Hosea

11Yahweh gave this message to Hosea son of Beeri during the time when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah, and when Jeroboam son of Joash was king of Israel.

2When Yahweh first spoke through Hosea, Yahweh said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute. {Some of} her children will result from her sexual relations with other men. Do this to show how the people of this land have been very unfaithful to me, as though they were an unfaithful wife who has abandoned her husband in favor of other men.”

3So Hosea married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a son for him. 4Yahweh said to Hosea, “Name him Jezreel, because very soon I will punish the descendants of Jehu for all of the people that he slaughtered at the town of Jezreel. I will end the nation of Israel. 5At that time, I will destroy the army of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

6Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. Yahweh said to Hosea, “Name her Lo Ruhamah, because I will no longer pity the people of Israel. Instead, I will certainly remove them {from their land}. 7However, I will pity the people of Judah, and I, Yahweh their God, will rescue them. I will do it myself; I will not save them by using their bows, swords, warfare, horses, or horsemen.”

8After Gomer had weaned Lo Ruhamah, she became pregnant {again} and gave birth to {another} son. 9Yahweh said, “Name him Lo Ammi, because you {people of Israel} are no longer my people, and I am no longer your God.”

10Yet someday the people of Israel will become a people group that is vast in number. In the very place where God said to them, “You are not my people,” he will call them, “sons {and daughters} of the living God.” 11Then the people of Judah and the people of Israel will unite together and choose one leader for all of them. It will be a marvelous time when Jezreel happens, that is, when God brings his people back to their own land as though sowing them there as seeds, and they will prosper there.

21{Yahweh also said}, “At that time, you will say to your fellow Israelite men, ‘Ammi, you are God’s people,’

and {you will say} to your fellow Israelite women, ‘Ruhamah, you are ones whom God loves.’”

2Children, dispute earnestly with your mother,

because she is no longer my wife,

and I am no longer her husband.

Tell her to stop her sexually immoral behavior

and to stop being unfaithful to me.

3Otherwise, I will strip her as naked

as on the day she was born.

I will make her as bare as a wilderness. I will cause her to become as dry as a desert,

and I will let her die of thirst.

4I will not pity her children,

because they are as unfaithful as their prostitute mother.

5I say this because she has been unfaithful to me

and has acted shamefully.

Indeed, she said, “I will run to the ones who love me;

they are the ones who give me my food and water,

my wool and linen,

my olive oil and my {wine to} drink.”

6So {I am about to do things that will be as though} I am blocking her road with thorn-bushes

and building a wall in her way

so that she does not know what to do.

7She will repeatedly seek the ones that {she thinks} love her,

but she will not find them.

Then she will think, “Perhaps I should return to my actual husband,

because I was better off then than I am now.”

8None of them understand that I, {Yahweh,} am the one who gave them

their grain, wine, and olive oil;

I am the one who gave them abundant silver and gold,

which they used to make images for Baal.

9Therefore, I will come back and take my grain from them when it is ripe

and the juice of my grapes in their season.

I will take from them the wool and linen

that I gave to them to cover their bodies.

10Now I will expose how shameful they have been

in front of those {gods} that they think love them.

No one will be able to rescue them when I punish them.

11I will stop all of their celebrations:

their yearly feasts, their new moon festivals, their Sabbath days,

and all of their {other} regular festivals.

12I will destroy all their grapevines and fig trees,

which they said were payments to them

from those {gods} who loved them.

I will turn those productive plants into a wild thicket,

and wild animals will eat the fruit {that remains}.

13I will punish them for all the times that they burned incense to honor the various Baals.

They decorated themselves with rings and other jewelry

and went to worship those {false gods} that they thought loved them,

but they forgot about me!

—this is what Yahweh declares.

14However, listen! I am working to persuade my people to worship me again;

I will make them experience {what their ancestors did in} the wilderness

and I will speak tenderly to them.

15I will give their vineyards back to them from that {starting} point,

and I will cause the Valley of Achor{, instead of a place of trouble,} to become a place where they will confidently expect {me to do} good things {for them}.

They will respond to me there {willingly} as they did long ago,

when I freed them from {being slaves in} Egypt.

