Old/New Testament
Hosea’s Wife and Children
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Be’eri,[a] in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, the king of Israel.
2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go. Take for yourself an immoral wife and children produced by sexual immorality,[b] because the land has been committing flagrant immorality, turning away from the Lord.”
3 So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim. She conceived and gave birth to a son for him.
4 The Lord said to him, “Name him Jezre’el,[c] because in a little while I will inflict punishment on the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezre’el. I will destroy the ruling power of the house of Israel. 5 In that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezre’el.”
6 She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter.
The Lord said to him, “Name her Lo Ruhamah,[d] because I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel. Indeed, I will certainly not forgive them. 7 But I will have compassion on the house of Judah. I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.”[e]
8 Gomer weaned Lo Ruhamah. Then she conceived and gave birth to a son.
9 The Lord said, “Name him Lo Ammi,[f] because you are not my people, and I will not be the Lord for you.”[g]
A Promise of Future Blessing
10 Nevertheless, the number of the people of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. Then, in the place where they were told, “You are not my people,” they will be told, “You are children of the living God.” 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be gathered together. They will appoint one head for themselves, and they will go up from the land, for the day of Jezre’el will be great.[h]
Israel Rebuked, Punished, and Restored
2 Plead with[k] your mother!
Plead with her, because she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband.
Let her put away her sexual immorality from her presence
and her acts of adultery from between her breasts.
3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked
and expose her as she was on the day she was born.
I will make her like a wilderness.
I will cause her to be like a dry land.
I will cause her to die of thirst.
4 I will have no compassion on her children,
because they are children of promiscuity,
5 because their mother has been promiscuous.[l]
She who conceived them has acted shamefully.
She said, “I will chase after my lovers,
the ones who give me my food and my water,
my wool and my flax, my olive oil and my drinks.”
6 Therefore, this is what I will do:
I will block your[m] way with thorns.
I will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She will chase after her lovers,
but she will not reach them.
She will seek them,
but she will not find them.
She will say, “I will go back to my first husband,
because then it was better for me than it is now.”
8 But she would not acknowledge that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil.
I gave her large amounts of silver and gold—her people used it for Baal!
9 That is why I will take back my grain during harvest time,
and my new wine in its season.
I will also take away my wool and my flax that were given to cover her nakedness.
10 Then I will expose her shameful nakedness in the sight of her lovers.
No one will deliver her from my hand.
11 I will put an end to all her celebration:
her pilgrimage festivals,[n] her monthly new moons, and her weekly Sabbaths—
all her appointed festivals.
12 I will devastate her vines and her fig trees,
about which she said, “These are the payment[o] that my lovers gave me.”
I will make them into a scrub forest,
and the wild animals will eat the crops.
13 I will punish her for the days with the Baals, on which she repeatedly offered incense to them.
She adorned herself with her rings[p] and her jewelry,
and then she chased after her lovers,
and she forgot me, declares the Lord.
14 But watch! I am going to court her.
I will bring her into the wilderness.
I will speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her vineyards back to her.
The Valley of Achor[q] will be a door of hope.
She will respond there as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up from the land of Egypt.
16 In that day, declares the Lord, this is what will take place:
You will call me “my husband.”
You will no longer call me “my master.”[r]
17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth.
She will no longer call them by their names.[s]
18 In that day I will make a covenant for the Israelites with the wild animals, with the birds of the sky and the things that creep on the ground.
I will break the bow and the sword.
I will abolish war from the land.
I will allow the people to lie down safely.[t]
19 I will pledge you to myself in marriage forever.
I will pledge you to myself in marriage—
with righteousness, justice, mercy, and compassion.
20 In faithfulness I will pledge you to myself in marriage,
and you will know the Lord.
21 In that day this is what will happen:
I will respond, declares the Lord.
I will respond to the heavens,
and they will respond to the earth.
22 The earth will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil.
They will respond to Jezre’el.
23 I will sow her for myself in the land.
I will have compassion for Lo Ruhamah,[u]
and I will tell Lo Ammi,[v] “You are my people,”
and he will say, “You are my God!”
The Prophet’s Reconciliation With His Wife:
A Picture of the Lord’s Love
3 The Lord said to me, “Go again. Show love to a woman who is loved by another man, a woman who keeps committing adultery. Show love just as the Lord loves the people of Israel, even though they keep turning to other gods and loving the raisin cakes.”[w]
2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and nine bushels[x] of barley. 3 I said to her, “You will stay with me for many days. You must not be promiscuous.[y] You must not be with any other man, and I will also be for you.”
