Category: Hosea

1 The word of theLordthat came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah,Jotham,Ahaz,and Hezekiah,kings of Judah, and of Jeroboamson of Jehoash, king of Israel.

Hosea’s Marriage and Children

2 When theLordfirst spoke to Hosea, He said this to him:

Go and marry a promiscuous wife

and have children of promiscuity,

for the land is committing blatant acts of promiscuity

by abandoning theLord.

3 So he went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

4 Then theLordsaid to him:

Name him Jezreel,for in a little while

I will bring the bloodshed of Jezreel

on the house of Jehu

and put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

5 On that day I will break the bow of Israel

in the Valley of Jezreel.

6 She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter, and theLordsaid to him:

Name her No Compassion,

for I will no longer have compassion

on the house of Israel.

I will certainly take them away.

7 But I will have compassion on the house of Judah,

and I will deliver them by theLordtheir God.

I will not deliver them by bow, sword, or war,

or by horses and cavalry.

8 After Gomer had weaned No Compassion, she conceived and gave birth to a son.

9 Then theLordsaid:

Name him Not My People,

for you are not My people,

and I will not be your God.

10 Yet the number of the Israelites

will be like the sand of the sea,

which cannot be measured or counted.

And in the place where they were told:

You are not My people,

they will be called: Sons of the living God.

11 And the Judeans and the Israelites

will be gathered together.

They will appoint for themselves a single ruler

and go up fromthe land.

For the day of Jezreelwill be great.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/17/32k/HOS/1-262ef5374c2a7767e105125d9ed91817.mp3?version_id=72—

1 Callyour brothers: My People

and your sisters: Compassion.

Israel’s Adultery Rebuked

2 Rebuke your mother; rebuke her.

For she is not My wife and I am not her husband.

Let her remove the promiscuous look from her face

and her adultery from between her breasts.

3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked

and expose her as she was on the day of her birth.

I will make her like a desert

and like a parched land,

and I will let her die of thirst.

4 I will have no compassion on her children

because they are the children of promiscuity.

5 Yes, their mother is promiscuous;

she conceived them and acted shamefully.

For she thought, “I will go after my lovers,

the men who give me my food and water,

my wool and flax, my oil and drink.”

6 Therefore, this is what I will do:

I will block herwaywith thorns;

I will enclose her with a wall,

so that she cannot find her paths.

7 She will pursue her lovers but not catch them;

she will seek them but not find them.

Then she will think,

“I will go back to my former husband,

for then it was better for me than now.”

8 She does not recognize

that it is I who gave her the grain,

the new wine, and the oil.

I lavished silver and gold on her,

which they used for Baal.

9 Therefore, I will take back My grain in its time

and My new wine in its season;

I will take away My wool and linen,

which were to cover her nakedness.

10 Now I will expose her shame

in the sight of her lovers,

and no one will rescue her from My hands.

11 I will put an end to all her celebrations:

her feasts,New Moons,and Sabbaths —

all her festivals.

12 I will devastate her vines and fig trees.

She thinks that these are her wages

that her lovers have given her.

I will turn them into a thicket,

and the wild animals will eat them.

13 And I will punish her for the days of the Baals

when she burned incense to them,

put on her rings and jewelry,

and went after her lovers,

but forgot Me.

This is theLord’s declaration.

Israel’s Adultery Forgiven

14 Therefore, I am going to persuade her,

lead her to the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her.

15 There I will give her vineyards back to her

and make the Valley of Achor

into a gateway of hope.

There she will respond as she did

in the days of her youth,

as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt.

16 In that day —

this is theLord’s declaration —

you will call Me, “My husband,”

and no longer call Me, “My Baal.”

17 For I will remove the names of the Baals

from her mouth;

they will no longer be remembered by their names.

18 On that day I will make a covenant for them

with the wild animals, the birds of the sky,

and the creatures that crawl on the ground.

I will shatter bow, sword,

and weapons of war in the land

and will enable the people to rest securely.

19 I will take you to be My wife forever.

I will take you to be My wife in righteousness,

justice, love, and compassion.

20 I will take you to be My wife in faithfulness,

and you will know Yahweh.

21 On that day I will respond—

this is theLord’s declaration.

I will respond to the sky,

and it will respond to the earth.

22 The earth will respond to the grain,

the new wine, and the oil,

and they will respond to Jezreel.

23 I will sow herin the land for Myself,

and I will have compassion

on No Compassion;

I will sayto Not My People:

You are My people,

and he will say, “You are My God.”

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/17/32k/HOS/2-d241e571007a5d070d912cfe2c6a7b8b.mp3?version_id=72—

Waiting for Restoration

1 Then theLordsaid to me, “Go again; show love to a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress,just as theLordloves the Israelites though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”

2 So I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and five bushels of barley.

3 I said to her, “You must live with me many days. Don’t be promiscuous or belong to any man, and I will act the same way toward you.”

