1
The word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel.2
When the LORD first spoke to Hosea, he said this to him: Go and marry a woman of promiscuity,3
So he went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.4 Then the LORD said to him:
Name him Jezreel, for in a little while5
On that day I will break the bow of Israel
in the Valley of Jezreel.
6
She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter, and the LORD said to him: Name her Lo-ruhamah,7
But I will have compassion on the house of Judah,
and I will deliver them by the LORD their God.
I will not deliver them by bow, sword, or war,
or by horses and cavalry.
8
After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and gave birth to a son.9 Then the LORD said:
Name him Lo-ammi,10
Yet the number of the Israelites
will be like the sand of the sea,
which cannot be measured or counted.
And in the place where they were told:
You are not my people,
they will be called: Sons of the living God.
11
And the Judeans and the Israelites
will be gathered together.
They will appoint for themselves a single ruler
and go up from the land.
For the day of Jezreel will be great.
1
Call your brothers: My People2
Rebuke your mother; rebuke her.
For she is not my wife and I am not her husband.
Let her remove the promiscuous look from her face
and her adultery from between her breasts.
3
Otherwise, I will strip her naked
and expose her as she was on the day of her birth.
I will make her like a desert
and like a parched land,
and I will let her die of thirst.
4
I will have no compassion on her children
because they are the children of promiscuity.
5
Yes, their mother is promiscuous;
she conceived them and acted shamefully.
For she thought, “I will follow my lovers,
the men who give me my food and water,
my wool and flax, my oil and drink.”
6
Therefore, this is what I will do:
I will block her way with thorns;
I will enclose her with a wall,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7
She will pursue her lovers but not catch them;
she will look for them but not find them.
Then she will think,
“I will go back to my former husband,
for then it was better for me than now.”
8
She does not recognize
that it is I who gave her the grain,
the new wine, and the fresh oil.
I lavished silver and gold on her,
which they used for Baal.
9
Therefore, 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 to cover her nakedness.
10
Now I will expose her shame
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one will rescue her from my power.
11
I will put an end to all her celebrations:
her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths —
all her festivals.
12
I will devastate her vines and fig trees.
She thinks that these are her wages
that her lovers have given her.
I will turn them into a thicket,
and the wild animals will eat them.
13
And I will punish her for the days of the Baals,
to which she burned incense.
She put on her rings and her jewelry
and followed her lovers,
but she forgot me.
14
Therefore, I am going to persuade her,15
There I will give her vineyards back to her
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 out of the land of Egypt.
16
In that day —
17
For I will remove the names of the Baals
from her mouth;
they will no longer be remembered by their names.
18
On that day I will make a covenant for them
with the wild animals, the birds of the sky,
and the creatures that crawl on the ground.
I will shatter bow, sword,
and weapons of war in the land
and will enable the people to rest securely.
19
I will take you to be my wife forever.
I will take you to be my wife in righteousness,
justice, love, and compassion.
20
I will take you to be my wife in faithfulness,
and you will know the LORD.
21
On that day I will respond —
22
The earth will respond to the grain,
the new wine, and the fresh oil,
and they will respond to Jezreel.
23
I will sow her in the land for myself,
and I will have compassion
on Lo-ruhamah;
I will say to Lo-ammi:
You are my people,
and he will say, “You are my God.”
1
Then the LORD said to me, “Go again; show love to a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, just as the LORD loves the Israelites though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”2
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and five bushels of barley.3 I said to her, “You are to live with me many days. You must not be promiscuous or belong to any man, and I will act the same way toward you.”
4
For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or household idols.5 Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come with awe to the LORD and to his goodness in the last days.
1
Hear the word of the LORD, people of Israel,2
Cursing, lying, murder, stealing,
and adultery are rampant;
one act of bloodshed follows another.
3
For this reason the land mourns,
and everyone who lives in it languishes,
along with the wild animals and the birds of the sky;
even the fish of the sea disappear.
4
But let no one dispute; let no one argue,
for my case is against you priests.
