Book of Hosea

The Word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel. The first word of the Lord that came to Hosea, and the Lord said to Hosea, "Go, take a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land commits harlotry after the Lord." And he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. And the Lord said, "Name him Jezreel, for soon I will avenge the blood of Jezreel and cut off the kingdom from the house of Israel." And it shall be that on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. And she conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said, "Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel; rather, I will fight against them.

And I will save them, the children of Judah, and I will save them, I am the Lord their God, and I will not save them with bow and with spear, nor with chariots, nor with shields, nor with horses, nor with cavalry. And she left the bread for the harlot, and conceived again, and bore a son. And the Lord said to him, "Call his name 'Not My People,' because you are not My people, and I am not your God." And the number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted and cannot be measured, and they will be in that land, where I said to them, "You are My people," because they will be called the living children of the Lord. And after this, the children of Judah and the children of Israel will gather together, and they will send one angel, and he will raise them from the earth, because the great day for Israel has come. Chapter 2 And say to your brother, "My people," and to your sister, "Harlot." Blame your mother, because she was not my wife, and I was not a husband.

And now, I will scatter their remnant from before their face, and their poor from the midst of their goats, and I will cut off their young shoots, and I will make them like the days of childhood, and like the first day on which they were born. And I will make them like the earth, and I will make them like a desert without water, and I will kill them with thirst. And they will no longer be called children, for they are a generation of what? For death is their mother, and their mother has shamed them. For she says in her heart, "I will go and give drink to my poor ones, those who give me my drink and my food, and who clothe me with my garments and my coverings, and who give me my veil and everything I need, and bring it to me." Because of this, now I will shorten her path with a thorn, and I will block her way, and she will no longer pass by. And she will no longer give drink to her poor, and she will not find their thirst, and she will not find them, and she will say, "I will go now to my death, which is better, for it is more beautiful to me than what was before.

And she, she knew that I gave her grain and wine and oil, and I multiplied for her silver and gold. And she, she served Baal. And because of this, I will be angry and gather my grain at its time and my wine on its day, and I will strip her of her garments and her veils, so that her shame may be uncovered. And now, I will uncover her shame before her poor, and there is none who can save her from my hands. And I will destroy all her lords and her feasts and her months and her tenths and all her festivals. And I will destroy the wine and the balm and all that she says, "It is he who gave me," my poor. And I will sow the field and make it a wilderness, so that it may become a desolation, and the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth will devour it. And I will be avenged as in the days of Baalim, when he gave them drink and they were intoxicated, and her goats and her flocks went and followed her poor. "She has accepted me," says the Lord. Because of this, now I will make her go astray and turn her into the wilderness, and I will make her heart forget.

and I will give her her portion from here, and she will find counsel in the valleys of Akkān, and she will be destroyed there, as in the days of fire, and as on the day of her birth from the womb of the mother, and as when she ascended from Egypt. And this will be, saying, the Lord says: "You will call me 'my lord,' and you will not call Baal." And I will erase the names of the Baals from her mouth, and you will not remember their names. And this, saying, I will make a covenant with all the beasts of the field and with the birds of the sky and with what crawls in the earth, and I will set the bow and the spear and the arrow from the earth, and I will make you trust in me. And I will love you, woman, forever, in righteousness and in justice, in mercy and in compassion. And I will love you in faith, and you will know me, says the Lord. And this will be the day, says the Lord: "I will give to the sky, and the sky will give to the earth." And the earth will give to the grain and to the wine and to the oil, and they will give to Israel.

and I will sow peace for her in the land, and I will forget for the sake of Akkān the counsel, and I will love for the sake of Akkān the love. And I will say to my people, to the one who is of my people, and he also will say to me, “My Lord and my God, you.” Chapter 3 And the Lord said to me, “Love a woman, you evil and adulterous one, as the Lord loved the children of Israel.” But they look to a foreign god and love what takes away shame and gives wine. And I was astonished at myself with fifteen silver talents and with a measure of a horn of wheat and with a measure of a nebel of wine. And I said to her, “Dwell with me many days, and do not commit adultery, and do not seek another man, and I will be with you.” For many days the children of Israel dwelt without a king and without an angel and without sacrifice and without priests and without a vision, and there is no ephod and no seraphim.

