A modern English translation drawn directly from the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts. Translated word-for-word where possible, by a committee with scholarly oversight.
Uses the same source texts as the ESV, NASB, and most academic Bibles, including the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia and the Nestle-Aland critical edition.
Hosea 1
Hosea 1 is the opening chapter of the twenty-eighth book of the Bible. The 11-verse chapter records one of the most striking commands in the Bible: God tells the prophet Hosea to marry a prostitute as a living parable of God's relationship with unfaithful Israel.
The chapter opens by identifying the prophet: Hosea son of Beeri, who prophesied during the reigns of several kings of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel in the eighth century BC.
God's first instruction to Hosea is to marry a wife of promiscuity and have children of promiscuity, because the land itself has been promiscuous in turning away from the Lord. Hosea obeys and marries a woman named Gomer.
Three children are born. The chapter does not say whether all three are Hosea's biological children. Each child is given a name chosen by God as a prophetic message. The first is a son named Jezreel, named for a valley where God will break the bow of Israel. The second is a daughter named Lo-ruhamah, which means "not loved," because God will no longer show love to the house of Israel. The third is a son named Lo-ammi, which means "not my people," because the relationship between God and Israel is being suspended.
The chapter ends with a sudden turn to promise. Despite everything, the day will come when the people of Israel will be as numerous as the sand on the seashore, and they will be called "children of the living God."
Verse 1. This is the word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel.
Verse 2. When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, because this land is flagrantly prostituting itself by departing from the LORD.”
Verse 3. So Hosea went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
Verse 4. Then the LORD said to Hosea, “Name him Jezreel, for soon I will bring the bloodshed of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.
Verse 5. And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”
Verse 6. Gomer again conceived and gave birth to a daughter, and the LORD said to Hosea, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I should ever forgive them.
Verse 7. Yet I will have compassion on the house of Judah, and I will save them—not by bow or sword or war, not by horses and cavalry, but by the LORD their God.”
Verse 8. After she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, Gomer conceived and gave birth to a son.
Verse 9. And the LORD said, “Name him Lo-ammi, for you are not My people, and I am not your God.
Verse 10. Yet the number of the Israelites will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. And it will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’
Verse 11. Then the people of Judah and of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint for themselves one leader, and will go up out of the land. For great will be the day of Jezreel.
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