For other English-language translations of this work, see Hosea (Bible).
Hosea
Unknown, traditionally ascribed to Hosea, translated by Wikisource
2659839Hosea — Free BibleUnknown, traditionally ascribed to Hosea
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Chapter 1 edit

1 The word of Yahweh that came to Hosea ben Beeri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam ben Joash, king of Israel.

2a The beginning of[1] the word of Yahweh by Hosea.[2]

2b And Yahweh said to Hosea, go get yourself a wife of harlotry and offspring of harlotry, for the land has committed an extreme[3] act of harlotry by abandoning Yahweh.

3a And he went and got Gomer the daughter of[4] Diblaim.

3b And she conceived, and bore him a son.

4 And Yahweh said to him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet soon I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and end the kingdom of the house of Israel,

5 and it will be in the day which I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

6a And she conceived again and bore a daughter.

6b And He said to him, Call her name Lo-Ruhamah ("No pity");[5] for I will not pity[6] the house of Israel, for I will remove them away;

7 and I will pity the house of Judah and will save them in Yahweh their God, and will not save them by bow nor by sword nor by battle horses nor by horsemen.

8 And she weaned Lo-Ruhamah, then[7] she conceived and bore a son.

9 And He said, Call his name Lo-Ammi ("Not my people"); for you are not My people and I do not exist to you.§[8]

10 And it will be: the number of the children of Israel as the sand of the sea which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it will be in the place which it is said to them "You are not My people", it is said to them "the children of the living God."

11 And the children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together and place for themselves one head and they will go up out of the land for great is the day of Jezreel.

Chapter 2 edit

1 Say[9] to your brothers: Ammi ("my people"), and to your sisters: Ruhamah ("pity").[10]

2 Complain to your mother, complain for she is not my wife and I am not her husband, and make her remove her harlotries from her face and her adulteries from between her breasts

3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like in the day she was born, and make her like a desert and set her like a dry land, and let her die of thirst.

4 And I will not have pity on her children; for they are the children of harlotry.

5 For their mother committed harlotry: she who conceived them has acted shamefully: for she said, "I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink."

6 Therefore, look, I will surround your[11] road with thorns, and enclose her with a wall, so she will not find her paths.

7 And she will chase her lovers, but will not reach them; and she will search them, but will not find them; and[12] she will say, "I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now!"

8 And she did not know that[13] I gave her: the grain, and the wine, and the oil; and I multiplied for her: silver and gold, which they offered for Baal.

9 Therefore, I will return and seize my grain in its time, and my fresh wine in its season, and will strip my wool and my flax covering her nakedness.

10 And now I will uncover her shamelessness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my hand.

11 And I will end all her celebrations: her feasts, her New Moons, and her Sabbaths and all her festivals.

12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, which she 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 punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, and she decorated herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and she forgot me, declares Yahweh.

14 Therefore, look, I will allure her, and bring her into the desert, and speak to her comfort.

15 And I will give her her vineyards from there and the valley of Achor ("Trouble") like a door of hope; and she shall sing there like the days of her youth and like the day she departed from the land of Egypt.§[14]

16 And it will be on that day, declares Yahweh, that you[15] will call me: Ishi ("my man")[16]; and you will no more call me: Baali ("my master").[17]

17 And I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth; and they will no more be remembered by their names.

18 And I will make a covenant with them on that day with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the crawling things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow and the sword and the war from the earth, and I will lay them in safety.

19 And I will betroth you to me forever; and I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice and in kindness and in compassion.

20 And I will betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you will know Yahweh.§[18]

21 And it will be on that day I will respond, declares Yahweh. I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth.

22 And the earth will respond to the grain and to the new wine and to the oil; and they will respond to Jezreel.

23 And I will sow her for me in the earth; and I will have pity to Lo-Ruhamah ("No pity"); and I will say to Lo-Ammi ("Not my people"), "You are my people"; and he will say, "my God".[19]

Chapter 3 edit

1 And Yahweh said to me, "Go again, love a woman loved by a lover and is committing adultery; like Yahweh loves the children of Israel, and they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins."

2 And I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and one homer of barley, and one half homer of barley.

3 And I said to her, many days you will stay with me; you will not be a harlot, and you will not have a man: and I also will be to you.

4 For the children of Israel will stay many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod or teraphim.

5 Afterward, the children of Israel will return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king; and they will come trembling to Yahweh and his goodness in the last days.[20]

Chapter 4 edit

1 Hear the word of Yahweh, children of Israel, for a dispute of Yahweh against the inhabitants of the land; for there is no truth, and no kindness, and no knowledge of God in the land.