And from this, the children of Israel will be tested, and they will seek their Lord God and their King David, and they will remember the Lord and his goodness at the end of days. Chapter 4 Hear the word of the Lord, children of Israel, for the Lord will judge those who dwell in the land. For there is no justice, no mercy, no understanding of the Lord in the land, without falsehood, murder, theft, and fornication filling the land, and blood mingling with blood. Because of this, the land will be destroyed and will perish together with all who dwell in it, and with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the beasts of the earth, and the fish of the sea will vanish. And there is none who will judge, and none who will intercede, and no one at all; and the people, the priests who are ordained, have become as if they were not ordained. And the priest, the prophet, and the people together will grow weak on the path, and you will resemble the night.

And they are like my people, as one without a heart, for you also have abandoned your heart, and I also have abandoned you. Turn back to me, for you have rejected the law of your God, and I also will reject your children. As their number is great, so they have wronged me, and I will reject the honor of their glory. And I will recount to them the sins of my people, and they will take up their souls in their error. And it will be as this people, so also the priest, and I will pursue them on their path and I will judge them according to their deeds. They will eat and not be satisfied, they will thirst and not be quenched, for they have abandoned their Lord God. They keep drunkenness and intoxication and inebriation. For the heart of my people has loved the sword; they ask for the rod, and it is given to them, and with the spirit of drunkenness they are deceived, and they have forgotten their God. And they sacrifice in the mountains and in the fields, and they offer beneath the oak and the terebinth and the walnut and the almond, and beneath a tree whose shade is pleasant; because of this, your daughters will thirst and your pastures will be desolate.

And I did not bring your children back when they were lost, nor your shepherds when they were wounded, for they mingled with the lost and drank with the foolish, people with people who have no heart, mingling with those who have no heart. And you, Israel, do not be lost, and you, Judah, do not be destroyed, do not go up to the house of sin, and do not swear falsely in the name of the living Lord. For as the calf that was lost, so Ephraim was lost, and now the Lord sees them as sheep in the wilderness. As Ephraim loved the idol and set up a shrine for it. And they destroyed the Canaanites, whose seed was lost, and they destroyed the harvest by their wickedness. And by the pride of their souls, which is the spirit of fornication, and they are ashamed in their assemblies. Chapter 5 Hear this, priests, and make the house of Israel hear it, and let the house of the prince hear it, for because of you is all this punishment, for you have become a stumbling block to him who seeks, and like a net that is spread, they who walk stumble in it, they have set a snare.

But I, the prophet, rebuke you. And I knew Ephraim and Israel, and they were far from me, for now Ephraim is dead and Israel is rotten. And their hearts did not turn to go to their God, for the spirit of fornication was upon them; they did not know the Lord. And Israel was ashamed and bowed down before his face, and Israel and Ephraim grew weak in their errors, and Judah was drawn along with them. With the calves and sheep they mingled, and they went about seeking the Lord, but they did not find him, for he had abandoned them. For they had denied the Lord and rejected him, and they treated him as a child of a stranger; and now the locusts devour their inheritance. They blew the horn in the mountains and beat the drum in the plains and played in the house of sin. Where Benjamin was lost, Ephraim also came to ruin; in the days when they scattered my people Israel, there I saw the fornication of Ephraim and the rottenness of Israel.

And the angels of Judah were as one who is bound, and I knew their sickness, and my wrath was kindled against them like water. And Ephraim became a fugitive, and Judah went forth to judgment, for they took to shedding blood. And I knew them as a gnat for Ephraim and as a mosquito for the house of Judah. And Ephraim saw his wound, and Judah saw his affliction. And Ephraim went to Persia, and they sent ambassadors to the king of Uyarem. And he also was able to heal you until the disease that is upon you is gone. For I knew them as a leopard for Ephraim and as a lion for the house of Judah. And I will crush them and lift them up, and there is none who will save them. And I will go out and pass through my house until they are destroyed and they seek my face in the day of their distress. Chapter 6 And they will cry out to me and say, "Come, let us dwell and repent before the Lord our God." For it is he who chastised us and will heal us, and it is he who bound us and will release us.

And he will show us the appointed time, and on the third day we shall rise, and we shall live before him, we shall know and we shall understand, as we know the Lord, as we find him like a strong wall, and he will come like the early and late rain of winter upon the earth. What shall I do for you, Ephraim, and what shall I do for you, house of Judah? Behold, your mercy is like the morning cloud and like the morning dew that passes quickly. Because of this, I have restrained your prophets and killed them with the word of my mouth, and my judgment will go forth like light. For prayer is more precious than sacrifice, and the knowledge of the Lord is more than an offering. But they were like a man who violates his oath, and in this they denied me. Gilead, a land that is built up as before, and is defiled with blood and violence, like a wounded man. As for the priests, they have changed the path; they have surrounded the path of their Lord when they killed Sekima, for they committed iniquity in the house of Israel.

