Beginning
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
Hosea’s Wife and Children
2 When the Lord first spoke by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: “Go, take for yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry, departing from the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim as a wife. She conceived, and bore him a son.
4 The Lord said to him: “Call his name Jezreel,[a] for in a little while, I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and will bring to an end the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 On that day, I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 Then Gomer conceived again, and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to Hosea: “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah,[b] for I will no longer have mercy upon the house of Israel but will utterly sweep them away. 7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, or by sword, or by battle, or by horses, or by horsemen.”
8 When Gomer had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived, and bore a son. 9 Then the Lord said: “Call his name Lo-Ammi,[c] for you are not My people, and I am not your God.”
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not My people,” there it will be said to them, “You are the children of the living God.” 11 Then will the Judahites and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.
2 Say to your brothers, Ammi,[d] and to your sisters, Ruhamah.[e]
Israel’s Unfaithfulness Punished
2 Plead with your mother, plead—
for she is not My wife,
and am I not her husband—
that she put away her harlotry from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts,
3 lest I strip her naked
and leave her as in the day that she was born,
and turn her into a wilderness,
and turn her into a dry land,
and kill her with thirst.
4 I will not have mercy upon her children,
for they are children of harlotry.
5 For their mother has played the whore.
She that conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, “I will pursue my lovers,
who provide my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.”
6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns,
and make a wall, so that she will not find her paths.
7 She will pursue her lovers, but she will not reach them;
and she will seek them but will not find them.
Then she will say,
“I will go and return to my first husband,
for it was better for me then than now.”
8 But she did not know that it was I who provided her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and multiplied her silver and gold
that they used for Baal.
9 Therefore I will take back My grain in its time
and My wine in its season,
and I will recover My wool and My flax,
given to cover her nakedness.
10 Therefore I will uncover her shame
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one will deliver her from My hand.
11 I will also bring to an end all her joy,
her annual feasts, her New Moons,
and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.
12 I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,
of which she has said, “These are my rewards that my lovers have given me.”
I will make them a forest,
and the beasts of the field will eat them.
13 I will punish her for the days of the Baals,
when she burned incense to them
and adorned herself with her earrings and her jewelry,
and pursued her lovers,
but forgot Me,
declares the Lord.
God’s Mercy on Israel
14 Therefore, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
15 From there, I will give her vineyards to her,
and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope.
She will respond there as in the days of her youth,
and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
16 On that day, declares the Lord,
you will call Me, “My husband,”
and will no longer call Me, “My Baal.”[f]
17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth,
and they will no longer be remembered by their name.
18 On that day, I will make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field, with the fowls of heaven,
and with the creeping things of the ground.
I will break the bow and the sword and the battle
from the earth,
and will make them to lie down safely.
19 I will take you for My wife forever.
I will take you for My wife in righteousness and in justice,
in mercy and in compassion.
20 I will take you for My wife in faithfulness,
and you will know the Lord.
21 On that day I will answer,
declares the Lord;
I will answer the heavens,
and they will answer the earth.
22 The earth will answer the grain,
the wine, and the oil;
and they will answer Jezreel.
23 Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth.
I will have mercy upon Lo-Ruhamah,
and I will say to Lo-Ammi, “You are My people,”
and they will say, “You are my God.”
Hosea Redeems His Wife
3 Then the Lord said to me, “Go, again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just as the Lord loves the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love raisin cakes.”
2 So I purchased her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and for a homer of barley, and a half homer of barley. 3 Then I said to her, “You will remain with me many days. You will not play the whore, and you will not belong to another man. And also I will be with you.”
4 For the children of Israel will remain many days without a king and without a prince, without a sacrifice and without a standing stone, and without an ephod and teraphim. 5 Afterward the children of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come in fear to the Lord and to His goodness in the latter days.
God Accuses Israel
4 Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,
for the Lord has a dispute
with the inhabitants of the land:
There is no truth or mercy,
and no knowledge of God in the land.
2 Swearing, lying, and killing,
and stealing and adultery
break out,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Therefore the land dries up,
and everyone who lives in it withers
with the beasts of the field
and the birds of the sky;
even the fish of the sea disappear.
4 Yet let no one contend,
and let none reprove another,
for your people are like those
that contend with a priest.[g]
5 You will stumble in the day,
and the prophet also will stumble with you in the night,
and I will destroy your mother.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge,
I will reject you from being My priest.
And because you have forgotten the law of your God,
I will also forget your children.
7 As they increased, so they sinned against Me.
I will change[h] their glory[i] into shame.
8 They feed upon the sin of My people,
and they are greedy for their iniquity.
9 It will be like people, like priest.
I will punish them for their ways
and reward them for their deeds.
10 They will eat, but not be satisfied;
they will play the whore, but not multiply,
because they have forsaken the Lord
by devoting themselves to 11 harlotry;
wine and new wine
take away understanding.
The Idolatry of Israel
12 My people seek counsel from their wood,
and their staff informs them.
For the spirit of harlotry has led them astray,
and they have played the whore in defiance of their God.
13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains,
and burn incense upon the hills
under oak, poplar, and elm
because their shade is good.
