1 The Lord spoke his word to Hosea son of Beeri during the time that Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel. 2 When the Lord began speaking through Hosea, the Lord said to him, "Go, and marry an unfaithful woman and have unfaithful children, because the people in this country have been completely unfaithful to the Lord."3 So Hosea married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Hosea's son. 4 The Lord said to Hosea, "Name him Jezreel, because soon I will punish the family of Jehu for the people they killed at Jezreel. In the future I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel5 and break the power of Israel's army in the Valley of Jezreel." 6 Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. The Lord said to Hosea, "Name her Lo-Ruhamah, because I will not pity Israel anymore, nor will I forgive them.7 But I will show pity to the people of Judah. I will save them, but not by using bows or swords, horses or horsemen, or weapons of war. I, the Lord their God, will save them." 8 After Gomer had stopped nursing Lo-Ruhamah, she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son.9 The Lord said, "Name him Lo-Ammi, because you are not my people, and I am not your God. 10 "But the number of the Israelites will become like the grains of sand of the sea, which no one can measure or count. They were called, 'You are not my people,' but later they will be called 'children of the living God.'11 The people of Judah and Israel will join together again and will choose one leader for themselves. They will come up from the land, because the day of Jezreel will be truly great.
Hosea 2 - New Century
1 "You are to call your brothers, 'my people,' and your sisters, 'you have been shown pity.' 2 "Plead with your mother.
Accuse her, because she is no longer my wife,
and I am no longer her husband.
Tell her to stop acting like a prostitute,
to stop behaving like an unfaithful wife.
3 If she refuses, I will strip her naked
and leave her bare like the day she was born.
I will make her dry like a desert,
like a land without water,
and I will kill her with thirst.
4 I will not take pity on her children,
because they are the children of a prostitute.
5 Their mother has acted like a prostitute;
the one who became pregnant with them has acted disgracefully.
She said, 'I will chase after my lovers,
who give me my food and water,
wool and flax, wine and olive oil.'
6 So I will block her road with thornbushes;
I will build a wall around her
so she cannot find her way.
7 She will run after her lovers,
but she won't catch them.
She will look for them,
but she won't find them.
Then she will say, 'I will go back to my first husband,
because life was better then for me than it is now.'
8 But she does not know that I was the one
who gave her grain, new wine, and oil.
I gave her much silver and gold,
but she used it for Baal.
9 "So I will come back and take away my grain at harvest time
and my new wine when it is ready.
I will take back my wool and linen
that covered her nakedness.
10 So I will show her nakedness to her lovers,
and no one will save her from me.
11 I will put an end to all her celebrations:
her yearly festivals, her New Moon festivals, and her Sabbaths.
I will stop all of her special feasts.
12 I will destroy her vines and fig trees,
which she said were her pay from her lovers.
I will turn them into a forest,
and wild animals will eat them.
13 I will punish her for all the times
she burned incense to the Baals.
She put on her rings and jewelry
and went chasing after her lovers,
but she forgot me!"
says the Lord.
14 "So I am going to attract her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and I will make the Valley of Trouble a door of hope.
There she will respond as when she was young,
as when she came out of Egypt."
16 The Lord says, "In the future she will call me 'my husband';
no longer will she call me 'my baal.'
17 I will never let her say the names of Baal again;
people won't use their names anymore.
18 At that time I will make an agreement for them
with the wild animals, the birds, and the crawling things.
I will smash from the land
the bow and the sword and the weapons of war,
so my people will live in safety.
19 And I will make you my promised bride forever.
I will be good and fair;
I will show you my love and mercy.
20 I will be true to you as my promised bride,
and you will know the Lord.
21 "At that time I will speak to you," says the Lord.
"I will speak to the skies,
and they will give rain to the earth.
22 The earth will produce grain, new wine, and oil;
much will grow because my people are called Jezreel.
23 I will plant my people in the land,
and I will show pity to the one I had called 'not shown pity.'
I will say, 'You are my people'
to those I had called 'not my people.'
