Hosea 1–2

God Commands Hosea to Start a Family

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

²At the beginning when Yahweh spoke^a through Hosea,

Yahweh said to Hosea,

“Go, take for yourself a wife and children of whoredom,

because the land commits great whoredom

forsaking Yahweh.”^b

³So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim,

and she conceived and bore him a son.

⁴And Yahweh said to him,

“Name him^c Jezreel;^d

because in a little while I will punish^e the house of Jehu^f

for the blood^g of Jezreel,^h

and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.ⁱ

⁵On that day^j

I will break the bow of Israel

in the Valley of Jezreel.”

⁶And she conceived again and bore a daughter, and he^k said to him,

“Name her^l Lo-ruhamah,^m

for I will no longer have pity

on the house of Israel

or forgive them.ⁿ

⁷But I will have pity on the house of Judah

and I will save them by Yahweh their God,

and will not deliver them

by bow, sword, war,

horses, or horsemen.

⁸And when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah,^o she conceived and bore a son.

⁹And he^p said, “Name him^q Lo-ammi,^r

for you are not my people

and I am not your God.^s

^10t The number of the children of Israel

will be like the sand of the sea

that cannot be measured or counted;

and in the place where it is said to them,

“You are not my people,”

it will be said to them,

“Children of the living God.”

¹¹Then the children of Judah

and Israel will be gathered together,

and they will appoint for themselves

one head;

and they will take possession of^u the land,

for great is the day of Jezreel.^v

The Unfaithful Wife

2Say to your brother,^a “Ammi,”^b

and to your sister,^c “Ruhamah.”^d

²Plead with your mother, plead—

because she is not my wife,

and I am not her husband.

Let her put away her whoring from before her,^e

and her adultery from between her breasts.

³Lest I strip her naked

and expose her like the day when she was born;

I will make her like the desert

and turn her into parched land;

I will kill her with thirst.

⁴And I will not have pity on her children,

because they are children of whoredom.

⁵Because their mother was unfaithful;^f

she who conceived them has acted shamefully,

for she said:

“I will go after my lovers,

the ones who give me my bread, my water,

my wool, and my flax,

my oil, and my drink.”

⁶Therefore, Look!

I am going to hedge her path^g with thorns,^h

and I will build a stone wall, a stone wall against her,

and she will not find her paths.

⁷Then she will pursue her lovers,ⁱ

but she will not overtake them;

she will seek them and not find them;

and she will say, “I will go

and return to my first husband

because it was better for me then than now.”

⁸But she did not know

that it was I who gave her

grain, new wine, and oil,

and who gave her silver in abundance,

and gold which they made into a Baal.

⁹Therefore I will take again

my grain in its time,

and my wine in its season;

and I will take away my wool and my flax,

which were to cover her nakedness.

¹⁰And now I will uncover her nakedness

before the eyes of her lovers,

and no one will rescue her from my hand.

¹¹And I will put an end to all her mirth,

her festivals,^j her new moons,^k and her Sabbaths,^l

and all her appointed festivals;^m

¹²and I will lay waste to her vinesⁿ and her fig trees,^o

of which she said,

“They are my payment for prostitution,

which my lovers gave to me.”

I will make them a forest,

and the wild animals^p of the field will devour them.

¹³I will punish her^q for the days of the Baals,

to whom she burns incense,

and she decked herself with her ornamental ring and jewelry,

and she went after her lovers, and forgot me

—a declaration of Yahweh.

¹⁴Therefore, Look! I am going to allure her

and bring her into the desert,

and I will speak tenderly to her.^r

¹⁵From there I will give her

her vineyards,

and the Valley of Achor as a doorway of hope.

And there she will respond,

as in the days of her youth,

just as in the day of her coming out of

the land of Egypt.

¹⁶And on that day—^s

a declaration of Yahweh—

you will call me, “My husband;”^t

you will no longer call me, “My Baal.”^u

¹⁷I will remove the names

of the Baals from her mouth,

and they will no longer be mentioned by their name.

¹⁸I will make a covenant for them on that day,

with the animals^v of the field,

with the birds^w of the heaven, and

with the creeping things^x of the ground;

the bow, the sword, and the war I will abolish from the land, and I will let them lie down in safety.

¹⁹And I will take you as my wife forever;

I will take you as a wife for myself in righteousness and in justice,

in steadfast love and in mercy.

²⁰I will take you as my wife^y in faithfulness,

and you will know Yahweh.

²¹On that day I will answer, declares Yahweh,^z

I will answer the heavens,

and they will answer the earth.

²²And the earth will answer

the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and they will answer Jezreel.^a

²³I will sow her for myself in the land;

I will have pity on Lo-ruhama;^b

I will say to Lo-ammi,^c

“You are my people,”

and he himself will say, “you are my God.”