KJV - Hosea Chapter 4 to 7

4 ¹Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. ²By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. ³Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. ⁴Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. ⁵Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.

⁶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. ⁷As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. ⁸They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity. ⁹And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings. ¹⁰For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD. ¹¹Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.

¹²My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God. ¹³They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery. ¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.

¹⁵Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Bethaven, nor swear, The LORD liveth. ¹⁶For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place. ¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone. ¹⁸Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye. ¹⁹The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

5 ¹Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. ²And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all. ³I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled. ⁴They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD. ⁵And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity: Judah also shall fall with them. ⁶They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them. ⁷They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions. ⁸Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Bethaven, after thee, O Benjamin. ⁹Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be. ¹⁰The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water. ¹¹Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment. ¹²Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness. ¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. ¹⁴For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.

¹⁵I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

6 ¹Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. ²After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. ³Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

⁴O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. ⁵Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth. ⁶For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. ⁷But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me. ⁸Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood. ⁹And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness. ¹⁰I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled. ¹¹Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

7 ¹When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without. ²And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face. ³They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies. ⁴They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened. ⁵In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners. ⁶For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire. ⁷They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me. ⁸Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned. ⁹Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not. ¹⁰And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.

¹¹Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria. ¹²When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard. ¹³Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me. ¹⁴And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me. ¹⁵Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me. ¹⁶They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.