16At that time—this is what Yahweh declares—they will call me ‘My Husband.’

They will not call me ‘My Baal’ anymore.

17I will not allow them to speak the names of the Baals,

and they will never use those names again.

18At that time I will make an agreement for them

with the wild animals, the birds,

and the creatures that crawl on the ground.

I will also remove weapons of war such as bows and swords from the land.

The result will be that my people will be able to live safely and peacefully.

19They will belong to me forever as {though we are} married.

I will do what is right and fair toward them,

and I will faithfully love them and act mercifully toward them.

20I will be faithful to them,

and they will truly know me, Yahweh.

21At that time, {when they ask for what they need},

I will respond—this is what Yahweh declares—

I will tell the heavens to send rain,

and on their part, the heavens will water the earth.

22Then the earth will produce grain, new wine, and olive oil,

and those things will provide for {my people,} Jezreel.

23I will establish them in the land as my own.

I will pity Lo Ruhama,

and I will say to {those whom I called} Lo Ammi, “You are my people,”

and they, yes, they will say {to me}, “You are our God.”

31Then Yahweh said to me, “Go and show to your wife that you still love her, even though she has been committing adultery with another man who is her lover. That will show that I still love the people of Israel, even though they worship other gods and love to eat raisin cakes {in feasts that honor those gods}.” 2So I bought her back for myself for 15 pieces of silver and 335 liters of barley. 3Then I said to her, “You will live {here} with me for a long time. During that time, you must not be a prostitute, and you must not have sex with any man, and I will do the same concerning you.” 4This will show that {in a similar way,} the Israelites will live for a long time without a king, without leaders, without sacrifices, without sacred stone pillars, without a sacred vest for a priest, and {without} household idols. 5But later, the people of Israel will again worship Yahweh their God and want to obey him and their king who is a descendant of King David. In that future time, they will revere Yahweh and marvel at how he has blessed them.

41You Israelite people, listen to what Yahweh says!

Listen, because he is bringing charges against you people who live in this land, as follows:

no one is honest,

no one acts faithfully as they promised in the covenant,

and no one knows God in this land.

2Instead, people curse and lie and murder and steal and commit adultery.

This is happening everywhere! People are killing other people continually!

3Because of all these things, the land dries up,

and everyone who lives in it wastes away,

along with the wild animals and the birds in the sky.

Even the fish in the sea are diminishing.

4Certainly there is no one who can dispute {these charges},

and there is no one who can say that I am wrong.

But you are like people who argue with a priest {when he corrects you}!

5Bad things will happen to you during the day,

and also at night, and to your prophets, as well.

I am going to destroy the nation of Israel, which is like a mother to you.

6I will destroy my people because they have refused to know me,

and because, on their part, they have refused to know me,

I will no longer allow them to be my {kingdom of} priests.

The nation of Israel has rejected the laws of their God;

therefore, for my part, also I will reject her people.

7The more the people increased in number, the more they sinned against me.

So instead of honoring them, I will make people despise them.

8The priests feed on the sin offerings that my people bring,

and each one craves for my people to sin even more.

9I will punish the priests along with the {other} people.

I will punish them for how they have behaved;

yes, I will pay them back for what they have done.

10They will eat, but they will still go hungry.

They act like prostitutes, but they will not have more children,

because they have abandoned obeying Yahweh.

11Having sex with prostitutes, {drinking} wine and new wine,

{all} make people unable to think clearly.

12My people ask their wooden idols {to guide them},

and {they think that} a wooden stick will answer them.

They do this because they have strongly desired to be unfaithful sexually and so they are also unfaithful spiritually,

and because they are unfaithful in these ways, their God no longer directs or protects them.

13They burn sacrifices and incense on the mountaintops, on the hills,

and under oak trees, poplar trees, and terebinth trees,

because the shade there is pleasant.

That is why your daughters have become prostitutes

and your daughters-in-law have been unfaithful {to your sons}.

14I will not punish your daughters for being prostitutes

or your daughters-in-law for being unfaithful to their husbands,

because the men themselves go off to be with prostitutes

and offer sacrifices with the prostitutes who serve at the idol shrines.

The people as a whole does not understand {what is right}, and so Yahweh will destroy them.

