Hosea 1-3
New Century Version
1 The Lord spoke his word to Hosea son of Beeri during the time that Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.
Hosea’s Wife and Children
2 When the Lord began speaking through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, and marry an unfaithful woman and have unfaithful children, because the people in this country have been completely unfaithful to the Lord.” 3 So Hosea married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Hosea’s son.
4 The Lord said to Hosea, “Name him Jezreel, because soon I will punish the family of Jehu for the people they killed at Jezreel. In the future I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel 5 and break the power of Israel’s army in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. The Lord said to Hosea, “Name her Lo-Ruhamah,[a] because I will not pity Israel anymore, nor will I forgive them. 7 But I will show pity to the people of Judah. I will save them, but not by using bows or swords, horses or horsemen, or weapons of war. I, the Lord their God, will save them.”
8 After Gomer had stopped nursing Lo-Ruhamah, she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. 9 The Lord said, “Name him Lo-Ammi,[b] because you are not my people, and I am not your God.
God’s Promise to Israel
10 “But the number of the Israelites will become like the grains of sand of the sea, which no one can measure or count. They were called, ‘You are not my people,’ but later they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ 11 The people of Judah and Israel will join together again and will choose one leader for themselves. They will come up from the land, because the day of Jezreel[c] will be truly great.
2 “You are to call your brothers, ‘my people,’ and your sisters, ‘you have been shown pity.’
God Speaks About Israel
2 “Plead with your mother.[d]
Accuse her, because she is no longer my wife,
and I am no longer her husband.
Tell her to stop acting like a prostitute,
to stop behaving like an unfaithful wife.
3 If she refuses, I will strip her naked
and leave her bare like the day she was born.
I will make her dry like a desert,
like a land without water,
and I will kill her with thirst.
4 I will not take pity on her children,
because they are the children of a prostitute.
5 Their mother has acted like a prostitute;
the one who became pregnant with them has acted disgracefully.
She said, ‘I will chase after my lovers,[e]
who give me my food and water,
wool and flax, wine and olive oil.’
6 So I will block her road with thornbushes;
I will build a wall around her
so she cannot find her way.
7 She will run after her lovers,
but she won’t catch them.
She will look for them,
but she won’t find them.
Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband,[f]
because life was better then for me than it is now.’
8 But she does not know that I was the one
who gave her grain, new wine, and oil.
I gave her much silver and gold,
but she used it for Baal.
9 “So I will come back and take away my grain at harvest time
and my new wine when it is ready.
I will take back my wool and linen
that covered her nakedness.
10 So I will show her nakedness to her lovers,
and no one will save her from me.
11 I will put an end to all her celebrations:
her yearly festivals, her New Moon festivals, and her Sabbaths.
I will stop all of her special feasts.
12 I will destroy her vines and fig trees,
which she said were her pay from her lovers.
I will turn them into a forest,
and wild animals will eat them.
13 I will punish her for all the times
she burned incense to the Baals.
She put on her rings and jewelry
and went chasing after her lovers,
but she forgot me!”
says the Lord.
14 “So I am going to attract her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and I will make the Valley of Trouble a door of hope.
There she will respond as when she was young,
as when she came out of Egypt.”
16 The Lord says, “In the future she will call me ‘my husband’;
no longer will she call me ‘my baal.’[g]
17 I will never let her say the names of Baal again;
people won’t use their names anymore.
18 At that time I will make an agreement for them
with the wild animals, the birds, and the crawling things.
I will smash from the land
the bow and the sword and the weapons of war,
so my people will live in safety.
19 And I will make you my promised bride forever.
I will be good and fair;
I will show you my love and mercy.
20 I will be true to you as my promised bride,
and you will know the Lord.
21 “At that time I will speak to you,” says the Lord.
“I will speak to the skies,
and they will give rain to the earth.
22 The earth will produce grain, new wine, and oil;
much will grow because my people are called Jezreel.[h]
23 I will plant my people in the land,
and I will show pity to the one I had called ‘not shown pity.’
I will say, ‘You are my people’
to those I had called ‘not my people.’
And they will say to me, ‘You are our God.’”
Hosea Buys a Wife
3 The Lord said to me again, “Go, show your love to a woman loved by someone else, who has been unfaithful to you. In the same way the Lord loves the people of Israel, even though they worship other gods and love to eat the raisin cakes.”[i]
2 So I bought her for six ounces of silver and ten bushels of barley. 3 Then I told her, “You must wait for me for many days. You must not be a prostitute, and you must not have sexual relations with any other man. I will act the same way toward you.”
4 In the same way Israel will live many days without a king or leader, without sacrifices or holy stone pillars, and without the holy vest or an idol. 5 After this, the people of Israel will return to the Lord their God and follow him and the king from David’s family. In the last days they will turn in fear to the Lord, and he will bless them.
Footnotes
- 1:6 Lo-Ruhamah This name in Hebrew means “not pitied.”
- 1:9 Lo-Ammi This name in Hebrew means “not my people.”
- 1:11 Jezreel This name in Hebrew means “God plants.”
- 2:2 mother Refers to the nation of Israel here.
- 2:5 lovers Refers to the nations surrounding Israel, who led Israel to worship false gods.
- 2:7 husband Refers to God here.
- 2:16 baal Another Hebrew word for husband, but it was the same word as the false god Baal.
- 2:22 Jezreel This name in Hebrew means “God plants.”
- 3:1 raisin cakes This food was eaten in the feasts that honored false gods.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
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