Hosea 2
English Standard Version
Israel's Unfaithfulness Punished
2 [a] Say to your brothers, (A)“You are my people,”[b] and to your sisters, (B)“You have received mercy.”[c]
2 “Plead with your mother, plead—
for (C)she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put away (D)her whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts;
3 lest (E)I strip her naked
and make her as (F)in the day she was born,
and (G)make her like a wilderness,
and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
4 (H)Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
(I)because they are children of whoredom.
5 For (J)their mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For (K)she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who (L)give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore (M)I will hedge up her[d] way with thorns,
and (N)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.
(O)Then she shall say,
‘I will go and return to (P)my first husband,
(Q)for it was better for me then than now.’
8 And (R)she did not know
that it was (S)I who gave her
(T)the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on (U)her silver and gold,
(V)which they used for Baal.
9 Therefore (W)I will take back
my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season,
and (X)I will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
10 Now (Y)I will uncover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
11 (Z)And I will put an end to all her mirth,
her feasts, her (AA)new moons, her (AB)Sabbaths,
and all her (AC)appointed feasts.
12 And (AD)I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
(AE)of which she said,
‘These are (AF)my wages,
which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
(AG)and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
13 And (AH)I will punish her for (AI)the feast days of the Baals
when she burned offerings to them
and (AJ)adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the Lord.
The Lord's Mercy on Israel
14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and (AK)bring her into the wilderness,
and (AL)speak tenderly to her.
15 And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor[e] a door of hope.
And there she shall answer (AM)as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
16 “And (AN)in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For (AO)I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And (AP)I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And (AQ)I will abolish[f] the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in (AR)safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me (AS)forever. (AT)I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 (AU)I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And (AV)you shall know the Lord.
21 “And (AW)in that day (AX)I will answer, declares the Lord,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer (AY)Jezreel,[g]
23 and (AZ)I will sow her for myself in the land.
And (BA)I (BB)will have mercy on No Mercy,[h]
and (BC)I will say to Not My People,[i] (BD)‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”
Footnotes
- Hosea 2:1 Ch 2:3 in Hebrew
- Hosea 2:1 Hebrew ammi, which means my people
- Hosea 2:1 Hebrew ruhama, which means she has received mercy
- Hosea 2:6 Hebrew your
- Hosea 2:15 Achor means trouble; compare Joshua 7:26
- Hosea 2:18 Hebrew break
- Hosea 2:22 Jezreel means God will sow
- Hosea 2:23 Hebrew Lo-ruhama
- Hosea 2:23 Hebrew Lo-ammi
Hosea 2
New Living Translation
2 [a]“In that day you will call your brothers Ammi—‘My people.’ And you will call your sisters Ruhamah—‘The ones I love.’
Charges against an Unfaithful Wife
2 “But now bring charges against Israel—your mother—
for she is no longer my wife,
and I am no longer her husband.
Tell her to remove the prostitute’s makeup from her face
and the clothing that exposes her breasts.
3 Otherwise, I will strip her as naked
as she was on the day she was born.
I will leave her to die of thirst,
as in a dry and barren wilderness.
4 And I will not love her children,
for they were conceived in prostitution.
5 Their mother is a shameless prostitute
and became pregnant in a shameful way.
She said, ‘I’ll run after other lovers
and sell myself to them for food and water,
for clothing of wool and linen,
and for olive oil and drinks.’
6 “For this reason I will fence her in with thornbushes.
I will block her path with a wall
to make her lose her way.
7 When she runs after her lovers,
she won’t be able to catch them.
She will search for them
but not find them.
Then she will think,
‘I might as well return to my husband,
for I was better off with him than I am now.’
8 She doesn’t realize it was I who gave her everything she has—
the grain, the new wine, the olive oil;
I even gave her silver and gold.
But she gave all my gifts to Baal.
9 “But now I will take back the ripened grain and new wine
I generously provided each harvest season.
I will take away the wool and linen clothing
I gave her to cover her nakedness.
10 I will strip her naked in public,
while all her lovers look on.
No one will be able
to rescue her from my hands.
11 I will put an end to her annual festivals,
her new moon celebrations, and her Sabbath days—
all her appointed festivals.
12 I will destroy her grapevines and fig trees,
things she claims her lovers gave her.
I will let them grow into tangled thickets,
where only wild animals will eat the fruit.
13 I will punish her for all those times
when she burned incense to her images of Baal,
when she put on her earrings and jewels
and went out to look for her lovers
but forgot all about me,”
says the Lord.
The Lord’s Love for Unfaithful Israel
14 “But then I will win her back once again.
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her there.
15 I will return her vineyards to her
and transform the Valley of Trouble[b] into a gateway of hope.
She will give herself to me there,
as she did long ago when she was young,
when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.
16 When that day comes,” says the Lord,
“you will call me ‘my husband’
instead of ‘my master.’[c]
17 O Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips,
and you will never mention them again.
18 On that day I will make a covenant
with all the wild animals and the birds of the sky
and the animals that scurry along the ground
so they will not harm you.
I will remove all weapons of war from the land,
all swords and bows,
so you can live unafraid
in peace and safety.
19 I will make you my wife forever,
showing you righteousness and justice,
unfailing love and compassion.
20 I will be faithful to you and make you mine,
and you will finally know me as the Lord.
21 “In that day, I will answer,”
says the Lord.
“I will answer the sky as it pleads for clouds.
And the sky will answer the earth with rain.
22 Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries
of the grain, the grapevines, and the olive trees.
And they in turn will answer,
‘Jezreel’—‘God plants!’
23 At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites
and raise them for myself.
I will show love
to those I called ‘Not loved.’[d]
And to those I called ‘Not my people,’[e]
I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’
And they will reply, ‘You are our God!’”
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
