Hos 2, Hos 4 | ESV | STEP | Say to your brothers , You are my people , and to your sisters , You have received mercy .

1 ^{▼▼Ch 2:3 in Hebrew} Say to your brothers, ^b“You are my people,” ^{▼▼Hebrew ammi, which means my people} and to your sisters, ^d“You have received mercy.” ^{▼▼Hebrew ruhama, which means she has received mercy}

2 “Plead with your mother, plead—
for ^fshe is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put away ^gher whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts;
3 lest ^hI strip her naked
and make her as ⁱin the day she was born,
and ^jmake her like a wilderness,
and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
4 ^kUpon her children also I will have no mercy,
^lbecause they are children of whoredom.
5 For ^mtheir mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For ⁿshe said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who ^ogive me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore ^pI will hedge up her ^{▼▼Hebrew your} way with thorns,
and ^rI will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
^sThen she shall say,
‘I will go and return to ^tmy first husband,
^ufor it was better for me then than now.’
8 And ^vshe did not know
that it was ^wI who gave her
^xthe grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on ^yher silver and gold,
^zwhich they used for Baal.
9 Therefore ^aaI will take back
my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season,
and ^abI will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
10 Now ^acI will uncover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
11 ^adAnd I will put an end to all her mirth,
her feasts, her ^aenew moons, her ^afSabbaths,
and all her ^agappointed feasts.
12 And ^ahI will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
^aiof which she said,
‘These are ^ajmy wages,
which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
^akand the beasts of the field shall devour them.
13 And ^alI will punish her for ^amthe feast days of the Baals
when she burned offerings to them
and ^anadorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the Lord.

The Lord’s Mercy on Israel

14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and ^aobring her into the wilderness,
and ^apspeak tenderly to her.
15 And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor ^{▼▼ Achor means trouble; compare Joshua 7:26} a door of hope.
And there she shall answer ^aras in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
16 “And ^asin that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For ^atI will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And ^auI will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And ^avI will abolish ^{▼▼Hebrew break} the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in ^axsafety. 19 And I will betroth you to me ^ayforever. ^azI will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 ^baI will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And ^bbyou shall know the Lord.

21 “And ^bcin that day ^bdI will answer, declares the Lord,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer ^beJezreel, ^{▼▼ Jezreel means God will sow}
23 and ^bgI will sow her for myself in the land.
And ^bhI ^biwill have mercy on No Mercy, ^{▼▼Hebrew Lo-ruhama}
and ^bkI will say to Not My People, ^{▼▼Hebrew Lo-ammi} ^bm‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

Hosea 4

The Lord Accuses Israel

1 ^bnHear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,
for ^bothe Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,
and ^bpno knowledge of God in the land;
2 ^bqthere is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;
they break all bounds, and ^brbloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Therefore ^bsthe land mourns,
and all who dwell in it languish,
^btand also the beasts of the field
and the birds of the heavens,
^buand even the fish of the sea are taken away.
4 ^bvYet let no one contend,
and let none accuse,
for with you is ^bwmy contention, O priest. ^{▼▼Or for your people are like those who contend with the priest}
5 You shall stumble by day;
the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;
and I will destroy ^byyour mother.
6 My people are destroyed ^bzfor lack of knowledge;
^cabecause you have rejected knowledge,
I reject you ^cbfrom being a priest to me.
And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
^ccI also will forget your children.
7 ^cdThe more they increased,
the more they sinned against me;
^ceI will change their glory into shame.
8 ^cfThey feed on the sin ^{▼▼Or sin offering} of my people;
they are greedy for their iniquity.
9 ^chAnd it shall be like people, like priest;
I will punish them for their ways
and repay them for their deeds.
10 ^ciThey shall eat, but not be satisfied;
they shall play the whore, but not multiply,
because they have forsaken the Lord
to cherish 11 whoredom, wine, and new wine,
which ^cjtake away the understanding.
12 My people ^ckinquire of a piece of wood,
and their walking staff gives them oracles.
For ^cla spirit of whoredom has led them astray,
and they have left their God to play the whore.
13 ^cmThey sacrifice on the tops of the mountains
and burn offerings on the hills,
^cnunder oak, poplar, and terebinth,
because their shade is good.
Therefore your daughters play the whore,
and your brides commit adultery.
14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,
nor your brides when they commit adultery;
for ^cothe men themselves go aside with prostitutes
and sacrifice with ^cpcult prostitutes,
and a people ^cqwithout understanding shall come to ruin.
15 Though you play the whore, O ^crIsrael,
let not ^csJudah become guilty.
^ctEnter not into ^cuGilgal,
nor go up to ^cvBeth-aven,
and swear not, “As the Lord lives.”
16 Like a stubborn heifer,
Israel is stubborn;
can the Lord now feed them
like a lamb in a broad pasture?
17 ^cwEphraim is joined to idols;
^cxleave him alone.
18 When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring;
^cytheir rulers ^{▼▼Hebrew shields} dearly love shame.
19 ^daA wind has wrapped them ^{▼▼Hebrew her} in its wings,
and they shall ^dcbe ashamed because of their sacrifices.