The Prophet Hosea

⭑ Berean Study Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 2 -

“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’(a) and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’(b)

Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.

Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.

I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery.

For their mother has played the harlot and has conceived them in disgrace. For she thought, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water, wool and linen, oil and drink.’

Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path (c) with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way.

She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will seek them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will return to my first husband, for then I was better off than now.’

For she does not acknowledge that it was I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, who lavished on her silver and gold— which they crafted for Baal.

Therefore I will take back My grain in its time and My new wine in its season; I will take away My wool and linen, which were given to cover her nakedness.

And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands.

I will put an end to all her exultation: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths— all her appointed feasts.

I will destroy her vines and fig trees, which she thinks are the wages paid by her lovers. So I will make them into a thicket, and the beasts of the field will devour them.

I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, when she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers. But Me she forgot,”

God’s Mercy to Israel

declares the LORD.

(14) “Therefore, behold, I will allure her and lead her to the wilderness, and speak to her tenderly. (15) There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor (d) into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call Me ‘my Husband,’(e) and no longer call Me ‘my Master.’(f)

For I will remove from her lips the names of the Baals; no longer will their names be invoked.

On that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that crawl on the ground. And I will abolish bow and sword and weapons of war in the land, and will make them lie down in safety.

So I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in loving devotion (g) and compassion.

And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.”

“On that day I will respond—” declares the LORD— “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth.

And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.(h)

And I will sow her as My own in the land, and I will have compassion on ‘No Compassion.’(i) I will say to those called ‘Not My People,’(j) ‘You are My people,’(k) and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

Footnotes

(a)2:1 Hebrew Ammi

(b)2:1 Or Mercy is shown; Hebrew Ruhamah, which means she has received mercy

(d)2:15 Achor means trouble.

(e)2:16 Hebrew my Ishi

(f)2:16 Hebrew my Baal

(g)2:19 Forms of the Hebrew chesed are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion; the range of meaning includes love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, as well as loyalty to a covenant.

(h)2:22 Jezreel means God sows.

(i)2:23 Hebrew Lo-ruhamah; LXX I will love her who was not loved

(j)2:23 Hebrew Lo-ammi

(k)2:23 Cited in Romans 9:25 and 1 Peter 2:10

“Say to your brothers, ‘My people!’(a) and to your sisters, ‘My loved one!’(b)

Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

lest I strip her naked, and make her bare as in the day that she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.

Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy, for they are children of unfaithfulness.

For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived them has done 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,(c) I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she can’t find her way.

She will follow after her lovers, but she won’t overtake them; and she will seek them, but won’t find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now.’

For she didn’t know that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.

Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my new wine in its season, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.

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 cause all her celebrations to cease: her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.

I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, about which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me,’ and I will make them a forest, and the animals of the field shall eat them.

I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers and forgot me,” says the LORD.

God’s Mercy to Israel

“Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.

I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will respond there as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

It will be in that day,” says the LORD, “that you will call me ‘my husband,’ and no longer call me ‘my master.’

For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they will no longer be mentioned by name.

In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, 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 lie down safely.

I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion.

I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD.

It will happen in that day, that I will respond,” says the LORD. “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth;

and the earth will respond to the grain, and the new wine, and the oil; and they will respond to Jezreel.

I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘You are My God!’”

Footnotes

(a)2:1 ‘Ammi’ in Hebrew

(b)2:1 ‘Ruhamah’ in Hebrew

(c)2:6 “Behold”, from “הִנֵּה”, means look at, take notice, observe, see, or gaze at. It is often used as an interjection.