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Hosea 1

Hosea’s Wife and Children

1 the Word of the LORD 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 The beginning of the Word of the LORD through Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go take to you a wife addicted to lewdness and children of lewdness; for the land has committed great lewdness, departing from the LORD. 3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; who conceived, and bore him a son. 4 And the LORD said to him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And it will come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

6 And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And God said to him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away. 7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD 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 Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bore a son. 9 Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for you are not my people, and I will not be your God.

10 Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it will come to pass, that in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, there it will be said to them, You are the sons of the living God.

11 Then will the children of Judah and the children of Israel be assembled, and appoint themselves one head, and they will come up from the land: for great will be the day of Jezreel.

Hosea 2

WBT

Israel’s Adultery Rebuked

1 Say you to your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her prostitutions out of her sight, 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 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they are the children of lewdness.

5 For their mother has played the harlot: she that conceived them has done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that 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 make a wall, that she will not find her paths.

7 And she will follow after her lovers, but she will not overtake them; and she will seek them, but will not find them: then will 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 corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.

9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.

10 And now will I disclose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none will deliver her out of my hand.

11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.

12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees, of which she has said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field will eat them.

13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, in which she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her ear-rings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me, says the LORD.

God’s Mercy to Israel

14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her.

15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she will sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came from the land of Egypt.

16 And it will be at that day, says the LORD, that you will call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.

17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they will no more be remembered by their name.

18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of heaven, and with the creeping animals of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down in safety.

19 And I will betroth you to me for ever; yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies.

20 I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness: and you will know the LORD.

21 And it will come to pass in that day, I will hear, says the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they will hear the earth;

22 And the earth will hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they will hear Jezreel.

23 And I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them who were not my people, You are my people; and they will say, You are my God.

Hosea 3

WBT

Hosea Redeems His Wife
(Zechariah 2:6–13)

1 Then said the LORD to me, Go yet, love a woman beloved by her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD towards the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. 2 So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a homer of barley, and a half homer of barley: 3 And I said to her, You shalt abide for me many days; you are not to play the harlot, and you are not to be for another man: so will I also be for you. 4 For the children of Israel will abide many days without a king and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim: 5 Afterward will the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and will fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.

Hosea 4

WBT

God’s Case against His People

1 Hear the Word of the LORD, you children of Israel: for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.

3 Therefore will the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth in it will languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of heaven; yes, the fishes of the sea also will be taken away.

4 Yet let no man contend, nor reprove another: for your people are as they that contend with the priest.

5 Therefore you will fall in the day, and the prophet also will fall 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 will be no priest to me: seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

7 As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.

8 They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.

9 And there will be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.

10 For they will eat, and not have enough: they will be guilty of lewdness, and will not increase: because they have ceased to take heed to the LORD.

11 Lewdness and wine and new wine take away the heart.

12 My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth to them: for the spirit of lewdness has caused them to err, and they have gone astray from under their God.

13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shade of them is agreeable: therefore your daughters will be guilty of lewdness, and your spouses will commit adultery.

14 I will not punish your daughters when they are guilty of lewdness, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for they themselves are separated with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand will fall.

15 Though you, Israel, playest the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not you to Gilgal, neither go you up to Beth-aven, nor swear, The LORD liveth.

16 For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.

17 Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.

18 Their drink is sour: they have been guilty of lewd deeds continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give you.

19 The wind has bound her up in her wings, and they will be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Hosea 5

WBT

Judgment on Israel and Judah

1 Hear you this, O priests; and listen, you house of Israel; and give you ear, O house of the king; for judgment is towards you, because you have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.

2 And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.

3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, you are guilty of lewdness, and Israel is defiled.

4 They will not frame their doings to turn to their God: for the spirit of lewdness is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD.

5 And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore will Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also will fall with them.

6 They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they will not find him; he has withdrawn himself from them.

7 They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have fathered strange children: now will a month devour them with their portions.

