1

1 The word of Jehovah 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.

2 When Jehovah first spoke through Hosea, Jehovah said to Hosea, »Go and marry an adulterous wife and have children with her for the land commits flagrant adultery. They have abandoned Jehovah.«

3 So he took as his wife Gomer the daughter of Diblaim. She conceived, and gave birth to a son.

4 Jehovah said to Hosea: »Name him Jezreel. In a little while I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu. I will cause the kingdom of Israel to cease.

5 »It will happen that I will break the bow strength of Israel in the valley of Jezrell.«

6 Gomer conceived again, and gave birth to a daughter. Jehovah said to Hosea: »Name her Loruhamah for I will no longer have mercy upon the house of Israel and I will not pardon them.

7 »However I will have mercy compassion love on the house of Judah. I will not save them by bow, or by sword. I will not save them by battle, not by horses, nor by horsemen. However, I will save them by Jehovah their God.«

8 Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, Gomer conceived, and gave birth to another son.

9 Jehovah said: »Name him Loammi for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

10 »Yet the number of the children of Israel will be like the grains of the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. It will be said: You are the sons of the living God in the place where it was said you are not my people!

11 »The children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together. They will appoint for themselves one leader, and will leave the land of Jezreel. It will be a great day for Jezreel.«

2

1 »Say to your brothers: ‘My people.’ Say to your sisters: ‘You have been shown loving kindness.’

2 »Plead with your mother your nation , for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband. Let her put away her acts of adultery from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts!

3 »I will strip her naked and make her as in the day that she was born. I will make her as a wilderness, and make her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.

4 »I will show no mercy to her children for they are children of fornication.

5 Their mother played the harlot. She that conceived them acted shamefully! For she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.

6 »Behold, I Jehovah will fence her way with thorns. I will build a wall against her that she will not find her path.

7 »She will follow after her lovers but she will not reach them. She will seek them, but will not find them! She will say: ‘I will return to my first husband for it was better for me then.’

8 »She did not know that I gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.

9 »Therefore I will take back my grain at that time, and my new wine in the season. I will pluck away my wool and my flax that should have covered her nakedness.

10 »Now I will uncover her lewdness obscene behavior in the sight of her lovers, and none will deliver her out of my hands.

11 »I will also cause all her exaltation to cease, her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.

12 »I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees. Of this she said: These are my loose woman’s hire that my lovers have given me. I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field will eat them.

13 »I will punish her for the days in which she burned incense to the Baals, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me,« said Jehovah.

14 »Therefore, behold, I will entice her into the wilderness, and speak kindly to her.

15 »I will give her vineyards from there and the valley of Achor for a door of hope. She will sing there as in the days of her youth and in the day when she came up out of Egypt.

16 »It will be at that day,« said Jehovah; »you will call me ‘husband’ Ishi . You will no longer call me my ‘master’ ba’ali .

17 »For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they will no more be mentioned by their name.

18 »At that time I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the heavens, and with the creeping things of the ground. I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the land, and will make them lie down in safety.

19 »I will engage you to me for a very long time! Yes I will engage you to me in righteousness, and in justice, and in loving kindness, and in mercies.

20 »I will even engage you to me in faithfulness. Then you will know Jehovah.

21 »It will happen in that day. I will answer,« said Jehovah, »I will answer the heavens, and they will answer the earth!

22 »The earth will answer the grain, and the new wine, and the oil; and they will answer Jezreel.

23 »And I will sow her to me in the earth! I will have mercy compassion on her who had not obtained mercy. I will say to those who were not my people: ‘You are my people!’ They will answer: ‘You are my God!’«

3

1 Jehovah said to me: »Go again and love a woman beloved by her friend. Love an adulteress, even as Jehovah loves the children of Israel. Though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins for feasts.«

2 So I bought her for fifteen pieces of silver, and a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley.

3 I said to her: »You will live with me many days. You must not play the harlot commit fornication and you must not be any man’s wife. I will also be with you.«

4 For the children of Israel will live many days without king, without prince, without sacrifice, without pillar, and without ephod or teraphim.

5 Afterward the children of Israel will return and seek Jehovah their God. David their king will come with trembling to Jehovah and to his goodness in the last days.

