Hosea

Hosea 1

¹The word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash^[1] king of Israel:

Hosea’s Wife and Children

²When the LORD began to speak through Hosea, the LORD said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the LORD.” ³So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

⁴Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. ⁵In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”

⁶Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. ⁷Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the LORD their God, will save them.”

⁸After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. ⁹Then the LORD said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.^[2]

¹⁰“Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ ¹¹The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.^[3]

Hosea 2^[4]

¹“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’

Israel Punished and Restored

²“Rebuke your mother, rebuke her,

for she is not my wife,

and I am not her husband.

Let her remove the adulterous look from her face

and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.

³Otherwise I will strip her naked

and make her as bare as on the day she was born;

I will make her like a desert,

turn her into a parched land,

and slay her with thirst.

⁴I will not show my love to her children,

because they are the children of adultery.

⁵Their mother has been unfaithful

and has conceived them in disgrace.

She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

who give me my food and my water,

my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’

⁶Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;

I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.

⁷She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;

she will look for them but not find them.

Then she will say,

‘I will go back to my husband as at first,

for then I was better off than now.’

⁸She has not acknowledged that I was the one

who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,

who lavished on her the silver and gold—

which they used for Baal.

⁹“Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens,

and my new wine when it is ready.

I will take back my wool and my linen,

intended to cover her naked body.

¹⁰So now I will expose her lewdness

before the eyes of her lovers;

no one will take her out of my hands.

¹¹I will stop all her celebrations:

her yearly festivals, her New Moons,

her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.

¹²I will ruin her vines and her fig trees,

which she said were her pay from her lovers;

I will make them a thicket,

and wild animals will devour them.

¹³I will punish her for the days

she burned incense to the Baals;

she decked herself with rings and jewelry,

and went after her lovers,

but me she forgot,”

declares the LORD.

¹⁴“Therefore I am now going to allure her;

I will lead her into the wilderness

and speak tenderly to her.

¹⁵There I will give her back her vineyards,

and will make the Valley of Achor^[5] a door of hope.

There she will respond^[6] as in the days of her youth,

as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

¹⁶“In that day,” declares the LORD,

“you will call me ‘my husband’;

you will no longer call me ‘my master.^[7]’

¹⁷I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;

no longer will their names be invoked.

¹⁸In that day I will make a covenant for them

with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky

and the creatures that move along the ground.

Bow and sword and battle

I will abolish from the land,

so that all may lie down in safety.

¹⁹I will betroth you to me forever;

I will betroth you in^[8] righteousness and justice,

in^[9] love and compassion.

²⁰I will betroth you in^[10] faithfulness,

and you will acknowledge the LORD.

²¹“In that day I will respond,”

declares the LORD—

“I will respond to the skies,

and they will respond to the earth;

²²and the earth will respond to the grain,

the new wine and the olive oil,

and they will respond to Jezreel.^[11]

²³I will plant her for myself in the land;

I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.^[12]’

I will say to those called ‘Not my people,^[13]’ ‘You are my people’;

and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ”

Hosea 3

Hosea’s Reconciliation With His Wife

¹The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”

²So I bought her for fifteen shekels^[14] of silver and about a homer and a lethek^[15] of barley. ³Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.”

⁴For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. ⁵Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.

Hosea 4

The Charge Against Israel

¹Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites,

because the LORD has a charge to bring

against you who live in the land:

“There is no faithfulness, no love,

no acknowledgment of God in the land.

²There is only cursing,^[16] lying and murder,

stealing and adultery;

they break all bounds,

and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

³Because of this the land dries up,

and all who live in it waste away;

the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky

and the fish in the sea are swept away.

⁴“But let no one bring a charge,

let no one accuse another,

for your people are like those

who bring charges against a priest.

⁵You stumble day and night,

and the prophets stumble with you.

So I will destroy your mother—

⁶my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

“Because you have rejected knowledge,

I also reject you as my priests;

because you have ignored the law of your God,

I also will ignore your children.

⁷The more priests there were,

the more they sinned against me;

they exchanged their glorious God^[17] for something disgraceful.

⁸They feed on the sins of my people

and relish their wickedness.

