Beginning
1 The words in this book are the words of the Eternal One, which were told to Hosea (Beeri’s son) when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah; and when Jeroboam (Joash’s son) was king of Israel.
2 This is the word the Eternal spoke through Hosea first.
Eternal One (to Hosea): Go and marry a woman who is a prostitute and have children who come from this unfaithfulness. This will represent how the land of Israel has abandoned Me and become a prostitute to other masters!
3 So Hosea married a woman named Gomer (Diblaim’s daughter). She became pregnant and gave birth to his son.
Eternal One: 4 I want you to name this boy Jezreel because I’m just about to punish Jehu’s dynasty for all the blood Jehu shed at the city of Jezreel.[a] I will bring an end to the monarchy in Israel. 5 Here’s how I’m going to do it: I’ll destroy their army and break their bow when they fight the Assyrians in the valley of Jezreel.
This judgment is for the crime of slaughtering Ahab’s family at the city of Jezreel by Jehu when he made himself king, and the punish ment includes Jehu’s great-grandson, King Jeroboam.
6 Gomer became pregnant again, and this time she had a girl.
Eternal One: I want you to name her Shown No Mercy,[b] because I’m not going to show any more mercy to the people of Israel. I won’t forgive them anymore. 7 But I will have mercy on the people of Judah. Even though they could never win in battle with their own weapons—bows and swords, horses and cavalry—I’m going to save them personally.
8 After Gomer finished nursing Shown No Mercy, she became pregnant again and had another boy.
Eternal One: 9 I want you to name him Not My People,[c] because these people aren’t Mine anymore, and I am not their God.
10 But things won’t always be this way. Someday there’ll be so many people in Israel that they’ll be like the grains of sand at the seashore—too many to count! It shall turn out that in the very place where it was said to them, “You are not My people,” they will be called “Children of the living God.”[d] 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel will return from exile and gather together as one nation again, and they’ll agree on only one leader for all of them. It will be a great day when they go up from the land and “Jezreel” is a reality.
Jezreel means “God sows [seed].” He will bring the people back to their land, and they’ll never be uprooted again.
2 Eternal One (to the future reunited people): Give your brothers a new name: My People;
and give your sisters a new name too: Shown Mercy.
2 I’m going to publicly charge your mother, Israel, with being unfaithful to Me.
But you must bring the accusation against her—you bring it—
Because she’s not My wife anymore and I’m not her husband.
Israel was unfaithful to God by worshiping the fertility gods of her neighbors and forging diplomatic and military alliances with these foreign nations.
Look at her! She must cease from her whoring ways,
even her adulteries from her breasts; she must remove her lovers.
3 If she doesn’t stop, I’ll take away all her clothes and jewels
and leave her as naked as the day she was born.
I’ll make her like the bare rocks and soil of the desert
where nothing grows because there’s no rain:
I’ll kill her with thirst.
4 When I divorce her, I won’t take care of her children
because they are children of wickedness, tainted by that very prostitution.
Whenever God’s children abandon proper worship of Him in favor of any earthly thing—be it worship of another god, dependence on themselves, or trust in foreign leaders—they break their covenant with Him. Breaking that promise is like committing adultery, which is literally the destruction of a marriage covenant. Here, God is furious with Israel because they have chosen to serve the gods of other nations in addition to Him; they are committing adultery against Him.
Under the rule of King Jeroboam II in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, worship of a Canaanite deity named Baal is common. Many people believe he is the god of weather and therefore the one who makes the earth fertile and produces crops. Like God, he is worshiped through the donation of gifts and sacrificing of animals, but Baal is also honored by the activities of prostitutes at shrines dedicated to him. The men and women who are employed at those shrines are paid for their fertility rituals by customers (worshipers) not only with money but also with the produce of the land their sexual activities supposedly fertilized: bread and water, wool and flax, oil and wine.
5 Their mother was a prostitute;
she brought shame on herself when she had these children.
She chased her customers, saying, “I’m going to go looking for my lovers.
They’re the ones who give me my bread and water,
my wool and flax, my oil and wine.”
6 But I’ll block her way with a thorn hedge;
I’ll put a wall up around her, blocking her usual paths,
7 and she will wander after her lovers like a dumb sheep.
She’ll chase after them, but she won’t catch them.
She’ll look for them, but she won’t find them.
Then she’ll say, “I’m going to go back to my original husband
because I was better off then than I am now!”
8 She didn’t know I was the One who gave her the grain and wine and oil—
not those fertility gods she was worshiping.
I made her rich with silver and gold,
but she devoted it to another divine master![e]
9 So when harvest time comes, I’ll take back My grain,
and when the grapes ripen, I’ll take back My wine.
I’ll take away the wool and flax I gave her to make clothes
so she wouldn’t be naked.
