1A word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah and Jotham and Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel. 2 The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a woman of fornication and children of fornication, because the land in committing fornication will commit fornication from behind the Lord.” 3 And he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, because in a little while I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Judah, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And it will be in that day, I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.” 6 And she conceived again and bore a daughter. And he said to him, “Call her name ‘Not Shown Mercy,’ because I will no longer show mercy to the house of Israel, but in opposing, I will oppose them. 7 But I will have pity on the sons, and I will save them by the Lord, their God, and I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.” 8 And she weaned Not Shown Mercy, and she conceived again and bore a son. 9 And He said, “Call his name ‘Not My People,’ because you are not my people and I am not yours.” 10 aAnd the number of the sons of Israel was like the sand of the sea, which will not be measured out nor counted. And it will be, in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” they will also be called, “sons of the living God.”
2And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will gather together, and they will establish for themselves one empire, and they will go up from the land, because the day of Jezreel will be great.” 2 “Say to your brother, My People, and to your sister, Shown Mercy, 2 ‘Contend against your mother, contend! Because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. And I will remove her fornication from my face, and her adultery from the middle of her breasts, 3 in order that I might strip her naked and restore her just as on the day of her birth. And I will make her a wilderness, and I will appoint her like dry land, and I will kill her with thirst. 4 And I will not show mercy to her children, because they are children of fornication. 5 Because their mother committed fornication; she who bore them was disgracing herself. Because she said, “I will go after my lovers, who are giving me my bread and my water and my clothes and my linens and my olive oil and all things, as many as belong to me.” 6 On account of this, look, I will hedge her way with thorns, and I will wall up roads, and she will not find her path. 7 And she will closely pursue her lovers and not take hold of them. And she will seek them and not find them. And she will say, “I will go and return to my former husband, because it was well with me then rather than now.” 8 And she did not know that I gave her the grain and the wine and the olive oil, and I multiplied moneya for her, but she made silver and gold for Baal. 9 Because of this, I will return and gather in my grain at its time and my wine in its season, and I will remove my clothes and my linens, so that she might not cover her shame. 10 And now, I will uncover her impurity before her lovers, and no one will ever deliver her from out of my hand. 11 And I will turn away all her festivities, her holidays and her new moons and her Sabbaths and all her holy days. 12 And I will destroy her vineyard and her fig trees, about which she said, “These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.” And I will make them into a witness, and the wild beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens and the reptiles of the earth will devour them. 13 And I will take vengeance upon her for the days of the Baals, on which she used to sacrifice to them, and put on her earrings and her necklaces, and go after her lovers, but forgot me,’ says the Lord. 14 ‘Because of this, behold, I will mislead her, and I will make her like a wilderness, and I will speak to her heart. 15 And I will give her her plots of land from that place and the valley of Achor, to open her understanding. And she will be made low there like in the days of her childhood, and like in the days of her ascent out of the land of Egypt.’” 16 “And it will be in that day,” says the Lord, “she will call me ‘My Husband,’ and she will no longer call me ‘Baal. 17 And I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and their names will not be remembered again. 18 And I will establish a treaty with them in that day, with the beasts of the field and with the birds of the heavens and the reptiles of the land, and I will crush bow and sword and battle from the land, and I will establish you in hope. 19 And I will betroth you to me for eternity, and I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in judgment and with mercy and with compassionate feelings. 20 And I will betroth you to me in trust, and you will recognize the Lord.” 21 “And it will be in that day,” says the Lord, “I will listen to the heavens, and it will listen to the earth, 22 and the earth will listen to the grain and the wine and the olive oil, and they will listen to Jezreel, 23 and I will sow her for myself upon the land, and I will love her who was not loved, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are My People,’ and he will say, ‘You are the Lord, my God.’”
3And the Lord said to me, “Go again, and love a woman who loves evil things and is an adulteress, just as God loves the sons of Israel, but they look down to foreign gods, and they love cakes with dried grapes.” 2 So I hired her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer of barley corns and a vessel of wine. 3 And I said to her, “You will sit with me for many days. And you will not prostitute yourself, nor become a man’s. And I will be with you.” 4 Because the sons of Israel will remain for many days without having a king and without having a ruler, and without having a mode of sacrifice and without having an altar, or priesthood or manifestations. 5 And after these things, the sons of Israel will return, and they will seek after the Lord, their God, and David, their king, and they will be amazed at the Lord, and at his good things in the last days.