And I saw the death of Ephraim, great and bitter, and the evil of Israel. And Judah took up his complaint against you when I sought you out, O my people Israel, with a sign. Chapter 7 And when I healed Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was revealed, and the evil of Samaria, for they committed falsehood. And an army entered against him, and he was scattered, and he plundered on the road, as their covenant was broken. And I knew what was hidden in their hearts, and I remembered all their evil. Now I will gather all their evil and their sins, and before my face they were. And the kings rejoiced in their evil, and the angels also in their falsehood. For all of them go to a woman, a man, like a fire that is kindled for a furnace that blazes, a fire from a thornbush that is twisted, until the time of their kings is consumed. And the angels began to be drunk with wine, and they stretched out their hands with the drunkards all night long. Ephraim was sated and slept all night long, and when they awoke in the morning, they fled like a flame of fire, all of them.

And I saw that their hearts were like fire, and their princes devoured them. And all their kings fell, and there is none among them who calls to me. Ephraim mingled with his people. Ephraim, your secrets are your sins. And the enemy devoured his strength, and he himself knew and spat upon his own old age in his face, and again he clothed himself. And they will diminish and mock Israel before his face, and they will not turn to the Lord their God. And because of all this, they will grieve the Lord their God. And Ephraim became a slave, like a dove without a heart. They call to Egypt, and they go to Persia. And as they go, so my snares come upon them, and like birds of the sky I bring them down and I strike them, their ears, with their own afflictions. Woe to them, for they have removed their guardians from me. They are the ones who have sinned against me, and I saved them; they, however, hated me with falsehood. And they did not hasten to me; with their hearts they said, "Let us kill within their own tents for the sake of grain, wine, and oil," and they killed.

And they did not repent before me, and I strengthened my seed against them, as I would do evil against them. And they were mixed in falsehood, and they became like a bent bow, and their angels fall by the spears of their heart and tongue. Thus are their sins and their iniquities in the land of Egypt, in their bosom like a wound. Chapter 8 And like an eagle in the house of the Lord, for they violated my covenant and sinned against my law. They cry out to me and say, "We know you, O Lord, for Israel has gathered his good deeds." And they hid their enemies and stripped themselves. And not for my sake did they strive, and they do not know me, and they made for themselves gods of their gold and their silver, that they might be cut off from them. How long, O Samaria, your flesh, and my wrath is kindled against them? Until when will they cease to persecute Israel? And he is a maker of falsehood, and he is not a god, for he has deceived your flesh, O Samaria.

Because their seed is wind, and they have plowed evil and there is no strength for their harvest, and no blade comes forth from it; and if a blade comes forth, the enemy will devour it. Israel has been drowned and has become like a stranger among the peoples, for they have ascended into Persia. Ephraim has become corrupt and has become like a wild ass of the desert, and has loved for himself a hundred. Because of this, the peoples will crush them; now I will crush them, and they will be left behind like a remnant, as if they were to bury a king and an angel. For Ephraim has multiplied his sacrifices for sin, and has made for himself a sacrifice of love. And he has written upon himself love, for he has become a stranger to the sacrifice of love. If they drink the sacrifice and eat the flesh, they will not be known, says the Lord. Now I will remember their sins and I will take vengeance upon them for their errors. For they have been mixed into Egypt and will eat locusts in Persia. And Israel has rejected his Creator; he has built for Teman, and Judah has multiplied the cities of profit; and I will put fire into their cities, and it will consume their foundations.

Chapter 9 Do not rejoice, and do not exult, O Israel, like the peoples, for you have turned away from your God, and you have loved the gift of grain from every threshing-floor, and the press, and wine. And because of this grain, they have been defiled, and wine has deceived them, in the land where the Lord dwelt. And Ephraim dwelt in Egypt, eating the husk in Persia. And they did not bring forth wine and must for the Lord, and they did not offer him their bread as the bread of their feasts; and everything they ate was foul for their souls, and they did not enter the house of the Lord. What will they do on the day of their festival, and on the day of the feast of the Lord? Because of this, now they wander like their captives of Egypt, and they will be buried in Memphis, and they will bury them in Migdol, and their gold in the desert, and the thornbush will inherit within their houses. The days of vengeance and punishment have arrived, and Israel will be judged with a prophet who puts on the spirit of a demon; because of the multitude of your errors, you have multiplied your punishment.

