1

1 This is the word of ADONAI that came to Hoshea the son of Be'eri during the reigns of 'Uziyah, Yotam, Achaz and Y'chizkiyah, kings of Y'hudah, and during the reign of Yarov'am the son of Yo'ash, king of Isra'el.

2 ADONAI's opening words in speaking to Hoshea were to instruct Hoshea, 'Go, marry a whore, and have children with this whore; for the land is engaged in flagrant whoring, whoring away from ADONAI.'

3 So he went and married Gomer the daughter of Divlayim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

4 ADONAI said to him, 'Call him Yizre'el, because in only a short time I will punish the house of Yehu for having shed blood at Yizre'el; I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Isra'el.

5 When that day comes, I will break the bow of Isra'el in the Yizre'el Valley.'

6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. ADONAI said to him, 'Name her Lo-Ruchamah [unpitied], for I will no longer have pity on the house of Isra'el. By no means will I forgive them.

7 But I will pity the house of Y'hudah; I will save them not by bow, sword, battle, horses or cavalry, but by ADONAI their God.'

8 After weaning Lo-Ruchamah, she conceived and bore a son.

9 ADONAI said, 'Name him Lo-'Ammi [not-my-people], because you are not my people, and I will not be your [God].

10 'Nevertheless, the people of Isra'el will number as many as the grains of sand by the sea, which cannot be measured or counted; so that the time will come when, instead of being told, 'You are not my people,' it will be said to them, 'You are the children of the living God.'

11 Then the people of Y'hudah and the people of Isra'el will be gathered together; they will appoint for themselves one leader; and they will go up out of the land; for that will be a great day, [the day] of Yizre'el.

2

1 - - -

2 Rebuke your mother, rebuke her; for she isn't my wife, and I'm not her husband. She must remove her whoring from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts.

3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked and place her as she was the day she was born, make her like a desert, place her like a dry land and kill her with thirst.

4 I will have no pity on her children, for they are children of whoring

5 their mother prostituted herself, she who conceived them behaved shamelessly; she said, 'I will pursue my lovers, who give me my food and water, wool, flax, olive oil and wine.'

6 Therefore, I will block her way with thorns and put up a hedge so she can't find her paths.

7 She will pursue her lovers but not catch them. She will seek them but won't find them. Then she will say, 'I will go and return to my first husband; because things were better for me then than they are now.'

8 For she doesn't know it was I who gave her the grain, the wine and the oil; I who increased her silver and gold, which they used for Ba'al.

9 So I will take back my grain at harvest-time and my wine in its season; I will snatch away my wool and flax, given to cover her naked body.

10 Now I will uncover her shame, while her lovers watch; and no one will save her from me.

11 I will end her happiness, her festivals, Rosh-Hodesh, and shabbats, and all her designated times.

12 I will ravage her vines and fig trees, of which she says, 'These are my wages that my lovers have given me.' But I will turn them into a forest, and wild animals will eat them.

13 I will punish her for offering incense on the feast days of the ba'alim, when she decked herself with her earrings and jewels, pursuing her lovers and forgetting me,' says ADONAI.

14 'But now I am going to woo her - I will bring her out to the desert and I will speak to her heart.

15 I will give her her vineyards from there and the Akhor Valley as a gateway to hope. She will respond there as she did when young, as she did when she came up from Egypt.

16 'On that day,' says ADONAI 'you will call me Ishi [My Husband]; you will no longer call me Ba'ali [My Master].

17 For I will remove the names of the ba'alim from her mouth; they will never again be mentioned by name.

18 When that day comes, I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds in the air and the creeping things of the earth. I will break bow and sword, sweep battle from the land, and make them lie down securely.

19 I will betroth you to me forever; yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in grace and in compassion;

20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you will know ADONAI.

21 When that day comes, I will answer,' says ADONAI 'I will answer the sky, and it will answer the earth;

22 the earth will answer the corn, wine and oil, and they will answer Yizre'el [God will sow].

23 I will sow her for me in the land. I will have pity on Lo-Ruchamah [Unpitied]; I will say to Lo-'Ammi [Not-My-People], 'You are my people'; and they will say, 'You are my God.''

3

1 ADONAI said to me, 'Go once more, and show love to [this] wife [of yours] who has been loved by her boyfriend, to this adulteress - just as ADONAI loves the people of Isra'el, even though they turn to other gods and love the raisin cakes [offered to them].'

2 So I bought her back for myself with fifteen pieces of silver and eight bushels of barley .

3 Then I told her, 'You are to remain in seclusion for a long time and be mine. You are not to be a prostitute, and you are not to be with any other man; and I won't come in to have sex with you either.'

