Hosea 1-7

Hosea 1

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

²When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.”

³So Hosea went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

⁴Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Name him Jezreel, for soon I will bring the bloodshed of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.

⁵And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

⁶Gomer again conceived and gave birth to a daughter, and the LORD said to Hosea, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I should ever forgive them.

⁷Yet I will have compassion on the house of Judah, and I will save them—not by bow or sword or war, not by horses and cavalry, but by the LORD their God.”

⁸After she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, Gomer conceived and gave birth to a son.

⁹And the LORD said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people, and I am not your God.

¹⁰Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And it will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’

¹¹Then the people of Judah and of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint for themselves one leader, and will go up out of the land. For great will be the day of Jezreel.

Hosea 2

¹“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’

²Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.

³Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.

⁴I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery.

⁵For their mother has played the harlot and has conceived them in disgrace. For she thought, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water, wool and linen, oil and drink.’

⁶Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way.

⁷She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will seek them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will return to my first husband, for then I was better off than now.’

⁸For she does not acknowledge that it was I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, who lavished on her silver and gold— which they crafted for Baal.

⁹Therefore I will take back My grain in its time and My new wine in its season; I will take away My wool and linen, which were given to cover her nakedness.

¹⁰And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands.

¹¹I will put an end to all her exultation: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths— all her appointed feasts.

¹²I will destroy her vines and fig trees, which she thinks are the wages paid by her lovers. So I will make them into a thicket, and the beasts of the field will devour them.

¹³I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, when she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers. But Me she forgot,” declares the LORD.

¹⁴“Therefore, behold, I will allure her and lead her to the wilderness, and speak to her tenderly.

¹⁵There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

¹⁶In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call Me ‘my Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘my Master.’

¹⁷For I will remove from her lips the names of the Baals; no longer will their names be invoked.

¹⁸On that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that crawl on the ground. And I will abolish bow and sword and weapons of war in the land, and will make them lie down in safety.

¹⁹So I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in loving devotion and compassion.

²⁰And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.”

²¹“On that day I will respond—” declares the LORD— “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth.

²²And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.

²³And I will sow her as My own in the land, and I will have compassion on ‘No Compassion.’ I will say to those called ‘Not My People,’ ‘You are My people,’ and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

Hosea 3

¹Then the LORD said to me, “Go show love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and offer raisin cakes to idols.”

²So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.

³Then I said to her, “You must live with me for many days; you must not be promiscuous or belong to another, and I will do the same for you.”

⁴For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or idol.

⁵Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.

Hosea 4

¹Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the people of the land: “There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land!

²Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.

³Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea disappear.

⁴But let no man contend; let no man offer reproof; for your people are like those who contend with a priest.

⁵You will stumble by day, and the prophet will stumble with you by night; so I will destroy your mother—

⁶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

⁷The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me; they exchanged their Glory for a thing of disgrace.

⁸They feed on the sins of My people and set their hearts on iniquity.

⁹And it shall be like people, like priest. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.

¹⁰They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have stopped obeying the LORD.

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

¹²My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God.

¹³They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.

¹⁵Though you prostitute yourself, O Israel, may Judah avoid such guilt! Do not journey to Gilgal, do not go up to Beth-aven, and do not swear on oath, ‘As surely as the LORD lives!’

¹⁶For Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn heifer. Can the LORD now shepherd them like lambs in an open meadow?

¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone!

¹⁸When their liquor is gone, they turn to prostitution; their rulers dearly love disgrace.

¹⁹The whirlwind has wrapped them in its wings, and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

Hosea 5

¹“Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O royal house! For this judgment is against you because you have been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Tabor.

²The rebels are deep in slaughter; but I will chastise them all.

³I know all about Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me. For now, O Ephraim, you have turned to prostitution; Israel is defiled.

⁴Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God, for a spirit of prostitution is within them, and they do not know the LORD.

⁵Israel’s arrogance testifies against them; Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; even Judah stumbles with them.

⁶They go with their flocks and herds to seek the LORD, but they do not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them.

⁷They have been unfaithful to the LORD; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the New Moon will devour them along with their land.

⁸Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah; raise the battle cry in Beth-aven: Lead on, O Benjamin!

⁹Ephraim will be laid waste on the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel I proclaim what is certain.

¹⁰The princes of Judah are like those who move boundary stones; I will pour out My fury upon them like water.

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, for he is determined to follow worthless idols.

¹²So I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like decay to the house of Judah.

¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim turned to Assyria and sent to the great king. But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.

¹⁴For I am like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them to pieces and then go away. I will carry them off where no one can rescue them.

¹⁵Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

Hosea 6

¹Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.

²After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His presence.

³So let us know— let us press on to know the LORD. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the earth.

⁴What shall I do with you, O Ephraim ? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes.

⁵Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth, and My judgments go forth like lightning.

⁶For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there they were unfaithful to Me.

⁸Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with footprints of blood.

⁹Like raiders who lie in ambush, so does a band of priests; they murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed atrocities.

¹⁰In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing: Ephraim practices prostitution there, and Israel is defiled.

¹¹Also for you, O Judah, a harvest is appointed, when I restore My people from captivity.

Hosea 7

¹When I heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim will be exposed, as well as the crimes of Samaria. For they practice deceit and thieves break in; bandits raid in the streets.

²But they fail to consider in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.

³They delight the king with their evil, and the princes with their lies.

⁴They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by a baker who needs not stoke the fire from the kneading to the rising of the dough.

⁵The princes are inflamed with wine on the day of our king; so he joins hands with those who mock him.

⁶For they prepare their heart like an oven while they lie in wait; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

⁷All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings fall; not one of them calls upon Me.

⁸Ephraim mixes with the nations; Ephraim is an unturned cake.

⁹Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with gray, but he does not know.

¹⁰Israel’s arrogance testifies against them, yet they do not return to the LORD their God; despite all this, they do not seek Him.

¹¹So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove— calling out to Egypt, then turning to Assyria.

¹²As they go, I will spread My net over them; I will bring them down like birds of the air. I will chastise them when I hear them flocking together.

¹³Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against Me! Though I would redeem them, they speak lies against Me.

¹⁴They do not cry out to Me from their hearts when they wail upon their beds. They slash themselves for grain and new wine, but turn away from Me.

¹⁵Although I trained and strengthened their arms, they plot evil against Me.

¹⁶They turn, but not to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword for the cursing of their tongue; for this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.