⁹And it will be: Like people, like priests.

I will punish both of them for their ways

and repay them for their deeds.

¹⁰“They will eat but not have enough;

they will engage in prostitution but not flourish,

because they have deserted the LORD

to give themselves ¹¹to prostitution;

old wine and new wine

take away their understanding.

¹²My people consult a wooden idol,

and a diviner’s rod speaks to them.

A spirit of prostitution leads them astray;

they are unfaithful to their God.

¹³They sacrifice on the mountaintops

and burn offerings on the hills,

under oak, poplar and terebinth,

where the shade is pleasant.

Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution

and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

¹⁴“I will not punish your daughters

when they turn to prostitution,

nor your daughters-in-law

when they commit adultery,

because the men themselves consort with harlots

and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes—

a people without understanding will come to ruin!

¹⁵“Though you, Israel, commit adultery,

do not let Judah become guilty.

“Do not go to Gilgal;

do not go up to Beth Aven.^[18]

And do not swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives!’

¹⁶The Israelites are stubborn,

like a stubborn heifer.

How then can the LORD pasture them

like lambs in a meadow?

¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols;

leave him alone!

¹⁸Even when their drinks are gone,

they continue their prostitution;

their rulers dearly love shameful ways.

¹⁹A whirlwind will sweep them away,

and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

Hosea 5

Judgment Against Israel

¹“Hear this, you priests!

Pay attention, you Israelites!

Listen, royal house!

This judgment is against you:

You have been a snare at Mizpah,

a net spread out on Tabor.

²The rebels are knee-deep in slaughter.

I will discipline all of them.

³I know all about Ephraim;

Israel is not hidden from me.

Ephraim, you have now turned to prostitution;

Israel is corrupt.

⁴“Their deeds do not permit them

to return to their God.

A spirit of prostitution is in their heart;

they do not acknowledge the LORD.

⁵Israel’s arrogance testifies against them;

the Israelites, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin;

Judah also stumbles with them.

⁶When they go with their flocks and herds

to seek the LORD,

they will not find him;

he has withdrawn himself from them.

⁷They are unfaithful to the LORD;

they give birth to illegitimate children.

When they celebrate their New Moon feasts,

he will devour^[19] their fields.

⁸“Sound the trumpet in Gibeah,

the horn in Ramah.

Raise the battle cry in Beth Aven^[20];

lead on, Benjamin.

⁹Ephraim will be laid waste

on the day of reckoning.

Among the tribes of Israel

I proclaim what is certain.

¹⁰Judah’s leaders are like those

who move boundary stones.

I will pour out my wrath on them

like a flood of water.

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed,

trampled in judgment,

intent on pursuing idols.^[21]

¹²I am like a moth to Ephraim,

like rot to the people of Judah.

¹³“When Ephraim saw his sickness,

and Judah his sores,

then Ephraim turned to Assyria,

and sent to the great king for help.

But he is not able to cure you,

not able to heal your sores.

¹⁴For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,

like a great lion to Judah.

I will tear them to pieces and go away;

I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them.

¹⁵Then I will return to my lair

until they have borne their guilt

and seek my face—

in their misery

they will earnestly seek me.”

Hosea 6

Israel Unrepentant

¹“Come, let us return to the LORD.

He has torn us to pieces

but he will heal us;

he has injured us

but he will bind up our wounds.

²After two days he will revive us;

on the third day he will restore us,

that we may live in his presence.

³Let us acknowledge the LORD;

let us press on to acknowledge him.

As surely as the sun rises,

he will appear;

he will come to us like the winter rains,

like the spring rains that water the earth.”

⁴“What can I do with you, Ephraim?

What can I do with you, Judah?

Your love is like the morning mist,

like the early dew that disappears.

⁵Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,

I killed you with the words of my mouth—

then my judgments go forth like the sun.^[22]

⁶For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,

and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷As at Adam,^[23] they have broken the covenant;

they were unfaithful to me there.

⁸Gilead is a city of evildoers,

stained with footprints of blood.

⁹As marauders lie in ambush for a victim,

so do bands of priests;

they murder on the road to Shechem,

carrying out their wicked schemes.