And they will say to me, 'You are our God.' "
Hosea 3 - New Century
1 The Lord said to me again, "Go, show your love to a woman loved by someone else, who has been unfaithful to you. In the same way the Lord loves the people of Israel, even though they worship other gods and love to eat the raisin cakes." 2 So I bought her for six ounces of silver and ten bushels of barley.3 Then I told her, "You must wait for me for many days. You must not be a prostitute, and you must not have sexual relations with any other man. I will act the same way toward you." 4 In the same way Israel will live many days without a king or leader, without sacrifices or holy stone pillars, and without the holy vest or an idol.5 After this, the people of Israel will return to the Lord their God and follow him and the king from David's family. In the last days they will turn in fear to the Lord, and he will bless them.
Hosea 4 - New Century
1 People of Israel, listen to the Lord's message.
The Lord has this
against you who live in the land:
"The people are not true, not loyal to God,
nor do those who live in the land even know him.
2 Cursing, lying, killing, stealing and adultery are everywhere.
One murder follows another.
3 Because of this the land dries up,
and all its people are dying.
Even the wild animals and the birds of the air
and the fish of the sea are dying. 4 "No one should accuse
or blame another person.
Don't blame the people, you priests,
when they quarrel with you.
5 You will be ruined in the day,
and your prophets will be ruined with you in the night.
I will also destroy your mother.
6 My people will be destroyed,
because they have no knowledge.
You have refused to learn,
so I will refuse to let you be priests to me.
You have forgotten the teachings of your God,
so I will forget your children.
7 The more priests there are,
the more they sin against me.
I will take away their honor
and give them shame.
8 Since the priests live off the sin offerings of the people,
they want the people to sin more and more.
9 The priests are as wrong as the people,
and I will punish them both for what they have done.
I will repay them for the wrong they have done.
10 "They will eat
but not have enough;
they will have sexual relations with the prostitutes,
but they will not have children,
because they have left the Lord
to give themselves to 11 prostitution,
to old and new wine,
which take away their ability to understand. 12 "My people ask wooden idols for advice;
they ask those sticks of wood to advise them!
Like prostitutes, they have chased after other gods
and have left their own God.
13 They make sacrifices on the tops of the mountains.
They burn offerings on the hills,
under oaks, poplars, and other trees,
because their shade is nice.
So your daughters become prostitutes,
and your daughters-in-law are guilty of adultery.
14 "But I will not punish your daughters
for becoming prostitutes,
nor your daughters-in-law
for their sins of adultery.
I will not punish them,
because the men have sexual relations with prostitutes
and offer sacrifices with the temple prostitutes.
A foolish people will be ruined.
15 "Israel, you act like a prostitute,
but do not be guilty toward the Lord.
Don't go to Gilgal
or go up to Beth Aven.
Don't make promises,
saying, 'As surely as the Lord lives . . .'
16 The people of Israel are stubborn
like a stubborn young cow.
Now the Lord will feed them
like lambs in the open country.
17 The Israelites have chosen to worship idols,
so leave them alone.
18 When they finish their drinking,
they completely give themselves to being prostitutes;
they love these disgraceful ways.
19 They will be swept away as if by a whirlwind,
and their sacrifices will bring them only shame.
Hosea 5 - New Century
1 "Listen, you priests.
Pay attention, people of Israel.
Listen, royal family,
because you will all be judged.
You have been like a trap at Mizpah
and like a net spread out at Mount Tabor.
2 You have done many evil things,
so I will punish you all.
3 I know all about the people of Israel;
what they have done is not hidden from me.
Now that Israel acts like a prostitute,
it has made itself unclean.
4 "They will not give up their deeds
and return to their God.
They are determined to be unfaithful to me;
they do not know the Lord.
5 Israel's pride testifies against them.
The people of Israel will stumble because of their sin,
and the people of Judah will stumble with them.
6 They will come to worship the Lord,
bringing their flocks and herds,
but they will not be able to find him,
because he has left them.
7 They have not been true to the Lord;
they are children who do not belong to him.
So their false worship
will destroy them and their land.
8 "Blow the horn in Gibeah
and the trumpet in Ramah.
Give the warning at Beth Aven,
and be first into battle, people of Benjamin.