4 For the people of Isra'el are going to be in seclusion for a long time without a king, prince, sacrifice, standing-stone, ritual vest or household gods.

5 Afterwards, the people of Isra'el will repent and seek ADONAI their God and David their king; they will come trembling to ADONAI and his goodness in the acharit-hayamim.

4

1 Hear the word of ADONAI, people of Isra'el! For ADONAI has a grievance against the inhabitants of the land: there is no truth, no faithful love or knowledge of God in the land;

2 only swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery! They break all bounds, with one blood crime following another.

3 Therefore the land mourns, and everyone living there languishes, wild animals too, and the birds in the air; even the fish in the sea are removed.

4 But no one should quarrel or rebuke, because your people are having to quarrel with the cohen.

5 Therefore you will stumble by day, and the prophet will stumble with you at night. 'I will destroy your mother.

6 My people are destroyed for want of knowledge. Because you rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as cohen for me. Because you forgot the Torah of your God, I will also forget your children.

7 The more they increased in number, the more they sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame.

8 They feed on the sin of my people and are greedy for their crimes.

9 But the cohen will fare no better than the people; I will punish him for his ways and pay him back for his deeds.

10 They will eat but not have enough and consort with whores but have no children, because they stopped listening to ADONAI.

11 Whoring and wine, both old and new, take away my people's wits.

12 My people consult their piece of wood, their diviner's wand speaks to them; for the spirit of whoring makes them err, they go off whoring, deserting their God.

13 They sacrifice on the mountain peaks and offer incense on the hills under oaks, poplars and pistachio trees; because they give good shade. Therefore your daughters behave like whores, And your daughters-in-law commit adultery.

14 I won't punish your daughters when they act like whores, or your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery; because the men are themselves going off with whores and sacrificing with prostitutes. Yes, a people without understanding will come to ruin.'

15 If you, Isra'el, prostitute yourself, still Y'hudah has no need to incur such guilt. Don't go to Gilgal or up to Beit-Aven, and don't swear, 'As ADONAI lives.'

16 For Isra'el is stubborn as a stubborn cow; will ADONAI now feed them like a lamb in a big pasture?

17 Efrayim is joined to idols; let him alone!

18 When they finish carousing, they start their whoring; their rulers deeply love dishonor.

19 The wind will carry them off in its wings and their sacrifices bring them nothing but shame.

5

1 'Hear this, cohanim! Pay attention, house of Isra'el! Listen, house of the king! For judgment is coming to you. You have become a snare for Mitzpah and a net spread on Tavor.

2 The rebels have deepened their slaughter, and I am rejected by all of them.

3 'I know Efrayim; Isra'el is not hidden from me; for now, Efrayim, you are a whore; Isra'el is defiled.'

4 Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God, for the spirit of whoring is in them, and they don't know ADONAI.

5 Isra'el's arrogance will testify in his face; Isra'el and Efrayim will stumble in their crimes; Y'hudah too will stumble with them.

6 With their flocks and herds they will go in search of ADONAI. But they won't find him; he has withdrawn from them.

7 They have betrayed ADONAI, by fathering foreign children. Now within the month the invaders will devour their lands.

8 'Blow the shofar in Giv'ah, a trumpet at Ramah; sound an alarm at Beit-Aven: 'Behind you, Binyamin!'

9 Efrayim will be laid waste when the day for punishment comes; I am announcing to the tribes of Isra'el what will surely happen.

10 The leaders of Y'hudah are like men who move boundary stones; I will pour my fury out upon them like water.

11 Efrayim is oppressed, crushed by the judgment, because he deliberately sought out futility.

12 Therefore I am like a moth to Efrayim and like rottenness to the house of Y'hudah.

13 When Efrayim saw his sickness and Y'hudah his wound, Efrayim went to Ashur and sent envoys to a warring king; but he can't heal you or cure your wound.

14 For to Efrayim I will be like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Y'hudah - I will tear them up and go away; I will carry them off, and no one will rescue.

15 I will go and return to my place, till they admit their guilt and search for me, seeking me eagerly in their distress.'

6

1 Come, let us return to ADONAI; for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck, and he will bind our wounds.

2 After two days, he will revive us; on the third day, he will raise us up; and we will live in his presence.

3 Let us know, let us strive to know ADONAI. That he will come is as certain as morning; he will come to us like the rain, like the spring rains that water the earth.

4 'Efrayim, what should I do to you? Y'hudah, what should I do to you? For your 'faithful love' is like a morning cloud, like dew that disappears quickly.