4“Hear a word of the Lord, O sons of Israel, because the Lord has a dispute with those who inhabit the land, because there is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. 2 A curse and a lie and murder and theft and adultery has been poured out upon the land, and bloodshed is mixed upon bloodshed. 3 On account of this, the land will lament and be diminished with all those that dwell in her, with the wild beasts of the field, and with the reptiles of the land, and with the birds of the heavens; even the fish of the sea will come to an end, 4 in order that nobody may either judge or reproach anybody. But my people will be like a priest who is opposed. 5 And he will be sick during the day, and a prophet will be sick with you. I have made your mother like night. 6 My people has become as if it possesses no knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, so I will reject you from being a priest to me. And you forgot the law of your God, so I will forget your children. 7 In accordance with their multitude, thus they sinned against me. I will turn their glory into dishonor. 8 They will eat the sins of my people, and they will take their souls by their injustices. 9 And just as the people will be, so also the priest, and I will avenge against him his ways, and I will repay him his counsels. 10 And they will eat and never be full; they prostituted themselves and did not prosper, because they neglected the Lord, to guard fornication. 11 The heart of my people received both wine and intoxicating drink. 12 They inquired with omens, and they would bring news to him with his rods. They were led astray by a spirit of fornication, and they have fornicated away from their God. 13 They would sacrifice upon the summits of the mountains, and make offerings upon the hills, under an oak and a white poplar and a shady tree, because it is good shelter. Because of this, your daughters will commit fornication, and your brides will commit adultery. 14 And I will not look upon your daughters when they prostitute themselves, and upon your brides when they commit adultery, because the men would mingle with the prostitutes, and make offerings with those who have been brought to an end, and the people who understand would entwine with a prostitute. 15 But you, O Israel, do not be ignorant, And you, O Judah, do not enter into Gilgal, and do not go up into the house of Beth-aven, and do not swear by the living Lord. 16 Because Israel used to be irritated like an irritated heifer. Now the Lord will tend them like a lamb in open space. 17 Ephraim, partaking in idols, set traps for himself. 18 He chose Canaanites; fornicating themselves, they were sexually immoral. They loved dishonor through its insolence. 19 You are a commotion of wind in its wings, and they will be put to shame by their altars.”
5“Hear these things, O priests, and pay attention, O house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king, because judgment is against you, because you have become a trap for the watchtower, and like a net stretching out for Tabor, 2 which those who hunt the prey planted firmly. I am your teacher. 3 I knew Ephraim, and Israel is not far from me, because now Ephraim has committed fornication; Israel has been defiled. 4 They did not give their counsels to turn toward their God, because a spirit of fornication is in them, and they did not recognize the Lord. 5 And the pride of Israel will be humbled to his face, and Israel and Ephraim will fall sick by their injustices, and Judah will also fall sick with them. 6 With sheep and calves they will go to seek out the Lord, and they will not find him, because he has turned away from them, 7 because they forsook the Lord, because foreign children were fathered by them. Now the mildew will devour them and their inheritances. 8 Trumpet with a war trumpet upon the hills. Peal it out upon the high places. Make proclamation in the house of Beth-aven, Benjamin was amazed. 9 Ephraim came to destruction in the day of reproof. I showed reliable things among the tribes of Israel. 10 The rulers of Judah became like those who alter boundaries. Against them I will pour out my fury like water. 11 Ephraim has oppressed his opponent, he has trampled the judgment, because he began to follow the vain things. 12 And I am like trouble to Ephraim, and like a goad to the house of Judah. 13 And Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his pain. And Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent ambassadors to King Jarim, and he was not able to heal you, and pain has not ceased from you. 14 Because I am like a panther to Ephraim, and like a lion to the house of Judah, and I will snatch them away, and I will go and take them, and there will be no one who rescues them. 15 I will go and return to my place until which time they are destroyed, and they will seek my face.”
