September 30
Hosea 1:1 — 5:15
Hosea
1
The word of Jehovah that occurred 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, the king of Israel.
2 There
was a start of the word of Jehovah by Hosea, and Jehovah proceeded to say to
Hosea: “Go, take to yourself a wife of fornication and children of fornication,
because by fornication the land positively turns from following Jehovah.”
3 And he proceeded to go and take Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, so that she became pregnant and in time bore to him a son.
4 And Jehovah went on to say to him: “Call his name Jezreel, for yet a little while and I must hold an accounting for the acts of bloodshed of Jezreel against the house of Jehu, and I must cause the royal rule of the house of Israel to cease. 5 And it must occur in that day that I must break the bow of Israel in the low plain of Jezreel.”
6 And she proceeded to become pregnant another time and to give birth to a daughter. And He went on to say to him: “Call her name Lo-ruhamah, for I shall no more show mercy again to the house of Israel, because I shall positively take them away. 7 But to the house of Judah I shall show mercy, and I will save them by Jehovah their God; but I shall not save them by a bow or by a sword or by war, by horses or by horsemen.”
8 And she gradually weaned Lo-ruhamah, and she proceeded to become pregnant and give birth to a son. 9 So He said: “Call his name Lo-ammi, because YOU men are not my people and I myself shall prove to be not YOURS.
10 “And
the number of the sons of Israel must become like the grains of the sand of the
sea that cannot be measured or numbered. And it must occur that in the place in
which it used to be said to them, ‘YOU men are not my people,’ it will be said
to them, ‘The sons of the living God.’
11 And
the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will certainly be collected together
into a unity and will actually set up for themselves one head and go up out of
the land, because great will be the day of Jezreel.
2
“SAY to YOUR brothers, ‘My people!’ and to YOUR sisters, ‘O woman shown mercy!’
2 Carry
on a legal case with YOUR mother; carry on a legal case, for she is not my wife
and I am not her husband. And she should put away her fornication from before
herself and her acts of adultery from between her breasts,
3 that
I may not strip her naked and actually place her as in the day of her being
born, and actually set her like a wilderness and place her like a waterless land
and put her to death with thirst.
4 And
to her sons I shall not show mercy, for they are the sons of fornication.
5 For
their mother has committed fornication. She that was pregnant with them has
acted shamefully, for she has said, ‘I want to go after those passionately
loving me, those giving my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and
my drink.’
6 “Therefore here I am hedging your way about with thorns; and I will heap up a stone wall against her, so that her own roadways she will not find. 7 And she will actually chase after her passionate lovers, but she will not overtake them; and she will certainly look for them, but she will not find [them]. And she will have to say, ‘I want to go and return to my husband, the first one, for I had it better at that time than now.’ 8 But she herself did not recognize that it was I who had given to her the grain and the sweet wine and the oil, and that I had made silver itself abound for her, and gold, [which] they made use of for Baal.
9 “‘Therefore I shall turn back and certainly take away my grain in its time and my sweet wine in its season, and I will snatch away my wool and my linen for covering her nakedness. 10 And now I shall uncover her private parts to the eyes of her passionate lovers, and there will be no man to snatch her out of my hand. 11 And I shall certainly cause all her exultation, her festival, her new moon and her sabbath and her every festal season to cease. 12 And I will lay desolate her vine and her fig tree, of which she has said: “They are a gift to me, which my passionate lovers have given to me”; and I will set them as a forest, and the wild beast of the field will certainly devour them. 13 And I will hold an accounting against her for the days of the Baal images to which she kept making sacrificial smoke, when she kept decking herself with her ring and her ornament and kept going after her passionate lovers, and I was the one that she forgot,’ is the utterance of Jehovah.
14 “‘Therefore here I am prevailing upon her, and I will cause her to go into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart. 15 And I will give her her vineyards from then onward, and the low plain of Achor as an entrance to hope; and she will certainly answer there as in the days of her youth and as in the day of her coming up out of the land of Egypt. 16 And it must occur in that day,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘that you will call [me] My husband, and you will no longer call me My owner.’
17 “‘And I will remove the names of the Baal images from her mouth, and they will no longer be remembered by their name. 18 And for them I shall certainly conclude a covenant in that day in connection with the wild beast of the field and with the flying creature of the heavens and the creeping thing of the ground, and the bow and the sword and war I shall break out of the land, and I will make them lie down in security. 19 And I will engage you to me for time indefinite, and I will engage you to me in righteousness and in justice and in loving-kindness and in mercies. 20 And I will engage you to me in faithfulness; and you will certainly know Jehovah.’
21 “‘And
it must occur in that day that I shall answer,’ is the utterance of Jehovah, ‘I
shall answer the heavens, and they, for their part, will answer the earth;
22 and
the earth, for its part, will answer the grain and the sweet wine and the oil;
and they, for their part, will answer Jezreel [‘God will sow seed’].
23 And
I shall certainly sow her like seed for me in the earth, and I will show mercy
to her who was not shown mercy, and I will say to those not my people: “You are
my people”; and they, for their part, will say: “[You are] my God.”’”
3
And Jehovah went on to say to me: “Go once again, love a woman loved by a
companion and committing adultery, as in the case of Jehovah’s love for the sons
of Israel while they are turning to other gods and are loving raisin cakes.”
