- The Beginning
- YisraYah
- Babylon
- Persia
- Greece
- Rome
- Yahchanan
Hoshea
The Book of Hoshea [Hosea]
Chapter 1
1 The Word of Yahwah came to Hoshea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziyah, Jotham, Yauhazi, and Hezekyah, kings of Yahudah [Judah], and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Yisrayah [Israel].
2 When Yahwah [YHWH] spoke at the first by Hoshea, Yahwah said to Hoshea: Go, take to you a wife of whoredom and children of whoredom, for the land does commit great whoredom, departing from Yahwah.
3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim. She conceived, and bore him a son.
4 Yahwah said to him: Call his name Jezreel. For yet a little while, I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Yahu [Jehu], and will cause the kingdom of the house of Yisrayah to cease.
5 It will come to pass at that day, I will break the bow of Yisrayah in the valley of Jezreel.
6 She conceived again, and bore a daughter. Yahwah said to him: Call her name Lo-ruhamah [no mercy]. I will not have mercy upon the house of Yisrayah, that I should in any way pardon them.
7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Yahudah. I will save them by Yahwah their Father, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.
8 Now when she weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bore a son.
9 Yahwah said: Call his name Lo-ammi [not my people]. You are not my people, and I am not your Father.
10 Yet the number of the children of Yisrayah will be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered. It will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them: You are not my people; it will be said to them: You are the sons of the living Father.
11 The children of Yahudah and the children of Yisrayah will be gathered together. They will appoint themselves one head, and go up from the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.
1 Say to your brothers: Ammi [people of Yahwah]. Say to your sisters: Ruhamah [mercy].
2 Contend with your mother, contend (for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband). Let her put away her whoredoms from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts,
3 unless I strip her naked, set her as in the day she was born, make her as a wilderness, set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.
4 Yea, I will have no mercy upon her children, for they are children of whoredom.
5 Their mother played the harlot, she who conceived them did shamefully. She said: I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread, my water, my wool, my flax, my oil, and my drink.
6 Behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she will not find her paths.
7 She will follow after her lovers, but she will not overtake them. She will seek them, but will not find them. Then she will say: I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now.
8 She did not know I gave her the grain, the new wine, the oil, and multiplied to her silver and gold (which they used for The LORD).
9 Therefore I will take back my grain in the time of it, my new wine in the season of it, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.
10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none will deliver her out of my hand.
11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.
12 I will lay waste her vines and her fig-trees (of which she said: these are my hire that my lovers gave me). I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field will eat them.
13 I will visit upon her the days of the Lord, to which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot Me: says Yahwah.
14 Behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her.
15 I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope. She will make answer there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
16 It will be at that day: says Yahwah; you will call Me husband [Ishi], you will not call Me 'my LORD' [Baali] anymore.
17 I will take away the names of the Lords [Baalim] out of her mouth, and they will be mentioned by their name no more.
18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, with the birds of the heavens, and with the creeping things of the ground. I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle, out of the land, and will make them to lie down safely.
19 I will betroth you to Me forever. Yea, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, in justice, in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
20 I will even betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you will know Yahwah.
21 It will come to pass in that day, I will answer: says Yahwah. I will answer the heavens, they will answer the earth,
22 the earth will answer the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and they will answer Jezreel.
23 I will sow her to me in the earth, I will have mercy upon her who did not obtain mercy. I will say to those who were not my people: You are my people. They will say: You are my Father.
1 Yahwah said to me: Go again, love a woman beloved of her friend, an adulteress, even as Yahwah loves the children of Yisrayah, though they turn to gods, and love cakes of raisins.
2 So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, a homer of barley, and a half-homer of barley.
3 I said to her: You will abide for me many days. You will not play the harlot, and you will not be any man's wife, so I will also be toward you.
4 For the children of Yisrayah will abide many days without king, without prince, without sacrifice, without pillar, and without ephod or teraphim.
