“Therefore this is what the sovereign Lord says: Because you have forgotten me and completely disregarded me, ¹  you must bear now the punishment ²  for your obscene conduct and prostitution.”

You engaged in prostitution with the Egyptians, your sexually aroused neighbors, ¹  multiplying your promiscuity and provoking me to anger.

Now they must put away their spiritual prostitution and the pillars of their kings far from me, and then I will live among them forever.

They will eat, but not be satisfied; they will engage in prostitution, but not increase in numbers; because they have abandoned the Lord by pursuing other gods. ¹ 

I know Ephraim all too well; ¹  the evil of ²  Israel is not hidden from me. For you have engaged in prostitution, O Ephraim; Israel has defiled itself. ³ 

You also took your beautiful jewelry, made of my gold and my silver I had given to you, and made for yourself male images and engaged in prostitution ¹  with them.

“‘You took your sons and your daughters whom you bore to me and you sacrificed them ¹  as food for the idols to eat. As if your prostitution not enough,

And with all your abominable practices and prostitution you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, kicking around in your blood.

When the Lord first spoke ¹  through ²  Hosea, he ³  said to him, ⁴  “Go marry ⁵  a prostitute ⁶  who will bear illegitimate children conceived through prostitution, ⁷  because the nation ⁸  continually commits spiritual prostitution ⁹  by turning away from the Lord.”

They consult their wooden idols, and their diviner’s staff answers with an oracle. The wind of prostitution blows them astray; they commit spiritual adultery ¹  against their God.

They sacrifice on the mountaintops, and burn offerings on the hills; they sacrifice ¹  under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is so pleasant. As a result, your daughters have become cult prostitutes, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery!

“Look up at the hilltops and consider this. ¹  You have had sex with other gods on every one of them. ²  You waited for those gods like a thief lying in wait in the desert. ³  You defiled the land by your wicked prostitution to other gods. ⁴ 

People of Jerusalem, ¹  I have seen your adulterous worship, your shameless prostitution to, and your lustful pursuit of, other gods. ²  I have seen your disgusting acts of worship ³  on the hills throughout the countryside. You are doomed to destruction! ⁴  How long will you continue to be unclean?’”

Because she took her prostitution so lightly, she defiled the land ¹  through her adulterous worship of gods made of wood and stone. ² 

When she lustfully exposed her nakedness, ¹  I ²  was disgusted with her, just as I ³  had been disgusted with her sister.

I will do these things to you ¹  because you engaged in prostitution with the nations, polluting yourself with their idols.

They will repay you for your obscene conduct, and you will be punished for idol worship. ¹  Then you will know that I am the sovereign Lord.”

“Because ¹  you have acted like a wanton prostitute ²  – a seductive mistress who practices sorcery, ³  who ⁴  enslaves ⁵  nations by her harlotry, ⁶  and entices peoples by her sorcery ⁷  –

with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality and the earth’s inhabitants got drunk with the wine of her immorality.” ¹ 

This is what the sovereign Lord says: Because your lust ¹  was poured out and your nakedness was uncovered in your prostitution with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children you have given to them,