Hosea
Chapter 1
1 The word of Yahweh that 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.
2 When Yahweh spoke at the first by Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, Go, take to you a wife of prostitution and children of prostitution; for the land does commit great prostitution, [departing] from Yahweh.
3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived, and bore him a son.
4 Yahweh said to him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease.
5 It shall happen at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.
6 She conceived again, and bore a daughter. [Yahweh] said to him, Call her name Look-ruhamah; for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, that I should in any wise pardon them.
7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by Yahweh their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.
8 Now when she had weaned Look-ruhamah, she conceived, and bore a son.
9 [Yahweh] said, Call his name Look-ammi; for you are not my people, and I will not be your [God].
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which can't be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, it shall be said to them, [You are] the sons of the living God.
11 The children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint themselves one head, and shall go up from the land; for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Chapter 2
1 Say you to your brothers, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
2 Contend with your mother, contend; for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
3 lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.
4 Yes, on her children will I have no mercy; for they are children of prostitution;
5 for their mother has played the prostitute; she who conceived them has done shamefully; for she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.
6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she shall not find her paths.
7 She shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
8 For she did not know that I gave her the grain, and the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.
9 Therefore will I take back my grain in the time of it, and my new wine in the season of it, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.
10 Now will I uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand.
11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.
12 I will lay waste her vines and her fig-trees, whereof she has said, These are my hire that my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest, and the animals of the field shall eat them.
13 I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, says Yahweh.
14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her.
15 I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall make answer there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
16 It shall be at that day, says Yahweh, that you shall call me Ishi, and shall call me no more Baali.
17 For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they shall no more be mentioned by their name.
18 In that day will I make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the land, and will make them to lie down safely.
19 I will betroth you to me forever; yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, and in justice, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
20 I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know Yahweh.
21 It shall happen in that day, I will answer, says Yahweh, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth;
22 and the earth shall answer the grain, and the new wine, and the oil; and they shall answer Jezreel.
23 I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, You are my people; and they shall say, [You are] my God.
Chapter 3
1 Yahweh said to me, Go again, love a woman beloved of [her] friend, and an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.
2 So I bought her to me for fifteen [pieces] of silver, and a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley;
3 and I said to her, You shall abide for me many days; you shall not play the prostitute, and you shall not be any man's wife: so will I also be toward you.
4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without pillar, and without ephod or teraphim:
5 afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with fear to Yahweh and to his goodness in the latter days.
Chapter 4
1 Hear the word of Yahweh, you children of Israel; for Yahweh has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.
2 There is nothing but swearing and breaking faith, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery; they break out, and blood touches blood.
3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone who dwells therein shall languish, with the animals of the field and the birds of the sky; yes, the fish of the sea also shall be taken away.
4 Yet let no man strive, neither let any man reprove; for your people are as those who strive with the priest.
5 You shall stumble in the day, and the prophet also shall stumble with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to me: seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.
7 As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me: I will change their glory into shame.
8 They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity.
9 It shall be, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and will requite them their doings.
10 They shall eat, and not have enough; they shall play the prostitute, and shall not increase; because they have left off taking heed to Yahweh.
11 Prostitution and wine and new wine take away the understanding.
12 My people ask counsel at their stock, and their staff declares to them; for the spirit of prostitution has caused them to err, and they have played the prostitute, [departing] from under their God.
13 They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because the shadow of it is good: therefore your daughters play the prostitute, and your brides commit adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for [the men] themselves go apart with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with the prostitutes; and the people that does not understand shall be overthrown.
15 Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet don't let Judah offend; and don't you come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth-aven, nor swear, As Yahweh lives.
16 For Israel has behaved himself stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer: now will Yahweh feed them as a lamb in a large place.
17 Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.
18 Their drink is become sour; they play the prostitute continually; her rulers dearly love shame.
19 The wind has wrapped her up in its wings; and they shall be put to shame because of their sacrifices.
Chapter 5
1 Hear this, you priests, and listen, house of Israel, and give ear, house of the king; for to you pertains the judgment; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread on Tabor.
2 The rebels have gone deep in making slaughter; but I discipline them all.
3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, Ephraim, you have played the prostitute, Israel is defiled.
4 Their doings will not allow them to turn to their God; for the spirit of prostitution is within them, and they don't know Yahweh.
5 The pride of Israel does testify to his face: therefore Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in their iniquity; Judah also shall stumble with them.
6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Yahweh; but they shall not find him: he has withdrawn himself from them.
7 They have dealt treacherously against Yahweh; for they have borne strange children: now shall the new moon devour them with their fields.
8 Blow you the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: sound an alarm at Beth-aven; behind you, Benjamin.
9 Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.
10 The princes of Judah are like those who remove the landmark: I will pour out my wrath on them like water.
11 Ephraim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment; because he was content to walk after [man's] command.
12 Therefore am I to Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah [saw] his wound, then went Ephraim to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb: but he is not able to heal you, neither will he cure you of your wound.
