Hosea 2
Holman Christian Standard Bible
Israel’s Adultery Rebuked
2 Rebuke your mother; rebuke her.(A)
For she is not My wife and I am not her husband.(B)
Let her remove the promiscuous look from her face(C)
and her adultery from between her breasts.
3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked(D)
and expose her as she was on the day of her birth.
I will make her like a desert(E)
and like a parched land,
and I will let her die of thirst.(F)
4 I will have no compassion on her children(G)
because they are the children of promiscuity.
5 Yes, their mother is promiscuous;
she conceived them and acted shamefully.(H)
For she thought, “I will go after my lovers,(I)
the men who give me my food and water,
my wool and flax, my oil and drink.”(J)
6 Therefore, this is what I will do:
I will block her[c] way(K) with thorns;(L)
I will enclose her with a wall,
so that she cannot find her paths.(M)
7 She will pursue her lovers but not catch them;(N)
she will seek them but not find them.
Then she will think,
“I will go back to my former husband,(O)
for then it was better for me than now.”(P)
8 She does not recognize(Q)
that it is I who gave her the grain,(R)
the new wine, and the oil.
I lavished silver and gold on her,
which they used for Baal.
9 Therefore, I will take back My grain in its time(S)
and My new wine in its season;
I will take away My wool and linen,
which were to cover her nakedness.
10 Now I will expose her shame(T)
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one will rescue her from My hands.
11 I will put an end to all her celebrations:(U)
her feasts,(V) New Moons,(W) and Sabbaths—
all her festivals.
12 I will devastate her vines and fig trees.(X)
She thinks that these are her wages
that her lovers have given her.
I will turn them into a thicket,(Y)
and the wild animals will eat them.(Z)
13 And I will punish her for the days of the Baals(AA)
when she burned incense to them,(AB)
put on her rings and jewelry,(AC)
and went after her lovers,
but forgot Me.(AD)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Israel’s Adultery Forgiven
14 Therefore, I am going to persuade her,
lead her to the wilderness,(AE)
and speak tenderly to her.[d]
15 There I will give her vineyards back to her(AF)
and make the Valley of Achor[e](AG)
into a gateway of hope.
There she will respond as she did
in the days of her youth,(AH)
as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt.
16 In that day—
this is the Lord’s declaration—
you will call Me, “My husband,”(AI)
and no longer call Me, “My Baal.”[f]
17 For I will remove the names of the Baals
from her mouth;
they will no longer be remembered by their names.
18 On that day I will make a covenant for them
with the wild animals, the birds of the sky,
and the creatures that crawl on the ground.(AJ)
I will shatter bow, sword,
and weapons of war in the land[g](AK)
and will enable the people to rest securely.(AL)
19 I will take you to be My wife forever.(AM)
I will take you to be My wife in righteousness,
justice, love, and compassion.(AN)
20 I will take you to be My wife in faithfulness,
and you will know Yahweh.(AO)
21 On that day I will respond(AP)—
this is the Lord’s declaration.
I will respond to the sky,
and it will respond to the earth.
22 The earth will respond to the grain,(AQ)
the new wine, and the oil,
and they will respond to Jezreel.
23 I will sow her[h] in the land for Myself,(AR)
and I will have compassion(AS)
on No Compassion;
I will say(AT) to Not My People:(AU)
You are My people,(AV)
and he will say, “You are My God.”
Footnotes
- Hosea 2:1 Hs 2:3 in Hb
- Hosea 2:1 Lit Say to
- Hosea 2:6 LXX, Syr; MT reads your
- Hosea 2:14 Lit speak to her heart
- Hosea 2:15 = Trouble
- Hosea 2:16 Or My master
- Hosea 2:18 Or war on the earth
- Hosea 2:23 = Israel
Hosea 2
New Living Translation
2 [a]“In that day you will call your brothers Ammi—‘My people.’ And you will call your sisters Ruhamah—‘The ones I love.’
Charges against an Unfaithful Wife
2 “But now bring charges against Israel—your mother—
for she is no longer my wife,
and I am no longer her husband.
Tell her to remove the prostitute’s makeup from her face
and the clothing that exposes her breasts.
3 Otherwise, I will strip her as naked
as she was on the day she was born.
I will leave her to die of thirst,
as in a dry and barren wilderness.
4 And I will not love her children,
for they were conceived in prostitution.
5 Their mother is a shameless prostitute
and became pregnant in a shameful way.
She said, ‘I’ll run after other lovers
and sell myself to them for food and water,
for clothing of wool and linen,
and for olive oil and drinks.’
6 “For this reason I will fence her in with thornbushes.
I will block her path with a wall
to make her lose her way.
7 When she runs after her lovers,
she won’t be able to catch them.
She will search for them
but not find them.
Then she will think,
‘I might as well return to my husband,
for I was better off with him than I am now.’
8 She doesn’t realize it was I who gave her everything she has—
the grain, the new wine, the olive oil;
I even gave her silver and gold.
But she gave all my gifts to Baal.
9 “But now I will take back the ripened grain and new wine
I generously provided each harvest season.
I will take away the wool and linen clothing
I gave her to cover her nakedness.
10 I will strip her naked in public,
while all her lovers look on.
No one will be able
to rescue her from my hands.
11 I will put an end to her annual festivals,
her new moon celebrations, and her Sabbath days—
all her appointed festivals.
12 I will destroy her grapevines and fig trees,
things she claims her lovers gave her.
I will let them grow into tangled thickets,
where only wild animals will eat the fruit.
13 I will punish her for all those times
when she burned incense to her images of Baal,
when she put on her earrings and jewels
and went out to look for her lovers
but forgot all about me,”
says the Lord.
The Lord’s Love for Unfaithful Israel
14 “But then I will win her back once again.
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her there.
15 I will return her vineyards to her
and transform the Valley of Trouble[b] into a gateway of hope.
She will give herself to me there,
as she did long ago when she was young,
when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.
16 When that day comes,” says the Lord,
“you will call me ‘my husband’
instead of ‘my master.’[c]
17 O Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips,
and you will never mention them again.
18 On that day I will make a covenant
with all the wild animals and the birds of the sky
and the animals that scurry along the ground
so they will not harm you.
I will remove all weapons of war from the land,
all swords and bows,
so you can live unafraid
in peace and safety.
19 I will make you my wife forever,
showing you righteousness and justice,
unfailing love and compassion.
20 I will be faithful to you and make you mine,
and you will finally know me as the Lord.
21 “In that day, I will answer,”
says the Lord.
“I will answer the sky as it pleads for clouds.
And the sky will answer the earth with rain.
22 Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries
of the grain, the grapevines, and the olive trees.
And they in turn will answer,
‘Jezreel’—‘God plants!’
23 At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites
and raise them for myself.
I will show love
to those I called ‘Not loved.’[d]
And to those I called ‘Not my people,’[e]
I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’
And they will reply, ‘You are our God!’”
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Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
