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¹The LORD gave this message to Hosea son of Beeri during the years when Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah, and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.

²When the LORD first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the LORD and worshiping other gods.”

³So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son.

⁴And the LORD said, “Name the child Jezreel, for I am about to punish King Jehu’s dynasty to avenge the murders he committed at Jezreel. In fact, I will bring an end to Israel’s independence.

⁵I will break its military power in the Jezreel Valley.”

⁶Soon Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. And the LORD said to Hosea, “Name your daughter Lo-ruhamah — ‘Not loved’ — for I will no longer show love to the people of Israel or forgive them.

⁷But I will show love to the people of Judah. I will free them from their enemies — not with weapons and armies or horses and charioteers, but by my power as the LORD their God.”

⁸After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she again became pregnant and gave birth to a second son.

⁹And the LORD said, “Name him Lo-ammi — ‘Not my people’ — for Israel is not my people, and I am not their God.

¹⁰“Yet the time will come when Israel’s people will be like the sands of the seashore — too many to count! Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ it will be said, ‘You are children of the living God.’

¹¹Then the people of Judah and Israel will unite together. They will choose one leader for themselves, and they will return from exile together. What a day that will be — the day of Jezreel — when God will again plant his people in his land.

¹“In that day you will call your brothers Ammi — ‘My people.’ And you will call your sisters Ruhamah — ‘The ones I love.’

²“But now bring charges against Israel — your mother — for she is no longer my wife, and I am no longer her husband. Tell her to remove the prostitute’s makeup from her face and the clothing that exposes her breasts.

³Otherwise, I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born. I will leave her to die of thirst, as in a dry and barren wilderness.

⁴And I will not love her children, for they were conceived in prostitution.

⁵Their mother is a shameless prostitute and became pregnant in a shameful way. She said, ‘I’ll run after other lovers and sell myself to them for food and water, for clothing of wool and linen, and for olive oil and drinks.’

⁶“For this reason I will fence her in with thornbushes. I will block her path with a wall to make her lose her way.

⁷When she runs after her lovers, she won’t be able to catch them. She will search for them but not find them. Then she will think, ‘I might as well return to my husband, for I was better off with him than I am now.’

⁸She doesn’t realize it was I who gave her everything she has — the grain, the new wine, the olive oil; I even gave her silver and gold. But she gave all my gifts to Baal.

⁹“But now I will take back the ripened grain and new wine I generously provided each harvest season. I will take away the wool and linen clothing I gave her to cover her nakedness.

¹⁰I will strip her naked in public, while all her lovers look on. No one will be able to rescue her from my hands.

¹¹I will put an end to her annual festivals, her new moon celebrations, and her Sabbath days — all her appointed festivals.

¹²I will destroy her grapevines and fig trees, things she claims her lovers gave her. I will let them grow into tangled thickets, where only wild animals will eat the fruit.

¹³I will punish her for all those times when she burned incense to her images of Baal, when she put on her earrings and jewels and went out to look for her lovers but forgot all about me,” says the LORD.

¹⁴“But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there.

¹⁵I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.

¹⁶When that day comes,” says the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’ instead of ‘my master.’

¹⁷O Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips, and you will never mention them again.

¹⁸On that day I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and the birds of the sky and the animals that scurry along the ground so they will not harm you. I will remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, so you can live unafraid in peace and safety.

¹⁹I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion.

²⁰I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the LORD.

²¹“In that day, I will answer,” says the LORD. “I will answer the sky as it pleads for clouds. And the sky will answer the earth with rain.

²²Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries of the grain, the grapevines, and the olive trees. And they in turn will answer, ‘Jezreel’ — ‘God plants!’

²³At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself. I will show love to those I called ‘Not loved.’ And to those I called ‘Not my people,’ I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’ And they will reply, ‘You are our God!’”

¹Then the LORD said to me, “Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the LORD still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them. ”

²So I bought her back for fifteen pieces of silver and five bushels of barley and a measure of wine.

³Then I said to her, “You must live in my house for many days and stop your prostitution. During this time, you will not have sexual relations with anyone, not even with me. ”

⁴This shows that Israel will go a long time without a king or prince, and without sacrifices, sacred pillars, priests, or even idols!

⁵But afterward the people will return and devote themselves to the LORD their God and to David’s descendant, their king. In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the LORD and of his goodness.

¹Hear the word of the LORD, O people of Israel! The LORD has brought charges against you, saying: “There is no faithfulness, no kindness, no knowledge of God in your land.

²You make vows and break them; you kill and steal and commit adultery. There is violence everywhere — one murder after another.

³That is why your land is in mourning, and everyone is wasting away. Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the fish of the sea are disappearing.

⁴“Don’t point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame! My complaint, you priests, is with you.

⁵So you will stumble in broad daylight, and your false prophets will fall with you in the night. And I will destroy Israel, your mother.

⁶My people are being destroyed because they don’t know me. Since you priests refuse to know me, I refuse to recognize you as my priests. Since you have forgotten the laws of your God, I will forget to bless your children.

⁷The more priests there are, the more they sin against me. They have exchanged the glory of God for the shame of idols.

⁸“When the people bring their sin offerings, the priests get fed. So the priests are glad when the people sin!

⁹‘And what the priests do, the people also do.’ So now I will punish both priests and people for their wicked deeds.

¹⁰They will eat and still be hungry. They will play the prostitute and gain nothing from it, for they have deserted the LORD

¹¹to worship other gods. “Wine has robbed my people of their understanding.

¹²They ask a piece of wood for advice! They think a stick can tell them the future! Longing after idols has made them foolish. They have played the prostitute, serving other gods and deserting their God.

¹³They offer sacrifices to idols on the mountaintops. They go up into the hills to burn incense in the pleasant shade of oaks, poplars, and terebinth trees. “That is why your daughters turn to prostitution, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

¹⁴But why should I punish them for their prostitution and adultery? For your men are doing the same thing, sinning with whores and shrine prostitutes. O foolish people! You refuse to understand, so you will be destroyed.

¹⁵“Though you, Israel, are a prostitute, may Judah not be guilty of such things. Do not join the false worship at Gilgal or Beth-aven, and do not take oaths there in the LORD’s name.

¹⁶Israel is stubborn, like a stubborn heifer. So should the LORD feed her like a lamb in a lush pasture?

¹⁷Leave Israel alone, because she is married to idolatry.

¹⁸When the rulers of Israel finish their drinking, off they go to find some prostitutes. They love shame more than honor.

¹⁹So a mighty wind will sweep them away. Their sacrifices to idols will bring them shame.