4

1 Hear the word of Jehovah, you children of Israel! For Jehovah has a legal case against the inhabitants of the land. There is no truth! There is no goodness. There is no knowledge of God in the land.

2 They do nothing but swear, deceive, kill, steal and commit adultery! There is violence and bloodshed in the land.

3 Therefore the land will mourn. All the inhabitants are weak. The beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea will also perish.

4 Let no man find fault and let no man reprove. After all your people are the ones who debate argue with a priest.

5 You will stumble in the day, and the prophet will stumble with you in the night. I will destroy your mother.

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you! You will not be a priest to me since you have forgotten the Law of your God. Therefore, I will forget your children.

7 They grew in number and sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame.

8 They feed on the sins of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity.

9 It will be like people, like the priests. I will punish them for their ways, and will repay them for their actions.

10 They will eat, and not have enough! They will play the harlot, and will not increase! They do not listen to Jehovah.

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

12 My people ask counsel at their stock, and their staff declares to them; for the spirit of adultery caused them to go astray. They have played the harlot, departing from their God.

13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains! They burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars storax and the strong tree, because it has good shade. Your daughters play the harlot, and your brides commit adultery.

14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot, nor your brides when they commit adultery. The men go out with harlots, and they sacrifice with the prostitutes. The people that do not understand will fall be overthrown .

15 Though you, Israel, play the harlot, do not let Judah become guilty! Do not go to Gilgal, neither go to Bethaven, nor swear, »As Jehovah lives.«

16 For Israel behaved stubbornly like a stubborn heifer. Will Jehovah now feed them as a lamb in a large place.

17 Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone.

18 Their drink wheat beer has become sour. They play the harlot continually. Her rulers dearly love shame.

19 The wind wrapped her up in its wings. They will be put to shame because of their sacrifices!

5

1 »Hear this, O you priests and pay attention, O house of Israel. Give ear listen ! O house of the king the judgment is about you. You have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor.

2 »The rebels are eager to kill. I will correct them all.

3 »I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me. O Ephraim, you have played the harlot and Israel is defiled.

4 »They will not consecrate their deeds to their God because the spirit of fornication is in them. They do not know Jehovah.

5 »The pride of Israel testifies about them. Therefore Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their iniquity. Judah will also stumble with them.

6 »They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Jehovah. But they will not find him. He has withdrawn from them.

7 »They have dealt treacherously against Jehovah! They have borne strange children: now the new moon will devour them with their fields.

8 »Blow the horn in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: sound an alarm at Bethaven behind you, O Benjamin.

9 »Ephraim will become desolation in the day of rebuke among the tribes of Israel. I made known that which will surely be.

10 »The princes of Judah are like them that remove the landmark. I will pour my wrath upon them like water.

11 »Ephraim is oppressed. He is crushed in judgment because he was content to walk after man's command.

12 »I am like a moth to Ephraim and to the house of Judah as rottenness.

13 »When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to King Jareb. He is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound.

14 »For I will be to Ephraim as a lion. And I will be like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away. I will carry off and there will be none to deliver.

15 »I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek me. They will seek me earnestly in their affliction.«

6

1 »Come, and let us return to Jehovah. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us. He has wounded us but he will bandage us.

2 »He will revive us after two days. He will raise us up on the third day that we will live before him.

3 »Let us get to know Jehovah! Let us press on run after follow to get to know him. As surely as the sun rises he will appear. He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.«

4 »What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.

5 »Therefore I cut you in pieces by my prophets. I have killed you with the words of my mouth. My judgments flashed like lightning upon you.

6 »I desire loving-kindness mercy , not sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

7 »Like Adam, they have broken the covenant. They were unfaithful to me there.

8 »Gilead is a city of wicked men, stained with blood.

9 »As marauders lie in ambush for a man, so do bands of priests. They murder on the road to Shechem, committing shameful crimes.

10 »I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel. There Ephraim is given to prostitution and Israel is defiled.

11 »Also for you, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.«

7

1 »When I want to heal my people Israel and make them prosperous again, all I can see is their wickedness and the evil deeds of Samaria. They cheat one another. They break into houses and steal. They actually rob people in the streets.

