I will attack them like a bear robbed of her cubs – I will rip open their chests. I will devour them there like a lion – like a wild animal would tear them apart.

The Lord said to me, “Go, show love to ¹  your wife ²  again, even though she loves ³  another man ⁴  and continually commits adultery. ⁵  Likewise, the Lord loves ⁶  the Israelites ⁷  although they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols.” ⁸ 

They approach him, all the while plotting against him. Their hearts are like an oven; their anger smolders all night long, but in the morning it bursts into a flaming fire.

Very soon they will say, “We have no king since we did not fear the Lord. But what can a king do for us anyway?”

O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly ¹  like the nations, for you are unfaithful ²  to your God. You love to receive a prostitute's wages ³  on all the floors where you thresh your grain.

I will commit myself to you ¹  forever; I will commit myself to you in ²  righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and tender compassion.

I will commit myself to you in faithfulness; then ¹  you will acknowledge ²  the Lord.” ³ 

You stumble day and night, and the false prophets stumble with you; You have destroyed your own people! ¹ 

The princes of Judah are like those who move boundary markers. I will pour out my rage on them like a torrential flood! ¹ 

Ephraim has mixed itself like flour ¹  among the nations; Ephraim is like a ruined cake of bread that is scorched on one side. ² 

But the more I summoned ¹  them, the farther they departed from me. ²  They sacrificed to the Baal idols and burned incense to images.

They offer up sacrificial gifts to me, and eat the meat, but the Lord does not accept their sacrifices. ¹  Soon he will remember their wrongdoing, he will punish their sins, and they will return to Egypt.

They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord; they will not please him with their sacrifices. Their sacrifices will be like bread eaten while in mourning; all those who eat them will make themselves ritually unclean. For their bread will be only to satisfy their appetite; it will not come into the temple of the Lord.

The punishment ¹  of Ephraim has been decreed; ²  his punishment is being stored up for the future.

Then I will return again to my lair until they have suffered their punishment. ¹  Then they will seek me; ²  in their distress they will earnestly seek me.

Sound the alarm! ¹  An eagle ²  looms over the temple of the Lord! For they have broken their covenant with me, ³  and have rebelled against my law.

They will return in fear and trembling ¹  like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria, and I will settle them in their homes,” declares the Lord.

(2:1) ¹  However, ²  in the future the number of the people ³  of Israel will be like the sand of the sea which can be neither measured nor numbered. Although ⁴  it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it will be said to them, “You are ⁵  children ⁶  of the living God!”

Then I told her, “You must live with me many days; you must not commit adultery or have sexual intercourse with ¹  another man, and I also will wait for you.”

I cannot carry out ¹  my fierce anger! I cannot totally destroy Ephraim! Because I am God, and not man – the Holy One among you – I will not come in wrath!