9 Israel will be ruined
on the day of punishment.
To the tribes of Israel
I tell the truth.
10 The leaders of Judah are like those
who steal other people's land.
I will pour my punishment over them
like a flood of water.
11 Israel is crushed by the punishment,
because it decided to follow idols.
12 I am like a moth to Israel,
like a rot to the people of Judah.
13 "When Israel saw its illness
and Judah saw its wounds,
Israel went to Assyria for help
and sent to the great king of Assyria.
But he cannot heal you
or cure your wounds.
14 I will be like a lion to Israel,
like a young lion to Judah.
I will attack them
and tear them to pieces.
I will drag them off,
and no one will be able to save them.
15 Then I will go back to my place
until they suffer for their guilt and turn back to me.
In their trouble they will look for me."
Hosea 6 - New Century
1 "Come, let's go back to the Lord.
He has hurt us, but he will heal us.
He has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds.
2 In two days he will put new life in us;
on the third day he will raise us up
so that we may live in his presence3 and know him.
Let's try to learn about the Lord;
he will come to us as surely as the dawn comes.
He will come to us like rain,
like the spring rain that waters the ground."
4 The Lord says, "Israel, what should I do with you?
Judah, what should I do with you?
Your faithfulness is like a morning mist,
like the dew that goes away early in the day.
5 I have warned you by my prophets
that I will kill you and destroy you.
My justice comes out like bright light.
6 I want faithful love
more than I want animal sacrifices.
I want people to know me
more than I want burnt offerings.
7 But they have broken the agreement as Adam did;
they have been unfaithful to me.
8 Gilead is a city of people who do evil;
their footprints are bloody.
9 The priests are like robbers waiting to attack people;
they murder people on the road to Shechem
and do wicked things.
10 I have seen horrible things in Israel.
Look at Israel's prostitution;
Israel has become unclean.
11 "Judah, I have set a harvest time for you
when I will make the lives of my people good again.
Hosea 7 - New Century
1 When I heal Israel,
Israel's sin will go away,
and so will Samaria's evil.
"They cheat a lot!
Thieves break into houses,
and robbers are in the streets.
2 It never enters their minds
that I remember all their evil deeds.
The bad things they do are all around them;
they are right in front of me. 3 "They make the king happy with their wickedness;
their rulers are glad with their lies.
4 But all of them are traitors.
They are like an oven heated by a baker.
While he mixes the dough,
he does not need to stir up the fire.
5 The kings get so drunk they get sick every day.
The rulers become crazy with wine;
they make agreements with those who do not know the true God.
6 They burn like an oven;
their hearts burn inside them.
All night long their anger is low,
but when morning comes, it becomes a roaring fire.
7 All these people are as hot as an oven;
they burn up their rulers.
All their kings fall,
and no one calls on me. 8 "Israel mixes with other nations;
he is like a pancake cooked only on one side.
9 Foreign nations have eaten up his strength,
but he doesn't know it.
Israel is weak and feeble, like an old man,
but he doesn't know it.
10 Israel's pride will cause their defeat;
they will not turn back to the Lord their God
or look to him for help in all this.
11 Israel has become like a pigeon—
easy to fool and stupid.
First they call to Egypt for help.
Then they run to Assyria.
12 When they go, I will catch them in a net,
I will bring them down like birds from the sky;
I will punish them countless times for their evil.
13 How terrible for them because they left me!
They will be destroyed, because they turned against me.
I want to save them,
but they have spoken lies against me.
14 They do not call to me from their hearts.
They just lie on their beds and cry.
They come together to ask for grain and new wine,
but they really turn away from me.
15 Though I trained them and gave them strength,
they have made evil plans against me.
16 They did not turn to the Most High God.
They are like a loose bow that can't shoot.
Because their leaders brag about their strength,
they will be killed with swords,
and the people in Egypt
will laugh at them.
Hosea 8 - New Century
1 "Put the trumpet to your lips and give the warning!
The enemy swoops down on the Lord's people like an eagle.
The Israelites have broken my agreement
and have turned against my teachings.