5 This is why I have cut them to pieces by the prophets, slaughtered them with the words from my mouth - the judgment on you shines out like light.

6 For what I desire is mercy, not sacrifices, knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

7 'But they, just like men, have broken the covenant, they have been faithless in dealing with me.

8 Gil'ad is a city of criminals, covered with bloody footprints;

9 just as bands of robbers wait to ambush someone, so does a gang of cohanim. They commit murder on the road to Sh'khem! Their conduct is an outrage!

10 In the house of Isra'el I have seen a horrible thing; whoring is found there in Efrayim, Isra'el is defiled.

11 For you, too, Y'hudah, a harvest will come! 'When I restore the fortunes of my people,

7

1 when I am ready to heal Isra'el, the crimes of Efrayim confront me, along with the wickedness of Shomron. For they keep practicing deceit; thieves break in, bands of robbers raid outside.

2 They never say to themselves that I remember all their evil. Now their own deeds surround them; they are right in front of me.

3 They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the leaders with their lies.

4 They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker, who doesn't stoke the fire from kneading time till the dough has risen.

5 'On their king's special day the leaders inflame him with wine, and he joins hands with scorners,

6 who ready themselves like an oven while they wait for their chance. Their baker sleeps through the night; then in the morning it bursts into flame.

7 They are all as hot as an oven, and they devour their judges. All their kings have fallen; not one of them calls out to me.

8 'Efrayim mixes himself with the peoples, Efrayim has become a half-baked cake.

9 Foreigners have eaten up his strength, but he doesn't know it; yes, gray hairs appear on him here and there, but he doesn't know it.

10 The pride of Isra'el testifies in his face, but in spite of all this they haven't returned to ADONAI their God or sought him.

11 Efrayim behaves like a silly, foolish dove - going to Egypt, then to Ashur for help.

12 Even as they go, I will spread my net over them; I will bring them down like birds from the sky; I will discipline them, as their assembly was told.

13 Woe to them! for they have strayed from me. Destruction to them! for they have wronged me. Am I supposed to redeem them, when they have spoken lies against me?

14 They have not cried out to me from their hearts, even though they wail on their beds. They assemble themselves for grain and wine, yet turn away from me.

15 It was I who trained and strengthened their arms, yet they plot evil against me.

16 They return, but not upward; they are like an unreliable bow. Their leaders will die by the sword because of their angry talk. They will become a laughingstock in the land of Egypt.

8

1 'Put the shofar to your lips! Like a vulture [he swoops down] on the house of ADONAI, because they have violated my covenant and sinned intentionally against my Torah.

2 Will they cry out to me, 'We are Isra'el, God, we know you'?

3 Isra'el has thrown away what is good; the enemy will pursue him.

4 They make kings, but without my authority; they appoint leaders, but without my knowledge. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, but these can lead only to their own destruction.

5 Your calf, Shomron, has been thrown away; my fury burns against them. How long will it be until they are able to make themselves clean?

6 Here is what Isra'el produces: a craftsman makes something - it's a non-god; the calf of Shomron will be broken to pieces.

7 For they sow the wind, so they will reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no ears, so it will yield no flour; and if it does yield any, foreigners will swallow it up.

8 Isra'el is swallowed up; now they are among the Goyim like a vessel nobody wants.

9 For they have gone up to Ashur; like a wild donkey, alone by itself, Efrayim has bargained for lovers.

10 But even if they bargain among the Goyim, now I will round them up. Soon they will start to feel the burden of these kings and leaders.

11 For Efrayim keeps building altars for sin; yes, altars are sinful for him.

12 I write him so many things from my Torah, yet he considers them foreign.

13 They offer me sacrifices of flesh and eat them, but ADONAI does not accept them. Now he will recall their crimes and punish their sins - they will return to Egypt.

14 For Isra'el forgot his maker and built palaces; and Y'hudah made more fortified cities; but I will send fire on his cities, and it will consume their strongholds.'

9

1 Don't rejoice, Isra'el! Don't enjoy yourselves as other peoples do; for you have gone whoring away from your God, you love being hired as a whore on every grain-floor.

2 Threshing-floor and winepress won't feed them, and new wine will disappoint her.

3 They won't remain in the land of ADONAI; instead, Efrayim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Ashur.

4 They will not pour out wine offerings to ADONAI; they will not be pleasing to him. Their sacrifices will be for them like mourners' food everyone eating it will be polluted. For their food will be merely to satisfy their appetite; it will not come into the house of ADONAI.

5 What will you do at a designated time, on a day which is a festival for ADONAI?

6 For suppose they escape the destruction - Egypt will round them up, Memphis will bury them. And their precious treasures of silver? Nettles will possess them, thorns will be in their tents.

7 The days of punishment have come, the days of retribution are here, and Isra'el knows it. [Yet they cry,] 'The prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit has gone crazy!' Because your iniquity is so great, the hostility [against you] is great.

8 The watchman of Efrayim is with my God, but a prophet has a fowler's snare set on all his paths and hostility even in the house of his God.

9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Giv'ah. He will remember their guilt, and he will punish their sins.

10 'When I found Isra'el, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing a fig tree's first figs in its first season. But as soon as they came to Ba'al-P'or, they dedicated themselves to something shameful; they became as loathsome as the thing they loved.

11 The glory of Efrayim will fly away like a bird - no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

12 Even if they raise their children, I will destroy them till none is left - and woe to them when I leave them, too!'

13 Efrayim, as I see it, is like Tzor, planted in a pleasant place; but Efrayim will bring out his children to the slaughterer.

14 ADONAI, give them - what will you give? Give them wombs that miscarry and dried-up breasts!

15 'All their wickedness was already there in Gilgal; that's where I came to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will expel them from my house, I will love them no more; all their leaders are rebels.

16 Efrayim has been struck down, their root has been dried up, they will bear no fruit. Even if they do give birth, I will kill their cherished offspring.'

17 My God will cast them aside, because they wouldn't listen to him, and they will become wanderers among the Goyim.

10

1 Isra'el was a luxuriant vine, freely putting forth fruit. As his fruit increased, he increased his altars; as his land got better, he improved his standing-stones.

2 Their heart is divided; now they will bear their guilt. He will break down their altars and destroy their standing-stones.

3 For now they will say, 'We have no king, because we didn't fear ADONAI - and what could a king do for us, anyway?'

4 They mouth words, swearing falsely, making treaties. Thus judgment spreads like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.

5 The inhabitants of Shomron are frightened of the calf-gods of Beit-Aven. Its people mourn over it; its priests tremble over it, over its glory, which has left it.

6 It will be carried to Ashur as a present for a warring king. Efrayim will be put to shame, and Isra'el be ashamed of his own advice.

7 Shomron's king will perish like foam on the surface of the water.

8 Destruction will come to the high places of Aven, that is, to the sin of Isra'el. Thorns and thistles will grow over their altars; and they will say to the mountains, 'Cover us!' and to the hills, 'Fall on us!'

9 'Since the days of Giv'ah you have sinned, Isra'el. There they took their stand. For these arrogant people at Giv'ah, war was insufficient punishment.

10 When I wish to, I will discipline them; and the peoples will be gathered against them to discipline them for their two crimes.'

11 Efrayim is a well-taught cow - it loves to tread the grain, and I have spared her fair neck. But I will put Efrayim in harness, Y'hudah will have to plow, Ya'akov will harrow his own land.

12 If you sow righteousness for yourselves, you will reap according to grace. Break up unused ground for yourselves, because it is time to seek ADONAI, till he comes and rains down righteousness upon you.

13 You have plowed wickedness, reaped iniquity and eaten the fruit of lies. Because you trusted in your own way, in your large numbers of warriors,

14 turmoil will erupt among your peoples, and all your fortresses will be destroyed; just as Shalman destroyed Beit-Arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to pieces right along with their children.

15 Thus will be done to you, Beit-El, because of your great wickedness; at dawn the king of Isra'el will be completely cut off.

11

1 'When Isra'el was a child, I loved him; and out of Egypt I called my son.

2 But the more [the prophets] called them, the farther they went from them. They sacrificed to the ba'alim and offered incense to idols.

3 'Yet it was I who taught Efrayim to walk; I took them by their arms. But they did not know that it was I who was healing them,

4 who was guiding them on through human means with reins made of love. With them I was like someone removing the yoke from their jaws, and I bent down to feed them.

5 He will not return to the land of Egypt, but Ashur will be his king, because they refused to repent.

6 The sword will fall on his cities, destroying the bars of his gates, because they follow their own advice.

7 My people are hanging in suspense about returning to me; and though they call them upwards, nobody makes a move.

8 Efrayim, how can I give you up, or surrender you, Isra'el? How could I treat you like Admah or make you like Tzvoyim? My heart recoils at the idea, as compassion warms within me.

9 I will not give vent to the fierceness of my rage, I will not return to destroy Efrayim; for I am God, not a human being, the Holy One among you; so I will not come in fury.

10 They will go after ADONAI, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west.

11 They will tremble like a bird as they come from Egypt, like a dove as they come from the land of Ashur; and I will resettle them in their own houses, says ADONAI.