6“In their affliction they will rise up early toward me, saying, ‘Let us go and return to the Lord, our God, because he has snatched away, and he will heal us. He will strike, and he will bandage us. 2 He will restore us to health after two days; on the third day we will rise and live before him,[1] 3 and we will know; we will seek to know the Lord. Like the sure-to-come dawn we will find him, and he will come to us like the early and late rain comes to the earth.’” 4 “What will I do with you, O Ephraim? What will I do with you, O Judah? Your mercy is like an early morning cloud, and like an early dew that is going away. 5 On account of this, I cut off your prophets; I killed them with a word from my mouth, and my judgment will go out like light. 6 Because I want mercy rather than sacrifice, and knowledge of God rather than whole burnt offerings. 7 But they are like a person breaking a treaty; there he despised me. 8 Gilead is a city doing vain things, stirring up water. 9 And your strength is that of a pirate man. Priests hid the way. They killed Shechem, because they did lawlessness. 10 In the house of Israel I saw a horrible thing. There was the fornication of Ephraim; Israel and Judah were defiled. 11 Begin to reap for yourself when I return the captives of my people,
7when I heal Israel. And the injustice of Ephraim will be uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria, because they worked falsely. And a thief will enter toward him, a robber stripping him on his way, 2 in order that they may sing together as singing in their heart. All their wickedness I remembered. Now their counsels have encircled them; they have come opposite my face. 3 By their wicked acts they cheered kings, and rulers with their lies. 4 All are committing adultery, like an oven being lit for the cooking of the burning from the flame from mixing of dough until it is leavened. 5 As for the days of your kings —the rulers began to be angry from wine; he stretched out his hand with plagues. 6 Because their hearts were lit up like an oven when they broke in pieces. Ephraim was sated the whole night of sleep. In the morning they were born, he was lit up like a light of fire. 7 All were warm like an oven, and they ate their judges. All their kings fell. There was not one among them who was calling to me. 8 Ephraim was mingling with his peoples. Ephraim was a cake baked in the ashes that was not turned over. 9 Foreigners ate his strength, but he has not learned. And gray hairs flourished for him, and he did not know it. 10 And the pride of Israel will be made low to his face, yet they did not return to the Lord, their God, and they did not seek him in all these things. 11 And Ephraim was like a silly pigeon, not having a heart. Egypt used to be called upon, and they went to Assyria. 12 Whenever they go, I will throw my net upon them. As the birds of the heavens I will bring them down; I will rear them in the sound of their affliction. 13 Woe to them, because they have turned away from me. They are wretched, because they have acted impiously toward me. But I ransomed them, but they have spoken lies against me. 14 And their hearts did not cry to me; rather, they howled in their beds. They used to gash themselves for corn and wine. 15 They were taught by me, and I strengthened their arms, and they devised evils against me. 16 They turned back to nothing. They became like a bent bow. Their rulers will fall by the sword on account of a lack of control over their tongue. This will be the contempt of them in the land of Egypt.”
8“Into their pocket like dirt, like an eagle upon the house of the Lord, because they deviated from my treaty, and against my law. 2 They will cry to me, ‘O God, we have known you. 3 Because Israel turned away from good things, they have pursued an enemy. 4 They were a king to themselves, and not through me. They ruled, and did not make it known to me. They made their silver and their gold idols for themselves, as a consequence of which they will be utterly destroyed.[2] 5 Get rid of your calf, O Samaria! My wrath has been provoked against them. 6 in Israel? And a carpenter made it, and it is not a god, because your calf was leading astray, O Samaria! 7 Because they sowed things blasted by the wind, and their destruction will gather the things. A sheaf not having the capability to make wheat flour, but even if it does, foreigners will devour them. 8 Israel was consumed; now it has become among the nations like a useless vessel, 9 because they went up to Assyria. Ephraim revived by himself; they loved gifts. 10 On account of this, they will be handed over to the nations. Now I will receive them, and they will have rest, for a short time, from anointing a king and rulers. 11 Because Ephraim multiplied altars, the beloved altars have turned into sins for him. 12 I will write down for him a multitude, And my laws were reckoned as foreign things; the beloved things as altars. 13 Because if they sacrifice a sacrifice and eat meat, the Lord will not accept these things. Now he will remember their injustices, and he will punish their sins. They turned back to Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat impure things. 14 And Israel forgot the one who has made him, and they built shrines, and Judah multiplied fortified cities, so I will send forth fire into his cities, and it will devour their foundations.”