4 For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince,without sacrificeor sacred pillar,and without ephodor household idols.

5 Afterward, the people of Israel will returnand seek theLordtheir God and David their king.They will come with awe to theLordand to His goodness in the last days.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/17/32k/HOS/3-7191b1a3e850a23f0b15fd825c647c84.mp3?version_id=72—

God’s Case against Israel

1 Hear the word of theLord,people of Israel,

for theLordhas a case

against the inhabitants of the land:

There is no truth,no faithful love,

and no knowledge of Godin the land!

2 Cursing,lying,murder,stealing,

and adulteryare rampant;

one act of bloodshed follows another.

3 For this reason the land mourns,

and everyone who lives in it languishes,

along with the wild animalsand the birds of the sky;

even the fish of the sea disappear.

4 But let no one dispute;let no one argue,

for My case is against you priests.

5 You will stumble by day;

the prophet will also stumble with you by night.

And I will destroy your mother.

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Because you have rejected knowledge,

I will reject youfrom serving as My priest.

Since you have forgotten the law of your God,

I will also forget your sons.

7 The more they multiplied,

the more they sinned against Me.

Iwill change their honorinto disgrace.

8 They feed on the sinof My people;

they have an appetite for their transgressions.

9 The same judgment will happen

to both people and priests.

I will punish them for their ways

and repay them for their deeds.

10 They will eat but not be satisfied;

they will be promiscuousbut not multiply.

For they have abandoned their devotion to theLord.

11 Promiscuity,wine, and new wine

take away one’s understanding.

12 My people consult their wooden idols,

and their divining rods inform them.

For a spirit of promiscuity leads them astray;

they act promiscuously

in disobedience totheir God.

13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops,

and they burn offerings on the hills,

and under oaks, poplars, and terebinths,

because their shade is pleasant.

And so your daughters act promiscuously

and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

14 I will not punish your daughters

when they act promiscuously

or your daughters-in-law

when they commit adultery,

for the men themselves go off with prostitutes

and make sacrifices with cult prostitutes.

People without discernment are doomed.

Warnings for Israel and Judah

15 Israel, if you act promiscuously,

don’t let Judah become guilty!

Do not go to Gilgal

or make a pilgrimage to Beth-aven,

and do not swear an oath: As theLordlives!

16 For Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn cow.

Can theLordnow shepherd them

like a lamb in an open meadow?

17 Ephraim is attached to idols;

leave him alone!

18 When their drinking is over,

they turn to promiscuity.

Israel’s leadersfervently love disgrace.

19 A wind with its wings will carry them off,

and they will be ashamed of their sacrifices.

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1 Hear this, priests!

Pay attention, house of Israel!

Listen, royal house!

For the judgment applies to you

because you have been a snare at Mizpah

and a net spread out on Tabor.

2 Rebelsare deeply involved in slaughter;

I will be a punishment for all of them.

3 I know Ephraim,

and Israel is not hidden from Me.

For now, Ephraim,

you have acted promiscuously;

Israel is defiled.

4 Their actions do not allow them

to return to their God,

for a spirit of promiscuity is among them,

and they do not know theLord.

5 Israel’s arrogance testifies against them.

Both Israel and Ephraim stumble

because of their wickedness;

even Judah will stumble with them.

6 They go with their flocks and herds

to seek theLord

but do not find Him;

He has withdrawn from them.

7 They betrayed theLord;

indeed, they gave birth to illegitimate children.

Now the New Moonwill devour them

along with their fields.

8 Blow the horn in Gibeah,

the trumpet in Ramah;

raise the war cry in Beth-aven:

After you, Benjamin!

9 Ephraim will become a desolation

on the day of punishment;

I announce what is certain

among the tribes of Israel.

10 The princes of Judah are like those

who move boundary markers;

I will pour out My furyon them like water.

11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,

for he is determined to follow what is worthless.

12 So I am like rot to Ephraim

and like decay to the house of Judah.

13 When Ephraim saw his sickness

and Judah his wound,

Ephraim went to Assyria

and sent a delegation to the great king.

But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.

14 For I am like a lion to Ephraim

and like a young lion to the house of Judah.

Yes, I will tear them to pieces and depart.

I will carry them off,

and no one can rescue them.

15 I will depart and return to My place

until they recognize their guilt and seek My face;

they will search for Me in their distress.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/17/32k/HOS/5-61728fd10aad8978144eb977afda418d.mp3?version_id=72—

A Call to Repentance

1 Come, let us return to theLord.

For He has torn us,

and He will heal us;

He has wounded us,

and He will bind up our wounds.