10 The land will be stripped bare,
and this unfaithful wife of Mine will be walking around
Embarrassingly naked in the sight of her lovers,
and none of them will be able to rescue her from Me.
11 So I’m going to end all of her celebrations
now that she uses them to honor other masters—
Her pilgrimage festivals, her new moon celebrations, her Sabbath feasts,
and all her other gatherings.
12 She says she’s entitled to her vines and fig trees
because they’re her wages from prostitution; they’re gifts from her lovers.
But I’m going to destroy them all. I’ll turn them into a tangle of brush,
and wild animals will eat up the fruit.
13 I swear that I’ll punish her for honoring other masters[f] on My special days,
even her burning incense to those false gods.
She got dressed up in her rings and jewelry;
she went after her lovers, and she forgot about Me.
14 But once she has nothing, I’ll be able to get through to her.
I’ll entice her and lead her out into the wilderness where we can be alone,
and I’ll speak right to her heart and try to win her back.
15 And then I’ll give her back her vineyards;
I’ll turn the valley of Achor, that “Valley of Trouble,”[g]
into a gateway of hope.
This is where Achan was judged for keeping forbidden spoils of war when Israel first entered into the land after the exodus.
In the wilderness of exile she’ll learn to respond to Me
the way she did when she was young, when I brought her out of Egypt.
16 And I swear when that day comes, she’ll call Me “my husband” and never address Me again as “my master” as she did those other gods. 17 She’ll never invoke the name of any other master again.
Everyone will forget that gods by that name ever existed. 18 When that day comes, this is what I’ll do for My people: I’ll make a covenant for them with the wild animals and flying birds and crawling insects, and they’ll agree never to devour her crops again. I’ll smash all the bows and swords and weapons that could be used to invade their land, and they’ll live in security.
(to His reclaimed bride) 19 I’m going to marry you, and this time it’ll be forever in righteousness and justice. Our covenant will reflect a loyal love and great mercy; 20 our marriage will be honest and truthful, and you’ll understand who I really am—the Eternal One.
21 And I swear that when that day comes
I’ll answer the sky and prayers for rain,
and the sky will give the land the water it’s asking for.
22 And the land will give the grain and wine and oil the fertile soil they need to develop,
and the crops will shout back to Me, “God sows!”[h]
23 I won’t just restore the agricultural abundance;
I’ll sow into My beloved land and plant the people in the land and make them My own.
To the one who has not been shown mercy,[i]
I’ll rename her Mercy.
I’ll tell Not My People,[j] “You are now My People!”
and he’ll respond, “You’re my God!”[k]
3 The Eternal spoke with me again.
Eternal One: Go and love a woman who is loved by someone else and is adulterous. Care for her and protect her, just as I love the people of Israel even though they’re unfaithfully turning to other gods and selfishly eating sacred raisin cakes in their honor.
2 So I paid the bride-price for this woman, less than I would pay to own a slave: six ounces of silver, about ten bushels of barley.
Hosea (to the woman): 3 You’re going to live with me for a long time. I didn’t buy you just for my own pleasure, and I’m not going to cast you aside. But I’m not going to let you commit adultery again—in fact, you’re not going to have sexual relations with anyone, not even me.
4 In the same way, the people of Israel will go for a long time without having a king or prince of their own, without having any altars or sacred pillars, and without having any way of divining answers through a vestment[l] or images. 5 And afterward, once their devotion is renewed, they’ll return and genuinely worship the Eternal their God, and they’ll end their rebellion against the royal house of David. In those days they’ll come trembling to the Eternal One and rediscover His goodness.
4 Listen to what the Eternal says, you people of Israel!
Eternal One: I am bringing charges against everyone who lives in your land
because there’s no truth and no faithfulness and no knowledge of God in the land.
2 There is only cursing and lying and killing and stealing and adultery—
so that one act of bloodshed follows right after another.
3 It’s because you’re breaking My most basic directives
that the land will mourn with grief and even dry up like a desert plant.
Those dwelling in it waste away,
As the wild animals, the flying birds, and the swimming fish are all dying.
4 Be careful in bringing these charges and contending with one another,
for this is My charge against you,
you priests—I have a divine contention against you!
5 You stumble around during the day, and the prophets stumble with you at night.
And so I will destroy your mother, the land where you live.
6 You’ve forgotten the law of your God: you’ve rejected My judgments.
I’ll reject you because of your lack of knowledge—reject you as My priests;
I’ll even forget your children!
7 The more powerful the priests grew, the more they sinned against Me.
So I’ll turn their honor[m] into shame.
8 Because these priests are allowed to eat the sin offerings,
they actually want the people to sin so they’ll have more meat to eat!
9 And so it’s “like priest, like people”: a low standard for living.
I’ll punish them for this and repay them for what they’ve done:
10 They’ll eat, but they won’t be satisfied; they’ll be active like whores, but have no children
because they’ve rebelled in guarding Me and My ways.
