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Hosea’s Wife and Children
When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.”
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Israel Punished and Restored
“Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
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Hosea’s Reconciliation With His Wife
The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
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Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.
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“When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his sores, then Ephraim turned to Assyria, and sent to the great king for help. But he is not able to cure you, not able to heal your sores.
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After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.
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Foreigners sap his strength, but he does not realize it. His hair is sprinkled with gray, but he does not notice.
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Israel’s arrogance testifies against him, but despite all this he does not return to the Lord his God or search for him.
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The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.
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Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones.
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Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.
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They will follow the Lord; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west.
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The Lord has a charge to bring against Judah; he will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.
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In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel; as a man he struggled with God.
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He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there—
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the Lord God Almighty, the Lord is his name!
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Jacob fled to the country of Aram; Israel served to get a wife, and to pay for her he tended sheep.
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But Ephraim has aroused his bitter anger; his Lord will leave on him the guilt of his bloodshed and will repay him for his contempt.
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The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, his sins are kept on record.
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even though he thrives among his brothers. An east wind from the Lord will come, blowing in from the desert; his spring will fail and his well dry up. His storehouse will be plundered of all its treasures.
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I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots;
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his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
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People will dwell again in his shade; they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like the vine— Israel’s fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.