5 Afterward the children of Yisrayah will return, seek Yahwah their Father, and David their king. In the latter days they will come to Yahwah with fear, and to His goodness.
1 Hear the Word of Yahwah, you children of Yisrayah. Yahwah has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of Yahwah in the land.
2 There is nothing but swearing, breaking faith, killing, stealing, and committing adultery. They break out, and blood touches blood.
3 Therefore the land will mourn, and everyone who dwells there will languish, with the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens. Yea, the fishes of the sea also will be taken away.
4 Yet let no man strive, neither let any man reprove, for your people are as they who strive with the priest.
5 You will stumble in the day, the prophet also will stumble with you in the night, and I will destroy your mother.
6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you will be no priest to me. Seeing you forgot the law of your Father, I also will forget your children.
7 As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame.
8 They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity.
9 It will be: like people, like priest. I will punish them for their ways, and will requite them their doings.
10 They will eat, and not have enough. They will play the harlot, and will not increase, because they left off taking heed to Yahwah.
11 Whoredom, wine, and new wine, take away the understanding.
12 My people ask counsel at their idol, and their staff declares to them. The spirit of whoredom causes them to err, and they play the harlot, departing from under their Father.
13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because the shadow there is good. Therefore your daughters play the harlot, and your brides commit adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go apart with harlots, and they sacrifice with the prostitutes. The people who do not understand will be overthrown.
15 Though you, Yisrayah, play the harlot, yet do not let Yahudah offend. Do not come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth-aven, nor swear: As Yahwah lives.
16 Yisrayah behaves himself stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer. Now Yahwah will feed them as a lamb in a large place.
17 Ephrayim is joined to idols, let him alone.
18 Their drink is become sour, they play the harlot continually, her rulers dearly love shame.
19 The wind wraps her up in its wings, they are put to shame because of their sacrifices.
1 Hear this, O you priests. Hearken, O house of Yisrayah. Give ear, O house of the king. To you pertains the judgment, for you are a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.
2 The revolters are gone deep in making slaughter, but I am a rebuker of them all.
3 I know Ephrayim, and Yisrayah is not hid from me. O Ephrayim, you played the harlot, Yisrayah is defiled.
4 Their doings will not allow them to turn to their Father, for the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they do not know Yahwah.
5 The pride of Yisrayah does testify to his face. Therefore Yisrayah and Ephrayim will stumble in their iniquity, Yahudah also will stumble with them.
6 They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Yahwah, but they will not find Him. He withdraws Himself from them.
7 They deal treacherously against Yahwah, for they bore strange children, now the new moon will devour them with their fields.
8 Blow the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah. Sound an alarm at Beth-aven. Behind you, O Benjamin.
9 Ephrayim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke, among the tribes of Yisrayah I make known what will surely be.
10 The princes of Yahudah are like those who remove the landmark, I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.
11 Ephrayim is oppressed, he is crushed in judgment, because he was content to walk after man's command.
12 Therefore I am to Ephrayim as a moth, and to the house of Yahudah as rottenness.
13 When Ephrayim saw his sickness, and Yahudah saw his wound, then Ephrayim went to Assyria, and sent to king Jareb. But he is not able to heal you, nor will he cure you of your wound.
14 I will be to Ephrayim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Yahudah. I, even I, will tear, and go away. I will carry off, and there will be none to deliver.
15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me earnestly.
1 Come, and let us return to Yahwah. He tore, and He will heal us. He smote us, and He will bind us up.
2 After two days He will revive us, on the third day He will raise us up, and we will live before Him.
3 Let us know, let us follow on to know Yahwah. His going forth is sure as the morning, He will come to us as the rain, as the latter rain that waters the earth.
4 O Ephrayim, what will I do to you? O Yahudah, what will I do to you? For your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goes away early.
5 Therefore I hewed them by the prophets, I killed them by the words of my mouth. Your judgments are as the light that goes forth.
