Hosea 2
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 2
To Conjure Up One’s Destiny
1 The Israelites will be as numerous
as the sands of the sea,
which can be neither measured nor numbered.
And in the very place where it was said to them,
“You are not my people,”
they will be called, “Children of the Living God.”
2 The people of Judah and of Israel
shall be gathered together.
They will choose one person to be their leader,
and they shall enlarge their boundaries,
for great will be the day of Jezreel.
3 Say to your brothers, “You are my people,”
and to your sisters, “You are beloved.”
Repudiation and Return to First Love[a]
I Shall Strip Her Bare[b]
4 Insist that your mother repent,[c]
for she is no longer my wife,
and I am not her husband.
If she does not cease her harlotry
and the use of her breasts in adulterous acts,
5 I shall strip her bare,[d]
leaving her as naked as the day she was born.
I shall make her as barren as the wilderness
and as parched as the desert,
leaving her to die of thirst.
6 Nor will I feel any pity for her children,
since they are the offspring of adultery.
7 Yes, their mother has been a whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, “I will go after my lovers;
they will supply me with my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.”
8 That is why I will block her path with thornbushes
and erect a wall to hinder her,
so that she cannot proceed on her journey.
9 Although she pursues her lovers,[e]
she will not be able to overtake them.
If she looks for them,
she will not find them.
Finally she will say,
“I will return to my first husband,
since I was far better off then than I am now.”
10 She has never realized
that I was the one who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished upon her the silver and gold
that they used for Baal.
11 For this reason I intend to take back
my grain when it is ready for the harvest
and my new wine during the time of vintage.
And I will retrieve the wool and the flax
with which her nakedness was to be covered.
12 Now I will reveal her lewdness
before the eyes of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her from my hands.
13 I will put an end to all her merrymaking,
her festivals, her new moons, and her sabbaths,
and all of her solemn festivals.
14 I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
about which she said,
“These are the payment
I have received from my lovers.”
I shall allow them to grow wild,
and ferocious beasts will devour them.
15 I will inflict punishment on her
for the festival days of the Baals,
when she burned incense to them,
and adorned herself with her rings and jewels
and ran after her lovers
while she forgot me, says the Lord.
I Intend To Allure Her . . . and Speak Tenderly to Her[f]
16 As a result, now I intend to allure her,
lead her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
17 From there I will restore her vineyards to her
and make the Valley of Achor[g] a gateway of hope.
There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth,
when she came up from the land of Egypt.
18 On that day, says the Lord,
she will call me “My husband,”
and never again call me “My Baal.”
19 I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth;
never again shall their names be invoked.
20 On that day I will make for you
a covenant with the wild animals,
with the birds of the air,
and the things that creep on the ground.
I will destroy bows and swords and warfare
and banish them from the land
so that you may lie down in security.
21 I will betroth you to myself forever;
I will espouse you in righteousness and in justice,
in steadfast love and in mercy.
22 I will take you for my wife in fidelity,
and you will know the Lord.
23 On that day I will respond,
says the Lord.
I will respond to the heavens,
and they will respond to the earth,
24 and the earth will respond to the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they will respond to Jezreel.
25 I will sow her for myself in the land,
and I will have pity on Lo-ruhama.
I will say to Lo-ammi, “You are my people,”
and he will say, “You are my God.”
Footnotes
- Hosea 2:4 This passage gives the religious meaning of the history of Hosea. The prophet attributes to God the language of love, passion, jealousy, threats, but also tender love and forgiveness.
- Hosea 2:4 Rich and harsh images are presented here, showing the trial of unfaithful Israel, for whom God had done everything and had drawn her out of wretchedness like an abandoned daughter (see Ezek 16:8). He is now going to bar the way and prevent her from falling back into this wretchedness, because with the false gods, her lovers, she has messed up the country received as a marriage gift. The land will be sacked. Then perhaps the hearts of the ungrateful ones will return, for God cannot bring himself to apply to them what the law calls for—the punishment of death (see Lev 20:1-27).
- Hosea 2:4 Your mother repent: the reference seems to be to amulets or other signs representing Baal.
- Hosea 2:5 I shall strip her bare: this seems to have been a customary punishment for adultery.
- Hosea 2:9 Lovers: the Canaanite divinities of fertility (the Baal of v. 8).
- Hosea 2:16 The prophet announces that God’s love does not accept being checked. To better reconquer his people, he brings them back to the time of Sinai, the place where he showed his initial tenderness and the first covenant.
- Hosea 2:17 Valley of Achor: this served as a passageway from the area of Jericho to the plateaus of the interior. The Israelites took possession of it when they conquered Canaan: the name means “Valley of Misfortune” (see the sad end of Achan in Jos 7:24-26).
Hosea 2
Good News Translation
2 So call your fellow Israelites “God's People” and “Loved-by-the-Lord.”
Unfaithful Gomer—Unfaithful Israel
2 My children, plead with your mother—though she is no longer a wife to me, and I am no longer her husband. Plead with her to stop her adultery and prostitution. 3 If she does not, I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born. I will make her like a dry and barren land, and she will die of thirst. 4-5 I will not show mercy to her children; they are the children of a shameless prostitute.[a] She herself said, “I will go to my lovers—they give me food and water, wool and linen, olive oil and wine.”
6 So I am going to fence her in with thorn bushes and build a wall to block her way. 7 She will run after her lovers but will not catch them. She will look for them but will not find them. Then she will say, “I am going back to my first husband—I was better off then than I am now.”
8 She would never acknowledge that I am the one who gave her the grain, the wine, the olive oil, and all the silver and gold that she used in the worship of Baal. 9 So at harvest time I will take back my gifts of grain and wine, and will take away the wool and the linen I gave her for clothing. 10 I will strip her naked in front of her lovers, and no one will be able to save her from my power. 11 I will put an end to all her festivities—her annual and monthly festivals and her Sabbath celebrations—all her religious meetings. 12 I will destroy her grapevines and her fig trees, which she said her lovers gave her for serving them. I will turn her vineyards and orchards into a wilderness; wild animals will destroy them. 13 I will punish her for the times that she forgot me, when she burned incense to Baal and put on her jewelry to go chasing after her lovers. The Lord has spoken.
The Lord's Love for His People
14 So I am going to take her into the desert again; there I will win her back with words of love. 15 (A)I will give back to her the vineyards she had and make Trouble Valley a door of hope. She will respond to me there as she did when she was young, when she came from Egypt. 16 Then once again she will call me her husband—she will no longer call me her Baal.[b] 17 I will never let her speak the name of Baal again.
18 At that time I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and birds, so that they will not harm my people. I will also remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, and will let my people live in peace and safety.
19 Israel, I will make you my wife;
I will be true and faithful;
I will show you constant love and mercy
and make you mine forever.
20 I will keep my promise and make you mine,
and you will acknowledge me as Lord.
21-22 At that time I will answer the prayers of my people Israel.[c]
I will make rain fall on the earth,
and the earth will produce grain and grapes and olives.
23 (B)I will establish my people in the land and make them prosper.
I will show love to those who were called “Unloved,”
and to those who were called “Not-My-People”
I will say, “You are my people,”
and they will answer, “You are our God.”
Footnotes
- Hosea 2:4 the children of a shameless prostitute; or as shameless as their mother, a prostitute.
- Hosea 2:16 This title of the Canaanite god means “Lord”; another meaning of the word is “husband.”
- Hosea 2:21 The Hebrew text here refers to Israel as Jezreel (see 1.4, 11).
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.