15Even though you people of Israel are being unfaithful to Yahweh by worshiping idols,

you should not cause the people of Judah to sin {also}.

{Warn them,} “Do not go to Gilgal or go up to Beth Aven

{to worship idols there}.

Do not swear oaths {there}, {saying,} ‘I swear by the life of Yahweh {that I will do what I am promising}.’”

16I say this because the Israelite people behave as stubbornly as a young cow that refuses to obey.

So Yahweh certainly will not allow them to {freely} graze like a {gentle} lamb in a broad meadow.

17No, the people of Ephraim have chosen to worship idols.

We can only leave them alone.

18They have drunk all that there was to drink;

they have fully prostituted themselves.

Their leaders have absolutely loved shameful things.

19{They will go into exile as though} a powerful wind has swept them away,

and {all of} their sacrifices {to idols} will only make them ashamed.

51You priests, listen to this!

You people of Israel, pay attention!

You members of the royal court, listen carefully,

because I am going to judge you.

because you have enticed the people to sin at Mizpah,

and you have made them sin at Mount Tabor.

2Those who have rebelled against me have killed many people,

so I will punish all of them.

3I myself know all about you, people of Ephraim;

I can see everything that the people of Israel do.

Indeed, people of Ephraim, you have now been unfaithful to me {by worshiping idols},

yes, the people of Israel have made themselves unacceptable to me.

4They prefer to do {evil} things,

so they refuse to worship their God any more.

They do this because a strong desire to be physically and spiritually unfaithful is working among them,

and they do not know Yahweh.

5The way that the people of Israel are so proud makes this clear to everyone.

The people of Israel and Ephraim will fail because of how much they have sinned,

and the people of Judah will fail with them.

6They will bring their flocks and herds

and try to appease Yahweh by making sacrifices to him,

but he will not receive them

because he has removed himself from them.

7Those nations have been like an unfaithful wife to Yahweh

because their people are {like} illegitimate children{; they do not belong to Yahweh}.

So now, {when they bring their sacrifices to} the New Moon {Festival},

Yahweh will kill them

as they kill the animals that they bring {to sacrifice}.

8Blow a horn in Gibeah;

blow a trumpet in Ramah!

Sound the alarm at Beth Aven!

{The troops will follow} behind you, Benjamin!

9The people of Ephraim will become desolate

when I punish them.

I have declared to the tribes of Israel

what will certainly happen.

10The leaders of Judah act like people {who steal land by} moving boundary markers.

{Therefore,} I will punish them abundantly.

11I will cause the people of Ephraim to suffer greatly when I judge them

because they were determined to worship worthless idols.

12So I will destroy the people of Ephraim, just as moths {eat through wool clothing}.

I will destroy the people of Judah, just as rot {eats through wood}.

13Then the leaders of Ephraim realized that their nation was weak

and the leaders of Judah realized that their people were suffering.

Then the leaders of Ephraim sent messengers to the king of Assyria{, asking for his help}.

But that king cannot help Ephraim

or take away the suffering of Judah.

14This is because I will be like a lion to the people of Ephraim;

I will be like a young lion to the people of Judah.

I will be the one who will cause soldiers to kill many of them, and I will stop caring for them.

I will cause soldiers to take them away,

and no one will rescue them.

15Then I will leave them to themselves,

until they admit that they have sinned and that they need me to forgive them.

When they are greatly suffering,

then they will sincerely ask me to help them.

61{They will say to each other,} “Come, let us start obeying Yahweh again!

Although he is the one who has hurt us, he will heal us;

he has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds.

2In a very short time he will make us strong again;

in just a few days he will restore us

so that we may live in his presence.

3We need to know Yahweh; let us try hard to do that.

He will certainly help us, as surely as the dawn comes every morning.

He will restore us again like the rain,

as the spring rain restores the land.”

4{Yahweh says,} “You people of Ephraim and you people of Judah,

I do not know what more I can do with you!

You say that you will faithfully love me, but you love me about as long as the mist stays in the morning;

you love me about as long as the dew stays that is gone early in the day.

5That is why I sent my prophets {to tell you} to reform yourselves;

the messages that I told them to speak {warned you that soldiers} were coming to kill you.