6 I desire goodness, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of Yahwah more than burnt-offerings.
7 But like Adam they transgressed the covenant, they deal treacherously against Me there.
8 Gilead is a city of those who work iniquity, it is stained with blood.
9 As troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way toward Shechem. Yea, they commit lewdness.
10 I see a horrible thing in the house of Yisrayah: whoredom is found in Ephrayim, Yisrayah is defiled.
11 O Yahudah, there is a harvest appointed for you, when I bring back the captivity of my people.
1 When I would heal Yisrayah, then the iniquity of Ephrayim is uncovered, and the wickedness of Samaria. They commit falsehood, the thief enters in, and the troop of robbers ravages outside.
2 They do not consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own doings beset them about, they are before my face.
3 They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
4 They are all adulterers, they are as an oven heated by the broker. He ceases to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.
5 On the day of our king the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine, he stretched out his hand with scoffers.
6 They made their heart ready like an oven, while they lie in wait. Their broker sleeps all the night, in the morning it burns as a flaming fire.
7 They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges. All their kings are fallen, there is none among them who calls to me.
8 Ephrayim mixes himself among the peoples, Ephrayim is a cake not turned.
9 Strangers devour his strength, and he does not know it. Yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, and he does not know it.
10 The pride of Yisrayah testifies to his face; yet they do not return to Yahwah their Father, nor seek Him, for all this.
11 Ephrayim is like a silly dove, without understanding. They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
12 When they go, I will spread my net upon them. I will bring them down as the birds of the heavens. I will chastise them, as their congregation heard.
13 Woe to them! For they wandered from Me. Destruction to them! For they trespassed against Me. Though I would redeem them, yet they spoke lies against Me.
14 They do not cry to Me with their heart, they howl upon their beds, they assemble themselves for grain and new wine, they rebel against Me.
15 Though I taught and strengthened their arms, yet they devise mischief against Me.
16 They return, but not to Him who is on high. They are like a deceitful bow, their princes will fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.
1 Set the trumpet to your mouth. As an eagle he comes against the house of Yahwah, because they transgress my covenant, and trespass against my law.
2 They will cry to Me: My Father, we Yisrayah know you.
3 Yisrayah cast off what is good, the enemy will pursue him.
4 They set up kings, but not by Me. They made princes, and I knew it not. Of their silver and their gold they made them idols, that they may be cut off.
5 He cast off your calf, O Samaria. My anger is kindled against them, how long will it be until they attain to innocency?
6 From Yisrayah is even this (the workman made it, it is no god). Yea, the calf of Samaria will be broken in pieces.
7 They sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain, the blade will yield no meal; if so be it yield, strangers will swallow it up.
8 Yisrayah is swallowed up, now they are among the nations as a vessel where none delights.
9 They are gone up to Assyria. Like a wild ass alone by himself, Ephrayim hired lovers.
10 Yea, though they hire among the nations, now I will gather them, and they begin to be diminished by reason of the burden of the king of princes.
11 Ephrayim multiplied altars for sinning, altars are to him for sinning.
12 I wrote for him the ten thousand things of my law, but they are counted as a strange thing.
13 As for the sacrifices of my offerings, they sacrifice flesh, and eat it! Yahwah does not accept them, He remembers their iniquity, and visits their sins. They will return to Egypt.
14 Yisrayah forgot his Maker, and built palaces. Yahudah multiplied fortified cities, but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it will devour the castles.
1 Do not rejoice for joy like the peoples, O Yisrayah. You played the harlot, departing from your Father. You loved hire upon every grain-floor.
2 The threshing-floor and the winepress will not feed them, and the new wine will fail her.
3 They will not dwell in Yahwah's land. Ephrayim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They will not pour out wine-offerings to Yahwah, neither will they be pleasing to Him. Their sacrifices will be to them as the bread of mourners, all who eat will be polluted, for their bread will be for their appetite. It will not come into the house of Yahwah.
5 What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of Yahwah?
6 Lo, they are gone away from destruction. Egypt will gather them up, Memphis will bury them. Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver, thorns will be in their tents.