2 They cry out to me,
'Our God, we in Israel know you!'
3 But Israel has rejected what is good,
so the enemy will chase them.
4 They chose their own kings
without asking my permission.
They chose their own leaders,
people I did not know.
They made their silver and gold into idols,
and for all this they will be destroyed.
5 I hate the calf-shaped idol of Israel!
I am very angry with the people.
How long will they remain unclean?
6 The idol is something a craftsman made;
it is not God.
Israel's calf-shaped idol
will surely be smashed to pieces.
7 "Israel's foolish plans are like planting the wind,
but they will harvest a storm.
Like a stalk with no head of grain,
it produces nothing.
Even if it produced something,
other nations would eat it.
8 Israel is eaten up;
the people are mixed among the other nations
and have become useless to me.
9 Israel is like a wild donkey all by itself.
They have run to Assyria;
They have hired other nations to protect them.
10 Although Israel is mixed among the nations,
I will gather them together.
They will become weaker and weaker
as they suffer under the great king of Assyria.
11 "Although Israel built more altars to remove sin,
they have become altars for sinning.
12 I have written many teachings for them,
but they think the teachings are strange and foreign.
13 The Israelites offer sacrifices to me as gifts
and eat the meat,
but the Lord is not pleased with them.
He remembers the evil they have done,
and he will punish them for their sins.
They will be slaves again as they were in Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten their Maker and has built palaces;
Judah has built many strong, walled cities.
But I will send fire on their cities
and destroy their strong buildings."
Hosea 9 - New Century
1 Israel, do not rejoice;
don't shout for joy as the other nations do.
You have been like a prostitute against your God.
You love the pay of prostitutes on every threshing floor.
2 But the threshing floor and the winepress will not feed the people,
and there won't be enough new wine.
3 The people will not stay in the Lord's land.
Israel will return to being captives as they were in Egypt,
and in Assyria they will eat food that they are not allowed to eat.
4 The Israelites will not give offerings of wine to the Lord;
they will not give him sacrifices.
Their sacrifices will be like food that is eaten at a funeral;
it is unclean, and everyone who eats it becomes unclean.
Their food will only satisfy their hunger;
they cannot sacrifice it in the Temple.
5 What will you do then on the day of feasts
and on the day of the Lord's festival?
6 Even if the people are not destroyed,
Egypt will capture them;
Memphis will bury them.
Weeds will grow over their silver treasures,
and thorns will drive them out of their tents.
7 The time of punishment has come,
the time to pay for sins.
Let Israel know this:
You think the prophet is a fool,
and you say the spiritual person is crazy.
You have sinned very much,
and your hatred is great.
8 Is Israel a watchman?
Are God's people prophets?
Everywhere Israel goes, traps are set for him.
He is an enemy in God's house.
9 The people of Israel have gone deep into sin
as the people of Gibeah did.
The Lord will remember the evil things they have done,
and he will punish their sins.
10 "When I found Israel,
it was like finding grapes in the desert.
Your ancestors were like
finding the first figs on the fig tree.
But when they came to Baal Peor,
they began worshiping an idol,
and they became as hateful as the thing they worshiped.
11 Israel's glory will fly away like a bird;
there will be no more pregnancy, no more births, no more getting pregnant.
12 But even if the Israelites bring up children,
I will take them all away.
How terrible it will be for them
when I go away from them!
13 I have seen Israel, like Tyre,
given a pleasant place.
But the people of Israel will soon bring out
their children to be killed."
14 Lord, give them what they should have.
What will you give them?
Make their women unable to have children;
give them dried-up breasts that cannot feed their babies.
15 "The Israelites were very wicked in Gilgal,
so I have hated them there.
Because of the sinful things they have done,
I will force them to leave my land.
I will no longer love them;
their leaders have turned against me.
16 Israel is beaten down;
its root is dying, and it has no fruit.
If they have more children,
I will kill the children they love."
17 God will reject them,
because they have not obeyed him;
they will wander among the nations.
Hosea 10 - New Century
1 Israel is like a large vine
that produced plenty of fruit.
As the people became richer,
they built more altars for idols.