5
You will stumble by day;
the prophet will also stumble with you by night.
And I will destroy your mother.
6
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I will reject you from serving as my priest.
Since you have forgotten the law of your God,
I will also forget your sons.
7
The more they multiplied,
the more they sinned against me.
I will change their honor into disgrace.
8
They feed on the sin of my people;
they have an appetite for their iniquity.
9
The same judgment will happen
to both people and priests.
I will punish them for their ways
and repay them for their deeds.
10
They will eat but not be satisfied;
they will be promiscuous but not multiply.
For they have abandoned their devotion to the LORD.
11
Promiscuity, wine, and new wine
take away one’s understanding.
12
My people consult their wooden idols,
and their divining rods inform them.
For a spirit of promiscuity leads them astray;
they act promiscuously
in disobedience to their God.
13
They sacrifice on the mountaintops,
and they burn offerings on the hills,
and under oaks, poplars, and terebinths,
because their shade is pleasant.
And so your daughters act promiscuously
and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
14
I will not punish your daughters
when they act promiscuously
or your daughters-in-law
when they commit adultery,
for the men themselves go off with prostitutes
and make sacrifices with cult prostitutes.
People without discernment are doomed.
15
Israel, if you act promiscuously,
don’t let Judah become guilty!
Do not go to Gilgal
or make a pilgrimage to Beth-aven,
and do not swear an oath: As the LORD lives!
16
For Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn cow.
Can the LORD now shepherd them
like a lamb in an open meadow?
17
Ephraim is attached to idols;
leave him alone!
18
When their drinking is over,
they turn to promiscuity.
Israel’s leaders fervently love disgrace.
19
A wind with its wings will carry them off,
and they will be ashamed of their sacrifices.
1
Hear this, priests!2
Rebels are deeply involved in slaughter;
I will be a punishment for all of them.
3
I know Ephraim,
and Israel is not hidden from me.
For now, Ephraim,
you have acted promiscuously;
Israel is defiled.
4
Their actions do not allow them
to return to their God,
for a spirit of promiscuity is among them,
and they do not know the LORD.
5
Israel’s arrogance testifies against them.
Both Israel and Ephraim stumble
because of their iniquity;
even Judah will stumble with them.
6
They go with their flocks and herds
to seek the LORD
but do not find him;
he has withdrawn from them.
7
They betrayed the LORD;
indeed, they gave birth to illegitimate children.
Now the New Moon will devour them
along with their fields.
8
Blow the horn in Gibeah,
the trumpet in Ramah;
raise the war cry in Beth-aven:
Look behind you, Benjamin!
9
Ephraim will become a desolation
on the day of punishment;
I announce what is certain
among the tribes of Israel.
10
The princes of Judah are like those
who move boundary markers;
I will pour out my fury on them like water.
11
Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,
for he is determined to follow what is worthless.
12
So I am like rot to Ephraim
and like decay to the house of Judah.
13
When Ephraim saw his sickness
and Judah his wound,
Ephraim went to Assyria
and sent a delegation to the great king.
But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.
14
For I am like a lion to Ephraim
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
Yes, I will tear them to pieces and depart.
I will carry them off,
and no one can rescue them.
15
I will depart and return to my place
until they recognize their guilt and seek my face;
they will search for me in their distress.
1
Come, let us return to the LORD.2
He will revive us after two days,
and on the third day he will raise us up
so we can live in his presence.
3
Let us strive to know the LORD.
His appearance is as sure as the dawn.
He will come to us like the rain,
like the spring showers that water the land.
4
What am I going to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I going to do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist
and like the early dew that vanishes.
5
This is why I have used the prophets
to cut them down;
I have killed them with the words from my mouth.
My judgment strikes like lightning.
6
For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
7
But they, like Adam, have violated the covenant;
there they have betrayed me.
8
Gilead is a city of evildoers,
tracked with bloody footprints.
9
Like raiders who wait in ambush for someone,
a band of priests murders on the road to Shechem.
They commit atrocities.