7 The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come. Yisrayah will know it. The prophet is a fool, the man who has the spirit is mad, for the abundance of your iniquity, and because the enmity is great.
8 Ephrayim was a watchman with my gods. As for the prophet, a fowler's snare is in all his ways, and enmity in the house of his god.
9 They corrupted themselves deeply, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity, He will visit their sins.
10 I found Yisrayah like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first-ripe in the fig-tree at its first season, but they came to Lord-peor, consecrated themselves to the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they love.
11 As for Ephrayim, their glory will fly away like a bird. There will be no birth, none with child, and no conception.
12 Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man will be left. Yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!
13 Ephrayim, like as I saw Tyre, is planted in a pleasant place, but Ephrayim will bring out his children to the killer.
14 Give them, O Yahwah, what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb, and dry breasts.
15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal. There I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house, I will love them no more, all their princes are revolters.
16 Ephrayim is smitten, their root is dried up, they bear no fruit. Yea, though they bring forth, yet I will kill the beloved fruit of their womb.
17 Their Father will cast them away, because they did not hearken to Him, and they will be wanderers among the nations.
1 Yisrayah is a luxuriant vine, that puts forth his fruit. According to the abundance of his fruit he multiplies his altars. According to the goodness of their land they made goodly pillars.
2 Their heart is divided, now they are found guilty. He will smite their altars, He will destroy their pillars.
3 Surely now they will say: We have no king. We do not fear Yahwah; and the king, what can he do for us?
4 They speak vain words, swearing falsely in making covenants, therefore judgment springs up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
5 The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Bethaven. The people will mourn over it, and the priests who rejoiced over it, for the glory is departed from it.
6 It will be carried to Assyria for a present to king Jareb. Ephrayim will receive shame, and Yisrayah will be ashamed of his own counsel.
7 As for Samaria, her king is cut off, as foam upon the water.
8 The high places also of Aven, the sin of Yisrayah, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars, and they will say to the mountains: Cover us. To the hills: Fall on us.
9 O Yisrayah, you sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they stood, the battle against the children of iniquity does not overtake them in Gibeah.
10 When it is my desire, I will chastise them, and the peoples will be gathered against them, when they are bound to their two transgressions.
11 Ephrayim is a heifer who is taught, who loves to tread out the grain, but I passed over upon her fair neck. I will set a rider on Ephrayim, Yahudah will plow, Yaacob will break his clods.
12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness, break up your fallow ground. It is time to seek Yahwah, till He come and rain righteousness upon you.
13 You plowed wickedness, you reap iniquity. You ate the fruit of lies, for you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.
14 Therefore a tumult will arise among your people, and all your fortresses will be destroyed (as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel in the day of battle, the mother was dashed in pieces with her children).
15 So Beth-el will do to you because of your great wickedness, at daybreak the king of Yisrayah will be utterly cut off.
1 When Yisrayah was a child I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.
2 The more the prophets called them, the more they went from them. They sacrificed to the Lords, and burned incense to graven images.
3 Yet I taught Ephrayim to walk. I took them on my arms, but they did not know I healed them.
4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love. I was to them as those who lift up the yoke on their jaws, and I laid food before them.
5 They will not return into the land of Egypt. The Assyrian will be their king, because they refused to return to Me.
6 The sword will fall upon their cities, will consume their bars, and devour them, because of their own counsels.
7 My people are bent on backsliding from me. Though they call to Him who is on high, none at all will exalt Him.
8 How will I give you up, Ephrayim? How will I cast you off, Yisrayah? How will I make you as Admah? How will I set you as Zeboiim? My heart is turned within Me, my compassions are kindled together.
9 I will not execute the fierceness of my anger, I will not return to destroy Ephrayim. I am Yahwah, and not man. The Holy One in the midst of you, and I will not come in wrath.
10 They will walk after Yahwah, who will roar like a lion. For He will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west.
11 They will come trembling as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria. I will make them to dwell in their houses: says Yahwah.