What I have justly decided to do will happen as {surely as} the sun will shine.

6I do all of this because I want you to faithfully love me rather than to offer me sacrifices;

I want you to truly know me rather than to give me burnt offerings.

7However, on their part, they broke my covenant, just as Adam did;

in that way they were unfaithful to me.

8Gilead is a city full of people who do wicked things.

{People murder others there so often, it is as though} their footprints leave trails of blood everywhere.

9The priests are like bandits who lie in wait to ambush a man;

they join together to murder people on the road to Shechem.

Indeed, they have done terrible and shameful things.

10Among the people of Israel I have seen something horrible:

the people of Ephraim {stopped worshiping me and} became prostitutes.

Yes, the people of Israel made themselves unacceptable to me {by sinning}.

11People of Judah, I have also appointed a time when I will judge you.

Whenever I consider enabling my people to prosper again,

71whenever I want to restore the people of Israel,

I see how sinfully the people of Ephraim act

and all of the evil things that the people of the city of Samaria do.

Indeed, they constantly deceive others,

thieves break into houses, and gangs of robbers steal from people in the streets.

2They never stop to think that I remember every evil thing that they do.

{It is as though} they have piled up their sins all around them;

{it is as though} those sins are always right in front of me.

3The people of Israel please their king by doing evil things,

and they please the royal officials by telling lies.

4All the people are {unfaithful to me like} an adulterous spouse.

They are {so intent on doing evil things that they are} like a burning oven that a baker has heated;

{it is so hot that} the baker does not need to stir the fire

from when he starts to knead the dough until he adds leavening to it.

5On the day that they celebrate the king’s festival,

the officials made him drunk with wine until he became sick.

Then the king joined in with those who mock me.

6Indeed, the officials strongly desire to murder {the king}, as though their hearts were as hot as an oven.

They remain angry through the night, like an oven that the baker neglects while he sleeps;

but then in the morning it blazes up like a roaring fire.

7All of those conspirators are {so passionate to be important that they are} like hot ovens,

and they destroy their rulers.

All of their kings die violently;

yet not one of them calls out to me {to help him}.

8The leaders of Ephraim make alliances with foreign nations,

so Ephraim has become {ruined, like} a pancake that someone has failed to turn over.

9Foreigners have drained away their resources, yet the people of Israel do not realize it.

Their nation is becoming powerless, like a man who is growing old and weak,

yet they do not realize it.

10The way that the people of Israel are so proud makes this clear to everyone.

Yet they have not begun again to worship Yahweh their God,

and they have not tried to know me despite all of these things {that have happened}.

11The leaders of Ephraim are like a dove, foolish and stupid.

They asked the leaders of Egypt {to help them};

then they asked the leaders of Assyria {to help them}.

12Whenever they go {to seek help}, I will not allow them to succeed.

I will be like a hunter who catches birds with a net and pulls them down from the sky.

I will punish them,

just as I warned their assembly that I would do.

13Terrible things will happen to them because they have stopped obeying me!

I will destroy them because they have rebelled against me!

For my part, I wanted to rescue them,

but for their part, they {just} tell lies about me.

14They do not sincerely cry out to me {to help them}; instead they just lie on their beds and wail.

They slash themselves {to offer their blood to pagan gods}, hoping to get grain and new wine,

but they reject me.

15As for me, I trained them and made them strong,

but now they plan to do evil things to me.

16They ask for help, but not from me, the Most High God;

they are as unreliable as a bow that does not shoot straight.

Their officials will die in battle

because what they have said has made me very angry.

The people of Egypt will laugh at them for this.”

81{Yahweh said to me,} “Blow a trumpet {to warn the people}!

My people have rejected the agreement that I made with them,

and they have rebelled against obeying my laws.

Therefore, an enemy is ready to invade the land where my people live, as a vulture watches its prey.

2The Israelites cry out to me,

‘Our God, we people of Israel know you!’

3But the people of Israel have rejected what is good,

so an enemy will chase after them.

4As for them, they set up kings without asking me,

and they chose leaders, but I did not approve them.

They used their silver and gold to make idols for themselves,

and that is why I will destroy them.”