¹⁰I have seen a horrible thing in Israel:

There Ephraim is given to prostitution,

Israel is defiled.

¹¹“Also for you, Judah,

a harvest is appointed.

“Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people,

Hosea 7

¹whenever I would heal Israel,

the sins of Ephraim are exposed

and the crimes of Samaria revealed.

They practice deceit,

thieves break into houses,

bandits rob in the streets;

²but they do not realize

that I remember all their evil deeds.

Their sins engulf them;

they are always before me.

³“They delight the king with their wickedness,

the princes with their lies.

⁴They are all adulterers,

burning like an oven

whose fire the baker need not stir

from the kneading of the dough till it rises.

⁵On the day of the festival of our king

the princes become inflamed with wine,

and he joins hands with the mockers.

⁶Their hearts are like an oven;

they approach him with intrigue.

Their passion smolders all night;

in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

⁷All of them are hot as an oven;

they devour their rulers.

All their kings fall,

and none of them calls on me.

⁸“Ephraim mixes with the nations;

Ephraim is a flat loaf not turned over.

⁹Foreigners sap his strength,

but he does not realize it.

His hair is sprinkled with gray,

but he does not notice.

¹⁰Israel’s arrogance testifies against him,

but despite all this

he does not return to the LORD his God

or search for him.

¹¹“Ephraim is like a dove,

easily deceived and senseless—

now calling to Egypt,

now turning to Assyria.

¹²When they go, I will throw my net over them;

I will pull them down like the birds in the sky.

When I hear them flocking together,

I will catch them.

¹³Woe to them,

because they have strayed from me!

Destruction to them,

because they have rebelled against me!

I long to redeem them

but they speak about me falsely.

¹⁴They do not cry out to me from their hearts

but wail on their beds.

They slash themselves,^[24] appealing to their gods

for grain and new wine,

but they turn away from me.

¹⁵I trained them and strengthened their arms,

but they plot evil against me.

¹⁶They do not turn to the Most High;

they are like a faulty bow.

Their leaders will fall by the sword

because of their insolent words.

For this they will be ridiculed

in the land of Egypt.

Hosea 8

Israel to Reap the Whirlwind

¹“Put the trumpet to your lips!

An eagle is over the house of the LORD

because the people have broken my covenant

and rebelled against my law.

²Israel cries out to me,

‘Our God, we acknowledge you!’

³But Israel has rejected what is good;

an enemy will pursue him.

⁴They set up kings without my consent;

they choose princes without my approval.

With their silver and gold

they make idols for themselves

to their own destruction.

⁵Samaria, throw out your calf-idol!

My anger burns against them.

How long will they be incapable of purity?

⁶They are from Israel!

This calf—a metalworker has made it;

it is not God.

It will be broken in pieces,

that calf of Samaria.

⁷“They sow the wind

and reap the whirlwind.

The stalk has no head;

it will produce no flour.

Were it to yield grain,

foreigners would swallow it up.

⁸Israel is swallowed up;

now she is among the nations

like something no one wants.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria

like a wild donkey wandering alone.

Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.

¹⁰Although they have sold themselves among the nations,

I will now gather them together.

They will begin to waste away

under the oppression of the mighty king.

¹¹“Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings,

these have become altars for sinning.

¹²I wrote for them the many things of my law,

but they regarded them as something foreign.

¹³Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to me,

and though they eat the meat,

the LORD is not pleased with them.

Now he will remember their wickedness

and punish their sins:

They will return to Egypt.

¹⁴Israel has forgotten their Maker

and built palaces;

Judah has fortified many towns.

But I will send fire on their cities

that will consume their fortresses.”

Hosea 9

Punishment for Israel

¹Do not rejoice, Israel;

do not be jubilant like the other nations.

For you have been unfaithful to your God;

you love the wages of a prostitute

at every threshing floor.

²Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people;

the new wine will fail them.

³They will not remain in the LORD’s land;

Ephraim will return to Egypt

and eat unclean food in Assyria.

⁴They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD,

nor will their sacrifices please him.

Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;

all who eat them will be unclean.

This food will be for themselves;

it will not come into the temple of the LORD.

