Beginning
Hosea’s Wife and Children
1 The Lord spoke his word to Hosea son of Beeri. This was during the time that Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah were kings of Judah. During part of this time Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.
2 The Lord said to him, “Go, and marry a woman who will be unfaithful to you. She will give you children whose fathers are other men. Do this because people in this country have acted like an unfaithful wife toward the Lord.” 3 So Hosea married Gomer daughter of Diblaim. Gomer became pregnant and gave birth to Hosea’s son.
4 The Lord said to Hosea, “Name him Jezreel. This is because soon I will punish the family of Jehu for the people they killed at Jezreel. Then I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 And I will also 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] This is because I will not pity Israel anymore. I will no longer forgive them. 7 But I will show pity to the people of Judah. I will save them. I will not use bows or swords, horses or horsemen, or weapons of war to save them. I, the Lord their God, will save them.”
8 After Gomer had finished nursing Lo-Ruhamah, she became pregnant again. And she 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 people of Israel will become like the grains of sand of the sea. You cannot measure or count them. Now it is said to Israel, ‘You are not my people.’ But later they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ 11 Then the people of Judah and Israel will be joined together again. They will choose one leader for themselves. And again they will grow in their land. The day of Jezreel, when God plants, will be truly great.
2 “Your brothers and your sisters will be called ‘my people’ and ‘you have been shown love.’
God Speaks About Israel
2 “Plead with your mother.[c]
Plead with her because she no longer acts like a wife to me.
And I am not treated like her husband.
Tell her to stop acting like a prostitute.
Tell her to stop behaving like an unfaithful wife.
3 If she refuses, I will strip her naked.
I will leave her bare like the day she was born.
I will make her dry like a desert.
I will make her like a land without water.
I will kill her with thirst.
4 I will not take pity on her children.
They are the children of an unfaithful wife.
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.[d]
They give me food and water.
They give me wool and linen.
They give me 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 up to them.
She will look for them.
But she won’t find them.
Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband.[e]
Life was better for me then than it is now.’
8 But she has not accepted that I was the one
who gave her grain, wine and oil.
I gave her much silver and gold.
But she used it to make statues of Baal.
9 “So I will take away my grain at harvest time.
And I will take away my wine when it is ready.
I will take back my wool and linen.
I gave her those things to cover her nakedness.
10 So I will show her nakedness to her lovers.
No one will save her from my punishment.
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.
She said they were her pay from her lovers.
I will turn them into a forest.
Wild animals will eat those plants.
13 I will punish her for all the times
she burned incense to the Baals.
She put on her rings and jewelry.
Then she went chasing after her lovers.
But she has forgotten 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 Then I will give her back her vineyards.
And I will make the Valley of Achor[f] a door of hope.
Then she will respond as when she was young,
as when she came out of Egypt.”
16 The Lord says, “Then she will call me ‘my husband.’
She will no longer call me ‘my baal.’[g]
17 I will never let her say the names of Baal again.
Then people won’t use their names anymore.
18 At that time I will make an agreement for them.
It will be with the wild animals, the birds and the crawling things.
I will remove from the land
the bow and the sword and the weapons of war.
Then 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.
Then you will accept that I am the Lord.
21 “And at that time I will answer you,” says the Lord.
“I will speak to the skies.
And they will give rain to the earth.
22 The earth will produce grain, wine and oil.
Much will grow because my people are called Jezreel—God plants.
23 I will plant my people in the land.
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 Gomer Back
3 The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again. She has had other lovers and has been unfaithful to you. But you must keep on loving her the way the Lord loves the people of Israel. This is true even though the Israelites worship other gods. They love to eat the raisin cakes.”[h]
2 So I bought Gomer for six ounces of silver and about ten bushels of barley. 3 Then I told her, “You must wait for me for many days. You must not be a prostitute. You must not be any other man’s lover. I, in turn, will wait for you.”
4 In the same way Israel will live many days without a king or leader. They will not have sacrifices or holy stone pillars. They will be without the holy vest or an idol. 5 After this, the people of Israel will return to the Lord their God. They will follow the Lord and the king from David’s family. In the last days they will come to the Lord. And he will bless them.