5“I reject your calf idol, you people of Samaria!

I am very angry with you.

You need to stop acting in ways that make you guilty!

6And it was in Israel that a craftsman made that idol!

It is not God!

I will make sure that someone smashes that calf idol of Samaria into pieces.

7What the people of Israel have done is completely foolish, like trying to plant wind.

What they get in return will be terrible, like reaping a whirlwind.

Their plans will produce nothing good,

like grain stalks that have no heads and that can produce no flour.

Even if they did produce something,

foreigners would come and steal it all.

8The other nations have already stolen Israel.

{Even} now the Israelites live as one of the other nations,

and there is nothing special about them at all.

9Indeed, the Israelites have gone to Assyria

like a lonely wild donkey {looking for a mate}.

The people of Ephraim have paid other nations to be their allies.

10But although they pay other nations {to help them},

I will now begin to punish them.

They will soon suffer greatly

because of everything that the great king will demand from them.

11Because the people of Ephraim built many altars {on which to make sacrifices} to {take away} sin,

those altars became places where they sinned {even more}.

12Even if I wrote down my law for them ten thousand times,

they would still consider that it did not apply to them.

13They offer sacrifices to me

and eat {some of} the meat from those sacrifices,

but I, Yahweh, am not pleased with those people.

I remember the wrong things that they have done

and now I will punish them because they have sinned.

As for them, they will become {slaves} again {like they were} in Egypt.

14The people of Israel have forgotten God, the one who created their nation,

and they have built palaces {for themselves instead}.

The people of Judah have built many cities with strong walls to protect them,

but I will send fire to burn down their cities

and it will completely consume their strong towers.”

91You people of Israel, do not celebrate

joyfully the way other peoples do!

I say this because you have been unfaithful to your God.

You have loved the {gifts that you thought were} payments from your idols

at every threshing floor where people thresh grain.

2{Soon} the people will not have enough grain or wine,

and the new wine will be gone.

3The people of Israel will not continue to live in the land that belongs to Yahweh.

Instead, the people of Ephraim will go back to {being slaves as they were in} Egypt,

and in Assyria they will eat food that God has forbidden them to eat.

4They will not pour out wine offerings to Yahweh,

and their sacrifices will not please him.

Their sacrifices will be like the food that is in the house with a dead body;

everyone who eats that food will be unacceptable to God,

because they will eat that food only for themselves;

they will not bring it into Yahweh’s temple.

5You will not be able to celebrate the feasts that Yahweh appointed

or the festivals that honor Yahweh.

6Look! Even if some of them escape when the Assyrians destroy their towns,

people in Egypt will capture them,

and people in {the Egyptian capital city of} Memphis will bury them.

Weeds will grow over the silver objects that they treasure,

and thorns will fill their tents.

7Now is the time for God to punish the Israelites;

now is the time for him to do to them as they deserve.

{When he does,} the people of Israel will know it!

{You say that} the prophet is a fool

and {that} the one whom the Spirit inspires is insane,

but that is only because you have sinned so much

and because you are very hostile {toward God}.

8Prophets watch over the people of Ephraim because my God told them to do so,

but people set traps for them everywhere they go.

People are hostile to them, even in the temple of their God.

9The people have become very grievously sinful,

just as the people of Gibeah were {long ago}.

God will not forget how wickedly they have acted;

he will punish {them for} their sins.

10{Yahweh says,} “When I chose Israel,

I was {as pleased with them} as someone who finds grapes in a desert.

When I first looked at your ancestors,

they were {as delightful} as the very first figs that grow on a young fig tree.

But then they started worshiping the Baal of Peor.

They gave themselves completely to that disgusting idol,

and they became as disgusting as the idol that they loved.

11What the people of Ephraim are most proud of will quickly disappear.

No one will conceive, carry, or give birth to children.

12Even if they do raise children,

I will take away every one of them so that none survive.

Yes, indeed, it will be terrible for them

when I abandon them!

13I have decreed for Ephraim just as I have decreed for Tyre,

that city in its beautiful place,

that the people of Ephraim will bring out their own children

for their enemies to slaughter.”

14{Hosea says,} “So Yahweh, give to these people—but what can I ask you to give them?

