Hosea 1–3

1The word of the Lord that came^a to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah,^b Jotham,^c Ahaz^d and Hezekiah,^e kings of Judah,^f and during the reign of Jeroboam^g son of Jehoash^a king of Israel:^h

Hosea’s Wife and Children

²When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuousⁱ woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness^j to the Lord.” ³So he married Gomer^k daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

⁴Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel,^l because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. ⁵In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.^m”

⁶Gomerⁿ conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”),^o for I will no longer show love to Israel,^p that I should at all forgive them. ⁷Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow,^q sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God,^r will save them.”

⁸After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah,^s Gomer had another son. ⁹Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.^bt

¹⁰“Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted.^u In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’^{v 11}The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together;^w they will appoint one leader^x and will come up out of the land,^y for great will be the day of Jezreel.^cz

2^a“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’^a

Israel Punished and Restored

²“Rebuke your mother,^b rebuke her,

for she is not my wife,

and I am not her husband.

Let her remove the adulterous^c look from her face

and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.

³Otherwise I will strip^d her naked

and make her as bare as on the day she was born;^e

I will make her like a desert,^f

turn her into a parched land,

and slay her with thirst.

⁴I will not show my love to her children,^g

because they are the children of adultery.^h

⁵Their mother has been unfaithful

and has conceived them in disgrace.

She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,ⁱ

who give me my food and my water,

my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’^j

⁶Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;

I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.^k

⁷She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;

she will look for them but not find them.^l

Then she will say,

‘I will go back to my husband^m as at first,ⁿ

for then I was better off^o than now.’

⁸She has not acknowledged^p that I was the one

who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,^q

who lavished on her the silver and gold^r—

which they used for Baal.^s

⁹“Therefore I will take away my grain^t when it ripens,

and my new wine^u when it is ready.

I will take back my wool and my linen,

intended to cover her naked body.

¹⁰So now I will expose^v her lewdness

before the eyes of her lovers;^w

no one will take her out of my hands.^x

¹¹I will stop^y all her celebrations:^z

her yearly festivals, her New Moons,

her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.^a

¹²I will ruin her vines^b and her fig trees,^c

which she said were her pay from her lovers;^d

I will make them a thicket,^e

and wild animals will devour them.^f

¹³I will punish her for the days

she burned incense^g to the Baals;^h

she decked herself with rings and jewelry,ⁱ

and went after her lovers,^j

but me she forgot,^k”

declares the Lord.^l

¹⁴“Therefore I am now going to allure her;

I will lead her into the wilderness^m

and speak tenderly to her.

¹⁵There I will give her back her vineyards,

and will make the Valley of Achor^bn a door of hope.

There she will respond^co as in the days of her youth,^p

as in the day she came up out of Egypt.^q

¹⁶“In that day,” declares the Lord,

“you will call me ‘my husband’;^r

you will no longer call me ‘my master.^d’

¹⁷I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;^s

no longer will their names be invoked.^t

¹⁸In that day I will make a covenant for them

with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky

and the creatures that move along the ground.^u

Bow and sword and battle

I will abolish^v from the land,

so that all may lie down in safety.^w

¹⁹I will betroth^x you to me forever;

I will betroth you in^e righteousness and justice,^y

in^f love and compassion.^z

²⁰I will betroth you in^g faithfulness,

and you will acknowledge^a the Lord.^b

²¹“In that day I will respond,”

declares the Lord—

“I will respond^c to the skies,

and they will respond to the earth;

²²and the earth will respond to the grain,

the new wine and the olive oil,^d

and they will respond to Jezreel.^he

²³I will plant^f her for myself in the land;

I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.^ig’

I will say to those called ‘Not my people,^j’ ‘You are my people’;^h

and they will say, ‘You are my God.ⁱ’ ”

Hosea’s Reconciliation With His Wife

3The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress.^j Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.^k”

²So I bought her for fifteen shekels^a of silver and about a homer and a lethek^b of barley. ³Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.”

⁴For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince,^l without sacrifice^m or sacred stones,ⁿ without ephod^o or household gods.^{p 5}Afterward the Israelites will return and seek^q the Lord their God and David their king.^r They will come trembling^s to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.^t