8 Blow you the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Beth-aven, after you, O Benjamin.

9 Ephraim will be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which will surely be.

10 The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment.

12 Therefore will I be 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 Ephraim went to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet he could not heal you, nor 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 take away, and none will rescue him.

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 early.

Hosea 6

WBT

The Unrepentance of Israel and Judah

1 Come, and let us return to the LORD: for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has smitten, and he will bind us up.

2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day will he raise us up, and we will live in his sight.

3 Then will we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he will come to us as the rain, as the latter and former rain to the earth.

4 O Ephraim, what will I do to you? O Judah, what will I do to you? for your goodness is as the morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth 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 goeth forth.

6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings.

7 But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

8 Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.

9 And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.

10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the prostitution of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

11 Also, O Judah, he has set a harvest for you, when I returned the captivity of my people.

Hosea 7

WBT

Ephraim’s Iniquity

1 When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was disclosed, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers strippeth without.

2 And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them around; 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, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he has kneaded the dough, until it is leavened.

5 In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

6 For they have made ready their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

7 They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth to me.

8 Ephraim, he has mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yes, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.

10 And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.

11 Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

12 When they will go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the birds of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard.

13 Woe to them! for they have fled from me: destruction to them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

14 And they have not cried to me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me.

15 Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.

16 They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes will fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this will be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Hosea 8

WBT

Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind

1 Set the trumpet to your mouth. He will come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.

2 Israel will cry to me, My God, we know you.

3 Israel has cast off the thing that is good: the enemy will pursue him.

4 They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made for themselves idols, that they may be cut off.

5 Thy calf, O Samaria, has cast you off; my anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocence?

6 For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria will be broken in pieces.

7 For they have sown the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind: it has no stalk: the bud will yield no meal: if it will yield, the strangers will swallow it up.

8 Israel is swallowed up: now will they be among the Nations as a vessel in which is no pleasure.

9 For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim has hired lovers.

10 Yes, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they will sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes.

11 Because Ephraim has made many altars to sin, altars will be to him to sin.

12 I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.

13 They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of my offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they will return to Egypt.

14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it will devour the palaces thereof.

Hosea 9

WBT

Israel’s Punishment

1 Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for you have apostatized from your God, you have loved a reward upon every corn-floor.

2 The floor and the wine-press will not feed them, and the new wine will fail in her.

3 They will not dwell in the LORD’S land; but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean things in Assyria.

4 They will not offer wine-offerings to the LORD, neither will they be pleasing to him: their sacrifices will be to them as the bread of mourners; all that eat of it will be polluted: for their bread for their soul will not come into the house of the LORD.

5 What will you do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?

6 For lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt will gather them up, Memphis will bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles will possess them: thorns will be in their tabernacles.

7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel will know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of your iniquity, and the great hatred.

8 The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.

9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore 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 her first time: but they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves to that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.

11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.

12 Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there will not be a man left: yes, woe also to them when I depart from them!

13 Ephraim, as I saw Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim will bring forth his children to the murderer.

14 Give them, O LORD: what wilt you give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.

16 Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they will bear no fruit: yes, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.

17 My God will cast them away, because they did not listen to him: and they will be wanderers among the nations.

Hosea 10

WBT

Retribution for Israel’s Sin

1 Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit to himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he has multiplied the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.

2 Their heart is divided; now will they be found faulty: he will break down their altars, he will spoil their images.

3 For now they will say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us?

4 They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.

5 The inhabitants of Samaria will fear because of the calves of Beth-aven: for its people will mourn over it, and its priests that rejoiced on it, for its glory, because it is departed from it.

6 It will also be carried to Assyria, for a present to king Jareb: Ephraim will receive shame, and Israel will be ashamed of his own counsel.

7 As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water.

8 The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars; and they will say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.

9 O Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.

10 It is in my desire that I should chastise them; and the people will be gathered against them, when they will bind themselves in their two furrows.

11 And Ephraim is as a heifer that is taught, and loveth to tread out the corn; but I passed over upon her fair neck: I will make Ephraim to ride; Judah will plow, and Jacob will break his clods.