Give them miscarriages

and no way to nurse babies.”

15{Yahweh says,} “Because of all of the wicked things that my people have done at Gilgal,

that is where I started to hate them.

Because of all of the evil things that they do,

I will drive them out of my land.

I will not love them any longer;

all of their leaders rebel against me.

16I have struck the people of Ephraim

so that they {are as infertile as grapevines that} have shriveled roots and cannot produce fruit.

Even if the women do give birth,

I will kill the children whom they love.”

17{Hosea says,} “The God whom I worship will reject the people of Israel

because they have not obeyed him.

Therefore, they will wander among the {other} nations{, away from their home}.”

101The people of Israel are {selfish, like} a productive vine

that establishes its fruit for itself.

The more the people prospered,

the more altars they built {to worship idols}.

The more their land produced,

the more elaborate they made their pillars {to idols}.

2The people of Israel deceive themselves;

now they must suffer for their sins.

Yahweh will be the one to tear down their altars

and smash their {sacred} pillars.

3Indeed, soon they will say, “We have no king

because we did not honor Yahweh.

However, even if we had a king,

he could not do anything to help us.”

4The people of Israel make {false} promises;

they swear empty oaths and make agreements {that they do not keep}.

So people accuse each other to the judges

and the number of these harmful legal disputes is multiplying throughout the land like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

5The people who live in Samaria will be afraid

about what will happen to the calf idol of Beth Aven.

Indeed, the people who worship it will mourn over it,

and the idolatrous priests who serve that idol will cry out

about it and about how splendid it was,

because it will be splendid no more.

6The enemy will carry the idol itself to Assyria

as a gift for its king.

The people of Ephraim will be ashamed,

yes, all of the people of Israel will feel humiliated

because what they had believed and lived by was wrong.

7The king of Samaria will be no more.

{He will go away} like a chip of wood {floating away} on the surface of the water.

8Yahweh will destroy the places on the hilltops, like Beth Aven,

where the people of Israel sin {by worshiping idols}.

Thorns and weeds will grow up and cover their altars.

Then the people will beg the mountains and hills,

“Fall down on us and cover us {to protect us from Yahweh}!”

9Israel, you have been sinning ever since your ancestors did those terrible things at Gibeah,

and you have continued doing such things ever since then.

War will certainly overtake all of the wicked people in Gibeah.

10{Yahweh says,} “When I decide to act, I will punish them.

I will gather armies from other nations to attack them

and capture them because of their double sin.

11The people of Ephraim were like a young cow that someone had trained

and that was happy to walk around on the stalks of grain.

Its neck was flawless {because no one had ever put a yoke on it}.

But for my part, I will ignore its beautiful neck.

Now I will make the people of Ephraim work hard, as though they were a young cow that I was harnessing for the first time.

It will be as though the people of Judah will have to plow,

yes, it will be as though the people of Jacob will have to break up the hard ground with no one to help them.

12Start doing what is right, as though you were planting good seeds,

and it will be as though you were harvesting the crop from those good seeds when I reward you for being faithful to me.

Do the hard work of {changing your ways as though you were} plowing new ground.

Now is when you must start to know me.

Then I will come

and abundantly bless you by doing what is right for you.

13But instead of that, you have done what is wicked, which is like planting poisonous crops,

and it is as though you have harvested and eaten those crops because what you have done has made you lie to each other and treat each other unjustly.

You did this because you deceived yourselves,

thinking that you knew the best way to do things

and that your many soldiers would protect you.

14But {they will not;} your enemies will attack you,

and they will destroy all of your strong cities,

just as Shalman destroyed the city of Beth Arbel,

when his soldiers bashed mothers to death on top of their children.

15I will do the same thing to you, people of Bethel,

because you are extremely wicked.

{When the battle begins} at dawn,

the enemy will completely destroy the king of Israel.

111When the Israelite people were young as a nation, I loved them as a father loves a son,

and I brought them out of Egypt.

2{However, the more} I called to the Israelites, the more they ignored me.

Those people kept offering sacrifices to the Baal {gods}

and burning {incense} to {honor} the statues of them.

3{The people of} Ephraim {were like a small child and} I was {like} the one who taught them to walk.