11 Through prostitution, wine, and new wine,
My people have lost their senses;
12 They expect to hear oracles from a wooden idol,
to get guidance from a diviner’s wand!
For a spirit of prostitution is leading them astray—
that’s why they’re so unfaithful to their God and are becoming prostitutes.
13 They offer sacrifices on the mountain tops
and burn incense on the hills,
Gathering under sacred trees like oaks, poplars, and terebinths,
relaxing in their comforting shade.
This is why your own daughters become prostitutes
and your daughters-in-law commit adultery!
14 I won’t punish your daughters for their prostitution
or your daughters-in-law for their adultery,
Because you men are visiting common prostitutes yourselves
and offering sacrifices with cultic prostitutes.
My people have no understanding, and they’re being ruined!
15 But even though Israel is being so unfaithful,
don’t you become guilty, too, Judah!
Don’t go to Gilgal, and don’t go to that “house of wickedness,” Beth-aven.
Don’t swear by My name while you’re worshiping other gods!
16 The people of Israel are stubborn, just like heifers,
so how can I shepherd them like lambs in a pasture?
17 Ephraim is allied with idols;
don’t have anything to do with him![n]
18 When they’ve finished drinking, they turn to prostitution to sate their thirst.
Their rulers love shame rather than living decently.[o]
19 They’ll be swept away by the wind,
and they’ll be ashamed of the way they sacrificed to idols.
5 Eternal One: Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, you leaders of Israel!
Hear all of you in the royal court, My judgment is against you!
You’ve been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Mount Tabor;
you’ve led the people astray:
2 Those who have revolted against Me have dug a deep pit of slaughter,
so I’m going to punish all of you.
God is describing the fate of those rebellious leaders who have dug a deep hole: because of their depravity, they will be led to slavery in shackles.
Hosea’s prophecy is fulfilled in 722 b.c., when Shalmaneser V leads his Assyrian army to conquer Samaria, the capital city of Israel. But leveling the city and slaughtering countless citizens isn’t what ends Israel’s legacy. In the years following the war, Sargon II systematically deports the remaining Israelites to cities in the Assyrian Empire and repopulates Samaria with foreigners to suppress future rebellions. This policy decimates the cultures of the ten tribes who inhabited the Northern Kingdom and leads to the fabled “Lost Tribes of Israel.”
It may be assumed that the members of the ten tribes assimilate into their new cultures and abandon their history and religion; they simply blend into their surroundings to survive. However, in the third century a.d., Christian poet Commodian compiles the writings of several early rabbis and weaves the story of the ten tribes’ post-deportation lives. These ten tribes reside in a sort of paradise beyond a river, where everyone lives long lives, experiences no pain, and follows God’s laws. One day, the story goes, these tribes will return to Jerusalem, recapture her, and dwell in her.
3 I know Ephraim; Israel isn’t hiding from Me.
Even now Ephraim plays the part of a whore;
Israel is covering herself in impurity.
4 They’re so caught up in their way of life
that they can’t return to their God.
They have a spirit of prostitution within them,
so they don’t know Me; I am the Eternal One.
5 The pride of Israel testifies against her to her very face.
Israel (which is called Ephraim) will stagger because of its guilt.
Judah, too, will stagger with them.
6 They’ll go with their flocks and their herds to seek Me,
offering a multitude of sacrifices, but they won’t find Me because they are abandoned.
7 They’ve been unfaithful to Me, the Eternal,
and produced defiled, illegitimate children.
Now at a new moon, a foreign nation will devour them and their fields.
8 Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah,
sound the trumpet in Ramah, and raise a war cry in Beth-aven.
Even as your cities fall, Benjamin, more armies are behind you!
9 Ephraim will be devastated when they are punished with this invasion from the south.
(This is sure to happen, and I’m announcing it to all the tribes of Israel!)
10 But I’ll also punish the leaders of Judah—
I’ll pour out My wrath on them like water—
Because they’re trying to snatch this territory of Benjamin’s.
They’ve become like the dishonest people who move boundary-stones.
11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed by punishment,
because he insists on pursuing empty ways and trusting others to save him.
12 In My judgments I’m like a disease that devours Ephraim as a moth eats wool,
like an infected wound to the people of Judah.
13 But when Ephraim saw how sick he was
and Judah saw his open sore,
Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to the great king for relief.
But a foreign ruler can’t cure you; he can’t heal your sore.
The great king is the king of Assyria from whom both Israel and Judah eventually seek help.
14 I’ll be like a lion to Ephraim,
like a young lion to the people of Judah.
I’ll tear them to pieces myself and make off with My kill.
I’ll carry it away, and no one will be able to take it from Me.
15 I’ll go back to My lair and stay there until they admit their guilt and come looking for Me.
In their distress, they’ll desperately try to find Me.