As their land became better,
they put up better stone pillars to honor gods.
2 Their heart was false,
and now they must pay for their guilt.
The Lord will break down their altars;
he will destroy their holy stone pillars.
3 Then they will say, "We have no king,
because we didn't honor the Lord.
As for the king,
he couldn't do anything for us."
4 They make many false promises
and agreements which they don't keep.
So people sue each other in court;
they are like poisonous weeds growing in a plowed field.
5 The people from Israel are worried about
the calf-shaped idol at Beth Aven.
The people will cry about it,
and the priests will cry about it.
They used to shout for joy about its glory,
6 but it will be carried off to Assyria
as a gift to the great king.
Israel will be disgraced,
and the people will be ashamed for not obeying.
7 Israel will be destroyed;
its king will be like a chip of wood floating on the water.
8 The places of false worship will be destroyed,
the places where Israel sins.
Thorns and weeds will grow up
and cover their altars.
Then they will say to the mountains, "Cover us!"
and to the hills, "Fall on us!"
9 "Israel, you have sinned since the time of Gibeah,
and the people there have continued sinning.
But war will surely overwhelm them in Gibeah,
because of the evil they have done there.
10 When I am ready,
I will come to punish them.
Nations will come together against them,
and they will be punished for their double sins.
11 Israel is like a well-trained young cow
that likes to thresh grain.
I will put a yoke on her neck
and make her work hard in the field.
Israel will plow,
and Judah will break up the ground.
12 I said, 'Plant goodness,
harvest the fruit of loyalty,
plow the new ground of knowledge.
Look for the Lord until he comes
and pours goodness on you like water.'
13 But you have plowed evil
and harvested trouble;
you have eaten the fruit of your lies.
Because you have trusted in your own power
and your many soldiers,
14 your people will hear the noise of battle,
and all your strong, walled cities will be destroyed.
It will be like the time King Shalman
destroyed Beth Arbel in battle,
when mothers and their children were bashed to death.
15 The same will happen to you, people of Bethel,
because you did so much evil.
When the sun comes up,
the king of Israel will die.
Hosea 11 - New Century
1 "When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and I called my son out of Egypt.
2 But when I called the people of Israel,
they went away from me.
They offered sacrifices to the Baals
and burned incense to the idols.
3 It was I who taught Israel to walk,
and I took them by the arms,
but they did not understand
that I had healed them.
4 I led them with cords of human kindness,
with ropes of love.
I lifted the yoke from their neck
and bent down and fed them.
5 "The Israelites will become captives again, as they were in Egypt,
and Assyria will become their king,
because they refuse to turn back to God.
6 War will sweep through their cities
and will destroy them
and kill them because of their wicked plans.
7 My people have made up their minds
to turn away from me.
The prophets call them to turn to me,
but none of them honors me at all.
8 "Israel, how can I give you up?
How can I give you away, Israel?
I don't want to make you like Admah
or treat you like Zeboiim.
My heart beats for you,
and my love for you stirs up my pity.
9 I won't punish you in my anger,
and I won't destroy Israel again.
I am God and not a human;
I am the Holy One, and I am among you.
I will not come against you in anger.
10 They will go after the Lord,
and he will roar like a lion.
When he roars,
his children will hurry to him from the west.
11 They will come swiftly
like birds from Egypt
and like doves from Assyria.
I will settle them again in their homes,"
says the Lord. 12 Israel has surrounded me with lies;
the people have made evil plans.
And Judah turns against God,
the faithful Holy One.
Hosea 12 - New Century
1 What Israel does is as useless as chasing the wind;
he chases the east wind all day.
They tell more and more lies
and do more and more violence.
They make agreements with Assyria,
and they send a gift of olive oil to Egypt.
2 The Lord also has some things against Judah.
He will punish Israel for what they have done;
he will give them what they deserve.
3 Their ancestor Jacob held on to his brother's heel
while the two of them were being born.
When he grew to be a man,
he wrestled with God.
4 When Jacob wrestled with the angel and won,
he cried and asked for his blessing.
Later, God met with him at Bethel
and spoke with him there.