9“Do not rejoice, O Israel, nor cheer like the peoples, because you have prostituted yourself away from your God. You loved gifts on every threshing floor of grain. 2 A threshing floor and a winepress did not know them, and the wine cheated them. 3 They did not dwell in the land of the Lord; Ephraim dwelt in Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat impure things. 4 They did not offer wine to the Lord, and did not please him. Their sacrifices are like a loaf of grief to them. All those who eat them will be defiled, because their loaves of bread for their souls will not enter into the house of the Lord. 5 What will you do on the days of festival, and on a day of feast of the Lord? 6 On account of this, behold, they are going out of distress of Egypt and Memphis will receive them, and Michmash will bury them. Their silver, ruin will inherit it; thorns will be in their tents. 7 The days of vengeance have come. The days of your recompense have come, and Israel will be mistreated like the prophet who has gone mad, a person who has the spirit; your inspired madness has multiplied by the multitude of your injustices. 8 Ephraim is a watchman with God, a prophet, a bent trap on all his roads. They have established madness in the house of God. 9 They were morally corrupted during the days of the hill. He will remember their injustices; he will punish their sins. 10 Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. And like a target in a fig tree, early I saw their fathers. They went in toward Baal-peor and were alienated for shame, and those who are abhorred became like those who are loved. 11 Ephraim has spread out wings like a bird. Their glories are from childbirths, and pains of childbirth and conceptions, 12 because even if they rear their children, they will be made childless of people; because also woe is to them, my flesh is from them. 13 Ephraim, in the way that they have presented their children for prey —even Ephraim—in order to lead out his children for piercing. 14 Give them, O Lord, what will you give them? A childless womb and dry breasts. 15 All their wicked deeds are in Gilgal, because there I have hated them. On account of the wicked deeds of their practices, I will throw them out of my house. I will not add to loving them. All their rulers are resistant. 16 Ephraim has suffered; he has withered with respect to his roots. He will no longer bear fruit, because even if they father children, I will slay the objects of desire of their belly. 17 God will reject them, because they did not listen to him, so they will be wanderers amongst the nations.”
10“Israel is a vine growing luxuriantly: its fruit is flourishing. According to the multitude of its fruits, it multiplied altars. According to the goods of his land, it built pillars. 2 They divided their hearts; now they will be destroyed. He will raze their altars. Their pillars will suffer misery. 3 Because now they will say, ‘There is no king for us, because we did not fear the Lord. But what will the king do for us? 4 By speaking words, false allegations, he will establish a treaty. Judgment will rise up like grass on the dry land of a field. 5 Settlers in Samaria will live near the calf of the house of Beth-aven, because his people mourned against him. And just as they embittered him, they will rejoice in his glory, because it departed from him. 6 And after binding him they carried him to Assyria, as tribute for King Jarim. Ephraim will greet with a gift, and Israel will be ashamed by his counsel. 7 Samaria threw away her king like a dry stick on the face of the water. 8 And the altars of Beth-aven will be lifted up, the sins of Israel. Thorns and thistles will shoot up on their altars, and they will say to the mountains, ‘Cover us,’ and to the hills, ‘Fall on us. 9 From the time the hills stood there, Israel has sinned. A war upon the children of injustice, has it not seized them on the hill 10 to chastise them? And peoples will gather against them, when they chastise them for their two offenses. 11 Ephraim is a heifer taught to love a quarrel. But I will come upon the best part of her neck. I will mount Ephraim; I will silently pass over Judah. Jacob will strengthen him. 12 Sow for yourselves for righteousness. Gather for the fruit of life. Light for yourselves the light of knowledge. Seek out the Lord until the produce of righteousness comes to us.[3] 13 For what purpose do you omit to mention impiety, and gather in her injustices, and eat false fruit? Because you hoped in your offenses, in the number of your forces. 14 And destruction will arise against your people, and all your walled places will be gone; like the ruler Shalman from the house of Jeroboam, in the days of war, they dashed to the ground a mother upon her children. 15 Thus I will do to you, O house of Israel, because of the face of the unrighteousness of your wicked deeds.
11At dawn they were thrown away; the king of Israel was thrown away.” “Because Israel was an infant, and I loved him, and out of Egypt I called back his children.[4] 2 Just as I called them back, so they sued to depart from my face. They were sacrificing to the Baals, and used to burn incense to the graven images. 3 And I tied together the feet of Ephraim, and took him upon my arm; they did not know that I had healed them. 4 By the destruction of humans I stretched them out with bonds of my love, and I will be to them like a person striking another upon his jaw, and I will look at him. I will be powerful with him. 5 Ephraim dwelt in Egypt, and Assyria himself was his king, because he did not want to return. 6 And the sword was feeble in his cities and ceased in his hands. And they will eat from their counsels. 7 And his people are dependent on his colony, and God will be angry with his valued things, and he will not lift him up. 8 How should I manage you, O Ephraim? Will I shield you, O Israel? How should I manage you? Will I make you like Admah and like Zeboiim? My heart was turned to him, my regret was stirred up. 9 I will not act according to the anger of my wrath, I will not forsake Ephraim so that he might be destroyed; because I am God and not a human, I am holy among you, and I will not enter into a city. 10 I will go after the Lord; he will bellow like a lion. Because he will roar, and the children of the waters will be astonished. 11 They will fly out like a bird from Egypt, and like a pigeon from the land of Assyria. And I will restore them to their homes,” says the Lord. 12 a “Ephraim surrounded me with a lie, and the house of Israel and Judah with impiety. Now God knows them, and he will be called a holy people of God.”
