The Hebrew Prophets

in the eighteenth year of N'vukhadretzar, 832 persons from Yerushalayim;

and in the twenty-third year of N'vukhadretzar, N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard deported 745 persons from Y'hudah; the total comes to 4,600 persons.

In the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Y'hoyakhin king of Y'hudah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Eveel-M'rodakh began his reign as king of Bavel; and in his first year, he commuted the sentence of Y'hoyakhin king of Y'hudah and released him from prison.

He treated him with kindness and gave him a throne higher than those of the other kings there with him in Bavel.

So Y'hoyakhin no longer had to wear prison clothes; moreover, he was provided with food as long as he lived,

and he was granted a daily allowance by the king of Bavel to spend on his other needs for as long as he lived, until the day of his death.

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.

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."

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

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.

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

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.

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."

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

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

"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.'

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.

Say to your brothers, 'Ammi [My People]!' and to your sisters, 'Ruchamah [Pitied]!'

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.

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.

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

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.'

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

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.'

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.