Hosea 2-4

New King James Version

The Lord’s Love for His Unfaithful People

2 Say to your brethren, ^[a]‘My people,’
And to your sisters, ^[b]‘Mercy is shown.’

God’s Unfaithful People

²“Bring^[c] charges against your mother, ^[d]bring charges;
For ^(A)she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!
Let her put away her ^(B)harlotries from her sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts;
³Lest ^(C)I strip her naked
And expose her, as in the day she was ^(D)born,
And make her like a wilderness,
And set her like a dry land,
And slay her with ^(E)thirst.

⁴“I will not have mercy on her children,
For they are the ^(F)children 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,
^(G)Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my linen,
My oil and my drink.’

⁶“Therefore, behold,
^(H)I will hedge up your way with thorns,
And ^[e]wall her in,
So that she cannot find her paths.
⁷She will ^[f]chase 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 ^(J)first husband,
For then it was better for me than now.’
⁸For she did not ^(K)know
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 ^(L)I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,
And no one shall deliver her from My hand.
¹¹^(M)I 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 ^[g]comfort to her.
¹⁵I will give her her vineyards from there,
And ^(N)the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in ^(O)the days of her youth,
^(P)As 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 ^[h]‘My Husband,’
And no longer call Me ^[i]‘My Master,’
¹⁷For ^(Q)I 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 ^(R)covenant 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 ^(S)I will shatter from the earth,
To make them ^(T)lie 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 ^(U)you shall know the Lord.

²¹“It shall come to pass in that day
That ^(V)I 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 ^[j]Jezreel.
²³Then ^(W)I will sow her for Myself in the earth,
^(X)And I will have mercy on her who had ^[k]not obtained mercy;
Then ^(Y)I will say to those who were ^[l]not My people,
‘You are ^[m]My people!’
And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”

Israel Will Return to God

3 Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a ^(Z)lover^[n] and 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 ^(AA)stay 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 ^(AB)without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ^(AC)ephod or ^(AD)teraphim. ⁵Afterward the children of Israel shall return and ^(AE)seek the Lord their God and ^(AF)David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the ^(AG)latter days.

God’s Charge Against Israel

4 Hear the word of the Lord,
You children of Israel,
For the Lord brings a ^(AH)charge^[o] against the inhabitants of the land:

“There is no truth or mercy
Or ^(AI)knowledge of God in the land.
²By swearing and lying,
Killing and stealing and committing adultery,
They break all restraint,
With bloodshed ^[p]upon bloodshed.
³Therefore ^(AJ)the land will mourn;
And ^(AK)everyone who dwells there will waste away
With the beasts of the field
And the birds of the air;
Even the fish of the sea will be taken away.

⁴“Now let no man contend, or rebuke another;
For your people are like those ^(AL)who contend with the priest.
⁵Therefore you shall stumble ^(AM)in the day;
The prophet also shall stumble with you in the night;
And I will destroy your mother.
⁶^(AN)My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also will reject you from being priest for Me;
^(AO)Because you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.

⁷“The more they increased,
The more they sinned against Me;
^(AP)I^[q] will change ^[r]their glory into shame.
⁸They eat up the sin of My people;
They set their ^[s]heart on their iniquity.
⁹And it shall be: ^(AQ)like people, like priest.
So I will punish them for their ways,
And ^[t]reward them for their deeds.
¹⁰For ^(AR)they shall eat, but not have enough;
They shall commit harlotry, but not increase;
Because they have ceased obeying the Lord.

The Idolatry of Israel

¹¹“Harlotry, wine, and new wine ^(AS)enslave the heart.
¹²My people ask counsel from their ^(AT)wooden idols,
And their ^[u]staff informs them.
For ^(AU)the spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray,
And they have played the harlot against their God.
¹³^(AV)They offer sacrifices on the mountaintops,
And burn incense on the hills,
Under oaks, poplars, and terebinths,
Because their shade is good.
^(AW)Therefore your daughters commit harlotry,
And your brides commit adultery.

¹⁴“I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry,
Nor your brides when they commit adultery;
For the men themselves go apart with harlots,
And offer sacrifices with a ^(AX)ritual harlot.
Therefore people who do not understand will be trampled.

¹⁵“Though you, Israel, play the harlot,
Let not Judah offend.
^(AY)Do not come up to Gilgal,
Nor go up to ^(AZ)Beth^[v] Aven,
^(BA)Nor swear an oath, saying, ‘As the Lord lives’—

¹⁶“For Israel ^(BB)is stubborn
Like a stubborn calf;
Now the Lord will let them forage
Like a lamb in ^[w]open country.

¹⁷“Ephraim is joined to idols,
^(BC)Let him alone.
¹⁸Their drink ^[x]is rebellion,
They commit harlotry continually.
^(BD)Her ^[y]rulers ^[z]dearly love dishonor.
¹⁹^(BE)The wind has wrapped her up in its wings,
And ^(BF)they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.