6 Come on, let’s renew our loyalty to the Eternal One!
He tore us like a lion, but He’ll heal us;
He wounded us, but He’ll bandage us.
2 He’ll bring us back to life after two days;
He’ll raise us up on the third day, and we’ll live with Him.
While not clearly a reference to the Anointed One, this is a remarkable prefiguring of the time and consequence of His death and resurrection.
3 So let’s know Him; let’s strive to know the Eternal.
As surely as the sun rises, He’ll come out from His lair.
As surely as the rains come each year—
those spring rains that drench the earth—He’ll come back to us.
4 Eternal One: What am I supposed to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I supposed to do with you, Judah?
Your loyalty to Me is like fog in the morning,
like dew that evaporates at sunrise.
5 This is why I cut them with the words of the prophets
and destroyed them with the words of My mouth.
My judgment went forth like the light of the rising sun.
6 For I want not animal sacrifices, but mercy.[p]
I don’t want burnt offerings; I want people to know Me as God!
7 They broke their covenant with Me, treated it as just a common human affair;
they were unfaithful to Me there.
8 The city of Gilead is full of evil, murderous people.
Their footprints are bloody.
This may be a reference to Jephthah’s return from the slaughter of the Ephraimites (Judges 11).
9 As the priests travel together down the road,
they’re like a band of robbers setting an ambush.
They are like their ancestor Levi who committed murder at Shechem,[q]
deceiving the people by their treachery.
10 I’ve seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel:
Ephraim engages in prostitution there by worshiping at other shrines.
Israel pollutes itself through violence and idol worship.
11 But a harvest is set for you, too, Judah
when I restore my people’s fortunes and return them from captivity.
7 Eternal One: I will heal Israel of her exposed sins:
Ephraim’s wickedness will be laid open;
Also Samaria’s evil will be revealed:
dishonesty is tolerated, thieves break in and bandits rob in the open.
2 They don’t realize I’m aware of all of the evil they’re doing.
Even now their sins are all around them—I can see them clearly.
3 The king celebrates their evil deeds,
and princes enjoy their deceptions.
4 All of them are adulterers with unquenchable lust.
They are like an oven overheated by a baker,
An oven so hot it doesn’t need to be stoked for several hours
from the time the dough is kneaded until it finishes rising.
5 Eternal One: When the king was celebrating[r] and the princes were sick with drunkenness,
his conscience was dulled and he joined forces with rebels.
6 Their hearts are like a heated oven as they plot their schemes.
All night their anger smolders, but at dawn it blazes into a flaming fire.
7 All of them are as hot as an oven,
and they consume their own judges.
All of their kings have fallen; none of them calls on Me.
Two types of ovens are used in ancient Israel: tabuns and tannurs. Both are beehive-shaped structures molded of clay, broken potsherds, and chopped straw, and are commonly found in a house’s courtyard. At the top is a capped opening, which regulates the inside heat and allows the baker access to the oven’s interior. Tabuns are fueled with cakes of dried manure and straw (Ezekiel 4:12-15), while tannurs are fueled by wood fires. Once a tannur’s wood fire burns down to the embers, the oven is ready for baking.
Each day, women mix flour and water, knead the dough, and add a small amount of salt and fermented dough (from the previous day’s work) to the mixture. After balls of dough have risen, they are flattened and shaped into discs. These discs are then easily tossed inside the oven’s opening, where they stick to the walls and cook in just minutes.
8 Ephraim is mixed up with all the other nations.
Ephraim is like a cake that hasn’t been turned over.
9 Foreigners are devouring his strength, taking territory and tribute,
but he doesn’t realize how weak he’s grown.
Gray hair is sprouting on his head,
but he doesn’t see what others observe.
10 Israel’s stubborn pride will testify against him.
The people haven’t come back to Me, their True God;
they haven’t asked Me for help despite all their troubles.
11 Ephraim is like a dove caught in foreign intrigues, silly and without sense:
they call to Egypt; they go to Assyria.
12 But as they fly to others for help, I’ll throw My net over them.
I’ll bring them down like birds out of the sky and punish them,
as their congregation knows full well.
13 May they experience sorrow for wandering away from Me!
May they be destroyed for the way they’ve rebelled against Me!
I would like to buy them back from death,
but they would just keep lying to Me and against Me.
14 They’re not sincere when they cry out to Me for help.
They howl on their couches;
Hoping a god will send grain to gather and wine to enjoy.
They turn away from Me.
15 I trained them, I made their arms strong, I could have protected them,
but they devised evil schemes against Me.
16 They turn for help, but not to the Most High;
they’ve become as weak and ineffective as a loosely-strung bow.
Because of their defiant words, their leaders will be killed in battle,
and they’ll be the laughingstock of everyone in Egypt.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.