Hosea

Chapter 1

¹ The word of the Lord which came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Ozias, and Joatham, and Achaz, and Ezekias, kings of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joas, king of Israel.

² The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take to thyself a wife of fornication, and children of fornication: for the land will surely go a-whoring in departing from the Lord.

³ So he went and took Gomer, daughter of Debelaim; and she conceived, and bore him a son. ⁴ And the Lord said to him, Call his name Jezrael; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezrael on the house of Juda, and will make to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. ⁵ And it shall be, in that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezrael.

⁶ And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And he said to him, Call her

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name, Unpitied: for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, but will surely set myself in array against them. ⁷ But I will have mercy on the house of Juda, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them with bow, nor with sword, nor by war, nor by horses, nor by horsemen.

⁸ And she weaned Unpitied; and she conceived again, and bore a son. ⁹ And he said, Call his name, Not my people: for ye are not my people, and I am not your God. ¹⁰ Yet the number of the children of Israel was as the sand of the sea, which shall not be measured nor numbered: ¹and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said to them, Ye are not my people, even they shall be called the sons of the living God. ¹¹ And the children of Juda shall be gathered, and the children of Israel together, and shall appoint themselves one head, and shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezrael.

Chapter 2

¹ Say to your brother, My people, and to your sister, Pitied. ² Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband: and I will remove her fornication out of my presence, and her adultery from between her breasts: ³ that I may strip her naked, and make her again as she was at the day of her birth: and I will make her desolate, and make her as a dry land, and will kill her with thirst. ⁴ And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they are children of fornication. ⁵ And their mother went a-whoring: she that bore them disgraced them: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, and my garments, and my linen clothes, my oil and my necessaries.

⁶ Therefore, behold, I hedge up her way with thorns, and ²will stop the ways, and she shall not find her path. ⁷ And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: and she shall say, I will go, and return to my former husband; for it was ³better with me than now.

⁸ And she knew not that I gave her her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied silver to her: but she made silver and gold images for Baal. ⁹ Therefore I will return, and take away my corn in its season, and my wine in its time; and I will take away my raiment and my linen clothes, so that she shall not cover her nakedness. ¹⁰ And now I will expose her uncleanness before her lovers, and no one shall by any means deliver her out of my hand. ¹¹ And I will take away all her gladness, her feasts, and her festivals at the new moon, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies. ¹² And I will utterly destroy her vines, and her fig-trees, all things of which she said, These are my hire which my lovers have given me: and I will make them a testimony, and the wild beasts of the field, and the birds of the sky, and the reptiles of the earth shall devour them. ¹³ And I will recompense on her the days of Baalim, wherein she sacrificed to them, and put on her ear-rings, and her necklaces, and

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went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord.

¹⁴ Therefore, behold, I will cause her to err, and will make her as desolate, and will speak ⁴comfortably to her. ¹⁵ And I will giver her possessions from thence, and the valley of Achor to open her understanding: and she shall be afflicted there according to the days of her infancy, and according to the days of her coming up out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, that she shall call me, My husband, and shall no longer call me Baalim. ¹⁷ And I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and their names shall be remembered no more at all. ¹⁸ And I will make for them in that day a covenant with the wild beasts of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the reptiles of the earth: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle from off the earth, and will cause thee to dwell ⁵safely. ¹⁹ And I will betroth thee to myself for ever; yea, I will betroth thee to myself in righteousness, and in judgment, and in mercy, and in tender compassions; ²⁰ and I will betroth thee to myself in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord.

²¹ And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord, I will hearken to the heaven, and it shall hearken to the earth; ²² and the earth shall hearken to the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hearken to Jezrael. ²³ And I will sow her to me on the earth; and will ⁶love her that was not loved, and will ⁷say to that which was not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art the Lord my God.