Ephraim, the men of the eye, with the prophet of the Lord, and evil counsel with all his paths, and their wickedness they placed within the house of the Lord. And they were lacking as in the days of the feast, and now he remembers their sins for them and reproaches them with their errors. As a cluster of grapes in the wilderness I found Israel, and as a dried fig in the wilderness of winter I saw their fathers. And they were the house of Baal Peor, and they were devoted to their lack, and they were as a cup of poison, beloved. Ephraim, like a bird, fled. Their glory from youth and from birth and pregnancy. And if they bring forth their offspring, they destroy them from among men, and again they have no flesh, and that which is from within them. Ephraim, as I saw in the counsel of the assembly, I gathered their children, and Ephraim brought out his little ones to be trampled. Give them, O Lord, what will you give them? Give them a womb, a place, and breasts of milk. All evil at Gilgal, for there I hated them because of evil intercourse. I will drive them from their houses, and I will no longer love them, for all their angels are corrupt.

Ephraim, and his garment dried, and he does not fear like, and he said, "I will kill the children of their threshing-floor, the counsel." The Lord cast them down because they were rebellious, and he will be our mockery among the peoples. Chapter 10 The vine which Israel planted, and its fruit multiplied, and as it was abundant, they increased the sacrifice, and according to the measure of the beauty of his land, they built an altar. And their heart was comforted then; they will be lost to themselves; their altars will be destroyed, and they will be broken like them. And now, then, say, "We have no king because we have made the Lord angry, and a king, when will he inherit us?" He who speaks a word of false counsel and who makes a covenant with a child of judgment like grass in the desert in the wilderness. Where the house of iniquity was built, where the men of Samaria dwelt, because the people did not build it. And as they embittered it, so they will laugh over the fire, because he fled from him. And they also embittered him and carried him to the land of Persia, to the son of the king of the army, and they struck Ephraim, and Israel was ashamed of his counsel.

He cast down Samaria for her king, like a pot on the surface of the water. And the sin of Ephraim was lifted up as a burden, and Israel’s garment was dried, and he does not fear like, and he said, "I will kill the children of their threshing-floor, the counsel." The Lord cast them down because they were rebellious, and he will be our mockery a And he came and smote them, and they gathered together against them, the peoples, when they would smite them with both their wings. Ephraim became a calf, a place of pasture for the flock, and I will go up upon the yoke of his neck, I will mount Ephraim, and I will make him flee to Judah, and Jacob for himself. Sow righteousness for yourselves, and reap the fruit of life; I will show you the treasures of wisdom; hide yourselves for the Lord until the harvest of your righteousness arrives. Why do you strengthen yourselves in transgression and sin, and consume the fruit of death? For you trusted in your own strength and in the multitude of your army. And death will rise up over your people, and all your remains will fall, as Solomon returned to you in the house of Jeroboam in the days of slaughter, and they were cleansed from over the children.

Thus I will do to you, O House of Israel, before the face of your sin. Chapter 11 At dawn he was anointed; they anointed him for the king of Israel, for Israel is a child, and I loved him and I called him, and I summoned my son. And as I summoned them, thus their hunger fled from my face; for they are those who worship Baal and offer incense to calves. And I raised Ephraim and I carried him on my arm, and they did not know that I was their physician. And into ruin I scattered the people, binding them with my love, and I made them as one who stumbles over a man in his darkness, and I look upon his way and I restrain him. Ephraim was in Egypt, and Assyria is his king, for he refused to be carried. And the spear was broken in his land, and the sword fell from his hands, and they eat from their own desire. And my people are weary of their dwelling, and they seek the Lord for his glory, and they do not magnify. How then, Ephraim, shall I know you? How shall I recognize you, O Israel? Like Adam and like Eve, my heart was troubled, and my mercy was revealed.

And I will not do as with the rod of my wrath, and I will not destroy Ephraim, for I am the Lord God, and I am not a man, and a holy one is over you, and I say, Do not enter the city. I will go and lead you to the Lord God, for He will save us. Like a lion, He will roar, and His offspring will leap like water. And He will cry out like a bird of Egypt, and like a dove of the land of Persia, and I will gather them into their houses, the house of the Lord God. They have despised me with falsehood, Ephraim and the house of Israel and Judah, in iniquity. Now I have known them, O Lord, and the people of the holy one are called for the Lord God. Chapter 12 Ephraim is evil, a demon of madness, full of pride, and all falsehood and deceit have increased, and he has been adorned with the crown of Persia, and they anoint with oil of Egypt as though to anoint him. And the Lord God will contend with Judah, and He will be angry with Jacob, and He will judge them according to their ways and according to their deeds. Within the womb, He has set a trap for the trap of his brother, and at his coming, he is able with the Lord God.