12 Ephrayim compasses me about with falsehood, and the house of Yisrayah with deceit. Yahudah yet rules with Yahwah, and is faithful with the Holy One.
1 Ephrayim feeds on wind, and follows after the east wind. He continually multiplies lies, and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.
2 Yahwah also has a controversy with Yahudah, and will punish Yaacob according to his ways. According to his doings He will recompense him.
3 In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his strength he struggled with Ea.
4 Yea, he had power over the malak, and prevailed. He wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Beth-el, and there He spoke with us,
5 even Yahwah, the Father of hosts. Yahwah is His memorial Name.
6 Therefore turn to your Father. Keep kindness and justice, and wait for your Father continually.
7 He is a trafficker, the balances of deceit are in his hand, he loves to oppress.
8 Ephrayim said: Surely I am become rich, I found wealth, in all my labors they will find no iniquity in me that is sin.
9 But I am Yahwah your Father from the land of Egypt. I will yet again make you to dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast.
10 I spoke to the prophets, I multiplied visions, and I used similitudes by the ministry of the prophets.
11 Is Gilead iniquity? They are altogether false. In Gilgal they sacrifice bullocks. Yea, their altars are as heaps in the furrows of the field.
12 Yaacob fled into the field of Aram. Yisrayah served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.
13 By a prophet Yahwah brought Yisrayah up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.
14 Ephrayim provoked to anger most bitterly, therefore his blood will be left upon him, and his Heavenly Father will return his reproach to him.
1 When Ephrayim spoke, there was trembling. He exalted himself in Yisrayah, but when he offended in The LORD, he died.
2 Now they sin more and more, and made them molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen. They say of them: Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves.
3 Therefore they will be as the morning cloud, as the dew that passes early away, as the chaff that is driven out of the threshing-floor with the whirlwind, and as the smoke out of the chimney.
4 I am Yahwah your Father from the land of Egypt. You will know no god, only Me. Besides Me there is no savior.
5 I did know you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
6 According to their pasture, so they were filled. They were filled, and their heart was exalted, therefore they forgot Me.
7 Therefore I am to them as a lion, I will watch by the way as a leopard.
8 I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will tear the caul of their heart. I will devour them like a lioness, the wild beast will tear them.
9 It is your destruction, O Yisrayah, that you are against Me, against your help.
10 Where is your king now, that he may save you in all your cities? Your judges, of whom you said: Give me a king and princes?
11 I gave you a king in my anger, and took him away in my wrath.
12 The iniquity of Ephrayim is bound up, his sin is laid up in store.
13 The sorrows of a travailing woman will come upon him, he is an unwise son, for it is time he should not tarry in the place of the breaking forth of children.
14 I will ransom them from the power of the grave, I will redeem them from death. O death, where are your plagues? O grave, where is your destruction? Repentance will be hid from my eyes.
15 Though he is fruitful among his brothers, an east wind will come, the breath of Yahwah coming up from the wilderness. His spring will become dry, his fountain will be dried up, and he will make spoil of the treasure of all goodly vessels.
16 Samaria will bear her guilt, for she rebels against her Father. They will fall by the sword, their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their women with child will be ripped up.
1 O Yisrayah, return to Yahwah your Father, for you are fallen by your iniquity.
2 Take words with you, and return to Yahwah. Say to him: Take away all iniquity, and accept that which is good, so we will render as bulls the offering of our lips.
3 Assyria will not save us, we will not ride upon horses. Nor will we say anymore to the work of our hands: You are our god. For in you the fatherless finds mercy.
4 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for my anger is turned away from him.
5 I will be as the dew to Yisrayah. He will blossom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
6 His branches will spread, his beauty will be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
7 Those who dwell under his shadow will return. They will revive as the grain, and blossom as the vine. The scent will be as the wine of Lebanon.
8 Ephrayim will say: What have I to do anymore with idols? I answer, and will regard him. I am like a green fir-tree, your fruit is found from Me.
9 Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of Yahwah are right, and the just walk in them. But transgressors fall in.
