Hosea

¹word that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

²When Yahweh spoke at first by Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and children of unfaithfulness; for the land commits great adultery, forsaking Yahweh.”

³So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived, and bore him a son.

⁴Yahweh said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease. ⁵It will happen in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”

⁶She conceived again, and bore a daughter.

⁷But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by Yahweh their God, and will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.”

⁸Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived, and bore a son.

⁹He said, “Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I will not be yours. ¹⁰Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured or counted; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ¹¹The children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint themselves one head, and will go up from the land; for great will be the day of Jezreel.

¹“Say to your brothers, ‘My people!’2:1 ‘Ammi’ in Hebrew

²Contend with your mother!

³lest I strip her naked,

⁴Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy,

⁵For their mother has played the prostitute.

⁶Therefore behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns,

⁷She will follow after her lovers,

⁸For she didn’t know that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil,

⁹Therefore I will take back my grain in its time,

¹⁰Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,

¹¹I will also cause all her celebrations to cease:

¹²I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,

¹³I will visit on her the days of the Baals,

¹⁴“Therefore behold, I will allure her,

¹⁵I will give her vineyards from there,

¹⁶It will be in that day,” says Yahweh,

¹⁷For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth,

¹⁸In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field,

¹⁹I will betroth you to me forever.

²⁰I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness;

²¹It will happen in that day, that I will respond,” says Yahweh.

²²and the earth will respond to the grain, and the new wine, and the oil;

²³I will sow her to me in the earth;

¹Yahweh said to me, “Go again, love a woman loved by another, and an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.”

²So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer ³I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days. You shall not play the prostitute, and you shall not be with any other man. I will also be so toward you.”

⁴For the children of Israel shall live many days without king, without prince, without sacrifice, without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols. ⁵Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to Yahweh and to his blessings in the last days.

¹Hear Yahweh’s word, you children of Israel,

²There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;

³Therefore the land will mourn,

⁴“Yet let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse;

⁵You will stumble in the day,

⁶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

⁷As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me.

⁸They feed on the sin of my people,

⁹It will be like people, like priest;

¹⁰They will eat, and not have enough.

¹¹Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.

¹²My people consult with their wooden idol,

¹³They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains,

¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute,

¹⁵“Though you, Israel, play the prostitute,

¹⁶For Israel has behaved extremely stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer.

¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols.

¹⁸Their drink has become sour.

¹⁹The wind has wrapped her up in its wings;

¹“Listen to this, you priests!

²The rebels are deep in slaughter,

³I know Ephraim,

⁴Their deeds won’t allow them to turn to their God,

⁵The pride of Israel testifies to his face.

⁶They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Yahweh,

⁷They are unfaithful to Yahweh;

⁸“Blow the cornet in Gibeah,

⁹Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke.

¹⁰The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark.

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed,

¹²Therefore I am to Ephraim like a moth,

¹³“When Ephraim saw his sickness,

¹⁴For I will be to Ephraim like a lion,

¹⁵I will go and return to my place,

¹“Come! Let’s return to Yahweh;

²After two days he will revive us.

³Let’s acknowledge Yahweh.

⁴“Ephraim, what shall I do to you?

⁵Therefore I have cut them to pieces with the prophets;

⁶For I desire mercy, and not sacrifice;

⁷But they, like Adam, have broken the covenant.

⁸Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity;

⁹As gangs of robbers wait to ambush a man,

¹⁰In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing.

¹¹“Also, Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you,

¹When I would heal Israel,

²They don’t consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness.

³They make the king glad with their wickedness,

⁴They are all adulterers.

⁵On the day of our king, the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine.

⁶For they have prepared their heart like an oven,

⁷They are all hot as an oven,

⁸Ephraim mixes himself among the nations.

⁹Strangers have devoured his strength,

¹⁰The pride of Israel testifies to his face;

¹¹“Ephraim is like an easily deceived dove, without understanding.

¹²When they go, I will spread my net on them.

