Hosea 4–6

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.

God’s Word Against the Leaders

5“Listen, you priests.

Pay attention, people of Israel.

Listen, royal family,

because you will all be judged.

You have been like a trap at Mizpah

and like a net spread out at Mount Tabor.

²You have done many evil things,

so I will punish you all.

³I know all about the people of Israel;

what they have done is not hidden from me.

Now that Israel acts like a prostitute,

it has made itself unclean.

⁴“They will not give up their deeds

and return to their God.

They are determined to be unfaithful to me;

they do not know the Lord.

⁵Israel’s pride testifies against them.

The people of Israel will stumble because of their sin,

and the people of Judah will stumble with them.

⁶They will come to worship the Lord,

bringing their flocks and herds,

but they will not be able to find him,

because he has left them.

⁷They have not been true to the Lord;

they are children who do not belong to him.

So their false worship

will destroy them and their land.

⁸“Blow the horn in Gibeah

and the trumpet in Ramah.

Give the warning at Beth Aven,

and be first into battle, people of Benjamin.

⁹Israel will be ruined

on the day of punishment.

To the tribes of Israel

I tell the truth.

¹⁰The leaders of Judah are like those

who steal other people’s land.

I will pour my punishment over them

like a flood of water.

¹¹Israel is crushed by the punishment,

because it decided to follow idols.

¹²I am like a moth to Israel,

like a rot to the people of Judah.

¹³“When Israel saw its illness

and Judah saw its wounds,

Israel went to Assyria for help

and sent to the great king of Assyria.

But he cannot heal you

or cure your wounds.

¹⁴I will be like a lion to Israel,

like a young lion to Judah.

I will attack them

and tear them to pieces.

I will drag them off,

and no one will be able to save them.

¹⁵Then I will go back to my place

until they suffer for their guilt and turn back to me.

In their trouble they will look for me.”

The People Are Not Faithful

6“Come, let’s go back to the Lord.

He has hurt us, but he will heal us.

He has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds.

²In two days he will put new life in us;

on the third day he will raise us up

so that we may live in his presence ³and know him.

Let’s try to learn about the Lord;

he will come to us as surely as the dawn comes.

He will come to us like rain,

like the spring rain that waters the ground.”

⁴The Lord says, “Israel, what should I do with you?

Judah, what should I do with you?

Your faithfulness is like a morning mist,

like the dew that goes away early in the day.

⁵I have warned you by my prophets

that I will kill you and destroy you.

My justice comes out like bright light.

⁶I want faithful love

more than I want animal sacrifices.

I want people to know me

more than I want burnt offerings.

⁷But they have broken the agreement as Adam did;

they have been unfaithful to me.

⁸Gilead is a city of people who do evil;

their footprints are bloody.

⁹The priests are like robbers waiting to attack people;

they murder people on the road to Shechem ⁿ

and do wicked things.

¹⁰I have seen horrible things in Israel.

Look at Israel’s prostitution;

Israel has become unclean.

¹¹“Judah, I have set a harvest time for you

when I will make the lives of my people good again.