⁵What will you do on the day of your appointed festivals,

on the feast days of the LORD?

⁶Even if they escape from destruction,

Egypt will gather them,

and Memphis will bury them.

Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers,

and thorns will overrun their tents.

⁷The days of punishment are coming,

the days of reckoning are at hand.

Let Israel know this.

Because your sins are so many

and your hostility so great,

the prophet is considered a fool,

the inspired person a maniac.

⁸The prophet, along with my God,

is the watchman over Ephraim,^[25]

yet snares await him on all his paths,

and hostility in the house of his God.

⁹They have sunk deep into corruption,

as in the days of Gibeah.

God will remember their wickedness

and punish them for their sins.

¹⁰“When I found Israel,

it was like finding grapes in the desert;

when I saw your ancestors,

it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.

But when they came to Baal Peor,

they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol

and became as vile as the thing they loved.

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

no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

¹²Even if they rear children,

I will bereave them of every one.

Woe to them

when I turn away from them!

¹³I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre,

planted in a pleasant place.

But Ephraim will bring out

their children to the slayer.”

¹⁴Give them, LORD—

what will you give them?

Give them wombs that miscarry

and breasts that are dry.

¹⁵“Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,

I hated them there.

Because of their sinful deeds,

I will drive them out of my house.

I will no longer love them;

all their leaders are rebellious.

¹⁶Ephraim is blighted,

their root is withered,

they yield no fruit.

Even if they bear children,

I will slay their cherished offspring.”

¹⁷My God will reject them

because they have not obeyed him;

they will be wanderers among the nations.

Hosea 10

¹Israel was a spreading vine;

he brought forth fruit for himself.

As his fruit increased,

he built more altars;

as his land prospered,

he adorned his sacred stones.

²Their heart is deceitful,

and now they must bear their guilt.

The LORD will demolish their altars

and destroy their sacred stones.

³Then they will say, “We have no king

because we did not revere the LORD.

But even if we had a king,

what could he do for us?”

⁴They make many promises,

take false oaths

and make agreements;

therefore lawsuits spring up

like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

⁵The people who live in Samaria fear

for the calf-idol of Beth Aven.^[26]

Its people will mourn over it,

and so will its idolatrous priests,

those who had rejoiced over its splendor,

because it is taken from them into exile.

⁶It will be carried to Assyria

as tribute for the great king.

Ephraim will be disgraced;

Israel will be ashamed of its foreign alliances.

⁷Samaria’s king will be destroyed,

swept away like a twig on the surface of the waters.

⁸The high places of wickedness^[27] will be destroyed—

it is the sin of Israel.

Thorns and thistles will grow up

and cover their altars.

Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!”

and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

⁹“Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, Israel,

and there you have remained.^[28]

Will not war again overtake

the evildoers in Gibeah?

¹⁰When I please, I will punish them;

nations will be gathered against them

to put them in bonds for their double sin.

¹¹Ephraim is a trained heifer

that loves to thresh;

so I will put a yoke

on her fair neck.

I will drive Ephraim,

Judah must plow,

and Jacob must break up the ground.

¹²Sow righteousness for yourselves,

reap the fruit of unfailing love,

and break up your unplowed ground;

for it is time to seek the LORD,

until he comes

and showers his righteousness on you.

¹³But you have planted wickedness,

you have reaped evil,

you have eaten the fruit of deception.

Because you have depended on your own strength

and on your many warriors,

¹⁴the roar of battle will rise against your people,

so that all your fortresses will be devastated—

as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle,

when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.

¹⁵So will it happen to you, Bethel,

because your wickedness is great.

When that day dawns,

the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.

Hosea 11

God’s Love for Israel

¹“When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and out of Egypt I called my son.

²But the more they were called,

the more they went away from me.^[29]

They sacrificed to the Baals

and they burned incense to images.

³It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,

taking them by the arms;

but they did not realize

it was I who healed them.

⁴I led them with cords of human kindness,

with ties of love.

To them I was like one who lifts

a little child to the cheek,

and I bent down to feed them.

⁵“Will they not return to Egypt

and will not Assyria rule over them

because they refuse to repent?