It was as though I carried them in my arms,

but they did not understand that I was the one who took care of them.

4I gently guided them, because I loved them.

I was to them like a loving father who lifts his infant to his cheek

and I bent down to feed them.

5The Israelites will not return to {being slaves in} the land of Egypt,

but {now} the king of Assyria will rule over them,

because they refused to worship me any more.

6Enemies will attack {the people in} their cities with swords

and will destroy the bars {of their gates}.

Their enemies will kill them because of their {evil} plans.

7My people are determined to no longer worship me.

Though they call out to me, the Most High,

I will certainly not help them.

8And yet, I cannot bring myself to give you up, Ephraim!

I cannot just let you go, Israel!

I cannot completely destroy you the way I destroyed the cities of Admah and Zeboiim!

I am in anguish deep within me;

I love you much too strongly {to do this}!

9Although I am extremely angry, I will not act accordingly;

I will not destroy {the people of} Ephraim again!

{I will do this} because I am God, not a human being.

I am the Holy One who lives among you,

and I will not come to destroy you even though I am extremely angry.”

10{Hosea said,} “The Israelites will return to Yahweh.

He will call out with a loud, powerful voice,

and when it is he who calls out,

his people will come back, deeply respectful, from {the lands around} the sea {to the west}.

11Others of his people will come from Egypt {as timid} as a bird,

and others will come from the land of Assyria {as docile} as a dove.”

I will settle them in their own homes again. {This will happen, because} I, Yahweh, have declared it.

12The people of Ephraim have constantly lied to me,

yes, the people of Israel are continually treacherous.

However, the people of Judah still obey God;

they remain faithful to the Holy One.

121The people of Ephraim do what is useless;

yes, they keep busy all day doing worthless things.

They constantly tell lies and do violent things.

First they make a treaty with Assyria,

and then they send olive oil to Egypt {to get help from that nation}.

2Yahweh is bringing a legal case against Judah as well,

and he will punish the descendants of Jacob for how they have lived.

He will give them what they deserve for the things they have done.

3When their ancestor Jacob was still in his mother’s womb, he grabbed the heel of his brother Esau {because he wanted to be the firstborn}.

When Jacob grew up and became strong, he wrestled with God.

4He struggled with an angel {who appeared to him,} and he won.

Then Jacob wept and begged the angel to bless him.

God met Jacob at Bethel,

and there God spoke with him.

5That one is Yahweh, the commander of the heavenly armies;

“Yahweh” is the name that he commanded us always to use for him.

6So you{, people of Israel,} restore yourselves as God’s people by {obeying} your God!

Be faithful to him and act justly toward others,

and always trust in your God.

7But the merchants {among you} use dishonest scales;

they love to cheat {people}.

8The people of Ephraim boast and say,

“We have become very rich!

We have gained great possessions for ourselves.

No one can find anything wrong in all the work we have done, that is, nothing that would count as sin for us.”

9“I am Yahweh your God, the one {who brought your ancestors} out of Egypt.

I will make you live in tents again,

just as your people did when they celebrated the Celebration of Shelters.

10I told the prophets what to say {to the people},

and I am the one who showed them many times what I am going to do.

I used the prophets to teach {my people} through stories and examples.”

11The people of Gilead are certainly wicked;

they are now completely worthless.

The people sacrifice bulls at Gilgal,

but enemies will tear down their altars

and leave them looking like piles of stones in a plowed field.

12Your ancestor Jacob ran away to the land of Aram {to escape from his brother Esau}.

There he, Israel, worked {as a shepherd} {to pay} for a wife,

and he kept on tending {sheep} {to pay} for a wife.

13{Later} Yahweh used the prophet {Moses} to bring the Israelites out of Egypt,

and through that prophet, Yahweh took care of them.

14But the people of Ephraim have made their Lord extremely angry.

Their Lord will hold them responsible for all of the people whom they have killed,

and he will give them what they deserve for all of the ways that they have offended him.

131{In the past,} when {the leaders of} Ephraim spoke,

many people became afraid.

The leaders of Israel became arrogant.

Then they caused the people to sin by worshiping Baal,

and so they must die.