The Lord’s Word Against Israel
4 People of Israel, listen to the Lord’s message.
The Lord says he has this
against you who live in this country:
“The people are not true, not loyal to God.
They do not even know him.
2 They curse. They lie. They kill. They steal.
They are guilty of adultery.
They break all my laws.
One murder follows another.
3 Because of this the land dries up,
and all its people are dying off.
Even the wild animals are dying.
Even the birds of the air and the fish of the sea are dying.
God’s Case Against the Priests
4 “No one should accuse
or blame another person.
Don’t blame the people, you priests,
when they quarrel with you.
5 You will be ruined one of these days.
And your prophets will be ruined with you one of these nights.
I will also destroy your mother, the nation of Israel.
6 My people will be destroyed
because they have no knowledge.
You priests have refused to learn.
So I will refuse to let you be priests to me.
You have forgotten the teachings of your God.
So I will reject your children.
7 The more priests there are,
the more they sin against me.
I will take away their honor
and give them nothing but shame.
8 The priests live off the sin offerings of the people.
So they want the people to sin more and more.
9 The priests are as wrong as the people.
I will punish them both for what they have done.
I will repay them for the wrong they have done.
10 “They will eat
but not have enough.
They will sin sexually with the prostitutes.
But they will not have children.
This is because they left the Lord.
God’s Case Against the People
11 “Sexual sins, old wine and new wine
take away my people’s ability to understand.
12 My people ask wooden idols for advice.
They ask those sticks of wood to advise them!
Like prostitutes, they have chased after other gods.
They have left their own God.
13 They make sacrifices on the tops of the mountains.
They burn offerings on the hills,
under oaks, poplars and other trees.
They think the shade under those trees is nice.
So your daughters become prostitutes.
And your daughters-in-law are guilty of adultery.
14 “But I will not punish your daughters
when they become prostitutes.
I will not punish your daughters-in-law
for their sins of adultery.
I will not punish them
because you yourselves have sinned sexually with prostitutes.
You offer sacrifices with the temple prostitutes.
You foolish people are destroying yourselves.
15 “Israel, you act like a prostitute.
But don’t let Judah be guilty.
Don’t go to sacrifice at Gilgal.
Don’t go up to give offerings at Beth Aven.[i]
Don’t use the Lord’s name to make promises.
Don’t say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives . . .’
16 The people of Israel are stubborn
like a stubborn young cow.
How then can the Lord feed them
like lambs in a meadow?
17 Israel has chosen to worship idols.
So, let them.
18 Her rulers get drunk.
Then they give themselves to being prostitutes.
They love these disgraceful things.
19 They will be swept away as by a whirlwind.
Their sacrifices will bring them only shame.
The Lord’s Word Against the Leaders
5 “Listen, you priests.
Pay attention, people of Israel.
Listen, royal family.
You will all be judged.
You have been like a trap at Mizpah.
You have been like a net spread out at Mount Tabor.
2 You have done many bad things.
So I will punish you all.
3 I know all about Israel.
What they have done is not hidden from me.
They all act like prostitutes.
Israel has made itself unclean.
4 “And those bad things they have done
keep them from returning to their God.
They are determined to be unfaithful to me.
They do not know the Lord.
5 Israel’s pride testifies against them.
The people of Israel will stumble because of their sin.
The people of Judah will also stumble with them.
6 The people will come to worship the Lord.
They will come with their sheep and cattle.
But they will not be able to find him,
because he has left them.
7 They have not been true to the Lord.
Their children do not belong to him.
So their false worship
will destroy them and their land.
8 “Blow the horn in Gibeah.
Blow the trumpet in Ramah.
Give the warning at Beth Aven.
Be first into battle, people of Benjamin.
9 A time of punishment is coming.
Israel will be destroyed.
I warn the tribes of Israel
that this will surely happen.
10 The leaders of Judah are like thieves.
They try to steal the property of others.
My punishment will overwhelm them
like a flood of water.
