1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, ^(A)in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of ^(B)Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

Hosea's Wife and Children

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

⁴ And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while ^(F)I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and ^(G)I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. ⁵ And on that day ^(H)I will break the bow of Israel ^(I)in the Valley of Jezreel.”

⁶ She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, ^(J)“Call her name No Mercy,^[a] for ^(K)I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. ⁷ But ^(L)I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I ^(M)will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”

⁸ When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. ⁹ And the Lord said, ^(N)“Call his name Not My People,^[b] for ^(O)you are not my people, and I am not your God.”^[c]

^10 [d] Yet ^(P)the number of the children of Israel shall be ^(Q)like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. ^(R)And ^(S)in the place where it was said to them, ^(T)“You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, ^(U)“Children^[e] of ^(V)the living God.” ¹¹ And ^(W)the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and ^(X)they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

9 And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and ^(A)I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given ^(B)the key to the shaft of ^(C)the bottomless pit.^{[a] 2} He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft ^(D)rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and ^(E)the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. ³ Then from the smoke came ^(F)locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. ⁴ They were told ^(G)not to harm ^(H)the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have ^(I)the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵ They were allowed to torment them ^(J)for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. ⁶ And in those days ^(K)people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.

^7 (L)In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: ^(M)on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were ^(N)like human faces, ⁸ their hair like women's hair, and ^(O)their teeth like lions' teeth; ⁹ they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was ^(P)like the noise of many chariots with ^(Q)horses rushing into battle. ¹⁰ They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people ^(R)for five months is in their tails. ¹¹ They have ^(S)as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is ^(T)Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.^[b]

^12 (U)The first woe has passed; behold, two woes are still to come.

¹³ Then the sixth angel blew his trumpet, and I heard a voice from ^(V)the four horns of the golden altar before God, ¹⁴ saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release ^(W)the four angels who are bound at ^(X)the great river Euphrates.” ¹⁵ So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour, the day, the month, and the year, were released ^(Y)to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶ The number of ^(Z)mounted troops was ^(AA)twice ten thousand times ten thousand; ^(AB)I heard their number. ¹⁷ And this is how I saw the horses in my vision and those who rode them: they wore breastplates the color of fire and of sapphire^[c] and of sulfur, and the heads of the horses were ^(AC)like lions' heads, and fire and smoke and sulfur came out of their mouths. ¹⁸ By these three plagues a third of mankind was killed, by the fire and smoke and sulfur coming out of their mouths. ¹⁹ For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails, for their tails are like serpents with heads, and by means of them they wound.

²⁰ The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, ^(AD)did not repent of ^(AE)the works of their hands nor give up worshiping ^(AF)demons ^(AG)and idols of gold and silver and bronze and stone and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk, ²¹ nor did they repent of their murders or their ^(AH)sorceries or their sexual immorality or their thefts.