2 »It never enters their hearts that I will remember all this evil. But their sins surround them, and I cannot avoid seeing them.

3 »They make kings happy with the wicked things they do. They make officials happy with the lies they tell.

4 »They all commit adultery. They are like a heated oven, an oven so hot that a baker does not have to fan its flames when he makes bread.

5 »On the day of the king's celebration, the officials become drunk from the heat of wine, and the king joins mockers.

6 »They become hot inside like an oven while they lie in ambush. All night long their anger smolders, but in the morning it burns like a raging fire.

7 »They are all as hot as an oven. They consume their rulers like a fire. All their kings die in battle, and none of them calls to me.

8 »Ephraim mixes with other nations. Ephraim, you are like a half-baked loaf of bread.

9 »Foreigners are using up your strength, but you do not realize it. You have become a gray-haired, old man, but you do not realize it.

10 »Israel, your arrogance testifies against you. Even after all this, you do not return to Jehovah your God or look to him for help.

11 »Ephraim, you are like a simpleminded, senseless dove. You call to Egypt and run to Assyria for help.

12 »When you go, I will spread my net over you. I will snatch you out of the air like a bird. I will punish you for all the evil things you have done.

13 »Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.

14 »And they do not cry to me from their heart when they wail on their beds. For the sake of grain and new wine they assemble, but they turn away from me.

15 »Although I trained disciplined and strengthened their arms might power , yet they devise evil against me.

16 »They do not turn upward to God . They are like a loose bow. Their princes will fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.«

8

1 »Sound the alarm on the trumpet. The enemy swoops down on Jehovah’s Temple like an eagle. The people of Israel have rejected my covenant promise and rebelled against my Law.

2 »Israel cries out to me: ‘We know you as our God.’

3 »However, they have rejected what is good. The enemy will pursue them.

4 »They chose their own kings. I did not approve. They chose their own princes. Princes I did not know. They made idols with their own silver and gold. Because of this, they will be destroyed!

5 »Get rid of your calf-shaped idol, Samaria. My anger burns against these people! How long will they remain unclean?

6 »Samaria's calf-shaped idol was made in Israel. Skilled workers made it. It is not God. It will be smashed to pieces!

7 »The people of Israel plant the wind, but they harvest a storm. A field of grain that does not ripen will never produce any grain. Even if it did produce grain, foreigners would eat it all.

8 »Israel is swallowed up. It has already mixed in with the other nations. It has become worthless.

9 The people of Israel went to Assyria. They were like wild donkeys wandering off alone. The people of Ephraim sold themselves to their lovers.

10 »Even though they sold themselves among the nations, I will gather them now. They will suffer for a while under the burdens of kings and princes.

11 »The more altars that the people of Ephraim build to make offerings to pay for their sins, the more places they have for sinning.

12 »I have written many rules for them in my Law, but they consider these things strange and foreign.

13 »They offer sacrifices to me and eat the meat of sacrifices, but I, Jehovah, do not accept these sacrifices. Now I will remember their wickedness and punish them because of their sins. They will go back to Egypt.

14 »The people of Israel have built palaces, and they have forgotten their maker. The people of Judah have built many fortified cities. I will send a fire on their cities and burn down their palaces.«

9

1 »O Israel, do not rejoice. Do not celebrate as pagan nations do. You have been unfaithful to your God. You have sold sex on every threshing floor.

2 »There will not be enough grain to feed people. There will not be enough wine to go around.

3 »The people of Ephraim will not stay in Jehovah’s land. They will return to Egypt and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.

4 »They will not pour wine offerings to Jehovah. Their food will only satisfy their hunger. All who eat it will be defiled. It will not be brought as an offering to Jehovah’s Temple.

5 »What will they do on the day of an appointed festival or on Jehovah’s festival days?

6 »Even if they escape without being destroyed, Egypt will capture them and Memphis will bury them. Weeds will grow over their silver treasures. Thorns will grow over their tents.