11 Israel will be crushed by the punishments,
because they decided to follow idols.
12 I will destroy Israel
as a moth destroys clothing.
I will destroy Judah
as rot destroys wood.
13 “Israel saw how weak she was.
Judah saw the wounds she suffered.
So Israel turned to Assyria for help.
She sent to the great king of Assyria for help.
But he cannot heal you.
He cannot cure your wound.
14 I will be like a lion to Israel.
I will be like a young lion to Judah.
I will attack them
and tear them to pieces.
I will drag them off,
and no one will be able to save them.
15 Then I will go back to my place
until the people admit they are guilty.
At that time they must look for me.
In their trouble they must turn to me.”
The People Are Not Faithful
6 You people say,
“Come, let’s go back to the Lord.
He has hurt us, but he will heal us.
He has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds.
2 In a short while he will put new life in us.
We will not have to wait long for him to raise us up.
Then we may live in his presence.
3 Let’s learn about the Lord.
Let’s try hard to know who he is.
He will come to us
as surely as the dawn comes.
The Lord will come to us like the rain,
like the spring rain that waters the ground.”
4 The Lord says, “Israel, what should I do with you?
Judah, what should I do with you?
Your faithfulness is like a morning mist.
It lasts only as long as the dew in the morning.
5 I have warned you by my prophets
that I will kill you and destroy you.
My judgments will flash forth like lightning against you.
6 I want faithful love
more than I want animal sacrifices.
I want people to know me
more than I want burnt offerings.
7 But you have broken the agreement as Adam did.
You have been unfaithful to me.
8 Gilead is full of people who do evil.
It is covered with bloody footprints.
9 Some of the priests are like
robbers waiting in ambush.
They murder people on the way to Shechem.[j]
They do wicked crimes.
10 I have seen horrible things in Israel.
The people are unfaithful to God,
and Israel has become unclean.
11 “Judah, I have set a time to punish you also.
“I would like to give my people back their riches.
7 I would like to heal Israel.
But their sin can be seen by everyone.
The wickedness of Israel is too well-known.
They cheat one another.
They break into other peoples’ houses.
There are robberies in the streets.
2 It never enters their minds
that I remember all their wicked deeds.
The bad things they do are all around,
and I can see their sins clearly.
Israel Destroys Her Rulers
3 “They make the king happy with their wickedness.
They make their rulers glad with their lies.
4 But all of them are traitors.
They are like an oven heated by a baker.
While he mixes the dough,
he does not stir up the flame.
5 They hold a festival day for the king.
On that day the rulers become drunk with wine.
The king joins in with those who had made evil plans.
6 They approach him with murder in mind.
Their hearts are like a hot oven.
All night long its fire is low.
When morning comes, it is fanned into flame.
7 So all these people are as hot as an oven.
Like a fire they destroy their rulers.
Their kings fall one after another.
And no one calls on me.
Israel and the Other Nations
8 “Israel mixes with other nations.
Israel is useless like a pancake cooked only on one side.
9 Foreign nations are using up Israel’s strength.
And Israel doesn’t even know it.
Israel is weak and feeble, like an old man.
And they don’t even know it.
10 Israel’s pride will cause their defeat.
They have had many troubles.
But they still do not turn to the Lord their God.
They do not look to him for help.
11 Israel has become like a silly pigeon.
The people have no understanding.
First they call to Egypt for help.
Then they run for help to Assyria.
12 When they go, I will catch them
as men catch birds in a net.
Then I will punish them
as I have warned them.
13 How terrible for them because they left me!
They will be destroyed because they turned against me.
I want to save them.
But they have spoken lies against me.
14 They do not call to me from their hearts.
They just lie on their beds and cry.
They come together to ask for grain and new wine.
But they really turn away from me.
15 I trained them and gave them strength.
But they have made evil plans against me.
16 They did not turn to the Most High God.
They are like a crooked bow that does not shoot straight.
Their leaders brag about their strength.
But they will be killed with swords.
Then the people in Egypt
will laugh at them.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.