10
I have seen something horrible in the house of Israel:
Ephraim’s promiscuity is there; Israel is defiled.
11
A harvest is also appointed for you, Judah.
When I return my people from captivity,
1
when I heal Israel,2
But they never consider that I remember all their evil.
Now their actions are all around them;
they are right in front of my face.
3
They please the king with their evil,
the princes with their lies.
4
All of them commit adultery;
they are like an oven heated by a baker
who stops stirring the fire
from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.
5
On the day of our king,
the princes are sick with the heat of wine —
there is a conspiracy with traitors.
6
For they — their hearts like an oven —
draw him into their oven.
Their anger smolders all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7
All of them are as hot as an oven,
and they consume their rulers.
All their kings fall;
not one of them calls on me.
8
Ephraim has allowed himself to get mixed up with the nations.
Ephraim is unturned bread baked on a griddle.
9
Foreigners consume his strength,
but he does not notice.
Even his hair is streaked with gray,
but he does not notice.
10
Israel’s arrogance testifies against them,
yet they do not return to the LORD their God,
and for all this, they do not seek him.
11
So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove;
they call to Egypt, and they go to Assyria.
12
As they are going, I will spread my net over them;
I will bring them down like birds of the sky.
I will discipline them in accordance
with the news that reaches their assembly.
13
Woe to them, for they fled from me;
destruction to them, for they rebelled against me!
Though I want to redeem them,
they speak lies against me.
14
They do not cry to me from their hearts;
rather, they wail on their beds.
They slash themselves for grain and new wine;
they turn away from me.
15
I trained and strengthened their arms,
but they plot evil against me.
16
They turn, but not to what is above;
they are like a faulty bow.
Their leaders will fall by the sword
because of their insolent tongue.
They will be ridiculed for this in the land of Egypt.
1
Put the horn to your mouth!2
Israel cries out to me,
“My God, we know you!”
3
Israel has rejected what is good;
an enemy will pursue him.
4
They have installed kings,
but not through me.
They have appointed leaders,
but without my approval.
They make their silver and gold
into idols for themselves
for their own destruction.
5
Your calf-idol is rejected, Samaria.
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6
For this thing is from Israel —
a craftsman made it, and it is not God.
The calf of Samaria will be smashed to bits!
7
Indeed, they sow the wind
and reap the whirlwind.
There is no standing grain;
what sprouts fails to yield flour.
Even if they did,
foreigners would swallow it up.
8
Israel is swallowed up!
Now they are among the nations
like discarded pottery.
9
For they have gone up to Assyria
like a wild donkey going off on its own.
Ephraim has paid for love.
10
Even though they hire lovers among the nations,
I will now round them up,
and they will begin to decrease in number
under the burden of the king and leaders.
11
When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin,
they became his altars for sinning.
12
Though I were to write out for him
ten thousand points of my instruction,
they would be regarded as something strange.
13
Though they offer sacrificial gifts
and eat the flesh,
the LORD does not accept them.
Now he will remember their guilt
and punish their sins;
they will return to Egypt.
14
Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;
Judah has also multiplied fortified cities.
I will send fire on their cities,
and it will consume their citadels.
1
Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly as the nations do,2
Threshing floor and wine vat will not sustain them,
and the new wine will fail them.
3
They will not stay in the land of the LORD.
Instead, Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
4
They will not pour out
their wine offerings to the LORD,
and their sacrifices will not please him.
Their food will be like the bread of mourners;
all who eat it become defiled.
For their bread will be for their appetites alone;
it will not enter the house of the LORD.
5
What will you do on a festival day,
on the day of the LORD’s feast?
6
For even if they flee from devastation,
Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them.
Thistles will take possession of their precious silver;
thorns will invade their tents.
7
The days of punishment have come;
the days of retribution have come.
Let Israel recognize it!
The prophet is a fool,
and the inspired man is insane,
because of the magnitude
of your iniquity and hostility.
8
Ephraim’s watchman is with my God.
Yet the prophet encounters a bird trap
on all his pathways.
Hostility is in the house of his God!
