When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord.”

“Contend with your mother, contend, For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; And let her put away her harlotry from her face And her adultery from between her breasts,

“Also, I will have no compassion on her children, Because they are children of harlotry.

Harlotry, wine and new wine take away the understanding.

My people consult their wooden idol, and their diviner’s wand informs them; For a spirit of harlotry has led them astray, And they have played the harlot, departing from their God.

Their deeds will not allow them To return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them, And they do not know the Lord.

In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim’s harlotry is there, Israel has defiled itself.