For I know how many are your transgressions and how great are your sins -- you who afflict the righteous, who take a bribe, and turn aside the needy in the gate.
Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; they multiply falsehood and violence; they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt.
When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king.[4] But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound.
The LORD will bring upon you and upon your people and upon your father's house such days as have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah -- the king of Assyria."
A firstborn bull[10] -- he has majesty, and his horns are the horns of a wild ox; with them he shall gore the peoples, all of them, to the ends of the earth; they are the ten thousands of Ephraim, and they are the thousands of Manasseh."
When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD."