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Hosea 1

Hosea's Wife and Children

 ⁴ Then the LORD said to Hosea, "Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. ⁵ In that day I will break Israel's bow in the Valley of Jezreel."

 ⁶ Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the LORD said to Hosea, "Call her Lo-Ruhamah, ^[b] for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. ⁷ Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the LORD their God."

 ⁸ After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. ⁹ Then the LORD said, "Call him Lo-Ammi, ^[c] for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

 ¹⁰ "Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.' ¹¹ The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.

Hosea 2

 ¹ "Say of your brothers, 'My people,' and of your sisters, 'My loved one.'

Israel Punished and Restored

 ³ Otherwise I will strip her naked
       and make her as bare as on the day she was born;
       I will make her like a desert,
       turn her into a parched land,
       and slay her with thirst.

 ⁴ I will not show my love to her children,
       because they are the children of adultery.

 ⁵ Their mother has been unfaithful
       and has conceived them in disgrace.
       She said, 'I will go after my lovers,
       who give me my food and my water,
       my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.'

 ⁶ Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;
       I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.

 ⁷ She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
       she will look for them but not find them.
       Then she will say,
       'I will go back to my husband as at first,
       for then I was better off than now.'

 ⁸ She has not acknowledged that I was the one
       who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,
       who lavished on her the silver and gold—
       which they used for Baal.

 ⁹ "Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens,
       and my new wine when it is ready.
       I will take back my wool and my linen,
       intended to cover her nakedness.

 ¹⁰ So now I will expose her lewdness
       before the eyes of her lovers;
       no one will take her out of my hands.

 ¹¹ I will stop all her celebrations:
       her yearly festivals, her New Moons,
       her Sabbath days—all her appointed feasts.

 ¹² I will ruin her vines and her fig trees,
       which she said were her pay from her lovers;
       I will make them a thicket,
       and wild animals will devour them.

 ¹³ I will punish her for the days
       she burned incense to the Baals;
       she decked herself with rings and jewelry,
       and went after her lovers,
       but me she forgot,"
       declares the LORD.

 ¹⁴ "Therefore I am now going to allure her;
       I will lead her into the desert
       and speak tenderly to her.

 ¹⁵ There I will give her back her vineyards,
       and will make the Valley of Achor ^[d] a door of hope.
       There she will sing ^[e] as in the days of her youth,
       as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

 ¹⁶ "In that day," declares the LORD,
       "you will call me 'my husband';
       you will no longer call me 'my master. ^[f] '

 ¹⁷ I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
       no longer will their names be invoked.

 ¹⁸ In 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 move along the ground.
       Bow and sword and battle
       I will abolish from the land,
       so that all may lie down in safety.

 ¹⁹ I will betroth you to me forever;
       I will betroth you in ^[g] righteousness and justice,
       in ^[h] love and compassion.

 ²⁰ I will betroth you in faithfulness,
       and you will acknowledge the LORD.

 ²¹ "In that day I will respond,"
       declares the LORD—
       "I will respond to the skies,
       and they will respond to the earth;

 ²² and the earth will respond to the grain,
       the new wine and oil,
       and they will respond to Jezreel. ^[i]

 ²³ I will plant her for myself in the land;
       I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one. ^[j] '
       I will say to those called 'Not my people, ^[k] ' 'You are my people';
       and they will say, 'You are my God.' "

Hosea 3

Hosea's Reconciliation With His Wife

 ² So I bought her for fifteen shekels ^[l] of silver and about a homer and a lethek ^[m] of barley. ³ Then I told her, "You are to live with ^[n] me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with ^[o] you."

 ⁴ For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. ⁵ Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.

Hosea 4

The Charge Against Israel

 ² There is only cursing, ^[p] lying and murder,
       stealing and adultery;
       they break all bounds,
       and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

 ³ Because of this the land mourns, ^[q]
       and all who live in it waste away;
       the beasts of the field and the birds of the air
       and the fish of the sea are dying.

 ⁴ "But let no man bring a charge,
       let no man accuse another,
       for your people are like those
       who bring charges against a priest.

 ⁵ You stumble day and night,
       and the prophets stumble with you.
       So I will destroy your mother-

 ⁶ my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
       "Because you have rejected knowledge,
       I also reject you as my priests;
       because you have ignored the law of your God,
       I also will ignore your children.

 ⁷ The more the priests increased,
       the more they sinned against me;
       they exchanged ^[r] their ^[s] Glory for something disgraceful.

 ⁸ They feed on the sins of my people
       and relish their wickedness.

 ⁹ And it will be: Like people, like priests.
       I will punish both of them for their ways
       and repay them for their deeds.

 ¹⁰ "They will eat but not have enough;
       they will engage in prostitution but not increase,
       because they have deserted the LORD
       to give themselves ¹¹ to prostitution,
       to old wine and new,
       which take away the understanding ¹² of my people.
       They consult a wooden idol
       and are answered by a stick of wood.
       A spirit of prostitution leads them astray;
       they are unfaithful to their God.

 ¹³ They sacrifice on the mountaintops
       and burn offerings on the hills,
       under oak, poplar and terebinth,
       where the shade is pleasant.
       Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution
       and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

 ¹⁴ "I will not punish your daughters
       when they turn to prostitution,
       nor your daughters-in-law
       when they commit adultery,
       because the men themselves consort with harlots
       and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes—
       a people without understanding will come to ruin!

 ¹⁵ "Though you commit adultery, O Israel,
       let not Judah become guilty.
       "Do not go to Gilgal;
       do not go up to Beth Aven. ^[t]
       And do not swear, 'As surely as the LORD lives!'

 ¹⁶ The Israelites are stubborn,
       like a stubborn heifer.
       How then can the LORD pasture them
       like lambs in a meadow?

 ¹⁷ Ephraim is joined to idols;
       leave him alone!

 ¹⁸ Even when their drinks are gone,
       they continue their prostitution;
       their rulers dearly love shameful ways.

 ¹⁹ A whirlwind will sweep them away,
       and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

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Joel 2

An Army of Locusts

 ² a day of darkness and gloom,
       a day of clouds and blackness.
       Like dawn spreading across the mountains
       a large and mighty army comes,
       such as never was of old
       nor ever will be in ages to come.

 ³ Before them fire devours,
       behind them a flame blazes.
       Before them the land is like the garden of Eden,
       behind them, a desert waste—
       nothing escapes them.

 ⁴ They have the appearance of horses;
       they gallop along like cavalry.

 ⁵ With a noise like that of chariots
       they leap over the mountaintops,
       like a crackling fire consuming stubble,
       like a mighty army drawn up for battle.

 ⁶ At the sight of them, nations are in anguish;
       every face turns pale.

 ⁷ They charge like warriors;
       they scale walls like soldiers.
       They all march in line,
       not swerving from their course.

 ⁸ They do not jostle each other;
       each marches straight ahead.
       They plunge through defenses
       without breaking ranks.

 ⁹ They rush upon the city;
       they run along the wall.
       They climb into the houses;
       like thieves they enter through the windows.

 ¹⁰ Before them the earth shakes,
       the sky trembles,
       the sun and moon are darkened,
       and the stars no longer shine.

 ¹¹ The LORD thunders
       at the head of his army;
       his forces are beyond number,
       and mighty are those who obey his command.
       The day of the LORD is great;
       it is dreadful.
       Who can endure it?

Rend Your Heart

 ¹³ Rend your heart
       and not your garments.
       Return to the LORD your God,
       for he is gracious and compassionate,
       slow to anger and abounding in love,
       and he relents from sending calamity.

 ¹⁴ Who knows? He may turn and have pity
       and leave behind a blessing—
       grain offerings and drink offerings
       for the LORD your God.

 ¹⁵ Blow the trumpet in Zion,
       declare a holy fast,
       call a sacred assembly.

 ¹⁶ Gather the people,
       consecrate the assembly;
       bring together the elders,
       gather the children,
       those nursing at the breast.
       Let the bridegroom leave his room
       and the bride her chamber.

 ¹⁷ Let the priests, who minister before the LORD,
       weep between the temple porch and the altar.
       Let them say, "Spare your people, O LORD.
       Do not make your inheritance an object of scorn,
       a byword among the nations.
       Why should they say among the peoples,
       'Where is their God?' "

The LORD's Answer

 ¹⁹ The LORD will reply ^[a] to them:
       "I am sending you grain, new wine and oil,
       enough to satisfy you fully;
       never again will I make you
       an object of scorn to the nations.

 ²⁰ "I will drive the northern army far from you,
       pushing it into a parched and barren land,
       with its front columns going into the eastern sea ^[b]
       and those in the rear into the western sea. ^[c]
       And its stench will go up;
       its smell will rise."
       Surely he has done great things. ^[d]

 ²¹ Be not afraid, O land;
       be glad and rejoice.
       Surely the LORD has done great things.

 ²² Be not afraid, O wild animals,
       for the open pastures are becoming green.
       The trees are bearing their fruit;
       the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.

 ²³ Be glad, O people of Zion,
       rejoice in the LORD your God,
       for he has given you
       the autumn rains in righteousness. ^[e]
       He sends you abundant showers,
       both autumn and spring rains, as before.

 ²⁴ The threshing floors will be filled with grain;
       the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.

 ²⁵ "I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
       the great locust and the young locust,
       the other locusts and the locust swarm ^[f]—
       my great army that I sent among you.

 ²⁶ You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
       and you will praise the name of the LORD your God,
       who has worked wonders for you;
       never again will my people be shamed.

 ²⁷ Then you will know that I am in Israel,
       that I am the LORD your God,
       and that there is no other;
       never again will my people be shamed.

The Day of the LORD

 ²⁹ Even on my servants, both men and women,
       I will pour out my Spirit in those days.

 ³⁰ I will show wonders in the heavens
       and on the earth,
       blood and fire and billows of smoke.

 ³¹ The sun will be turned to darkness
       and the moon to blood
       before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD.

 ³² And everyone who calls
       on the name of the LORD will be saved;
       for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
       there will be deliverance,
       as the LORD has said,
       among the survivors
       whom the LORD calls.