2 And I proceeded to purchase her for myself for fifteen silver [pieces] and a homer measure of barley and a half-homer of barley. 3 Then I said to her: “For many days you will dwell as mine. You must not commit fornication, and you must not come to belong to [another] man; and I also will be for you.”
4 It
is because for many days the sons of Israel will dwell without a king and
without a prince and without a sacrifice and without a pillar and without an ephod
and teraphim.
5 Afterwards
the sons of Israel will come back and certainly look for Jehovah their God, and
for David their king; and they will certainly come quivering to Jehovah and to
his goodness in the final part of the days.
4
Hear the word of Jehovah, O sons of Israel, for Jehovah has a legal case with
the inhabitants of the land, for there is no truth nor loving-kindness nor
knowledge of God in the land.
2 There
are the pronouncing of curses and practicing of deception and murdering and
stealing and committing of adultery that have broken forth, and acts of
bloodshed have touched other acts of bloodshed.
3 That
is why the land will mourn and every inhabitant in it will have to fade away
with the wild beast of the field and with the flying creature of the heavens,
and even the fishes of the sea themselves will be gathered [in death].
4 “However, let no man contend, neither let a man reprove, as your people are like those who are contending against a priest. 5 And you will certainly stumble in the daytime, and even a prophet must stumble with you, as at night. And I will put your mother to silence. 6 My people will certainly be silenced, because there is no knowledge. Because the knowledge is what you yourself have rejected, I shall also reject you from serving as a priest to me; and [because] you keep forgetting the law of your God, I shall forget your sons, even I. 7 In proportion to the multitude of them, so they have sinned against me. My own glory they have exchanged for mere dishonor. 8 The sin of my people is what they keep devouring, and to their error they keep lifting up their soul.
9 “And it will have to become for the people the same as for the priest; and I shall certainly hold an accounting against them for their ways; and their dealings I shall bring back upon them. 10 And they will actually eat, but will not get satisfied. They will actually treat [women] as harlots; but they will not increase, because they have left off paying regard to Jehovah himself. 11 Fornication and wine and sweet wine are what take away good motive. 12 Of their wooden [idol] my own people keep inquiring, and their own [hand] staff keeps telling them; because the very spirit of fornication has caused them to wander off, and by fornication they go out from under their God. 13 On the tops of the mountains they sacrifice, and on the hills they make sacrificial smoke, under massive tree and storax tree and big tree, because its shade is good. That is why YOUR daughters commit fornication and YOUR own daughters-in-law commit adultery.
14 “I
shall not hold an accounting against YOUR daughters because they commit
fornication, and against YOUR daughters-in-law because they commit adultery.
For, as to the [men], it is with the harlots that they get off to themselves,
and with the female temple prostitutes that they sacrifice; and a people [that]
does not understand will be trodden down.
15 Although
you are committing fornication, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty, and do
not YOU people come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth-aven nor swear ‘As Jehovah
is alive!’
16 For,
like a stubborn cow, Israel has become stubborn. Is it now that Jehovah will
shepherd them like a young ram in a roomy place?
17 Ephraim
is joined with idols. Let him be to himself!
18 Their
wheat beer being gone, they have positively treated [woman] as a harlot. Her
shielders have positively loved dishonor.
19 A
wind has wrapped her up in its wings. And they will be ashamed of their
sacrifices.”
5
“Hear this, O priests, and pay attention, O house of Israel, and YOU, O house of
the king, give ear, for with YOU people the judgment has to do; because a trap
is what YOU have become to Mizpah and as a net spread over Tabor.
2 And
in slaughter work those falling away have gone deep down, and I was an
exhortation to all of them.
3 I
personally have known Ephraim, and Israel itself has not been hidden from me.
For now, O Ephraim, you have treated [women] like harlots; Israel has defiled
itself.
4 Their
dealings do not permit of a returning to their God, because there is a spirit of
fornication in the midst of them; and Jehovah himself they have not
acknowledged.
5 And
the pride of Israel has testified to his face; and Israel and Ephraim themselves
are made to stumble in their error. Judah has also stumbled with them.
6 With
their flock and with their herd they proceeded to go and look for Jehovah, but
they could not find [him]. He had drawn away from them.
7 With
Jehovah himself they have dealt treacherously, for it is to strange sons that
they have become father. Now a month will devour them with their portions.
8 “BLOW a horn in Gibeah, a trumpet in Ramah! SHOUT a war cry at Beth-aven—after you, O Benjamin! 9 O Ephraim, a mere object of astonishment you will become in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel I have made known trustworthy words. 10 The princes of Judah have become just like those moving back a boundary. Upon them I shall pour out my fury just like water. 11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in justice, for he had taken it upon himself to walk after his adversary. 12 And I was like the moth to Ephraim and just like rottenness to the house of Judah.
13 “And Ephraim got to see his sickness, and Judah his ulcer. And Ephraim proceeded to go to Assyria and send to a great king. But that one himself was unable to give healing to YOU people, and he could not take from YOU an ulcer with any cure. 14 For I shall be like a young lion to Ephraim and like a maned young lion to the house of Judah. I, I myself shall tear to pieces and I shall go [and] carry off, and there will be no deliverer. 15 I shall go, I will return to my place until they bear their guilt; and they will certainly seek my face. When they are in sore straits, they will seek me.”
End of September