Hosea 1-3

Hosea 1

¹The word of the Lord which came to Hosea, the 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.

²The start of the word of the Lord by Hosea: And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take for yourself a wife of loose ways, and children of the same, for the land has been untrue to the Lord.

³So he took as his wife Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she gave birth to a son.

⁴And the Lord said to him, Give him the name of Jezreel, for after a little time I will send punishment for the blood of Jezreel on the line of Jehu, and put an end to the kingdom of Israel.

⁵And in that day I will let the bow of Israel be broken in the valley of Jezreel.

⁶And after that she gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said, Give her the name Lo-ruhamah; for I will not again have mercy on Israel, to give them forgiveness.

⁷But I will have mercy on Judah and will give them salvation by the Lord their God, but not by the bow or the sword or by fighting or by horses or horsemen.

⁸Now when Lo-ruhamah had been taken from the breast, the woman gave birth to a son.

⁹And the Lord said, Give him the name Lo-ammi; for you are not my people, and I will not be your God.

¹⁰But still the number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which may not be measured or numbered; and in place of its being said to them, You are not my people, it will be said to them, You are the sons of the living God

¹¹And the children of Israel and the children of Judah will come together and take for themselves one head, and will go up from the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.

Hosea 2

¹Say to your brothers, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

²Take up the cause against your mother, take it up, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; let her put away her loose ways from her face, and her false ways from between her breasts;

³For fear that I may take away her robe from her, making her uncovered as in the day of her birth; making her like a waste place and a dry land, causing her death through need of water.

⁴And I will have no mercy on her children, for they are the children of her loose ways.

⁵For their mother has been untrue; she who gave them birth has done things of shame, for she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my wine.

⁶For this cause I will put thorns in her road, building up a wall round her so that she may not go on her way.

⁷And if she goes after her lovers she will not overtake them; if she makes search for them she will not see them; then will she say, I will go back to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now.

⁸For she had no knowledge that it was I who gave her the grain and the wine and the oil, increasing her silver and gold which they gave to the Baal.

⁹So I will take away again my grain in its time and my wine, and I will take away my wool and my linen with which her body might have been covered.

¹⁰And now I will make her shame clear before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will take her out of my hand.

¹¹And I will put an end to all her joy, her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her regular meetings.

¹²And I will make waste her vines and her fig-trees, of which she has said, These are the payments which my lovers have made to me; and I will make them a waste of trees, and the beasts of the field will take them for food.

¹³And I will give her punishment for the days of the Baals, to whom she has been burning perfumes, when she made herself fair with her nose-rings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, giving no thought to me, says the Lord.

¹⁴For this cause I will make her come into the waste land and will say words of comfort to her.

¹⁵And I will give her vine-gardens from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will give her answer there as in the days when she was young, and as in the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶And in that day, says the Lord, you will say to me, Ishi; and you will never again give me the name of Baali;

¹⁷For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and never again will she say their names.

¹⁸And in that day I will make an agreement for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven and the things which go low on the earth; I will put an end to the bow and the sword and war in all the land, and will make them take their rest in peace.

¹⁹And I will take you as my bride for ever; truly, I will take you as my bride in righteousness and in right judging, in love and in mercies.

²⁰I will take you as my bride in good faith, and you will have knowledge of the Lord.

²¹And it will be, in that day, says the Lord, that I will give an answer to the heavens, and the heavens to the earth;

²²And the earth will give its answer to the grain and the wine and the oil, and they will give an answer to Jezreel;

²³And I will put her as seed in the earth, and I will have mercy on her to whom no mercy was given; and I will say to those who were not my people, You are my people, and they will say, My God.

Hosea 3

¹And the Lord said to me, Give your love again to a woman who has a lover and is false to her husband, even as the Lord has love for the children of Israel, though they are turned to other gods and are lovers of grape-cakes.

²So I got her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley;

³And I said to her, You are to be mine for a long space of time; you are not to be false to me, and no other man is to have you for his wife; and so will I be to you.

⁴For the children of Israel will for a long time be without king and without ruler, without offerings and without pillars, and without ephod or images.

⁵And after that, the children of Israel will come back and go in search of the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come in fear to the Lord and to his mercies in the days to come.