7 The time for them to be punished will come. The time for them to pay for their sins will come. When this happens, Israel will know it. They think that prophets are fools and that spiritual people are crazy. They have sinned a lot, and are filled with hostility.«

8 Prophets are God’s watchmen over Ephraim. Yet, traps are set on every prophet’s path and people are hostile in the Temple of their God.

9 They have gone deep in depravity as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish their sins.

10 »I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season. They came to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to shame. They became as detestable as that which they loved.

11 »As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird: No birth, no pregnancy and no conception!

12 »Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them until no man is left. Yes, woe to them even when I depart from them!

13 »I have seen Ephraim planted in a pleasant meadow like Tyre. But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.«

14 Give them, O Jehovah what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

15 »All Ephraim's wickedness began in Gilgal. I hated the people there. I will force them out of my Temple because of their wickedness. I will not love them anymore. All their officials are rebellious.

16 »The people of Ephraim are like sick plants. Their roots are dried up. They have no fruit. Even if they were to have children, I would kill their dear children.«

17 My God will reject them because they refused to listen to him. They will wander among the nations.

10

1 »The people of Israel were like a grapevine that used to produce grapes. The more prosperous they were, the more altars they built. The more productive their land was, the more beautiful they made the sacred stone pillars they worship.

2 »The peoples hearts are deceitful. They must suffer for their sins. Jehovah will break down their altars and destroy their sacred pillars.

3 »These people will soon say: ‘We have no king because we did not respect Jehovah. What could a king do for us anyway?’

4 »They utter empty words and make false promises and useless treaties. Justice has become injustice, growing like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

5 »The people who live in the city of Samaria will be afraid and will mourn the loss of the gold bull at Bethaven. They and the priests who serve the idol will weep over it. They will wail when it is stripped of its golden splendor.

6 »The idol will be carried off to Assyria as tribute to the great emperor. The people of Israel will be disgraced and put to shame because of the advice they followed.

7 »They and their king will be carried off, like a chip of wood on water.

8 »The hilltop shrines of Bethaven, where the people of Israel worship idols, will be destroyed. Thorns and weeds will grow up over their altars. The people will call out to the mountains: ‘Hide us! And to the hills, cover us!’

9 Jehovah says: »The people of Israel have not stopped sinning against me since the time of their sin at Gibeah. So at Gibeah war will catch up with them.

10 »I will attack this sinful people and punish them. Nations will join together against them, and they will be punished for their many sins.

11 »Ephraim was once like a well-trained young cow, ready and willing to thresh grain. But I will put a yoke on her beautiful neck and harness her for harder work. I made Judah pull the plow and Jacob pull the harrow.

12 »I said: Plow new ground for yourselves, plant righteousness, and reap the blessings that your devotion to me will produce. It is time for you to turn to me, Jehovah, and I will come and pour out righteousness on you.

13 »But instead you plowed evil and harvested unrighteousness. You have eaten the fruit produced by your lies. This is because you trusted in your way and in the large number of your soldiers.

14 Tumult will come to your people and all your fortresses will be destroyed. It will be like the day when King Shalman destroyed the city of Betharbel house of Arbel in battle and mothers and their children were crushed to death.

15 »That is what will happen to you, people of Bethel, because of the terrible evil that you have done. As soon as the battle begins, the king of Israel will die.«

11

1 »When Israel was a young man, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

2 »But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.

3 »It was I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them in my arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them.

4 »I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.

5 »Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent?

6 »Swords will flash in their cities, destroy the bars of their gates, and put an end to their plans.

7 »My people are determined to turn apostatize from me. Even if they call to the Most High, he will by no means exalt them.

8 »How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me. All my compassion is aroused.

9 »I will not carry out my fierce anger. I will not turn and devastate Ephraim. I am not man. I am God, the Holy One among you. I will not come against my city in wrath.

10 »They will follow Jehovah! He will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west.

11 »They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria. I will settle them in their homes,« declares Jehovah.

12 »Ephraim surrounds me with lies, the house of Israel with deceit. Yet Judah is unruly against God, even against the Holy One who is faithful.«

12

1 »The people of Ephraim try to catch the wind and try to chase the east wind all day. They are very dishonest, violent and destructive. They make treaties with Assyria and take olive oil to Egypt.

