The Hebrew Prophets

A word of Jehovah that hath been unto Hosea, son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel:

The commencement of Jehovah's speaking by Hosea. And Jehovah saith unto Hosea, `Go, take to thee a woman of whoredoms, and children of whoredoms, for utterly go a-whoring doth the land from after Jehovah.'

And he goeth and taketh Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceiveth and beareth to him a son;

and Jehovah saith unto him, `Call his name Jezreel, for yet a little, and I have charged the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and have caused to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel;

and it hath come to pass in that day that I have broken the bow of Israel, in the valley of Jezreel.'

And she conceiveth again, and beareth a daughter, and He saith to him, `Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I add no more to pity the house of Israel, for I do utterly take them away;

and the house of Judah I pity, and have saved them by Jehovah their God, and do not save them by bow, and by sword, and by battle, by horses, and by horsemen.'

And she weaneth Lo-Ruhamah, and conceiveth, and beareth a son;

and He saith, `Call his name Lo-Ammi, for ye are not My people, and I am not for you;

and the number of the sons of Israel hath been as the sand of the sea, that is not measured nor numbered, and it hath come to pass in the place where it is said to them, Ye are not My people, it is said to them, Sons of the Living God;

and gathered have been the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel together, and they have appointed to themselves one head, and have gone up from the land, for great is the day of Jezreel.

`Say ye to your brethren--Ammi, And to your sisters--Ruhamah.

Plead ye with your mother--plead, (For she is not My wife, and I am not her husband,) And she turneth her whoredoms from before her, And her adulteries from between her breasts,

Lest I strip her naked. And have set her up as in the day of her birth, And have made her as a wilderness, And have set her as a dry land, And have put her to death with thirst.

And her sons I do not pity, For sons of whoredoms are they,

For gone a-whoring hath their mother, Acted shamefully hath their conceiver, For she hath said, I go after my lovers, Those giving my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.

Therefore, lo, I am hedging up thy way with thorns, And I have made for her a wall, And her paths she doth not find.

And she hath pursued her lovers, And she doth not overtake them, And hath sought them, and doth not find, And she hath said: I go, and I turn back unto My first husband, For--better to me then than now.

And she knew not that I had given to her, The corn, and the new wine, and the oil. Yea, silver I did multiply to her, And the gold they prepared for Baal.

Therefore do I turn back, And I have taken My corn in its season, And My new wine in its appointed time, And I have taken away My wool and My flax, covering her nakedness.

And now do I reveal her dishonour before the eyes of her lovers, And none doth deliver her out of My hand.

And I have caused to cease all her joy, Her festival, her new moon, and her sabbath, Even all her appointed times,

And made desolate her vine and her fig-tree, Of which she said, A gift they are to me, That my lovers have given to me, And I have made them for a forest, And consumed them hath a beast of the field.

And I have charged on her the days of the Baalim, To whom she maketh perfume, And putteth on her ring and her ornament, And goeth after her lovers, And Me forgat--an affirmation of Jehovah.

Therefore, lo, I am enticing her, And have caused her to go to the wilderness, And I have spoken unto her heart,