14 For I will be to Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and there shall be none to deliver.
15 I will go and return to my place, until they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me earnestly.
Chapter 6
1 Come, and let us return to Yahweh; for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days will he revive us: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him.
3 Let us know, let us follow on to know Yahweh: his going forth is sure as the morning; and he will come to us as the rain, as the latter rain that waters the earth.
4 Ephraim, what shall I do to you? Judah, what shall I do to you? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goes early away.
5 Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and your judgments are [as] the light that goes forth.
6 For I desire goodness, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 But they like Adam have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.
8 Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity; it is stained with blood.
9 As troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way toward Shechem; yes, they have committed lewdness.
10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing: there prostitution is [found] in Ephraim, Israel is defiled.
11 Also, Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you, when I bring back the captivity of my people.
Chapter 7
1 When I would heal Israel, then is the iniquity of Ephraim uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria; for they commit falsehood, and the thief enters in, and the troop of robbers ravages outside.
2 They don't consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now have their own doings beset them about; they are before my face.
3 They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
4 They are all adulterers; they are as an oven heated by the baker; he ceases to stir [the fire], from the kneading of the dough, until it be leavened.
5 On the day of our king the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with scoffers.
6 For they have made ready their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait: their baker sleeps all the night; in the morning it burns as a flaming fire.
7 They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them who calls to me.
8 Ephraim, he mixes himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned.
9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he doesn't know [it]: yes, gray hairs are here and there on him, and he doesn't know [it].
10 The pride of Israel does testify to his face: yet they have not returned to Yahweh their God, nor sought him, for all this.
11 Ephraim is like a silly dove, without understanding: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
12 When they shall go, I will spread my net on them; I will bring them down as the birds of the sky; I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard.
13 Woe to them! for they have wandered from me; destruction to them! for they have trespassed against me: though I would redeem them, yet they have spoken lies against me.
14 They have not cried to me with their heart, but they howl on their beds: they assemble themselves for grain and new wine; they rebel against me.
15 Though I have taught and strengthened their arms, yet do they devise mischief against me.
16 They return, but not to [him who is] on high; they are like a deceitful bow; their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
Chapter 8
1 [Set] the trumpet to your mouth. As an eagle [he comes] against the house of Yahweh, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.
2 They shall cry to me, My God, we Israel know you.
3 Israel has cast off that which is good: the enemy shall pursue him.
4 They have set up kings, but not by me; they have made princes, and I didn't know it: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.
5 He has cast off your calf, Samaria; my anger is kindled against them: how long will it be before they attain to innocence?
6 For from Israel is even this; the workman made it, and it is no God; yes, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.
7 For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: he has no standing grain; the blade shall yield no meal; if so be it yield, strangers shall swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up: now are they among the nations as a vessel in which none delights.
9 For they are gone up to Assyria, [like] a wild donkey alone by himself: Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Yes, though they hire among the nations, now will I gather them; and they begin to be diminished by reason of the burden of the king of princes.
11 Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, altars have been to him for sinning.
12 I wrote for him the ten thousand things of my law; but they are counted as a strange thing.
13 As for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it; but Yahweh doesn't accept them: now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins; they shall return to Egypt.
14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities: but I will send a fire on his cities, and it shall devour the castles of it.
Chapter 9
1 Don't rejoice, Israel, for joy, like the peoples; for you have played the prostitute, [departing] from your God; you have loved hire on every grain-floor.
2 The threshing floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail her.
3 They shall not dwell in Yahweh's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They shall not pour out wine-offerings to Yahweh, neither shall they be pleasing to him: their sacrifices shall be to them as the bread of mourners; all who eat of it shall be polluted; for their bread shall be for their appetite; it shall not come into the house of Yahweh.
5 What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Yahweh?
6 For, behold, they have gone away from destruction; [yet] Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them; their pleasant things of silver, nettles shall possess them; thorns shall be in their tents.
7 The days of visitation have come, the days of recompense have come. Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the man who has the spirit is mad, for the abundance of your iniquity, and because the enmity is great.
8 Ephraim [was] a watchman with my God: as for the prophet, a fowler's snare is in all his ways, [and] enmity in the house of his God.
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree at its first season: but they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird: there shall be no birth, and none with child, and no conception.
12 Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, so that not a man shall be left: yes, woe also to them when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, like as I have seen Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring out his children to the killer.
14 Give them, Yahweh what will you give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house; I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels.
16 Ephraim is struck, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yes, though they bring forth, yet will I kill the beloved fruit of their womb.
17 My God will cast them away, because they did not listen to him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Chapter 10
1 Israel is a luxuriant vine, that puts forth his fruit: according to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars; according to the goodness of their land they have made goodly pillars.