¹³Woe to them!

¹⁴They haven’t cried to me with their heart,

¹⁵Though I have taught and strengthened their arms,

¹⁶They return, but not to the Most High.

¹“Put the trumpet to your lips!

²They cry to me, ‘My God, we, Israel, acknowledge you!’

³Israel has cast off that which is good.

⁴They have set up kings, but not by me.

⁵Let Samaria throw out his calf idol!

⁶For this is even from Israel!

⁷For they sow the wind,

⁸Israel is swallowed up.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria,

¹⁰But although they sold themselves among the nations,

¹¹Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,

¹²I wrote for him the many things of my law,

¹³As for the sacrifices of my offerings,

¹⁴For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;

¹Don’t rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations;

²The threshing floor and the wine press won’t feed them,

³They won’t dwell in Yahweh’s land;

⁴They won’t pour out wine offerings to Yahweh,

⁵What will you do in the day of solemn assembly,

⁶For, behold, when they flee destruction,

⁷The days of visitation have come.

⁸A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God.

⁹They have deeply corrupted themselves,

¹⁰I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness.

¹¹As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird.

¹²Though they bring up their children,

¹³I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place;

¹⁴Give them—Yahweh what will you give?

¹⁵“All their wickedness is in Gilgal;

¹⁶Ephraim is struck.

¹⁷My God will cast them away, because they didn’t listen to him;

¹Israel is a luxuriant vine that produces his fruit.

²Their heart is divided.

³Surely now they will say, “We have no king; for we don’t fear Yahweh;

⁴They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants.

⁵The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven,

⁶It also will be carried to Assyria for a present to a great king.

⁷Samaria and her king float away

⁸The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed.

⁹“Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah.

¹⁰When it is my desire, I will chastise them;

¹¹Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh,

¹²Sow to yourselves in righteousness,

¹³You have plowed wickedness.

¹⁴Therefore a battle roar will arise among your people,

¹⁵So Bethel will do to you because of your great wickedness.

¹“When Israel was a child, then I loved him,

²They called to them, so they went from them.

³Yet I taught Ephraim to walk.

⁴I drew them with cords of a man, with ties of love;

⁵“They won’t return into the land of Egypt;

⁶The sword will fall on their cities,

⁷My people are determined to turn from me.

⁸“How can I give you up, Ephraim?

⁹I will not execute the fierceness of my anger.

¹⁰They will walk after Yahweh,

¹¹They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt,

¹²Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood,

¹Ephraim feeds on wind,

²Yahweh also has a controversy with Judah,

³In the womb he took his brother by the heel,

⁴Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed;

⁵even Yahweh, the God of Armies.

⁶Therefore turn to your God.

⁷A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand.

⁸Ephraim said, “Surely I have become rich.

⁹“But I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt.

¹⁰I have also spoken to the prophets,

¹¹If Gilead is wicked,

¹²Jacob fled into the country of Aram.

¹³By a prophet Yahweh brought Israel up out of Egypt,

¹⁴Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger.

¹When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling.

²Now they sin more and more,

³Therefore they will be like the morning mist,

⁴“Yet I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt;

⁵I knew you in the wilderness,

⁶According to their pasture, so were they filled;

⁷Therefore I am like a lion to them.

⁸I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs,

⁹You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me,

¹⁰Where is your king now, that he may save you in all your cities?

¹¹I have given you a king in my anger,

¹²The guilt of Ephraim is stored up.

¹³The sorrows of a travailing woman will come on him.

¹⁴I will ransom them from the power of Sheol.

¹⁵Though he is fruitful among his brothers, an east wind will come,

¹⁶Samaria will bear her guilt,

¹Israel, return to Yahweh your God;

²Take words with you, and return to Yahweh.

³Assyria can’t save us.

⁴“I will heal their waywardness.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel.

⁶His branches will spread,

⁷Men will dwell in his shade.

⁸Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols?

⁹Who is wise, that he may understand these things?