2 Cursing, and lying, and murdering, and stealing, and committing adultery, they overflow; and bloodshed follows on bloodshed.

3 Therefore the land will mourn, and all that dwells there will languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the sky; and also the fishes[21] of the sea will disappear.

4 Surely man does not dispute and not rebuke man; and your people are like those disputing the priest.

5 And you will stumble in the daytime, and also the prophet will stumble with you in the nighttime; and I will destroy your mother.

6 My people are destroyed for lacking knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you to be a priest for me; and as you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.

7 They multiplied, so they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame.

8 They devour the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their guilt.

9 And it will be, like people, like priest, and I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.

10 And they will eat yet[22] they are not sated; they will commit harlotry yet[23] they are not multiplied, because they abandoned to regard Yahweh.

11 Harlotry and wine and new wine seize the heart.

12 My people inquire their tree[24], and their rod informs them, because a spirit of harlotry has misled them, and they commit harlotry under their gods.

13 On top of the mountains they offer sacrifices and on the hills they burn incense, under oaks and poplars and terebinths,[25] because their shade is good, therefore your daughters commit harlotry and your brides[26] commit adultery.

14 I will not punish your daughters because they commit harlotry nor your brides[27] because they commit adultery, because the men scatter with harlots and they offer sacrifices with ritual harlots, and so people who do not understand are ruined.

15 If you, Israel, commit harlotry, do not wrong Judah; and do not go to Gilgal, and do not go to Beth-Aven and do not swear: "As Yahweh lives!"

16 Because Israel is stubborn like a stubborn heifer, now Yahweh pastures them like a lamb in a large field.

17 Ephraim is joined to idols, leave him alone.

18 Removing their liquor, they commit harlotry after harlotry; her rulers dearly love shame.

19 The spirit[28] cramped her in her wings, and they will be ashamed of their sacrifices.[29]

1 Hear this, O priests! And attend, O house of Israel! And give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment you became a trap at Mizpah and a net spread on Tabor.

2 And the swervers have gone deep, but I will discipline all of them.

Chapter 5 edit

3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, Ephraim, you case whoredom, Israel is defiled.

4 Their deeds will not allow them to return to their Elohim for a spirit of harlotry is within them, and they do not know Yahweh.

5 And the pride of Israel testifies to his face; therefore Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their iniquity; Judah also will stumble with them.

6 With their sheep and with their cattle they will go to seek Yahweh, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn from them.

7 They have dealt treacherously against Yahweh, for they have borne strange children; now the new moon will destroy them with their fields.

Footnote edit

  1. (1:2a) "the beginning of" from Hebrew word תחלת, techillat, feminine noun, denoting "start, commencement", used in this form only in this verse, Proverb 9:10 and Ecclesiastes 10:13
  2. (1:2a) ending with {petuhah}
  3. (1:2b) The infinite absolute is used here to emphasize the action against Yahweh. Other translations are "surely committed harlotry" or "greatly committed harlotry"
  4. (1:3a) "the daughter of" from Hebrew בת, bath
  5. (1:6b) "Lo-Ruhamah" ("No pity"): "no compassion", "no mercy"
  6. (1:6b) "not pity": "have no pity", "have no compassion", "have no mercy"
  7. (1:8) "then": also "and"
  8. (1:9) ending with {setumah}
  9. (2:1) The form is a second person plural imperative.
  10. (2:1) "pity": "mercy" or "compassion"
  11. (2:6) with second person feminine singular suffix
  12. (2:7) Conjunctive "w(aw)" which can mean "and", "then", "but", etc.
  13. (2:8) Conjunctive "k-i" which can mean "for", "because", "that", etc.
  14. (2:15) ending with {setumah}
  15. (2:16) second person feminine singular form
  16. (2:16) Ishi: "my man" or "my husband"
  17. (2:16) Baali: "my master" or "my lord"
  18. (2:20) ending with {setumah}
  19. (2:23) ending with {petuhah}
  20. (3:5) ending with {petuhah}
  21. (4:3) more than one species of fish
  22. (4:10)[a] "and"
  23. (4:10)[b] "and"
  24. (4:12) wooden idol
  25. (4:13) or another sort of "oaks"
  26. (4:13) or "daughters-in-law"
  27. (4:14) or "daughters-in-law"
  28. (4:19) or "the wind"
  29. (4:19) ending with {petuhah} in Aleppo Codex, but with {setumah} in Leningrad Codex