Therefore your daughters play the whore,
and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters
when they play the whore,
nor your daughters-in-law
when they commit adultery.
For the men separate themselves with whores,
and they sacrifice with cult prostitutes.
A people without understanding will come to ruin.
15 Though you play the whore, O Israel,
do not let Judah offend.
Do not come to Gilgal,
or go up to Beth Aven,
and do not swear, “As the Lord lives.”
16 Like a stubborn heifer,
Israel is stubborn.
Now will the Lord feed them
like a lamb in a wide pasture?
17 Ephraim is joined to idols;
let him alone.
18 Their drink has soured,
they have played the whore continually.
Her rulers dearly love shame.
19 A wind has wrapped her in its wings,
and they will be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
Judgment Against Israel and Judah
5 Hear this, O priests!
Pay attention, O house of Israel!
Listen, O house of the king!
For the judgment is for you,
because you have been a snare at Mizpah
and a net spread over Tabor,
2 and a pit dug deep in Shittim;
but I will discipline them all.
3 I know Ephraim,
and Israel is not hidden from Me;
for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore.
Israel is defiled.
4 Their deeds do not allow them
to return to their God;
for a spirit of harlotry is in their midst,
and they do not know the Lord.
5 The pride of Israel testifies against him.
Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity.
Judah also stumbles with them.
6 With their flocks and their herds they will go
to seek the Lord,
but they will not find Him.
He has withdrawn from them.
7 They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord,
for they have given birth to illegitimate children.
Now the New Moon will devour them
along with their portion.
War, Wrath, and Repentance
8 Blow the horn in Gibeah,
and the trumpet in Ramah.
Cry aloud at Beth Aven,
“Look behind you, O Benjamin!”[j]
9 Ephraim will become desolate
in the day of punishment.
Among the tribes of Israel
I make known that which is sure.
10 The princes of Judah have become
like those who remove a boundary marker.
Upon them I will pour out
My wrath like water.
11 Ephraim is oppressed
and broken in judgment,
because he eagerly followed after vanity.
12 Therefore I will be like pus to Ephraim
and like rottenness to the house of Judah.
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness
and Judah saw his wound,
then Ephraim went to Assyria,
and sent to King Jareb.[k]
Yet he cannot cure you
or heal your wound.
14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I, Myself, will tear and go away.
I will carry off, and no one will rescue.
15 I will again return to My place
until they acknowledge their offense
and seek My face.
In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.
A Call to Repentance
6 Come, let us return to the Lord,
for He has torn,
and He will heal us.
He has struck,
and He will bind us up.
2 After two days He will revive us.
On the third day He will raise us up,
that we may live before Him.
3 Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.
His appearance is as sure as the dawn.
He will come to us like the rain;
like the spring rains He will water the earth.
Impenitence of Israel and Judah
4 What shall I do to you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do to you, O Judah?
Your faithfulness is like a morning cloud,
and like the early dew it goes away.
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets.
I have killed them by the words of My mouth,
and My[l] judgments go forth like light.
6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice,
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 But like men[m] they have transgressed the covenant.
There they dealt faithlessly with Me.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,
polluted with blood.
9 As robbers lie in wait for someone,
so a company of priests
murder on the way to Shechem.
They commit a shameful deed.
10 I have seen a horrible thing
in the house of Israel.
The harlotry of Ephraim is there;
Israel is defiled.
11 Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you,
when I restore the fortunes of My people.
7 When I would heal Israel,
the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,
and the wickedness of Samaria.
For they deal deceitfully;
the thief breaks in;
the robbers raid outside,
2 but they did not consider in their hearts
that I remember all their wickedness.
Now their own deeds surround them;
they are before My face.
Corrupt and Disloyal Politics
3 They make the king glad with their wickedness,
and the princes with their lies.
4 They are all adulterers,
like an oven heated by a baker,
who ceases stirring the fire
after kneading the dough until it is leavened.
5 On the day of our king the princes made him sick
from the heat of wine.
He stretched out his hand with scorners.
6 For they are kindled[n] like an oven.
Their heart burns within them;[o]
their anger smolders[p] all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7 They are all hot as an oven,
and they devour their judges.
All their kings have fallen,
and none of them calls to Me.
8 Ephraim mixes himself with the people.
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
9 Foreigners devour his strength,
but he does not know it.
Gray hairs are here and there upon him,
but he does not know it.
10 The pride of Israel testifies against him,
but they do not return to the Lord their God,
nor seek Him for all this.
11 Ephraim is like a dove,
silly and without sense;
they call to Egypt,
they go to Assyria.
12 Wherever they go, I will spread My net over them;
I will bring them down like the birds of the sky;
I will discipline them according to
the report to their congregation.
13 Woe to them,
for they have fled from Me!
Destruction to them,
for they have rebelled against Me!
Though I would redeem them,
yet they speak lies against Me.
14 They do not cry to Me with their heart
when they howl on their beds.
They gather together for grain and wine,
they rebel against Me.
15 Though I trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they devise mischief against Me.
16 They return, but not to the Most High.
They are like a loose bow.
Their princes will fall by the sword
for the rage of their tongue.
This will be their derision
in the land of Egypt.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.