Hosea 1–3

1The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of ^aUzziah, ^bJotham, ^cAhaz, and ^dHezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of ^eJeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

The Family of Hosea

²When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:

^f“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry

And children of harlotry,

For ^gthe land has committed great ¹harlotry

By departing from the Lord.”

³So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. ⁴Then the Lord said to him:

“Call his name Jezreel,

For in a little while

^hI will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu,

ⁱAnd bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

^5jIt shall come to pass in that day

That I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

⁶And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him:

“Call her name ²Lo-Ruhamah,

^kFor I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel,

³But I will utterly take them away.

^7lYet I will have mercy on the house of Judah,

Will save them by the Lord their God,

And ^mwill not save them by bow,

Nor by sword or battle,

By horses or horsemen.”

⁸Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. ⁹Then God said:

“Call his name ⁴Lo-Ammi,

For you are not My people,

And I will not be your God.

The Restoration of Israel

¹⁰“Yet ⁿthe number of the children of Israel

Shall be as the sand of the sea,

Which cannot be measured or numbered.

^oAnd it shall come to pass

In the place where it was said to them,

‘You are ⁵not My ^ppeople,’

There it shall be said to them,

‘You are ^qsons of the living God.’

^11rThen the children of Judah and the children of Israel

Shall be gathered together,

And appoint for themselves one head;

And they shall come up out of the land,

For great will be the day of Jezreel!

2Say to your brethren, ¹‘My people,’ And to your sisters, ²‘Mercy is shown.’

God’s Unfaithful People

²“Bring ³charges against your mother, ⁴bring charges;

For ^ashe is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!

Let her put away her ^bharlotries from her sight,

And her adulteries from between her breasts;

³Lest ^cI strip her naked

And expose her, as in the day she was ^dborn,

And make her like a wilderness,

And set her like a dry land,

And slay her with ^ethirst.

⁴“I will not have mercy on her children,

For they are the ^fchildren of harlotry.

⁵For their mother has played the harlot;

She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.

For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

^gWho give me my bread and my water,

My wool and my linen,

My oil and my drink.’

⁶“Therefore, behold,

^hI will hedge up your way with thorns,

And ⁵wall her in,

So that she cannot find her paths.

⁷She will ⁶chase her lovers,

But not overtake them;

Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.

Then she will say,

ⁱ‘I will go and return to my ^jfirst husband,

For then it was better for me than now.’

⁸For she did not ^kknow

That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,

And multiplied her silver and gold—

Which they prepared for Baal.

⁹“Therefore I will return and take away

My grain in its time

And My new wine in its season,

And will take back My wool and My linen,

Given to cover her nakedness.

¹⁰Now ^lI will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,

And no one shall deliver her from My hand.

^11mI will also cause all her mirth to cease,

Her feast days,

Her New Moons,

Her Sabbaths—

All her appointed feasts.

¹²“And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,

Of which she has said,

‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’

So I will make them a forest,

And the beasts of the field shall eat them.

¹³I will punish her

For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense.

She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry,

And went after her lovers;

But Me she forgot,” says the Lord.

God’s Mercy on His People

¹⁴“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

Will bring her into the wilderness,

And speak ⁷comfort to her.

¹⁵I will give her her vineyards from there,

And ⁿthe Valley of Achor as a door of hope;

She shall sing there,

As in ^othe days of her youth,

^pAs in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

¹⁶“And it shall be, in that day,”

Says the Lord,

“That you will call Me ⁸‘My Husband,’

And no longer call Me ⁹‘My Master,’

¹⁷For ^qI will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,

And they shall be remembered by their name no more.

¹⁸In that day I will make a ^rcovenant for them

With the beasts of the field,

With the birds of the air,

And with the creeping things of the ground.

Bow and sword of battle ^sI will shatter from the earth,

To make them ^tlie down safely.

¹⁹“I will betroth you to Me forever;

Yes, I will betroth you to Me

In righteousness and justice,

In lovingkindness and mercy;

²⁰I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,

And ^uyou shall know the Lord.

²¹“It shall come to pass in that day

That ^vI will answer,” says the Lord;

“I will answer the heavens,

And they shall answer the earth.

²²The earth shall answer

With grain,

With new wine,

And with oil;

They shall answer ¹Jezreel.

²³Then ^wI will sow her for Myself in the earth,

^xAnd I will have mercy on her who had ²not obtained mercy;

Then ^yI will say to those who were ³not My people,

‘You are ⁴My people!’

And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”

Israel Will Return to God

3Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a ^alover ¹and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.”

²So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley. ³And I said to her, “You shall ^bstay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man—so, too, will I be toward you.”

⁴For the children of Israel shall abide many days ^cwithout king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ^dephod or ^eteraphim. ⁵Afterward the children of Israel shall return and ^fseek the Lord their God and ^gDavid their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the ^hlatter days.