Hosea

Hosea 2 ©

1 The people are exhorted to forsake idolatry, which is threatened with severe judgments. 14 God allureth them with promises of reconciliation.

1

SAY ye unto your brethren, 1Ammi; and to your sisters, 2Ru-hamah.

2

aPlead with your mother, plead: for bshe is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her cwhoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

c Eze. 16; 20; 23.
3

Lest I dstrip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her eas a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

4

And fI will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.

5

For gtheir mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my hlovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my 3drink.

6

¶Therefore, behold, I will ihedge up thy way with thorns, and 4make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

7

And jshe shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them : then shall she say, kI will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.

8

For lshe did not know that I gave her mcorn, and 5wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, 6which they prepared for Baal.

9

Therefore will I return, and ntake away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will 7recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.

10

And now owill I *discover her 8lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and pnone shall deliver her out of mine hand.

11

I qwill also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, rher new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.

12

And I will 9destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, sThese are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and tI will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

s v.5. ch. 9.1.
13

And uI will visit upon her vthe days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.

u ch. 4.9.
14

wTherefore, behold, I will xallure her, and bring her into ythe wilderness, and speak 10comfortably unto her.

15

And zI will give her her vineyards from thence, and athe valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, bas in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

16

And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me 11Ishi; and shalt call me no more 12Baali.

17

For cI will take away the names of dBaalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.

18

And in that day ewill I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and fI will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and gwill make them to lie down safely.

19

And hI will betroth thee unto me ifor ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me jin righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.

20

I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and kthou shalt know the LORD.

21

And it shall come to pass in that day, lI will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;

22

And the earth shall hear mthe corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear nJezreel.

n ch. 1.4.
23

And oI will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I pwill say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.