2 He will revive us after two days,

and on the third day He will raise us up

so we can live in His presence.

3 Let us strive to know theLord.

His appearance is as sure as the dawn.

He will come to us like the rain,

like the spring showers that water the land.

The Lord’s First Lament

4 What am I going to do with you, Ephraim?

What am I going to do with you, Judah?

Your loyalty is like the morning mist

and like the early dew that vanishes.

5 This is why I have used the prophets

to cut them down;

I have killed them with the words of My mouth.

My judgment strikes like lightning.

6 For I desire loyalty and not sacrifice,

the knowledge of Godrather than burnt offerings.

7 But they, like Adam,have violated the covenant;

there they have betrayed Me.

8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,

tracked with bloody footprints.

9 Like raiders who wait in ambush for someone,

a band of priests murders on the road to Shechem.

They commit atrocities.

10 I have seen something horriblein the house of Israel:

Ephraim’s promiscuity is there;Israel is defiled.

11 A harvest is also appointed for you, Judah.

When Ireturn My people from captivity,

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/17/32k/HOS/6-88394e0b45769d016684e845d19647bf.mp3?version_id=72—

1 when I heal Israel,

the sins of Ephraimand the crimes of Samaria

will be exposed.

For they practice fraud;

a thief breaks in;

a raiding party pillages outside.

2 But they never consider that I remember all their evil.

Now their sins are all around them;

they are right in front of My face.

Israel’s Corruption

3 They please the king with their evil,

the princes with their lies.

4 All of them commit adultery;

they are like an oven heated by a baker

who stops stirring the fire

from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.

5 On the day of our king,

the princes are sick with the heat of wine—

there is a conspiracy with traitors.

6 For they — their hearts like an oven —

draw him into their oven.

Their anger smolders all night;

in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

7 All of them are as hot as an oven,

and they consume their rulers.

All their kings fall;

not one of them calls on Me.

8 Ephraim has allowed himself to get mixed up with the nations.

Ephraim is unturned bread baked on a griddle.

9 Foreigners consume his strength,

but he does not notice.

Even his hair is streaked with gray,

but he does not notice.

10 Israel’s arrogance testifies against them,

yet they do not return to Yahweh their God,

and for all this, they do not seek Him.

11 So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove;

they call to Egypt,and they go to Assyria.

12 As they are going, I will spread My net over them;

I will bring them down like birds of the sky.

I will discipline them in accordance

with the news that reachestheir assembly.

The Lord’s Second Lament

13 Woe to them,for they fled from Me;

destruction to them, for they rebelled against Me!

Though I want to redeem them,

they speak lies against Me.

14 They do not cry to Me from their hearts;

rather, they wail on their beds.

They slash themselvesfor grain and new wine;

they turn away from Me.

15 I trained and strengthened their arms,

but they plot evil against Me.

16 They turn, but not to what is above;

they are like a faulty bow.

Their leaders will fall by the sword

because of the cursing of their tongue.

They will be ridiculed for this in the land of Egypt.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/17/32k/HOS/7-eefff050cdb59235898f21fc2204e039.mp3?version_id=72—

Israel’s False Hopes

1 Put the horn to your mouth!

One like an eagle comes

against the house of theLord,

because they transgress My covenant

and rebel against My law.

2 Israel cries out to Me,

“My God, we know You!”

3 Israel has rejected what is good;

an enemy will pursue him.

4 They have installed kings,

but not through Me.

They have appointed leaders,

but without My approval.

They make their silver and gold

into idols for themselves

for their own destruction.

5 Your calf-idolis rejected, Samaria.

My anger burns against them.

How long will they be incapable of innocence?

6 For this thing is from Israel —

a craftsman made it,and it is not God.

The calf of Samaria will be smashed to bits!

7 Indeed, they sow the wind

and reap the whirlwind.

There is no standing grain;

what sprouts fails to yield flour.

Even if they did,

foreigners would swallow it up.

8 Israel is swallowed up!

Now they are among the nations

like discarded pottery.

9 For they have gone up to Assyria

like a wild donkey going off on its own.

Ephraim has paid for love.

10 Even though they hire lovers among the nations,

I will now round them up,

and they will begin to decrease in number

under the burden of the king and leaders.

11 When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin,

they became his altars for sinning.

12 Though I were to write out for him

ten thousand points of My instruction,

they would beregarded as something strange.

13 Though they offer sacrificial gifts

and eat the flesh,

theLorddoes not accept them.

Now He will remember their guilt

and punish their sins;

they will return to Egypt.

14 Israel has forgotten his Makerand built palaces;

Judah has also multiplied fortified cities.

