For of old you have broken your yoke, and plucked asunder your bands; and you have said, I will not serve You, but will go upon every high hill, and under every shady tree, there will I indulge in my fornication.

Though you should wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, [still] you are stained by your iniquities before Me, says the Lord.

she has extended her ways over the waters of the desert; she was hurried along by the lusts of her soul; she is given up [to them], who will turn her back? None that seek her shall be weary; at [the time of] her humiliation they shall find her.

If a man put away his wife, and she depart from him, and become another man's, shall she return to him anymore? Shall not that woman be utterly defiled? But you have played the harlot with many shepherds, and have returned to Me, says the Lord.

Lift up your eyes [and look] straight ahead, and see where you have not been utterly defiled. You have sat for them by the wayside as a deserted crow, and have defiled the land with your fornications and your wickedness.

In what [way] shall I forgive you for these things? Your sons have forsaken Me, and sworn by them that are not gods. And I fed them to the full, and they committed adultery, and lodged in harlots' houses.

They became as wanton horses- each one neighed after his neighbor's wife.

But you trusted in your beauty, and went a-whoring because of your fame, and poured out your fornication on every passer by.

And you took your fair ornaments of My gold and of My silver, of what I gave you, and you made for yourself male images, and you committed harlotry with them.

And [you took] My bread which I gave you, ([yea,] I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey) and set them before them for a sweet-smelling savor; yes, it was so, says the Lord.

and slain your children, and gave them up, in offering them up as a sacrifice.

Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother:

And their names were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they were Mine, and bore sons and daughters: and [as for] their names, Samaria was Oholah, and Jerusalem was Oholibah.

clothed with purple, princes and captains; [they were] young men and choice, all horsemen riding on horses.

And she forsook not her fornication with the Egyptians: for in her youth they committed fornication with her, and they deflowered her, and poured out their fornication upon her.

They uncovered her shame; they took her sons and daughters, and slew her with the sword; and she became a byword among women; and they wrought vengeance in her for the sake of the daughters.

She doted upon the sons of the Assyrian, princes and captains, her neighbors, clothed with fine linen, horsemen riding on horses; [they were] all choice young men.

And she increased her fornication, and she saw men painted on the wall, likenesses of the Chaldeans painted with a pencil,

And she doted upon them as soon as she saw them, and sent forth messengers to them into the land of the Chaldeans.

And she exposed her fornication, and exposed her shame. And My soul was alienated from her, even as My soul was alienated from her sister.

and you doted upon the Chaldeans, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and their members [as] the members of horses.

The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take to yourself a wife of fornication, and children of fornication: for the land will surely go a-whoring in departing from the Lord.

Cursing, and lying, and murder, and theft, and adultery bound in the land, and they mingle blood with blood.

lest, when I come again, my God will humble me before you, and I will mourn for many who have previously sinned and have not repented for the impurity and fornication and lewdness which they practiced.

Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world is constituted an enemy of God.

For of old you have broken your yoke, and plucked asunder your bands; and you have said, I will not serve You, but will go upon every high hill, and under every shady tree, there will I indulge in my fornication.

Lift up your eyes [and look] straight ahead, and see where you have not been utterly defiled. You have sat for them by the wayside as a deserted crow, and have defiled the land with your fornications and your wickedness.

And the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen what things the house of Israel has done to Me? They have gone on every high mountain, and under every shady tree, and have committed fornication there.

On a lofty and high mountain, there is your bed, and from there you carried up your meat offerings;

their sins and [the sins] of their fathers, says the Lord, who have burned incense on the mountains, and reproached Me on the hills; I will recompense their works into their bosom.

Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when your slain are in the midst of your idols round about your altars, on every high hill, and under [every] shady tree, where they offered a sweet savor to all their idols.

Whereas I brought them into the land concerning which I lifted up My hand to give it to them; and they looked upon every high hill, and every shady tree, and they sacrificed there to their gods, and offered there sweet-smelling savors, and there they poured out their drink offerings.

Behold, he shall come up as a cloud, and his chariots as a tempest. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us, for we are in misery!

And He unrolled it before me. And in it the front and the back were written [upon.] And there was written [in it] lamentations, and mournful songs, and woe.

Therefore thus says the Lord: O bloody city, the caldron in which there is scum, and the scum has not gone out of, she has brought it forth piece by piece, no lot has fallen upon it.

[ 3:1A] Alas the glorious and ransomed city.

"Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! Because if the miracles which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

And I saw, and I heard an eagle flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, "Woe, woe, woe [for] those who dwell on the earth, from the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who are to sound [their] trumpets!"

Cleanse your heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that you may be saved; how long will your grievous thoughts be within you?

They will utter and speak unrighteousness; all the workers of iniquity shall speak [so].

Understand now, you simple among the people; and you fools, at length be wise.

Her scum shall become shameful, because you defiled yourself; and what if you shall be purged no more until I have accomplished My wrath?

and I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be purged from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols, and I will cleanse you.

Thus says the Lord God: Yet [for] this will I be sought by the house of Israel, to establish them; I will multiply them, [even] men as sheep;

"So I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.

And which father among you, if his son asks for bread, will he give him a stone? Or [if he asks for] a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?

If you then, being evil, know [how] to give good gifts to your children, by how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!"

Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

So long as the simple cleave to justice, they shall not be ashamed: but the foolish being lovers of haughtiness, having become ungodly have hated knowledge, and have become subject to reproofs.

Cast off your calf, O Samaria; My anger is kindled against them: how long will they be unable to purge themselves in Israel?