12“But Ephraim is an evil wind. He pursued burning heat the whole day. He used to multiply empty and worthless things, and he established a treaty with Assyria, and he used to trade olive oil with Egypt. 2 And the Lord has a judgment against Judah, so that he might punish Jacob in accordance with his ways, and he will repay him in accordance with his practices. 3 In the belly he kicked his brother, and in his struggles he prevailed against God. 4 And he prevailed with a messenger and was strong enough. They wept and begged me. In the house of Beth-aven they found me, and there it was spoken against them. 5 But the Lord God Almighty will be his memorial. 6 And you, by your God, will return. Guard mercy and judgment, and draw near to your God continually. 7 In his hand Canaan is a yoke of injustice; he has loved to oppress. 8 And Ephraim said, ‘But I am rich. I have found relief for myself.’ All his toils will not be found for him, because of the injustices which he committed. 9 But I, the Lord, your God, led you up from the land of Egypt; I will again establish you in tents, just like festival days. 10 And I will speak to prophets, and I multiplied visions, and I was likened to the hands of prophets. 11 If Gilead does not exist, then the rulers sacrificing in Gilead were lying, and their altars were like mounds upon a barren field. 12 And Jacob withdrew to the plain of Aram, and Israel was a slave to a woman, and by a woman he was guarded. 13 And by a prophet the Lord led Israel up out of the land of Egypt, and by a prophet he was guarded carefully. 14 He angered Ephraim and provoked him to anger, and his blood will be poured out upon him, and the Lord will repay him his reproach.”
13“In accordance with the word of Ephraim, he received duties in Israel, and he established them for Baal, and he has died. 2 And they proceeded to sin, and they made for themselves a molten image from their silver; like an image of idols, the works of carpenters have been completed for them. They said, ‘Sacrifice humans, for calves have come to an end. 3 Because of this they will be like a vapor in the early morning, and like transient early morning dew, like chaff blown away from a threshing floor, and like a cloud of tears. 4 But I am the Lord, your God, establisher of heaven and creator of earth, whose hands created all the host of the heavens, and I did not unveil them to you so that you might go after them. And I led you up from the land of Egypt, so you will know no god but me, and there is no one who saves except me.[5] 5 I was guiding you in the wilderness, in an uninhabited land, 6 like their pastures. And they were filled to satisfaction, and their hearts were lifted. Because of this they forgot me. 7 And I will be for them like a panther, and like a leopard on the road of Assyria. 8 I will meet them like a desperate bear, and I will rip up the enclosure of their heart, and forest cubs will devour them there. Wild field beasts will tear them apart. 9 At your destruction, O Israel, who will help you? 10 Where is this king of yours? And let him save you in all your cities. Let him judge you who said, ‘Grant me a king and a ruler. 11 So I granted you a king in my anger, and I have in my wrath 12 a conspiracy of injustice. As for Ephraim, his sin is concealed. 13 Labor pains like those of a woman giving birth will come to him. This is your wise son, because he will not hold up at the crushing of children. 14 From the hand of Hades I will rescue, and from death I will ransom them. Where is your penalty, O death? Where is your sting, O Hades? Comfort is hidden away from my eyes.[6] 15 Since this will separate between brothers; the Lord will bring upon him a wind, burning heat from the wilderness, and it will dry up his veins; it will dry up his fountains. It will dry up his land, and all his desired vessels.
14Samaria will be destroyed, because she stood against her God. By a sword they will fall, and their nursing babes will be dashed to the ground, and their pregnant women will be cut open.” 2 “Return, O Israel, toward the Lord, your God, because you have fallen by your injustices. 3 Take words with yourselves, and return to the Lord, our God. Speak to him, in order that you may not receive injustice and may receive good things. And we will repay the fruit of your lips. 4 Assyria will not save us; we will not mount a horse. Never again will we say, ‘Our gods,’ to the works of our hands. The one who is in you will show mercy to an orphan. 5 I will heal their colonies; I will love them openly, because he turned my wrath away from him. 6 I will be like dew for Israel. He will blossom like a lily and will cast his roots like Lebanon. 7 His branches will develop, and he will be like a fruitful olive tree, and his scent like Lebanon. 8 They will return and sit under his shelter. They will live and get drunk with grain, and he will bloom as a vine; remembrance of him is like wine from Lebanon. 9 As for Ephraim, why does he still have idols? I made him low, and I will prevail over him. I am like a juniper tree that overshadows. Your fruit is gotten from me. 10 Who is clever and will understand these things, or intelligent and will recognize them? Because the ways of the Lord are straightforward, and the righteous will walk in them, but the ungodly will fall by them.”