2Now they keep on sinning more and more;

they use their silver to make metal idols for themselves.

They cleverly design the statues,

but all of them are only the work of human craftsmen.

The people who worship these idols talk to them.

They sacrifice human beings to them, and they kiss these calf-idols!

3Because of these things, those people will {quickly} disappear

like clouds that form in the morning {and then vanish},

like dew that the sun dries up early in the day,

like chaff that the wind blows away from the threshing floor,

like smoke that drifts out through a window.

4{Yahweh says to his people,} “Even so, I am Yahweh your God,

the one who brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt.

You should acknowledge no god except me,

and no one else can save you.

5I was the one who cared for your ancestors

when they were in the very dry desert land.

6When I fed them, they ate until they were full;

when they ate until they were full, they became proud.

That is why they stopped thinking about me.

7So I will be {as fierce} toward them as a lion;

I will be like a leopard that lurks {to ambush them} beside the road.

8I will attack them {as furiously} as a mother bear whose cubs someone has stolen;

{it will be as though} I will rip their chests open.

Right then and there I will completely destroy them, like a lioness devouring her prey,

like wild animals tearing their victims apart.

9You have caused me to destroy you, people of Israel,

because you rebelled against me, your {only} helper.

10You have a king, but it looks like he is unable to save you

in any of your cities.

Your ancestors said {to me}, ‘Give us a king and officials,’ {and I did so}.

But those rulers cannot help you now.

11I become angry {when you request a king}, but I give you a king.

{Later,} I become angry {again}, so I take him away.

12I have kept a record of all of the evil things that you people of Ephraim have done;

yes, I have stored up {an account of} all of your sins.

13You people of Ephraim will suffer like a woman does when she gives birth,

but you are like a foolish baby

who refuses to come out

when it is time to be born.

14I would have rescued you from going to the grave;

yes, I wanted to save you from dying.

But now, you must suffer as with a plague and die!

The enemy must destroy you and send you to your graves!

I cannot decide differently about this.

15Even though the people of Ephraim have prospered more than the other tribes,

{I,} Yahweh, will send {enemies who will come} from the east {like} a scorching wind out of the desert.

They will destroy all of Ephraim’s sources of wealth,

and they are the ones who will carry away everything valuable that the people of Ephraim own.

16The people of Samaria are guilty and so I must punish them

because they have rebelled against me, the God whom they promised to worship.

Their enemies will kill them with swords;

they will smash their little children on the ground,

and they will cut open their pregnant women.”

141You people of Israel, begin again to worship and obey Yahweh your God.

You must do this because terrible things are happening to you because you have been sinning.

2Decide what you will say, and determine that you will obey Yahweh.

Say to him, “Please forgive us for all of the wrong things that we have done,

and accept what we will do now to please you,

and please accept what we say {as we promise to obey you} instead of sacrifices of animals.

3{We know that} Assyria will not save us

and it will not benefit us to ride on {war} horses.

We will never again say, ‘You are our gods’

to {the idols} that we have made.

You, Yahweh, are the one who acts mercifully toward orphans.”

4{Yahweh says,} “{When they say that to me,} I will forgive them for turning away from me;

I will love them generously,

because I will no longer be angry with them.

5I will refresh the people of Israel

just as dew {refreshes the ground}.

They will prosper and become beautiful

and they will become {as strong and stable} as the trees of Lebanon.

6They will become widely influential;

they will be as majestic as an olive tree,

and they will be {as delightful} as the aroma of {the cedar trees in} Lebanon.”

7The people of Israel will come back and live under Yahweh’s protection.

They will grow abundant grain again;

they will become as productive as a vineyard.

People will speak well of Yahweh, like they speak well of the {fine} wine from Lebanon.

8{Yahweh says,} “People of Ephraim, I want nothing more to do with idols!

I am the one who responds to you and watches over you.

I am the source of everything good in your life, like a tree

that always stays green and always produces fruit.”

9Anyone who is truly wise should understand these things {that I have written}.

Anyone who has good sense must be sure that he knows them.

Because what Yahweh tells us to do is right,

and people who do what is right will obey him,

but people who rebel against him will ruin themselves by not doing what he tells us to do.