12 'Efrayim surrounds me with lies and the house of Isra'el with deceit. Y'hudah still rules with God and is faithful with holy ones.

12

1 Efrayim is chasing the wind, pursuing the wind from the east. All day he piles up lies and desolation they make a covenant with Ashur, while sending olive oil to Egypt.

2 ADONAI also has a grievance against Y'hudah; he will punish Ya'akov according to his ways and pay him back for his misdeeds.

3 In the womb he took his brother by the heel; in the strength of his manhood he fought with God.

4 Yes, he fought with an angel and won; he wept and pleaded with him. Then at Beit-El he found him, and there he would [later] speak with us

5 Adonai ELOHEI-Tzva'ot; ADONAI is his name!

6 So you, return to your God; hold fast to grace and justice; and always put your hope in your God.

7 'A huckster keeps false scales, and he loves to cheat.

8 Efrayim says, 'I have gotten so rich! I have made me a fortune! And in all my profits no one will find anything wrong or sinful.'

9 'But I am ADONAI your God, from the land of Egypt. Again I will make you live in tents, as in the days of the established festival.

10 I have spoken to the prophets; it was I who gave vision after vision; through the prophets I gave examples to show what it would all be like.

11 Is Gil'ad given to iniquity? Yes, they have become worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice to bulls; therefore their altars are like piles of stones in a plowed field.'

12 Ya'akov fled to the land of Aram. There Isra'el slaved to win a wife; for a wife he tended sheep.

13 By a prophet ADONAI brought Isra'el up from Egypt, and by a prophet he was protected.

14 Efrayim has given bitter provocation, so the penalty for his bloodshed will be thrown down on him, and his Lord will repay him for his insult.

13

1 'When Efrayim spoke, there was trembling; he was a power in Isra'el. But when he incurred guilt through Ba'al, he died.

2 So now they keep adding sin to sin, casting images from their silver; idols they invent for themselves, all of them the work of craftsmen. 'Sacrifice to them,' they say. Men give kisses to calves!

3 Therefore they will be like a morning cloud, like the dew that disappears early, like chaff blown by wind from the threshing-floor, or like smoke that goes out the window.

4 Still, I am ADONAI your God, from the land of Egypt; and you don't know any God but me or, other than me, any Savior.

5 I knew you in the desert, in a land of terrible drought.

6 When they were fed, they were satisfied; when satisfied, they became proud. Therefore they forgot me.

7 So now I have become like a lion to them; like a leopard I will lurk by the road;

8 I will meet them like a bear whose cubs have been taken away. I will tear their hearts from their bodies. I will devour them there like a lion, like a wild animal ripping them up.

9 It is your destruction, Isra'el, although your help is in me.

10 So now, where is your king, to save you in all your cities? Where are your judges, of whom you said, 'Give me a king and leaders'?

11 I gave you a king in my anger; and in my fury I took him away.

12 'Efrayim's guilt has been wrapped up, his sin is stored away.

13 The pain of being born will come to him; but he is an unwise son. The time has come; and he shouldn't delay, there at the mouth of the womb.

14 Should I ransom them from the power of Sh'ol? Should I redeem them from death? Where are your plagues, death; where is your destruction, Sh'ol? My eyes are closed to compassion. For though he flourishes among the reeds, an east wind will come, a wind from ADONAI, blowing up from the desert. Then his water source will dry up, then his spring will fail it will plunder his treasury, removing every precious thing.' 16 Shomron will bear her guilt, for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword, their little ones will be dashed to pieces and their pregnant women ripped open.

15 - - -

16 - - -

14

1 Return, Isra'el, to ADONAI your God, for your guilt has made you stumble.

2 Take words with you, and return to ADONAI; say to him, 'Forgive all guilt, and accept what is good; we will pay instead of bulls [the offerings of] our lips.

3 Ashur will not save us, we will not ride on horses, and we will no longer call what we made with our hands our gods. For it is only in you that the fatherless can find mercy.'

4 'I will heal their disloyalty, I will love them freely; for my anger has turned from him.

5 I will be like dew to Isra'el; he will blossom like a lily and strike roots like the L'vanon.

6 His branches will spread out, his beauty be like an olive tree and his fragrance like the L'vanon.

7 Again they will live in his shade and raise grain; they will blossom like a vine, and its aroma will be like the wine of the L'vanon.

8 Efrayim [will say], 'What have I to do any more with idols?' And I, I answer and affirm him; I am like a fresh, green cypress tree; your fruitfulness comes from me.'

9 Let the wise understand these things, and let the discerning know them. For the ways of ADONAI are straight, And the righteous walk in them, but in them sinners stumble.