4 So the people of Israel will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred memorial stones, and without the special vest[z] or family idols.[aa] 5 Afterward the people of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.
The Lord’s Charges Against Israel and Its Priests
4 Hear the word of the Lord, you people of Israel,
because the Lord has charges to make against the inhabitants of the land,
because there is no truth,
there is no mercy,
and there is no knowledge of God in the land.
2 There is cursing, lying, murder, theft, and adultery.
They break out in violence, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Therefore the land mourns,[ab]
and everyone who dwells in it wastes away
along with the wild animals and the birds in the sky.
Even the fish of the sea have been removed.
4 Yet no one should bring charges.
No one should accuse,
because your people are like those who dispute with a priest.[ac]
5 You will stumble by day,
and the prophet will also stumble with you by night.
I will also destroy your mother.
6 My people have been destroyed because of lack of knowledge.
Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you
from serving as a priest for me.
Because you have forgotten the law of your God,
I also will forget your children.
7 The more they increased, the more they sinned against me.
I changed their glory into shame.[ad]
8 They feed on the sin of my people.
They set their desire on things that make them guilty.
9 So it will be the same for people as for priests.
I will punish them for their ways.
I will repay them for their deeds.
10 They will eat, but not be satisfied.
They will engage in sexual immorality, but not increase.
This will take place because they have abandoned the Lord to devote themselves to 11 sexual sin.[ae]
Wine and new wine take away their understanding.[af]
12 My people consult their wooden idol,
and their fortunetellers wand gives them information,
because a promiscuous spirit has led them astray,
and they behave like a whore instead of following their God.
13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops.
They burn incense on the hills, and under oaks, poplars, and terebinths,
because their shade is pleasant.
That is why your daughters commit fornication,[ag]
and your brides commit adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit fornication,
or your brides when they commit adultery,
because the men consort with prostitutes
and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes.
So the people without understanding will come to ruin.
15 Though you, Israel, practice sexual immorality,
Judah should not follow your guilty way.
Do not go to Gilgal.
Do not go up to Beth Aven.
Do not swear, “As surely as the Lord lives.”
16 For Israel has become as stubborn as a heifer.
How can the Lord feed them like a lamb in a meadow?
17 Ephraim is joined to idols.
Let him go his own way!
18 Their alcoholic drinks are used up,
but they keep practicing sexual immorality anyway.
Their rulers, who should be their shields, instead love shame.
19 The wings of the wind will sweep them away,
and they will be put to shame because of their sacrifices.
Introduction
1 The revelation from Jesus Christ that God gave him to show his servants the things that must soon take place. Christ expressed this revelation by means of symbols sent[a] through his angel to his servant John. 2 John spoke as a witness to the word of God and to the testimony about[b] Jesus Christ, that is, to everything he saw. 3 Blessed is the one who reads the words of this prophecy and blessed are those who hear it and hold on to the things written in it, because the time is near.
Greeting
4 John,
To the seven churches in the province of Asia:[c]
Grace to you and peace from him who is, who was, and who is coming, and from the seven spirits that are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and has freed[d] us from our sins by his own blood 6 and made us a kingdom and priests to God his Father—to him be the glory and the power forever. Amen.
7 Look, he is coming with clouds,
and every eye will see him,
including those who pierced him.
And all the nations of the earth will mourn because of him.
Yes. Amen.
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,”[e] says the Lord God, the one who is, and who was, and who is coming, the Almighty.
God Tells John to Write Down What He Sees
9 I, John, your brother and companion in the suffering and kingship and patient endurance in Jesus,[f] was on the island called Patmos because of the word of God and the testimony about Jesus.[g]
10 I was in spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard a loud voice behind me, like a trumpet, 11 saying, “Write what you see on a scroll and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”
Jesus Appears
12 I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me. When I turned, I saw seven gold lampstands, 13 and among the lampstands was one like a son of man. He was clothed with a robe that reached to his feet, and around his chest he wore a gold sash. 14 His head and his hair were white, like white wool or like snow. His eyes were like blazing flames. 15 His feet were like polished bronze being refined in a furnace. His voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 He held seven stars in his right hand. A sharp two-edged sword was coming out of his mouth. His face was shining as the sun shines in all its brightness.
17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He placed his right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last— 18 the Living One. I was dead and, see, I am alive forever and ever! I also hold the keys of death and hell.[h]
19 “So write what you have seen, both those things that are and those that will take place after this.
20 “The mystery of the seven stars, which you saw in my right hand, and the seven gold lampstands is this: The seven stars are the messengers of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.”
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.