Hosea 1–3

Chapter 1

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

²When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry, for the land commits great harlotry by forsaking the Lord.” ³So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

⁴And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. ⁵And on that day, I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”

⁶She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name Not pitied, for I will no more have pity on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. ⁷But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will deliver them by the Lord their God; I will not deliver them by bow, nor by sword, nor by war, nor by horses, nor by horsemen.”

⁸When she had weaned Not pitied, she conceived and bore a son. ⁹And the Lord said, “Call his name Not my people, for you are not my people and I am not your God.”^a

¹⁰Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered; and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Sons of the living God.” ¹¹And the people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head; and they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Chapter 2

¹Say to your brother,^d “My people,” and to your sister, “She has obtained pity.”

²“Plead with your mother, plead—

for she is not my wife,

and I am not her husband—

that she put away her harlotry from her face,

and her adultery from between her breasts;

³lest I strip her naked

and make her as in the day she was born,

and make her like a wilderness,

and set her like a parched land,

and slay her with thirst.

⁴Upon her children also I will have no pity,

because they are children of harlotry.

⁵For their mother has played the harlot;

she that conceived them has acted shamefully.

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

who give me my bread and my water,

my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

⁶Therefore I will hedge up her^f way with thorns;

and I will build a wall against her,

so that she cannot find her paths.

⁷She shall pursue her lovers,

but not overtake them;

and she shall seek them,

but shall not find them.

Then she shall say, ‘I will go

and return to my first husband,

for it was better with me then than now.’

⁸And she did not know

that it was I who gave her

the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and who lavished upon her silver

and gold which they used for Baal.

⁹Therefore I will take back

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.

¹⁰Now I will uncover her lewdness

in the sight of her lovers,

and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

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

her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths,

and all her appointed feasts.

¹²And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,

of which she said,

‘These are my hire,

which my lovers have given me.’

I will make them a forest,

and the beasts of the field shall devour them.

¹³And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals

when she burned incense to them

and decked herself with her ring and jewelry,

and went after her lovers,

and forgot me, says the Lord.

¹⁴“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her.

¹⁵And there I will give her her vineyards,

and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,

as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶“And in that day, says the Lord, you will call me, ‘My husband,’ and no longer will you call me, ‘My Baal.’ ¹⁷For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. ¹⁸And I will make for you^g a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish^h the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety. ¹⁹And I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. ²⁰I will betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord.

²¹“And in that day, says the Lord,

I will answer the heavens

and they shall answer the earth;

²²and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and they shall answer Jezreel;ⁱ

²³and I will sow him^j for myself in the land.

And I will have pity on Not pitied,

and I will say to Not my people, ‘You are my people’;

and he shall say ‘Thou art my God.’ ”

Chapter 3

¹And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is beloved of a paramour and is an adulteress; even as the Lord loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” ²So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. ³And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days; you shall not play the harlot, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” ⁴For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim. ⁵Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.