Hosea 1–4

1The Lord spoke his word to Hosea son of Beeri during the time that Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.

Hosea’s Wife and Children

²When the Lord began speaking through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, and marry an unfaithful woman and have unfaithful children, because the people in this country have been completely unfaithful to the Lord.” ³So Hosea married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Hosea’s son.

⁴The Lord said to Hosea, “Name him Jezreel, because soon I will punish the family of Jehu for the people they killed at Jezreel. In the future I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel ⁵and break the power of Israel’s army in the Valley of Jezreel.”

⁶Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. The Lord said to Hosea, “Name her Lo-Ruhamah, ⁿ because I will not pity Israel anymore, nor will I forgive them. ⁷But I will show pity to the people of Judah. I will save them, but not by using bows or swords, horses or horsemen, or weapons of war. I, the Lord their God, will save them.”

⁸After Gomer had stopped nursing Lo-Ruhamah, she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. ⁹The Lord said, “Name him Lo-Ammi, ⁿ because you are not my people, and I am not your God.

God’s Promise to Israel

¹⁰“But the number of the Israelites will become like the grains of sand of the sea, which no one can measure or count. They were called, ‘You are not my people,’ but later they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ¹¹The people of Judah and Israel will join together again and will choose one leader for themselves. They will come up from the land, because the day of Jezreel ⁿ will be truly great.

2“You are to call your brothers, ‘my people,’ and your sisters, ‘you have been shown pity.’

God Speaks About Israel

²“Plead with your mother. ⁿ

Accuse her, because she is no longer my wife,

and I am no longer her husband.

Tell her to stop acting like a prostitute,

to stop behaving like an unfaithful wife.

³If she refuses, I will strip her naked

and leave her bare like the day she was born.

I will make her dry like a desert,

like a land without water,

and I will kill her with thirst.

⁴I will not take pity on her children,

because they are the children of a prostitute.

⁵Their mother has acted like a prostitute;

the one who became pregnant with them has acted disgracefully.

She said, ‘I will chase after my lovers, ⁿ

who give me my food and water,

wool and flax, wine and olive oil.’

⁶So I will block her road with thornbushes;

I will build a wall around her

so she cannot find her way.

⁷She will run after her lovers,

but she won’t catch them.

She will look for them,

but she won’t find them.

Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband, ⁿ

because life was better then for me than it is now.’

⁸But she does not know that I was the one

who gave her grain, new wine, and oil.

I gave her much silver and gold,

but she used it for Baal.

⁹“So I will come back and take away my grain at harvest time

and my new wine when it is ready.

I will take back my wool and linen

that covered her nakedness.

¹⁰So I will show her nakedness to her lovers,

and no one will save her from me.

¹¹I will put an end to all her celebrations:

her yearly festivals, her New Moon festivals, and her Sabbaths.

I will stop all of her special feasts.

¹²I will destroy her vines and fig trees,

which she said were her pay from her lovers.

I will turn them into a forest,

and wild animals will eat them.

¹³I will punish her for all the times

she burned incense to the Baals.

She put on her rings and jewelry

and went chasing after her lovers,

but she forgot me!”

says the Lord.

¹⁴“So I am going to attract her;

I will lead her into the desert

and speak tenderly to her.

¹⁵There I will give her back her vineyards,

and I will make the Valley of Trouble a door of hope.

There she will respond as when she was young,

as when she came out of Egypt.”

¹⁶The Lord says, “In the future she will call me ‘my husband;’

no longer will she call me ‘my baal.’ ⁿ

¹⁷I will never let her say the names of Baal again;

people won’t use their names anymore.

¹⁸At that time I will make an agreement for them

with the wild animals, the birds, and the crawling things.

I will smash from the land

the bow and the sword and the weapons of war,

so my people will live in safety.

¹⁹And I will make you my promised bride forever.

I will be good and fair;

I will show you my love and mercy.

²⁰I will be true to you as my promised bride,

and you will know the Lord.

²¹“At that time I will speak to you,” says the Lord.

“I will speak to the skies,

and they will give rain to the earth.

²²The earth will produce grain, new wine, and oil;

much will grow because my people are called Jezreel. ⁿ

²³I will plant my people in the land,

and I will show pity to the one I had called ‘not shown pity.’

I will say, ‘You are my people’

to those I had called ‘not my people.’

And they will say to me, ‘You are our God.’ ”

Hosea Buys a Wife

3The Lord said to me again, “Go, show your love to a woman loved by someone else, who has been unfaithful to you. In the same way the Lord loves the people of Israel, even though they worship other gods and love to eat the raisin cakes.” ⁿ

²So I bought her for six ounces of silver and ten bushels of barley. ³Then I told her, “You must wait for me for many days. You must not be a prostitute, and you must not have sexual relations with any other man. I will act the same way toward you.”

⁴In the same way Israel will live many days without a king or leader, without sacrifices or holy stone pillars, and without the holy vest or an idol. ⁵After this, the people of Israel will return to the Lord their God and follow him and the king from David’s family. In the last days they will turn in fear to the Lord, and he will bless them.

The Lord’s Word Against Israel

4People of Israel, listen to the Lord’s message.

The Lord has this

against you who live in the land:

“The people are not true, not loyal to God,

nor do those who live in the land even know him.

²Cursing, lying, killing, stealing and adultery are everywhere.

One murder follows another.

³Because of this the land dries up,

and all its people are dying.

Even the wild animals and the birds of the air

and the fish of the sea are dying.

God’s Case Against the Priests

⁴“No one should accuse

or blame another person.

Don’t blame the people, you priests,

when they quarrel with you.

⁵You will be ruined in the day,

and your prophets will be ruined with you in the night.

I will also destroy your mother. ⁿ

⁶My people will be destroyed,

because they have no knowledge.

You have refused to learn,

so I will refuse to let you be priests to me.

You have forgotten the teachings of your God,

so I will forget your children.

⁷The more priests there are,

the more they sin against me.

I will take away their honor

and give them shame.

⁸Since the priests live off the sin offerings of the people,

they want the people to sin more and more.

⁹The priests are as wrong as the people,

and I will punish them both for what they have done.

I will repay them for the wrong they have done.

¹⁰“They will eat

but not have enough;

they will have sexual relations with the prostitutes,

but they will not have children,

because they have left the Lord

to give themselves to ¹¹prostitution,

to old and new wine,

which take away their ability to understand.

God’s Case Against the People

¹²“My people ask wooden idols for advice;

they ask those sticks of wood to advise them!

Like prostitutes, they have chased after other gods

and have left their own God.

¹³They make sacrifices on the tops of the mountains.

They burn offerings on the hills,

under oaks, poplars, and other trees,

because their shade is nice.

So your daughters become prostitutes,

and your daughters-in-law are guilty of adultery.

¹⁴“But I will not punish your daughters

for becoming prostitutes,

nor your daughters-in-law

for their sins of adultery.

I will not punish them,

because the men have sexual relations with prostitutes

and offer sacrifices with the temple prostitutes.

A foolish people will be ruined.

¹⁵“Israel, you act like a prostitute,

but do not be guilty toward the Lord.

Don’t go to Gilgal

or go up to Beth Aven. ⁿ

Don’t make promises,

saying, ‘As surely as the Lord lives …’

¹⁶The people of Israel are stubborn

like a stubborn young cow.

Now the Lord will feed them

like lambs in the open country.

¹⁷The Israelites have chosen to worship idols,

so leave them alone.

¹⁸When they finish their drinking,

they completely give themselves to being prostitutes;

they love these disgraceful ways.

¹⁹They will be swept away as if by a whirlwind,

and their sacrifices will bring them only shame.