5 It was the Lord God All-Powerful;
the Lord is his great name.
6 You must return to your God;
love him, do what is just,
and always trust in him as your God.
7 The merchants use dishonest scales;
they like to cheat people.
8 Israel said, "I am rich! I am someone with power!"
All their money will do them no good
because of the sins they have done.
9 "But I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of Egypt.
I will make you live in tents again
as you used to do on worship days.
10 I spoke to the prophets
and gave them many visions;
through them, I taught my lessons to you."
11 The people of Gilead are evil,
worth nothing.
Though people sacrifice bulls at Gilgal,
their altars will become like piles of stone
in a plowed field.
12 Your ancestor Jacob fled to Northwest Mesopotamia
where he worked to get a wife;
he tended sheep to pay for her.
13 Later the Lord used a prophet
to bring Jacob's descendants out of Egypt;
he used a prophet
to take care of the Israelites.
14 But the Israelites made the Lord angry when they killed other people,
and they deserve to die for their crimes.
The Lord will make them pay
for the disgraceful things they have done.
Hosea 13 - New Century
1 People used to fear the tribe of Ephraim;
they were important people in Israel.
But they sinned by worshiping Baal,
so they must die.
2 But they still keep on sinning more and more.
They make idols of their silver,
idols that are cleverly made,
the work of a craftsman.
Yet the people of Israel say to each other,
"Kiss those calf idols and sacrifice to them."
3 So those people will be like the morning mist;
they will disappear like the morning dew.
They will be like chaff blown from the threshing floor,
like smoke going out a window.
4 "I, the Lord, have been your God
since you were in the land of Egypt.
You should have known no other God except me.
I am the only one who saves.
5 I cared for them in the desert
where it was hot and dry.
6 I gave them food, and they became full and satisfied.
But then they became too proud and forgot me.
7 That is why I will be like a lion to them,
like a leopard waiting by the road.
8 I will attack like a bear robbed of her cubs,
ripping their bodies open.
I will devour them like a lion
and tear them apart like a wild animal.
9 "Israel, I will destroy you.
Who will be your helper then?
10 What good is your king?
Can he save you in any of your towns?
What good are your leaders?
You said, 'Give us a king and leaders.'
11 So I gave you a king, but only in anger,
and I took him away in my great anger.
12 The sins of Israel are on record,
stored away, waiting for punishment.
13 The pain of birth will come for him,
but he is like a foolish baby
who won't come out of its mother's womb.
14 Will I save them from the place of the dead?
Will I rescue them from death?
Where is your sickness, death?
Where is your pain, place of death?
I will show them no mercy.
15 Israel is doing well among the nations,
but the Lord will send a wind from the east,
coming from the desert,
that will dry up his springs and wells of water.
He will destroy from their treasure houses everything of value.
16 The nation of Israel will be ruined,
because it fought against God.
The people of Israel will die in war;
their children will be torn to pieces,
and their pregnant women will be ripped open."
Hosea 14 - New Century
1 Israel, return to the Lord your God,
because your sins have made you fall.
2 Come back to the Lord
and say these words to him:
"Take away all our sin
and kindly receive us,
and we will keep the promises we made to you.
3 Assyria cannot save us,
nor will we trust in our horses.
We will not say again, 'Our gods,'
to the things our hands have made.
You show mercy to orphans."
4 The Lord says,
"I will forgive them for leaving me
and will love them freely,
because I am not angry with them anymore.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel,
and they will blossom like a lily.
Like the cedar trees in Lebanon,
their roots will be firm.
6 They will be like spreading branches,
like the beautiful olive trees
and the sweet-smelling cedars in Lebanon.
7 The people of Israel will again live under my protection.
They will grow like the grain,
they will bloom like a vine,
and they will be as famous as the wine of Lebanon.
8 Israel, have nothing to do with idols.
I, the Lord, am the one who answers your prayers and watches over you.
I am like a green pine tree;
your blessings come from me."
9 A wise person will know these things,
and an understanding person will take them to heart.
The Lord's ways are right.
Good people live by following them,
but those who turn against God die because of them.
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