9
They have deeply corrupted themselves
as in the days of Gibeah.
He will remember their iniquity;
he will punish their sins.
10
I discovered Israel
like grapes in the wilderness.
I saw your fathers
like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season.
But they went to Baal-peor,
consecrated themselves to Shame,
and became abhorrent,
like the thing they loved.
11
Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird:
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.
12
Even if they raise children,
I will bereave them of each one.
Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!
13
I have seen Ephraim like Tyre,
planted in a meadow,
so Ephraim will bring out his children
to the executioner.
14
Give them, LORD —
What should you give?
Give them a womb that miscarries
and breasts that are dry!
15
All their evil appears at Gilgal,
for there I began to hate them.
I will drive them from my house
because of their evil, wicked actions.
I will no longer love them;
all their leaders are rebellious.
16
Ephraim is struck down;
their roots are withered;
they cannot bear fruit.
Even if they bear children,
I will kill the precious offspring of their wombs.
17
My God will reject them
because they have not listened to him;
they will become wanderers among the nations.
1
Israel is a lush vine;2
Their hearts are devious;
now they must bear their guilt.
The LORD will break down their altars
and demolish their sacred pillars.
3
In fact, they are now saying,
“We have no king!
For we do not fear the LORD.
What can a king do for us?”
4
They speak mere words,
taking false oaths while making covenants.
So lawsuits break out
like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.
5
The residents of Samaria will have anxiety
over the calf of Beth-aven.
Indeed, its idolatrous priests rejoiced over it;
the people will mourn over it,
over its glory.
It will certainly go into exile.
6
The calf itself will be taken to Assyria
as an offering to the great king.
Ephraim will experience shame;
Israel will be ashamed of its counsel.
7
Samaria’s king will disappear
like foam on the surface of the water.
8
The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,
will be destroyed;
thorns and thistles will grow over their altars.
They will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
9
Israel, you have sinned
since the days of Gibeah;
they have taken their stand there.
Will not war against the unjust
overtake them in Gibeah?
10
I will discipline them at my discretion;
nations will be gathered against them
to put them in bondage
for their double iniquity.
11
Ephraim is a well-trained calf
that loves to thresh,
but I will place a yoke on her fine neck.
I will harness Ephraim;
Judah will plow;
Jacob will do the final plowing.
12
Sow righteousness for yourselves
and reap faithful love;
break up your unplowed ground.
It is time to seek the LORD
until he comes and sends righteousness
on you like the rain.
13
You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice;
you have eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you have trusted in your own way
and in your large number of soldiers,
14
the roar of battle will rise against your people,
and all your fortifications will be demolished
in a day of war,
like Shalman’s destruction of Beth-arbel.
Mothers will be dashed to pieces
along with their children.
15
So it will be done to you, Bethel,
because of your extreme evil.
At dawn the king of Israel will be totally destroyed.
1
When Israel was a child, I loved him,2
Israel called to the Egyptians
even as Israel was leaving them.
They kept sacrificing to the Baals
and burning offerings to idols.
3
It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by the hand,
but they never knew that I healed them.
4
I led them with human cords,
with ropes of love.
To them I was like one
who eases the yoke from their jaws;
I bent down to give them food.
5
Israel will not return to the land of Egypt
and Assyria will be his king,
because they refused to repent.
6
A sword will whirl through his cities;
it will destroy and devour the bars of his gates,
because of their schemes.
7
My people are bent on turning from me.
Though they call to him on high,
he will not exalt them at all.
8
How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I surrender you, Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
I have had a change of heart;
my compassion is stirred!
9
I will not vent the full fury of my anger;
I will not turn back to destroy Ephraim.
For I am God and not man,
the Holy One among you;
I will not come in rage.
10
They will follow the LORD;
he will roar like a lion.
When he roars,
his children will come trembling from the west.
11
They will be roused like birds from Egypt
and like doves from the land of Assyria.
Then I will settle them in their homes.
12
Ephraim surrounds me with lies,1
Ephraim chases the wind2
The LORD also has a dispute with Judah.
