Wives and Husbands

22 (A)Wives, (B)submit to your own husbands, (C)as to the Lord. 23 For (D)the husband is the head of the wife even as (E)Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is (F)himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit (G)in everything to their husbands.

25 (H)Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and (I)gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by (J)the washing of water (K)with the word, 27 so (L)that he might present the church to himself in splendor, (M)without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.[a] 28 In the same way (N)husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because (O)we are members of his body. 31 (P)“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and (Q)the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, (R)let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she (S)respects her husband.

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Footnotes

  1. Ephesians 5:27 Or holy and blameless

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

When 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.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

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

She 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. But (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.”

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

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

“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;
lest (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.
(AF)Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
    (AG)because they are children of whoredom.
For (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.’
Therefore (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.
She 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.’
And (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.
Therefore (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.
10 Now (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.
12 And (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.
13 And (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.
15 And 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.’ 17 For (BM)I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And (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. 19 And 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,
22 and 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.’”

Hosea Redeems His Wife

And the Lord said to me, (CC)“Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a (CD)homer and a lethech[o] of barley. And I said to her, “You must (CE)dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” For the children of Israel (CF)shall dwell many days (CG)without king or prince, (CH)without sacrifice or (CI)pillar, without (CJ)ephod or (CK)household gods. Afterward (CL)the children of Israel shall return and (CM)seek the Lord their God, and (CN)David their king, (CO)and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the (CP)latter days.

The Lord Accuses Israel

(CQ)Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,
    for (CR)the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,
    and (CS)no knowledge of God in the land;
(CT)there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;
    they break all bounds, and (CU)bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Therefore (CV)the land mourns,
    and all who dwell in it languish,
(CW)and also the beasts of the field
    and the birds of the heavens,
    (CX)and even the fish of the sea are taken away.

(CY)Yet let no one contend,
    and let none accuse,
    for with you is (CZ)my contention, O priest.[p]
You shall stumble by day;
    the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;
    and I will destroy (DA)your mother.
My people are destroyed (DB)for lack of knowledge;
    (DC)because you have rejected knowledge,
    I reject you (DD)from being a priest to me.
And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
    (DE)I also will forget your children.

(DF)The more they increased,
    the more they sinned against me;
    (DG)I will change their glory into shame.
(DH)They feed on the sin[q] of my people;
    they are greedy for their iniquity.
(DI)And it shall be like people, like priest;
    I will punish them for their ways
    and repay them for their deeds.
10 (DJ)They shall eat, but not be satisfied;
    they shall play the whore, but not multiply,
because they have forsaken the Lord
    to cherish 11 whoredom, wine, and new wine,
    which (DK)take away the understanding.
12 My people (DL)inquire of a piece of wood,
    and their walking staff gives them oracles.
For (DM)a spirit of whoredom has led them astray,
    and they have left their God to play the whore.
13 (DN)They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains
    and burn offerings on the hills,
(DO)under oak, poplar, and terebinth,
    because their shade is good.
Therefore your daughters play the whore,
    and your brides commit adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,
    nor your brides when they commit adultery;
for (DP)the men themselves go aside with prostitutes
    and sacrifice with (DQ)cult prostitutes,
and a people (DR)without understanding shall come to ruin.

15 Though you play the whore, O (DS)Israel,
    let not (DT)Judah become guilty.
(DU)Enter not into (DV)Gilgal,
    nor go up to (DW)Beth-aven,
    and swear not, “As the Lord lives.”
16 Like a stubborn heifer,
    Israel is stubborn;
can the Lord now feed them
    like a lamb in a broad pasture?

17 (DX)Ephraim is joined to idols;
    (DY)leave him alone.
18 When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring;
    (DZ)their rulers[r] dearly love shame.
19 (EA)A wind has wrapped them[s] in its wings,
    and they shall (EB)be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Footnotes

  1. Hosea 1:6 Hebrew Lo-ruhama, which means she has not received mercy
  2. Hosea 1:9 Hebrew Lo-ammi, which means not my people
  3. Hosea 1:9 Hebrew I am not yours
  4. Hosea 1:10 Ch 2:1 in Hebrew
  5. Hosea 1:10 Or Sons
  6. Hosea 2:1 Ch 2:3 in Hebrew
  7. Hosea 2:1 Hebrew ammi, which means my people
  8. Hosea 2:1 Hebrew ruhama, which means she has received mercy
  9. Hosea 2:6 Hebrew your
  10. Hosea 2:15 Achor means trouble; compare Joshua 7:26
  11. Hosea 2:18 Hebrew break
  12. Hosea 2:22 Jezreel means God will sow
  13. Hosea 2:23 Hebrew Lo-ruhama
  14. Hosea 2:23 Hebrew Lo-ammi
  15. Hosea 3:2 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams; a homer was about 6 bushels or 220 liters; a lethech was about 3 bushels or 110 liters
  16. Hosea 4:4 Or for your people are like those who contend with the priest
  17. Hosea 4:8 Or sin offering
  18. Hosea 4:18 Hebrew shields
  19. Hosea 4:19 Hebrew her

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