⁶A sword will flash in their cities;

it will devour their false prophets

and put an end to their plans.

⁷My people are determined to turn from me.

Even though they call me God Most High,

I will by no means exalt them.

⁸“How can I give you up, Ephraim?

How can I hand you over, Israel?

How can I treat you like Admah?

How can I make you like Zeboyim?

My heart is changed within me;

all my compassion is aroused.

⁹I will not carry out my fierce anger,

nor will I devastate Ephraim again.

For I am God, and not a man—

the Holy One among you.

I will not come against their cities.

¹⁰They will follow the LORD;

he will roar like a lion.

When he roars,

his children will come trembling from the west.

¹¹They will come from Egypt,

trembling like sparrows,

from Assyria, fluttering like doves.

I will settle them in their homes,”

declares the LORD.

Israel’s Sin

¹²Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,

Israel with deceit.

And Judah is unruly against God,

even against the faithful Holy One.^[30]

Hosea 12^[31]

¹Ephraim feeds on the wind;

he pursues the east wind all day

and multiplies lies and violence.

He makes a treaty with Assyria

and sends olive oil to Egypt.

²The LORD has a charge to bring against Judah;

he will punish Jacob^[32] according to his ways

and repay him according to his deeds.

³In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel;

as a man he struggled with God.

⁴He struggled with the angel and overcame him;

he wept and begged for his favor.

He found him at Bethel

and talked with him there—

⁵the LORD God Almighty,

the LORD is his name!

⁶But you must return to your God;

maintain love and justice,

and wait for your God always.

⁷The merchant uses dishonest scales

and loves to defraud.

⁸Ephraim boasts,

“I am very rich; I have become wealthy.

With all my wealth they will not find in me

any iniquity or sin.”

⁹“I have been the LORD your God

ever since you came out of Egypt;

I will make you live in tents again,

as in the days of your appointed festivals.

¹⁰I spoke to the prophets,

gave them many visions

and told parables through them.”

¹¹Is Gilead wicked?

Its people are worthless!

Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?

Their altars will be like piles of stones

on a plowed field.

¹²Jacob fled to the country of Aram^[33];

Israel served to get a wife,

and to pay for her he tended sheep.

¹³The LORD used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt,

by a prophet he cared for him.

¹⁴But Ephraim has aroused his bitter anger;

his Lord will leave on him the guilt of his bloodshed

and will repay him for his contempt.

Hosea 13

The LORD’s Anger Against Israel

¹When Ephraim spoke, people trembled;

he was exalted in Israel.

But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.

²Now they sin more and more;

they make idols for themselves from their silver,

cleverly fashioned images,

all of them the work of craftsmen.

It is said of these people,

“They offer human sacrifices!

They kiss^[34] calf-idols!”

³Therefore they will be like the morning mist,

like the early dew that disappears,

like chaff swirling from a threshing floor,

like smoke escaping through a window.

⁴“But I have been the LORD your God

ever since you came out of Egypt.

You shall acknowledge no God but me,

no Savior except me.

⁵I cared for you in the wilderness,

in the land of burning heat.

⁶When I fed them, they were satisfied;

when they were satisfied, they became proud;

then they forgot me.

⁷So I will be like a lion to them,

like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

⁸Like a bear robbed of her cubs,

I will attack them and rip them open;

like a lion I will devour them—

a wild animal will tear them apart.

⁹“You are destroyed, Israel,

because you are against me, against your helper.

¹⁰Where is your king, that he may save you?

Where are your rulers in all your towns,

of whom you said,

‘Give me a king and princes’?

¹¹So in my anger I gave you a king,

and in my wrath I took him away.

¹²The guilt of Ephraim is stored up,

his sins are kept on record.

¹³Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him,

but he is a child without wisdom;

when the time arrives,

he doesn’t have the sense to come out of the womb.

¹⁴“I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;

I will redeem them from death.

Where, O death, are your plagues?

Where, O grave, is your destruction?

“I will have no compassion,

¹⁵even though he thrives among his brothers.

An east wind from the LORD will come,

blowing in from the desert;

his spring will fail

and his well dry up.

His storehouse will be plundered

of all its treasures.

