Hosea is a prophetic book that tells the story of the prophet Hosea and his marriage to Gomer, symbolizing God's relationship with Israel. Despite Gomer's unfaithfulness, Hosea's enduring love reflects God's steadfast love for His people despite their idolatry and betrayal. The book highlights themes of repentance, divine judgment, and redemption, emphasizing God's desire for genuine devotion. It serves as a powerful reminder of the consequences of straying from faith and the hope of restoration through repentance.
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 by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take to you a wife of prostitutions and children of prostitutions: for the land has committed great prostitution, departing from the LORD.3. So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bore him a son.
1. Say you to your brothers, 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 slay her with thirst.
1. Then said the LORD to me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward 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 an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:3. And I said to her, You shall abide for me many days; you shall not play the harlot, and you shall not be for another man: so will I also be for you.
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 touches blood.3. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwells therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yes, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
1. Hear you this, O priests; and listen, you house of Israel; and give you ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because you have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread on Tabor.2. And the rebels 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 commit prostitution, and Israel is defiled.
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 he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.3. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come to us as the rain, as the latter and former rain to the earth. ¶
1. When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief comes in, and the troop of robbers spoils without.2. And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.3. They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
1. Set the trumpet to your mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.2. Israel shall cry to me, My God, we know you.3. Israel has cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.
1. Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for you have gone a whoring from your God, you have loved a reward on every corn floor.2. The floor and the wine press shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.3. They shall not dwell in the LORD’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
1. Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit to himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images.2. Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images.3. For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us?
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.
1. Ephraim feeds on wind, and follows after the east wind: he daily increases 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:
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 the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.3. Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud and as the early dew that passes away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
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 graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips.3. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride on horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, You are our gods: for in you the fatherless finds mercy. ¶