I will send fire on their cities,

and it will consume their citadels.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/17/32k/HOS/8-2019828aac4769795a698990c9afc97f.mp3?version_id=72—

The Coming Exile

1 Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly as the nations do,

for you have acted promiscuously,leaving your God.

You have loved the wages of a prostitute

on every grain-threshing floor.

2 Threshing floor and wine vat will not sustain them,

and the new wine will fail them.

3 They will not stay in the land of theLord.

Instead, Ephraim will return to Egypt,

and they will eat unclean foodin Assyria.

4 They will not pour out

their wine offerings to theLord,

and their sacrifices will not please Him.

Their food will be like the bread of mourners;

all who eat it become defiled.

For their bread will be for their appetites alone;

it will not enter the house of theLord.

5 What will you do on a festival day,

on the day of theLord’s feast?

6 For even if they flee from devastation,

Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them.

Thistles will take possession of their precious silver;

thorns will invade their tents.

7 The days of punishment have come;

the days of retribution have come.

Let Israel recognize it!

The prophet is a fool,

and the inspired man is insane,

because of the magnitude

of your guilt and hostility.

8 Ephraim’s watchman is with my God.

The prophet encounters a fowler’s snare

on all his ways.

Hostility is in the house of his God!

9 They have deeply corrupted themselves

as in the days of Gibeah.

He will remember their guilt;

He will punish their sins.

Ephraim Bereaved of Offspring

10 I discovered Israel

like grapes in the wilderness.

I saw your fathers

like the first fruit of the fig tree in its first season.

But they went to Baal-peor,

consecrated themselves to Shame,

and became detestable,

like the thing they loved.

11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird:

no birth, no gestation, no conception.

12 Even if they raise children,

I will bereave them of each one.

Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!

13 I have seen Ephraim like Tyre,

planted in a meadow,

so Ephraim will bring out his children

to the executioner.

14 Give them,Lord—

What should You give?

Give them a womb that miscarries

and breasts that are dry!

15 All their evil appears at Gilgal,

for there I came to hate them.

I will drive them from My house

because of their evil, wicked actions.

I will no longer love them;

all their leaders are rebellious.

16 Ephraimis struck down;

their roots are withered;

they cannot bear fruit.

Even if they bear children,

I will kill the precious offspring of their wombs.

17 My God will reject them

because they have not listened to Him;

they will become wanderers among the nations.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/17/32k/HOS/9-2d0c900a35598671d70a55718098e4d0.mp3?version_id=72—

The Vine and the Calf

1 Israel is a lushvine;

it yields fruit for itself.

The more his fruit increased,

the more he increased the altars.

The better his land produced,

the better they made the sacred pillars.

2 Their hearts are devious;

now they must bear their guilt.

TheLordwill break down their altars

and demolish their sacred pillars.

3 In fact, they are now saying,

“We have no king!

For we do not fear theLord.

What can a king do for us? ”

4 They speak mere words,

taking false oaths while making covenants.

So lawsuits break out

like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

5 The residents of Samariawill have anxiety

over the calfof Beth-aven.

Indeed, its idolatrous priests rejoiced over it;

the people will mourn over it,

over its glory.

It will certainly depart from them.

6 The calf itself will be taken to Assyria

as an offering to the great king.

Ephraim will experience shame;

Israel will be ashamed of its counsel.

7 Samaria’s king will disappear

like foamon the surface of the water.

8 The high placesof Aven, the sin of Israel,

will be destroyed;

thorns and thistles will grow over their altars.

They will say to the mountains,“Cover us! ”

and to the hills, “Fall on us! ”

Israel’s Defeat because of Sin

9 Israel, you have sinned

since the days of Gibeah;

they have taken their stand there.

Will not war against the unjust

overtake them in Gibeah?

10 I will disciplinethem at My discretion;

nations will be gathered against them

to put them in bondage

for their two crimes.

11 Ephraim is a well-trained calf

that loves to thresh,

but I will place a yoke onher fine neck.

I will harness Ephraim;

Judah will plow;

Jacob will do the final plowing.

12 Sow righteousness for yourselves

and reap faithful love;

break up your unplowed ground.

It is time to seek theLord

until He comesand sends righteousness

on you like the rain.

13 You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice;

you have eaten the fruit of lies.

Because you have trusted in your own way

and in your large number of soldiers,

14 the roar of battle will rise against your people,

and all your fortifications will be demolished

in a day of war,

like Shalman’s destruction of Beth-arbel.

Mothers will be dashed to pieces

along with their children.

15 So it will be done to you, Bethel,

because of your extreme evil.

At dawn the king of Israel will be totally destroyed.

—https://api-cdn.youversionapi.com/audio-bible-youversionapi/17/32k/HOS/10-c9e0614c6601961bfd899a5540384656.mp3?version_id=72—