He is about to punish Jacob according to his conduct;
he will repay him based on his actions.
3
In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel,
and as an adult he wrestled with God.
4
Jacob struggled with the angel and prevailed;
he wept and sought his favor.
He found him at Bethel,
and there he spoke with him.
5
The LORD is the God of Armies;
the LORD is his name.
6
But you must return to your God.
Maintain love and justice,
and always put your hope in God.
7
A merchant loves to extort
with dishonest scales in his hands.
8
But Ephraim thinks,
“How rich I have become;
I made it all myself.
In all my earnings,
no one can find any iniquity in me
that I can be punished for!”
9
I have been the LORD your God
ever since the land of Egypt.
I will make you live in tents again,
as in the festival days.
10
I will speak through the prophets
and grant many visions;
I will give parables through the prophets.
11
Since Gilead is full of evil,
they will certainly come to nothing.
They sacrifice bulls in Gilgal;
even their altars will be like piles of rocks
on the furrows of a field.
12
Jacob fled to the territory of Aram.
Israel worked to earn a wife;
he tended flocks for a wife.
13
The LORD brought Israel from Egypt by a prophet,
and Israel was tended by a prophet.
14
Ephraim has provoked bitter anger,
so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt on him
and repay him for his contempt.
1
When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;2
Now they continue to sin
and make themselves a cast image,
idols skillfully made from their silver,
all of them the work of craftsmen.
People say about them,
“Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves.”
3
Therefore, they will be like the morning mist,
like the early dew that vanishes,
like chaff blown from a threshing floor,
or like smoke from a window.
4
I have been the LORD your God
ever since the land of Egypt;
you know no God but me,
and no Savior exists besides me.
5
I knew you in the wilderness,
in the land of drought.
6
When they had pasture,
they became satisfied;
they were satisfied,
and their hearts became proud.
Therefore they forgot me.
7
So I will be like a lion to them;
I will lurk like a leopard on the path.
8
I will attack them
like a bear robbed of her cubs
and tear open the rib cage over their hearts.
I will devour them there like a lioness,
like a wild beast that would rip them open.
9
I will destroy you, Israel;
you have no help but me.
10
Where now is your king,
that he may save you in all your cities,
and the rulers you demanded, saying,
“Give me a king and leaders”?
11
I give you a king in my anger
and take away a king in my wrath.
12
Ephraim’s guilt is preserved;
his sin is stored up.
13
Labor pains come on him.
He is not a wise son;
when the time comes,
he will not be born.
14
I will ransom them from the power of Sheol.
I will redeem them from death.
Death, where are your barbs?
Sheol, where is your sting?
Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
15
Although he flourishes among his brothers,
an east wind will come,
a wind from the LORD rising up from the desert.
His water source will fail,
and his spring will run dry.
The wind will plunder the treasury
of every precious item.
16
Samaria will bear her guilt
because she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword;
their children will be dashed to pieces,
and their pregnant women ripped open.
1
Israel, return to the LORD your God,2
Take words of repentance with you
and return to the LORD.
Say to him: “Forgive all our iniquity
and accept what is good,
so that we may repay you
with praise from our lips.
3
Assyria will not save us,
we will not ride on horses,
and we will no longer proclaim, ‘Our gods! ’
to the work of our hands.
For the fatherless receives compassion in you.”
4
I will heal their apostasy;
I will freely love them,
for my anger will have turned from him.
5
I will be like the dew to Israel;
he will blossom like the lily
and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.
6
His new branches will spread,
and his splendor will be like the olive tree,
his fragrance, like the forest of Lebanon.
7
The people will return and live beneath his shade.
They will grow grain
and blossom like the vine.
His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.
8
Ephraim, why should I have anything more
to do with idols?
It is I who answer and watch over him.
I am like a flourishing pine tree;
your fruit comes from me.
9
Let whoever is wise understand these things,
and whoever is insightful recognize them.
For the ways of the LORD are right,
and the righteous walk in them,
but the rebellious stumble in them.