And they were silent, and he was able to be with the angel in the city, and they boasted to me within the house of Ayon, where they found me, and there they spoke to me. The Lord God, who rules over all, remember. And you also, hasten to your God; righteousness and justice, keep and draw near to your God at all times. In his hand, for Canaan, the measure of iniquity, and he loved patience. And Ephraim said, "I have entered, I have become rich, and I have found rest for my soul." And from all his deeds, nothing was found for him except the sin which he committed. And I, the Lord God, am your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and again I will place you in the eye, as in the days of Baal. And I will speak to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and I have been portrayed by the hand of the prophets. When he was not in Gilead, he was there. And only the angels, those who offer their sacrifices, what is the measure of the necklace in the grass of the desert? And Jacob went into the desert of Sorea, and Jacob lamented because of his wife, and he mourned for his wife.

And by the prophet, the Lord God brought Israel out of the land of Egypt, and by the prophet, he was hidden. Ephraim was astonished and cut off, and his blood was poured out upon him, and the Lord God will cause destruction. Chapter 13 According to his word, Ephraim took his punishment; in Israel they appointed Baal and he died. And again they made an abomination and made for themselves a booth from their gold and their crystal in the form of a calf, and they sacrificed to them, and they said, "Worship, O people, for your bread has perished." Because of this, truly, like the blood of the morning and like the dew of the field that passes away, and like the destruction of the ear of grain that the wind blows away, and like smoke from a fire. And I, the Lord God, am your God, who established the heavens, and I created the earth, and my hand has set in place all the powers of the heavens, and I have not shown them to you as I have revealed them to them. And I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and you do not know, O you, a foreign god besides me, and there is none who can save you besides me.

I saw you in the desert and in the land where you were able. By your visions, and you were silent until they would drown you, and I hardened your heart because of this, accept me. And their wickedness is like a lion and like a leopard. On the path of the sword, and I will seek vengeance for them like a hungry bear, and I will tear out their heart, and there the lions of the wilderness will devour them, and the wild beasts of the wilderness will tear them apart. For I have destroyed you, Israel; who will help you? Where is that king of yours who will save you in all your lands, and will be avenged for you, that one of whom you say to me, "Give me a king and an angel"? And I gave you in my wrath and in my anger. And I delayed the measure of your iniquity and the sin of Ephraim is heavy. And sickness will seize him like one who gives birth; this son of yours is wise, who will not stand in the discipline of his children. From the hand of death I saved them, and from Sheol I redeemed them. Where is your judgment, death, and where is your zeal, Sheol? Hide joy from the eyes, it will be scattered.

For he shall be separated from the midst of his brothers, and the Lord shall bring his sword from the forest, a hot wind, and shall dry up his roots, and shall shake his branches, and shall dry up the land and all the produce of its houses. Chapter 14 And he shall destroy Samaria, for she turned away from her god, and all of them shall fall by the sword, and their children shall be dashed against the rocks, and their pregnant women shall be ripped open. Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have grown weak in your iniquity. And take up the word, and return to the Lord your God, and say, "How long shall we bear iniquity?" And they shall take up the good which they have despised for the Lord, the fruit of our repentance. Cry out, "O that he might save us and our horses, O that we might be saved!" And I shall not tell them, "Behold, our strength is for the work of our hands, which for your sake the son of death may be slain." And I shall send to their beasts of burden, and I shall love them from me, and behold, I shall turn my wrath away from them. And I shall make them like rain for Israel, and it shall blossom like a flower, and his roots shall be firm like Lebanon.

And he shall shake his branches from the midst, like a vine that is pruned, and his trunk like Lebanon. And they shall be healed and dwell under his shade, and they shall live and be satisfied from his fruit, and they shall sprout like a vine, his memory, and like the wine of Lebanon. For Ephraim, why is there still an idol for him? Behold, I have weakened him, and I have strengthened him, and I have made him fruitful like a vine that is pruned, and your fruit shall be found with me. Who is still wise and will understand this? And who will comprehend this until the righteous paths of the Lord? The righteous walk on them, and the sinners seek them.