Hosea 1-2

English Standard Version

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

²When 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.” 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 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. ⁵And on that day ^(H)I will break the bow of Israel ^(I)in the Valley of Jezreel.”

⁶She 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. ⁷But ^(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.”

⁸When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. ⁹And 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.” ¹¹And ^(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.

Israel's Unfaithfulness Punished

2 ^[f] Say to your brothers, ^(Y)“You are my people,”^[g] and to your sisters, ^(Z)“You have received mercy.”^[h]

²“Plead with your mother, plead—
    for ^(AA)she is not my wife,
    and I am not her husband—
that she put away ^(AB)her whoring from her face,
    and her adultery from between her breasts;
³lest ^(AC)I strip her naked
    and make her as ^(AD)in the day she was born,
and ^(AE)make her like a wilderness,
    and make her like a parched land,
    and kill her with thirst.
⁴^(AF)Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
    ^(AG)because they are children of whoredom.
⁵For ^(AH)their mother has played the whore;
    she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For ^(AI)she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
    who ^(AJ)give me my bread and my water,
    my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
⁶Therefore ^(AK)I will hedge up her^[i] way with thorns,
    and ^(AL)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.
^(AM)Then she shall say,
    ‘I will go and return to ^(AN)my first husband,
    ^(AO)for it was better for me then than now.’
⁸And ^(AP)she did not know
    that it was ^(AQ)I who gave her
    ^(AR)the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on ^(AS)her silver and gold,
    ^(AT)which they used for Baal.
⁹Therefore ^(AU)I will take back
    my grain in its time,
    and my wine in its season,
and ^(AV)I will take away my wool and my flax,
    which were to cover her nakedness.
¹⁰Now ^(AW)I will uncover her lewdness
    in the sight of her lovers,
    and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
¹¹^(AX)And I will put an end to all her mirth,
    her feasts, her ^(AY)new moons, her ^(AZ)Sabbaths,
    and all her ^(BA)appointed feasts.
¹²And ^(BB)I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
    ^(BC)of which she said,
‘These are ^(BD)my wages,
    which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
    ^(BE)and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
¹³And ^(BF)I will punish her for ^(BG)the feast days of the Baals
    when she burned offerings to them
and ^(BH)adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
    and went after her lovers
    and forgot me, declares the Lord.

The Lord's Mercy on Israel

¹⁴“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
    and ^(BI)bring her into the wilderness,
    and ^(BJ)speak tenderly to her.
¹⁵And there I will give her her vineyards
    and make the Valley of Achor^[j] a door of hope.
And there she shall answer ^(BK)as in the days of her youth,
    as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶“And ^(BL)in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ ¹⁷For ^(BM)I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. ¹⁸And ^(BN)I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And ^(BO)I will abolish^[k] the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in ^(BP)safety. ¹⁹And I will betroth you to me ^(BQ)forever. ^(BR)I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. ²⁰^(BS)I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And ^(BT)you shall know the Lord.

²¹“And ^(BU)in that day ^(BV)I will answer, declares 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 ^(BW)Jezreel,^[l]
²³    and ^(BX)I will sow her for myself in the land.
And ^(BY)I ^(BZ)will have mercy on No Mercy,^[m]
    and ^(CA)I will say to Not My People,^[n] ^(CB)‘You are my people’;
    and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”