2 Their heart is divided; now shall they be found guilty: he will strike their altars, he will destroy their pillars.
3 Surely now shall they say, We have no king; for we don't fear Yahweh; and the king, what can he do for us?
4 They speak [vain] words, swearing falsely in making covenants: therefore judgment springs up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
5 The inhabitants of Samaria shall be in terror for the calves of Beth-aven; for the people of it shall mourn over it, and the priests of it who rejoiced over it, for the glory of it, because it is departed from it.
6 It also shall be carried to Assyria for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.
7 [As for] Samaria, her king is cut off, as foam on the water.
8 The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall tell the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.
9 Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood; the battle against the children of iniquity does not overtake them in Gibeah.
10 When it is my desire, I will chastise them; and the peoples shall be gathered against them, when they are bound to their two transgressions.
11 Ephraim is a heifer that is taught, that loves to tread out [the grain]; but I have passed over on her beautiful neck: I will set a rider on Ephraim; Judah shall plow, Jacob shall break his clods.
12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek Yahweh, until he come and rain righteousness on you.
13 You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity; you have eaten the fruit of lies; for you did trust in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.
14 Therefore shall a tumult arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces with her children.
15 So shall Bethel do to you because of your great wickedness: at daybreak shall the king of Israel be utterly cut off.
Chapter 11
1 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
2 The more [the prophets] called them, the more they went from them: they sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to engraved images.
3 Yet I taught Ephraim to walk; I took them on my arms; but they didn't know that I healed them.
4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love; and I was to them as those who lift up the yoke on their jaws; and I laid food before them.
5 They shall not return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian shall be their king, because they refused to return [to me].
6 The sword shall fall on their cities, and shall consume their bars, and devour [them], because of their own counsels.
7 My people are bent on backsliding from me: though they call them to [him who is] on high, none at all will exalt [him].
8 How shall I give you up, Ephraim? [how] shall I cast you off, Israel? how shall I make you as Admah? [how] shall I set you as Zeboiim? my heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused.
9 I will not execute the fierceness of my anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of you; and I will not come in wrath.
10 They shall walk after Yahweh, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children shall come trembling from the west.
11 They shall come trembling as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will make them to dwell in their houses, says Yahweh.
12 Ephraim compasses me about with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah yet rules with God, and is faithful with the Holy One.
Chapter 12
1 Ephraim feeds on wind, and follows after the east wind: he continually multiplies lies and desolation; and they make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.
2 Yahweh has also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.
3 In the womb he took his brother by the heel; and in his manhood he had power with God:
4 yes, he had power over the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him: he found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us,
5 even Yahweh, the God of hosts; Yahweh is his memorial [name].
6 Therefore turn you to your God: keep kindness and justice, and wait for your God continually.
7 [He is] a trafficker, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loves to oppress.
8 Ephraim said, Surely I have become rich, I have found myself wealth: in all my labors they shall find in me no iniquity that is sin.
9 But I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt; I will yet again make you to dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast.
10 I have also spoken to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets have I used parables.
11 Is Gilead iniquity? they are altogether false; in Gilgal they sacrifice bulls; yes, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the field.
12 Jacob fled into the field of Aram, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept [sheep].
13 By a prophet Yahweh brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.
14 Ephraim has provoked to anger most bitterly: therefore shall his blood be left on him, and his reproach shall his Lord return to him.
Chapter 13
1 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.
2 Now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves.
3 Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the dew that passes early away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
4 Yet I am Yahweh your God from the land of Egypt; and you shall know no god but me, and besides me there is no savior.
5 I did know you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
6 According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted: therefore have they forgotten me.
7 Therefore am I to them as a lion; as a leopard will I watch by the way;
8 I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will tear the covering of their heart; and there will I devour them like a lioness; the wild animal shall tear them.
9 It is your destruction, Israel, that [you are] against me, against your help.
10 Where now is your king, that he may save you in all your cities? and your judges, of whom you said, Give me a king and princes?
11 I have given you a king in my anger, and have taken him away in my wrath.
12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is laid up in store.
13 The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come on him: he is an unwise son; for it is time he should not stay in the place of the breaking forth of children.
14 I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from death: death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? repentance shall be hid from my eyes.
15 Though he be fruitful among his brothers, an east wind shall come, the breath of Yahweh coming up from the wilderness; and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall make spoil of the treasure of all goodly vessels.
16 Samaria shall bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword; their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
Chapter 14
1 Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen by your iniquity.
2 Take with you words, and return to Yahweh: tell him, Take away all iniquity, and accept that which is good: so will we render [as] bulls [the offering of] our lips.
3 Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, [You are] our gods; for in you the fatherless finds mercy.
4 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from him.
5 I will be as the dew to Israel; he shall blossom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
6 His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
7 Those who dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive [as] the grain, and blossom as the vine: the scent of it shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
8 Ephraim [shall say], What have I to do any more with idols? I have answered, and will regard him: I am like a green fir-tree; from me is your fruit found.
9 Who is wise, that he may understand these things? prudent, that he may know them? for the ways of Yahweh are right, and the just shall walk in them; but transgressors shall fall therein.