CHAPTER 4
1 Sons of Israel, hear ye the word of the Lord, for why doom is to the Lord with the dwellers of earth; for why truth is not, and mercy is not, and knowing of the Lord is not in earth.
2 Curse, and leasing, and man-quelling, and theft, and adultery flowed, and blood touched blood.
3 For this thing the earth shall mourn, and each that dwelleth in that land shall be sick, in the beast of the field, and in the bird of the air; but also the fishes of the sea shall be gathered together.
4 Nevertheless each man deem not, and a man be not reproved; for thy people is as they that against-say the priest.
5 And thou shalt fall today, and the prophet also shall fall with thee; in the night I made thy mother to be still.
6 My people was still, for it had not knowing; for thou hast put away knowing, I shall put thee away, that thou use not priesthood to me; and for thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, also I shall forget thy sons.
7 By the multitude of them, so they sinned against me. I shall change the glory of them into shame.
8 They shall eat the sins of my people, and they shall raise the souls of them to the wickedness of them.
9 And it shall be, as the people, so the priest; and I shall visit on him the ways of him, and I shall yield to him the thoughts of him.
10 And they shall eat, and they shall not be [ful] filled; they did fornication, and ceased not, for they forsook the Lord in not keeping his word.
11 Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness do away the heart.
12 My people asked in his tree, and the staff thereof told to it; for the spirit of fornication deceived them, and they did fornication, going away from their God.
13 On the heads, either tops, of mountains they made sacrifice, and on the little hills they burnt incense under an oak, and a poplar, and a terebinth, for the shadow thereof was good. Therefore your daughters shall do fornication, and your wives shall be adulteresses.
14 I shall not visit on your daughters, when they do fornication, and on your wives, when they do adultery; for they lived with whores, and made sacrifice with men turned into women’s conditions. And the people that understandeth not, shall be beaten.
15 If thou, Israel, doest fornication, namely Judah, trespass not; and do not ye enter into Gilgal, and go ye not into Bethaven, neither swear ye, The Lord liveth.
16 For as a wild cow Israel bowed away; now the Lord shall feed them as a lamb in broadness.
17 Ephraim*is the partner of idols, leave thou him;
18 the feast of them is parted. By fornication they did fornication, the defenders thereof loved to bring shame.
19 The spirit bound him in his wings, and they shall be ashamed of their sacrifices.
* CHAPTER 4:17 Throughout Hosea (and also Isaiah), Ephraim is another name for the Northern Kingdom of Israel, consisting of the Ten Tribes.