Judah Follows Israel’s Example

⁶ During the reign of King Josiah, the Lord said to me, “Have you seen what fickle Israel has done? Like a wife who commits adultery, Israel has worshiped other gods on every hill and under every green tree. ⁷ I thought, ‘After she has done all this, she will return to me.’ But she did not return, and her faithless sister Judah saw this. ⁸ She saw^[a] that I divorced faithless Israel because of her adultery. But that treacherous sister Judah had no fear, and now she, too, has left me and given herself to prostitution. ⁹ Israel treated it all so lightly—she thought nothing of committing adultery by worshiping idols made of wood and stone. So now the land has been polluted.

³⁸ I will punish you for your murder and adultery. I will cover you with blood in my jealous fury.

³⁷ They have committed both adultery and murder—adultery by worshiping idols and murder by burning as sacrifices the children they bore to me.

Hosea’s Wife and Children

² When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute,^[a] so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.”