For from of old I have broken your yoke, and burst your bands; and you said, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree you wander, playing the harlot.

For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me, says the Lord GOD.

A wild donkey used to the wilderness, that sniffs in the wind in her desire; in her mating time who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her.

They say, If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and becomes another man’s, may he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but you have played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, says the LORD.

Lift up your eyes unto the high places, and see where you have not been lain with. In the ways have you sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your harlotries and with your wickedness.

How shall I pardon you for this? your children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.

They were as fed horses in the morning: everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife.

But you did trust in your own beauty, and played the harlot because of your renown, and poured out your harlotry on every one that passed by; his it was.

You have also taken your fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made to yourself images of men, and did commit harlotry with them,

My food also which I gave you, fine flour, and oil, and honey, with which I fed you, you have even set it before them for a sweet aroma: and thus it was, says the Lord GOD.

That you have slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

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

And the names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they were mine, and they bore sons and daughters. Thus were their names; Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah.

Who were clothed with blue, captains and rulers, all of them desirable young men, horsemen riding upon horses.

Neither left she her harlotries brought from Egypt: for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the breasts of her virginity, and poured their harlotry upon her.

These uncovered her nakedness: they took her sons and her daughters, and slew her with the sword: and she became a byword among women; for they had executed judgment upon her.

She doted upon the Assyrians her neighbors, captains and rulers clothed most gorgeously, horsemen riding upon horses, all of them desirable young men.

And that she increased her harlotries: for when she saw men portrayed upon the wall, the images of the Chaldeans portrayed in vermilion,

And as soon as she saw them with her eyes, she doted upon them, and sent messengers unto them into Chaldea.

So she uncovered her harlotries, and uncovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like my mind was alienated from her sister.

For she doted upon her paramours, whose flesh is as the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like the issue of horses.

The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto you a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry: for the land has committed great harlotry, departing from the LORD.

By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break all restraint, and bloodshed touches bloodshed.

And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall mourn over many who have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and licentiousness which they have committed.

You adulterers and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

For from of old I have broken your yoke, and burst your bands; and you said, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree you wander, playing the harlot.

Lift up your eyes unto the high places, and see where you have not been lain with. In the ways have you sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and you have polluted the land with your harlotries and with your wickedness.

The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? she has gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the harlot.

Upon a lofty and high mountain have you set your bed: even there you went up to offer sacrifice.

Your iniquities, and the iniquities of your fathers together, says the LORD, who have burned incense upon the mountains, and blasphemed me upon the hills: therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom.

Then shall you know that I am the LORD, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet incense to all their idols.

For when I had brought them into the land, for I lifted up my hand to give it to them, then they saw every high hill, and all the thick trees, and they offered there their sacrifices, and there they presented the provocation of their offering: there also they made their sweet aroma, and poured out there their drink offerings.

Behold, he shall come up as clouds, and his chariots shall be as a whirlwind: his horses are swifter than eagles. Woe unto us! for we are ruined.

And he spread it before me; and it was written inside and outside: and there was written in it lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

Therefore thus says the Lord GOD; Woe to the bloody city, to the pot whose scum is in it, and whose scum has not gone out of it! bring it out piece by piece; let no lot fall upon it.

Woe to her that is rebellious and defiled, to the oppressing city!

Woe unto you, Chorazin! woe unto you, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through midheaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabitants of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound!

O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you?

How long shall they utter and speak hard things? and all the workers of iniquity boast themselves?

Understand, you senseless among the people: and you fools, when will you be wise?

In your filthiness is lewdness: because I have purged you, and you were not purged, you shall not be purged from your filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon you.

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.

Thus says the Lord GOD; I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them; I will increase them with men like a flock.

And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he asks for a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

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

How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? and the scoffers delight in their scoffing, and fools hate knowledge?

Your calf, O Samaria, has cast you off; my anger is kindled against them: how long will it be before they attain to innocence?