| Hosea
1:1-9 (ESV) 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 When the LORD first
spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of
whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom
by forsaking the LORD.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim,
and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 And the LORD said to him, “Call his
name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for
the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of
Israel. 5 And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of
Jezreel.” 6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the LORD said to
him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of
Israel, to forgive them at all. 7 But I will have mercy on the house of
Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God. I will not save them by
bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.” 8 When she had weaned
No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. 9 And the LORD said, “Call his name
Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.” Hosea
2:1-13 (ESV) 1 Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your
sisters, “You have received mercy.” 2 “Plead with your mother, plead— for she
is not my wife, and I am not her husband— that she put away her whoring from
her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; 3 lest I strip her naked
and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and
make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. 4 Upon her children
also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. 5 For their
mother has played the whore; 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 I will hedge up her way
with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her
paths. 7 She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall
seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall 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 it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who
lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. 9 Therefore I will
take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take
away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. 10 Now I will
uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her
out of my hand. 11 And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her
new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. 12 And I will lay
waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my wages,
which my lovers have given me.’ I will make them a forest, and the beasts of
the field shall devour them. 13 And I will punish her for the feast days of
the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring
and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the LORD.
Hosea 3:1-4 (ESV) 1 And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is
loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the
children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of
raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech
of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You
shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to
you.” 4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or
prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. |
