneading the dough until it is leavened.

⁵ In the day of our king, the rulers have sickened themselves with the heat of wine; he draws out his hand with scorners.

⁶ For they have brought their heart near like an oven, while they lie in wait. Their baker sleeps all night; in the morning it burns like a fire of flame.

⁷ They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges. All their kings have fallen; not one among them calls to Me.

⁸ Ephraim mixes himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

⁹ Strangers have eaten up his strength, and he does not know. Yea, gray hairs are sprinkled on him, and he does not know.

¹⁰ And the pride of Israel testifies to his face, but they do not turn back to Jehovah their God, and do not seek Him in all this.

¹¹ Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart; they call to Egypt; they go to Assyria.

¹² When they go, I will spread My net over them; I will bring them down like the birds of the heavens; I will chastise them, as a report to their congregation.

¹³ Woe to them! For they have fled from Me. Ruin to them! For they have transgressed against Me. Though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against Me.

¹⁴ And they have not cried to Me with their heart when they howled on their beds. They gather themselves for grain and new wine; they turn against Me.

¹⁵ Though I chastened; I made their arms strong, and they think evil against Me.

¹⁶ They turn not to the Most High. They are like a treacherous bow. Their rulers shall fall by the sword from the rage of the tongue. This shall be their scorn in the land of Egypt.

8

¹ Put a rams' horn to your mouth. He comes like an eagle against the house of Jehovah, because they have passed over My covenant and have transgressed against My Law.

² Israel shall cry to Me, My God, we know You.

³ Israel has cast off good; the enemy shall pursue him.

⁴ They have set up kings, but not by Me. They have made rulers, but I did not know. They made idols for themselves with their silver and their gold, so that they may be cut off.

⁵ O Samaria, your calf has cast you off. My anger is kindled against them. Until when will they not be able to gain innocency?

⁶ For it also came from Israel: The artisan made it, but it is not God. For the calf of Samaria shall be splinters.

⁷ For they sow the wind, and they reap the storm wind. A stalk is not to him; the bud shall make no flour. If it does make it, strangers will swallow it up.

⁸ Israel is swallowed up. They are now among the nations as a vessel in which is no pleasure.

⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself. Ephraim has hired lovers.

¹⁰ Also, though they have hired among the nations, now I will gather them. And they began to become few, from the burden of the king of rulers.

¹¹ Because Ephraim has made many altars to sin, they are altars to him to sin.

¹² I have written the great things of My Law for him, but they were counted as being strange.

¹³ And for the sacrifices of My offerings, they sacrifice flesh, and they eat. Jehovah did not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and call their sins to account. They shall turn back to Egypt.

¹⁴ For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and builds temples. And Judah has multiplied fortified cities. But I will send a fire on his cities, and it shall burn up her palaces.

9

¹ O Israel, do not rejoice for joy, like the peoples. For you have fornicated away from your God. You have loved hire on all threshing-floors of grain.

² The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.

³ They shall not live in the land of Jehovah, but Ephraim shall turn back to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

⁴ They shall not offer wine to Jehovah, and not shall be pleasing to Him. Their sacrifices shall be like the bread of sorrows to them; all who eat it shall be defiled, for their bread is for their person; it shall not come into the house of Jehovah.

⁵ What will you do in the day of meeting, and in the day of the feast of Jehovah?

⁶ For, behold, they have gone from destruction; Egypt shall gather them; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess the desirable things of their silver; thorns shall be in their tents.

⁷ The days of her calling to account have come; Israel shall know the days of her retribution. The prophet is a fool, the man of spirit is mad, for great is your iniquity and your hatred much.

⁸ Ephraim is a watchman with my God. The prophet is a snare of a fowler on all his ways; hatred is in the house of his God.

⁹ They have deeply corrupted, as in days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity; He will call their sins to account.

¹⁰ I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the firstfruit in the fig tree at its beginning. They came to Baal-peor and separated to shame. And they became detestable things like that which they loved.

¹¹ As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird; and from birth from the womb, and from conception.

¹² Though they multiply their sons, yet I will make them childless, without a man. Yea, woe also to them when I turn away from them!

¹³ As when I looked toward Tyre, Ephraim was planted in a meadow. But Ephraim shall bring forth his sons to the slayer.

¹⁴ O Jehovah, give to them; what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

¹⁵ All their evil is in Gilgal, for there I hated them. I will drive them out of My house for the evil of their doings, I will not add to love them; all their rulers are revolters.

¹⁶ Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Yea, though they bear, yet I will kill the delight of their womb.

¹⁷ My God shall reject them because they did not listen to Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

10

¹ Israel is a luxuriant vine; he bears fruit for himself. According to the plenty of his fruit he has increased the altars; as the goodness of the land they have made goodly pillars.

² Their heart is divided. Now they shall be guilty. He will break down their altars; He will devastate their pillars.

³ For now they shall say, We have no king, because we did not fear Jehovah. What then should a king do for us?

⁴ They have spoken words, swearing vanity to cut a covenant. And judgment springs up like hemlock in the furrows of the field.

⁵ The people of Samaria shall dread because of the calves of Beth-aven. For its people shall mourn over it; also its priests who rejoiced on it for its glory, because it has departed from it.

⁶ It shall also be carried to Assyria, a present to King Jareb. Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.

⁷ Samaria is cut off; her king is as a bough on the face of the water.

⁸ And the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars. And they shall say to the mountains, Cover us! and to the hills, Fall on us!

⁹ O Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they stood. The battle against the sons of iniquity did not overtake them in Gibeah.

¹⁰ When I desire, I shall bind them; and the peoples shall be gathered against them, when they bind themselves to their two perversities.

¹¹ And Ephraim is a trained heifer, loving to tread out. But I passed over on the goodness of her neck; I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah shall plow; Jacob shall harrow for him.

¹² Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap as kindness. Break up your fallow ground. For it is time to seek Jehovah, until He comes and rains righteousness to you.

¹³ You have plowed wickedness; you have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies because you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.

¹⁴ And an uproar shall rise up among your peoples. And all your strongholds shall be devastated as the violence by Shalman of Beth-arbel in the day of battle. The mother was dashed in pieces on her sons.

¹⁵ So He does to you, Bethel, because of your great evil. In the dawn, cutting the king of Israel shall be cut off.

11

¹ When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and I called My son out of Egypt.

² As they called to them, so they went from their face. They sacrifice to the Baals, and burn incense to graven images.

³ And I taught Ephraim to walk; He took them on His arms. but they did not know that I healed them.

⁴ I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love. And I was to them as those who lift off the yoke on their jaws; and I stretched out food to him.

⁵ He shall not turn back to the land of Egypt, but he of Assyria shall be his king, because they refused to turn back.

⁶ And the sword shall whirl in his cities, and shall bring to an end his bars, and shall devour, because of their own counsels.

⁷ And My people are bent on backsliding from Me. And they call him to the Most High; they would not at all exalt Him.

⁸ How shall I give you up, Ephraim? Shall I deliver you, Israel? How shall I make you like Admah? Shall I set you as Zeboim? My heart has turned within Me; My compassions are kindled together.

⁹ I will not execute the heat of My anger; I will not return to destroy Ephraim. For I am God, and not a man, the Holy One in your midst. And I will not enter into the city.

¹⁰ They shall walk after Jehovah; He shall roar as a lion. When He roars, even sons shall tremble from the west.

¹¹ They tremble like a bird from Egypt, and like a dove from the land of Assyria. And I will make them live in their houses, says Jehovah.

¹² Ephraim turns around Me with deception, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah still rules with God and is faithful with the holy ones.

12