2 »Jehovah brings legal charges against Judah and punishes Jacob because of the way their people act. He will pay them back for what they have done.

3 »Their ancestor Jacob held on to his brother's heel while the two of them were in their mother's womb. When Jacob became a man, he struggled with God.

4 He struggled with the angel and won. Jacob cried and pleaded with him. Jacob found him at Bethel, and he talked with him there.

5 »Jehovah is the God of Hosts. Jehovah is the name by which he is remembered.

6 »Return to your God. Constantly express loving kindness and justice. Always wait with hope in your God.

7 Jehovah says: »The merchants use dishonest scales. They love to cheat people.

8 »The people of Ephraim say: We are rich. We have made a fortune. With all this wealth, no one will find us guilty of any sin.

9 »I am Jehovah your God. I brought you out of Egypt. I will make you live in tents again as you did during your appointed festivals.

10 »I spoke to the prophets and gave them many visions. I taught lessons through the prophets.

11 »The people of Gilead are evil. They are worthless. They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal. But their altars will become like piles of rubble beside a plowed field.

12 »Jacob fled to the country of Syria. Israel worked to get a wife. He took care of sheep to pay for her.

13 »Jehovah used a prophet to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt. He used a prophet to take care of them.

14 »The people of Ephraim made Jehovah bitter. He will hold them guilty of murder. Jehovah will pay them back for their insults.«

13

1 »When the tribe of Ephraim spoke, people trembled. The people of Ephraim were important in Israel. Then they became guilty of worshiping Baal, so they must die.

2 »They sin more and more. They make idols from silver for themselves. These idols are skillfully made. All of them are the work of craftsmen. People say this about the Israelites: They offer sacrifices and kiss calf-shaped idols.

3 »That is why they will be like fog in the morning and like morning dew that disappears quickly. They will be like straw blown away from threshing floors. They will be like smoke rising from chimneys.

4 »I AM JEHOVAH YOUR GOD. I brought you out of Egypt. You have known no god besides me. There is no savior except me.

5 »I took care of you in the desert, in a dry land.

6 »When I fed you, you were full. When you were full, you became arrogant. That is why you forgot me.

7 »So I will be like a lion. Like a leopard I will wait by the road to ambush you.

8 »Like a bear that has lost her cubs, I will attack you. I will rip you open. Like a lion I will devour you. Like a wild animal I will tear you apart.

9 »You are destroying yourself, Israel. You are against me, your helper.

10 »Where, now, is your king, the one who is supposed to save you? Where in all your cities are your judges? You said: ‘Give us kings and officials!’

11 »I gave you a king when I was angry, and I took him away when I was furious.

12 »Ephraim's wickedness is on record. The record of the people's sins is safely stored away.

13 »They have the opportunity to live again, but they are not smart enough to take it. They are like a baby who is about to be born but will not come out of its mother's womb.

14 »I will ransom them from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death! O death, where are your stings plagues ? O grave, where is your destruction devastation ? Compassion will be concealed from my eyes. (1 Co 15:54-57)

15 »The people of Ephraim have become important among their relatives. However, Jehovah’s scorching wind will come from the east. It will blow out of the desert. Then their springs will run dry, and their wells will dry up. The wind will destroy every precious thing in their storehouses.

16 »The people of Samaria are guilty as charged because they rebelled against their God. They will be killed in war, their children will be smashed to death, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.«

14

1 »Return, O Israel, to Jehovah your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

2 »Return to Jehovah and say to him: ‘Take away all iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit young bulls of our lips.’ (Hebrews 13:15)

3 »Assyria will not save us and we will not ride on horses. We will not say again: Our god, to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.

4 »I will heal their apostasy! I will love them freely for my anger has turned away from them.

5 »I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily and he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

6 »His shoots will sprout and his beauty will be like the olive tree. His fragrance will be like the cedars of Lebanon.

7 »Those who live in his shadow will raise grain again. They will blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.

8 »O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like a luxuriant cypress and fruit comes from me.«

9 Let the wise understand these things. Let the discerning know them. For the ways of Jehovah are right. And the righteous will walk in them. But transgressors will stumble in them.