Selections from Hosea 1 – 3
1:1 – 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”
[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.
[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.”
2:1 – 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,
[14] “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
[16] “And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’
[19] And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. [20] I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.
[21] “And in that day 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 Jezreel,
[23] and I will sow her for myself in the land.
And I will have mercy on No Mercy,
and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”
3:1 – 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. [5] Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.
