When they were fed, ¹  they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; ²  as a result, they forgot me!

At Adam ¹  they broke ²  the covenant; Oh how ³  they were unfaithful ⁴  to me!

They sow the wind, and so they will reap the whirlwind! The stalk does not have any standing grain; it will not produce any flour. Even if it were to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it all up.

The roar of battle will rise against your people; all your fortresses will be devastated, just as Shalman devastated ¹  Beth Arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.

Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, you Israelites! ¹  Listen closely, ²  O king! ³  For judgment is about to overtake you! ⁴  For you were like a trap ⁵  to Mizpah, ⁶  like a net ⁷  spread out to catch Tabor. ⁸ 

The more the priests increased in numbers, the more they rebelled against me. They have turned ¹  their glorious calling into a shameful disgrace!

I spelled out my law for him in great detail, but they regard it as something totally unknown ¹  to them!

Then I will plant her as my own ¹  in the land. I will have pity on ‘No Pity’ (Lo-Ruhamah). I will say to ‘Not My People’ (Lo-Ammi), ‘You are my people!’ And he ²  will say, ‘You are ³  my God!’”

Therefore, I will take back ¹  my grain during the harvest time ²  and my new wine when it ripens; ³  I will take away my wool and my flax which I had provided ⁴  in order to clothe her. ⁵ 

I will have no pity on her children, ¹  because they are children conceived in adultery. ² 

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

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.

Ephraim will be struck down ¹  – their root will be dried up; they will not yield any fruit. Even if they do bear children, I will kill their precious offspring.

O Israel, you have sinned since the time ¹  of Gibeah, and there you have remained. Did not war overtake the evildoers in Gibeah?

Yet it was I who led ¹  Ephraim, I took them by the arm; but they did not acknowledge that I had healed them. ² 

But I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt. Therefore, you must not acknowledge any God but me; except me there is no Savior.

¹ This is the word of the Lord which was revealed to Hosea ²  son of Beeri during the time when ³  Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah ruled Judah, ⁴  and during the time when Jeroboam son of Joash ⁵  ruled Israel. ⁶ 

Yet ¹  until now ²  she has refused to acknowledge ³  that I ⁴  was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil; and that it was I who ⁵  lavished on her the silver and gold – which they ⁶  used in worshiping Baal! ⁷ 

I will destroy her vines and fig trees, about which she said, “These are my wages for prostitution ¹  that my lovers gave to me!” I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees ²  into an uncultivated thicket, so that wild animals ³  will devour them.

When Ephraim saw ¹  his sickness and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim turned ²  to Assyria, and begged ³  its great king ⁴  for help. But he will not be able to heal you! He cannot cure your wound! ⁵