Hosea 1 - 2 - Legacy Standard Bible

Hosea 1 - 2

Hosea’s Wife and Children

The word of Yahweh which 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 Yahweh first spoke through Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry; for the land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking Yahweh.” 3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and gave birth to a son for him. 4 And Yahweh said to him, “Name him Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will visit the bloodshed of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and I will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease. 5 And it will be in that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.” 6 Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. And Yahweh said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I would ever forgive them. 7 But I will have compassion on the house of Judah and save them by Yahweh their God, and I will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.” 8 Then she weaned Lo-ruhamah. And she conceived and gave birth to a son. 9 And Yahweh said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people, and I am not your God.” 10

Yet the number of the sons of Israel

Will be like the sand of the sea,

Which cannot be measured or numbered;

And it will be that in the place

Where it is said to them,

“You are not My people,”

It will be said to them,

“You are the sons of the living God.”

And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together,

And they will set for themselves one head,

And they will go up from the land,

For great will be the day of Jezreel.

No Compassion for Children of Harlotry

Say to your brothers, “Ammi,” and to your sisters, “Ruhamah.” 2

“Contend with your mother, contend,

For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband;

And let her remove her harlotry from her face

And her adultery from between her breasts,

Lest I strip her naked

And set her forth as on the day when she was born

And make her like a wilderness

And make her like dry land

And put her to death with thirst.

Also, I will have no compassion on her children

Because they are children of harlotry.

For their mother has played the harlot;

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.’

Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns,

And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.

So she will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;

And she will seek them, but will not find them.

Then she will say, ‘I will go, and I will return to my first husband,

For it was better for me then than now!’

“Now she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil,

And multiplied silver and gold for her,

Which they used for Baal.

Therefore, I will take back My grain at harvest time

And My new wine in its season.

I will also deliver My wool and My flax from them

Given to cover her nakedness.

So now I will uncover her lewdness

In the sight of her lovers,

And no one will deliver her out of My hand.

I will also cease all her joy,

Her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths,

And all her appointed times.

And I will make desolate her vines and fig trees,

Of which she said, ‘These are my wages

Which my lovers have given me.’

And I will make them a forest,

And the beasts of the field will devour them.

So I will visit the days of the Baals upon her

When she used to offer offerings in smoke to them

And adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry

And go after her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares Yahweh.

Yahweh’s Faithful Betrothal

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her

And bring her into the wilderness

And speak to her heart.

Then I will give her her vineyards from there

And the valley of Achor as a door of hope.

And she will sing there as in the days of her youth,

As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

And it will be in that day,” declares Yahweh,

“That you will call Me Ishi

And will no longer call Me Baali.

So I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth

So that they will be remembered by their names no more.

And in that day I will cut a covenant for them

With the beasts of the field,

The birds of the sky,

And the creeping things of the ground.

And I will break the bow, the sword, and war from the land,

And I will make them lie down in security.

And I will betroth you to Me forever;

Indeed, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice,

In lovingkindness and in compassion,

And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.

Then you will know Yahweh.

“And it will be in that day, that I will answer,” declares Yahweh.

“I will answer the heavens, and they will answer the earth,

And the earth will answer the grain, the new wine, and the oil,

And they will answer Jezreel.

And I will sow her for Myself in the land.

I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion,

And I will say to those who were not My people,

‘You are My people!’

And they will say, ‘You are my God!’”