Thus saith the LORD, Where {is} the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors {is it} to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they {are} adulteresses, and blood {is} in their hands.

Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms.

Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD. {They say: Heb. Saying}

The LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the king, Hast thou seen {that} which backsliding Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high mountain and under every green tree, and there hath played the harlot.

The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, {departing} from the LORD.

For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give {me} my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. {drink: Heb. drinks}

And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.

Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land {that was} not sown. {thee: or, for thy sake}

Then said I unto {her that was} old in adulteries, Will they now commit whoredoms with her, and she {with them}? {whoredoms...: Heb. her whoredoms}

Wilt thou judge them, son of man, wilt thou judge {them}? cause them to know the abominations of their fathers: {Wilt...: or, Wilt thou plead for them}

Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. {Is this} of thy whoredoms a small matter, {to be...: Heb. to devour}

Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. {aloud: Heb. with the throat}

O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, {thou} that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under {her} wings, and ye would not!

Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we {him} no more.

Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers {did}, so {do} ye.

And the LORD said unto Moses, Behold, thou shalt sleep with thy fathers; and this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go {to be} among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. {sleep: Heb. lie down}

Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother. {destroy: Heb. cut off}

And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

Thus saith the LORD, Where {is} the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors {is it} to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

And it shall be unto you for a fringe, that ye may look upon it, and remember all the commandments of the LORD, and do them; and that ye seek not after your own heart and your own eyes, after which ye use to go a whoring:

Wherefore I will yet plead with you, saith the LORD, and with your children's children will I plead.

If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove.

And yet they would not hearken unto their judges, but they went a whoring after other gods, and bowed themselves unto them: they turned quickly out of the way which their fathers walked in, obeying the commandments of the LORD; {but} they did not so.

Now let them put away their whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever.

For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give {me} my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. {drink: Heb. drinks}

But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.

And Gideon made an ephod thereof, and put it in his city, {even} in Ophrah: and all Israel went thither a whoring after it: which thing became a snare unto Gideon, and to his house.

Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day {that} I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD: {although...: or, should I have continued an husband unto them?}

{But as} a wife that committeth adultery, {which} taketh strangers instead of her husband!

And I will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespassed against me.

Thy mother {is} like a vine in thy blood, planted by the waters: she was fruitful and full of branches by reason of many waters. {in...: or, in thy quietness, or, in thy likeness}

So she discovered her whoredoms, and discovered her nakedness: then my mind was alienated from her, like as my mind was alienated from her sister.

The LORD said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations; {judge: or, plead for}

Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, {even} God.