The Hebrew Prophets

The word of the Lord, that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Ozias, Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joas, king of Israel.

The beginning of the Lord's speaking by Hosea: and the Lord said to Hosea: Go, take thee a wife of fornications, and have of her children of fornications: for the land by fornication shall depart from the Lord.

So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Debelaim: and she conceived, and bore him a son.

And the Lord said to him: Call his name Jezrahel: for yet a little while, and I will visit the blood of Jezrahel upon the house of Jehu, and I will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.

And in that day I will break in pieces the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezrahel.

And she conceived again, and bore a daughter, and he said to him: Call her name, Without mercy: for I will not add any more to have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them.

And I will have mercy on the house of Juda, and I will save them by the Lord, their God: and I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen.

And she weaned her that was called Without mercy. And she conceived, and bore a son.

And he said: Call his name, Not my people: for you are not my people, and I will not be yours.

And the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, that is without measure, and shall not be numbered. And it shall be in the place where it shall be said to them: You are not my people: it shall be said to them: Ye are the sons of the living God.

And the children of Juda, and the children of Israel, shall be gathered together: and they shall appoint themselves one head, and shall come up out of the land: for great is the day of Jezrahel.

Say ye to your brethren: You are my people: and to your sister: Thou hast obtained mercy.

Judge your mother, judge her: because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her put away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts.

Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born: and I will make her as a wilderness, and will set her as a land that none can pass through and will kill her with drought.

And I will not have mercy on her children, for they are the children of fornications.

For their mother hath committed fornication, she that conceived them is covered with shame: for she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink.

Wherefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will stop it up with a wall, and she shall not find her paths.

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

And she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver, and gold, which they have used in the service of Baal.

Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in its season, and my wine in its season, and I will set at liberty my wool, and my flax, which covered her disgrace.

And now I will lay open her folly in the eyes of her lovers: and no man shall deliver her out of my hand:

And I will cause all her mirth to cease, her solemnities, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her festival times.

And I will destroy her vines, and her fig trees, of which she said: These are my rewards, which my lovers have given me: and I will make her as a forest and the beasts of the field shall devour her.

And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, to whom she burnt incense, and decked herself out with her earrings, and with her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord.

Therefore, behold I will allure her, and will lead her into the wilderness: and I will speak to her heart.