12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, until he will come and reign righteousness upon you.

13 You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity; you have eaten the fruit of lies: because you have trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.

14 Therefore will a tumult arise among your people, and all your fortresses will be plundered, as Shalman plundered Beth-arbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.

15 So will Beth-el do to you because of your great wickedness: in a morning will the king of Israel be utterly cut off.

Hosea 11

WBT

Out of Egypt I Called My Son
(Matthew 2:13–15)

1 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

2 As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed to Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

3 I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.

4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid food for them.

5 He will not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian will be his king, because they refused to return.

6 And the sword will abide on his cities, and will consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels.

7 And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.

God’s Love for Israel

8 How will I give you up, Ephraim? how will I deliver you, Israel? how will I make you as Admah? how will I set you as Zeboim? my heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.

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 enter into the city.

10 They will walk after the LORD: he will roar like a lion: when he will roar, then the children will tremble from the west.

11 They will tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses, says the LORD.

12 Ephraim encompasseth me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.

Hosea 12

WBT

A Reproof of Ephraim, Judah, and Jacob

1 Ephraim feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily multiplieth lies and desolation; and they do make a covenant with the Assyrians, and oil is carried into Egypt.

2 The LORD has also a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his doings will he recompense him.

3 He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength 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 in Beth-el, and there he spoke with us;

5 Even the LORD God of hosts; the LORD is his memorial.

6 Therefore turn you to your God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on your God continually.

7 He is a merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loveth to oppress.

8 And Ephraim said, Yet I have become rich, I have found for myself substance: in all my labors they will find no iniquity in me that were sin.

9 And I that am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt will yet make you to dwell in tabernacles, as in the days of the solemn feast.

10 I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets.

11 Is there iniquity in Gilead? surely they are vanity: they sacrifice bullocks in Gilgal; yes, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the fields.

12 And Jacob fled into the country of Syria, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.

13 And by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he preserved.

14 Ephraim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore will he leave his blood upon him, and his reproach will his Lord return to him.

Hosea 13

WBT

God’s Anger against Israel

1 When Ephraim spoke trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.

2 And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of artificers: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

3 Therefore they will be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind from the floor, and as the smoke from the chimney.

4 Yet I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt, and you will know no God but me: for there is no savior besides me.

5 I did know you in the wilderness, in the land of great drouth.

6 According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.

7 Therefore I will be to them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them.

8 I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast will tear them.

Death and Resurrection
(1 Corinthians 15:50–58)

9 O Israel, you have destroyed thyself; but in me is your help.

10 I will be your king: where is any other that may save you in all your cities? and your judges of whom you saidst, Give me a king and princes?

11 I gave you a king in my anger, and took him away in my wrath.

12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.

13 The sorrows of a travailing woman will come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.

14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be your plagues, O grave, I will be your destruction: repentance will be hid from my eyes.

Judgment on Samaria

15 Though he is fruitful among his brethren, an east wind will come, the wind of the LORD will come up from the wilderness, and his spring will become dry, and his fountain will be dried up: he will pillage the treasure of all pleasant vessels.

16 Samaria will become desolate; for she has rebelled against her God: they will fall by the sword: their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their women with child will be ripped up.

Hosea 14

WBT

A Call to Repentance
(Jeremiah 3:11–25; Zechariah 1:1–6)

1 O Israel, return to the LORD your God; for you have fallen by your iniquity.

2 Take with you words, and turn to the LORD: say to him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us cheerfully: so will we render the calves of our lips.

3 Ashur will not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, You are our gods: for in you the fatherless finds mercy.

A Promise of God’s Blessing

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 will grow as the lily and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

6 His branches will spread, and his beauty will be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

7 They that dwell under his shade will return; they will revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent of it will be as the wine of Lebanon.

8 Ephraim will say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir-tree. From me is your fruit found.

9 Who is wise, and he will understand these things? prudent, and he will know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just will walk in them: but the transgressors will fall in them.