¹⁶The people of Samaria must bear their guilt,

because they have rebelled against their God.

They will fall by the sword;

their little ones will be dashed to the ground,

their pregnant women ripped open.”^[35]

Hosea 14^[36]

¹Return, Israel, to the LORD your God.

Your sins have been your downfall!

²Take words with you

and return to the LORD.

Say to him:

“Forgive all our sins

and receive us graciously,

that we may offer the fruit of our lips.^[37]

³Assyria cannot save us;

we will not mount warhorses.

We will never again say ‘Our gods’

to what our own hands have made,

for in you the fatherless find compassion.”

⁴“I will heal their waywardness

and love them freely,

for my anger has turned away from them.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel;

he will blossom like a lily.

Like a cedar of Lebanon

he will send down his roots;

⁶his young shoots will grow.

His splendor will be like an olive tree,

his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.

⁷People will dwell again in his shade;

they will flourish like the grain,

they will blossom like the vine—

Israel’s fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.

⁸Ephraim, what more have I^[38] to do with idols?

I will answer him and care for him.

I am like a flourishing juniper;

your fruitfulness comes from me.”

⁹Who is wise? Let them realize these things.

Who is discerning? Let them understand.

The ways of the LORD are right;

the righteous walk in them,

but the rebellious stumble in them.

Hosea 1

^[1]1:1 Hebrew Joash, a variant of Jehoash

^[2]1:9 Or your I AM

^[3]1:11 In Hebrew texts 1:10, 11 is numbered 2:1, 2.

Hosea 2

^[4]In Hebrew texts 2:1–23 is numbered 2:3–25.

^[5]2:15 Achor means trouble.

^[6]2:15 Or sing

^[7]2:16 Hebrew baal

^[8]2:19 Or with

^[9]2:19 Or with

^[10]2:20 Or with

^[11]2:22 Jezreel means God plants.

^[12]2:23 Hebrew Lo-Ruhamah (see 1:6)

^[13]2:23 Hebrew Lo-Ammi (see 1:9)

Hosea 3

^[14]3:2 That is, about 6 ounces or about 170 grams

^[15]3:2 A homer and a lethek possibly weighed about 430 pounds or about 195 kilograms.

Hosea 4

^[16]4:2 That is, to pronounce a curse on

^[17]4:7 Syriac (see also an ancient Hebrew scribal tradition); Masoretic Text me; / I will exchange their glory

^[18]4:15 Beth Aven means house of wickedness (a derogatory name for Bethel, which means house of God).

Hosea 5

^[19]5:7 Or Now their New Moon feasts / will devour them and

^[20]5:8 Beth Aven means house of wickedness (a derogatory name for Bethel, which means house of God).

^[21]5:11 The meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.

Hosea 6

^[22]6:5 The meaning of the Hebrew for this line is uncertain.

^[23]6:7 Or Like Adam; or Like human beings

Hosea 7

^[24]7:14 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Septuagint; most Hebrew manuscripts They gather together

Hosea 9

^[25]9:8 Or The prophet is the watchman over Ephraim, / the people of my God

Hosea 10

^[26]10:5 Beth Aven means house of wickedness (a derogatory name for Bethel, which means house of God).

^[27]10:8 Hebrew aven, a reference to Beth Aven (a derogatory name for Bethel); see verse 5.

^[28]10:9 Or there a stand was taken

Hosea 11

^[29]11:2 Septuagint; Hebrew them

^[30]11:12 In Hebrew texts this verse (11:12) is numbered 12:1.

Hosea 12

^[31]In Hebrew texts 12:1–14 is numbered 12:2–15.

^[32]12:2 Jacob means he grasps the heel, a Hebrew idiom for he takes advantage of or he deceives.

^[33]12:12 That is, Northwest Mesopotamia

Hosea 13

^[34]13:2 Or “Men who sacrifice / kiss

^[35]13:16 In Hebrew texts this verse (13:16) is numbered 14:1.

Hosea 14

^[36]In Hebrew texts 14:1–9 is numbered 14:2–10.

^[37]14:2 Or offer our lips as sacrifices of bulls

^[38]14:8 Or Hebrew; Septuagint What more has Ephraim