Chapter 2

1 “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’

Israel Punished and Restored

2 “Rebuke your mother, rebuke her,

for she is not my wife,

and I am not her husband.

Let her remove the adulterous look from her face

and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.

3 Otherwise I will strip her naked

and make her as bare as on the day she was born;

I will make her like a desert,

turn her into a parched land,

and slay her with thirst.

4 I will not show my love to her children,

because they are the children of adultery.

5 Their mother has been unfaithful

and has conceived them in disgrace.

She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

who give me my food and my water,

my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’

6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;

I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.

7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;

she will look for them but not find them.

Then she will say,

‘I will go back to my husband as at first,

for then I was better off than now.’

8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one

who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,

who lavished on her the silver and gold—

which they used for Baal.

9 “Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens,

and my new wine when it is ready.

I will take back my wool and my linen,

intended to cover her naked body.

10 So now I will expose her lewdness

before the eyes of her lovers;

no one will take her out of my hands.

11 I will stop all her celebrations:

her yearly festivals, her New Moons,

her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.

12 I will ruin her vines and her fig trees,

which she said were her pay from her lovers;

I will make them a thicket,

and wild animals will devour them.

13 I will punish her for the days

she burned incense to the Baals;

she decked herself with rings and jewelry,

and went after her lovers,

but me she forgot,”

declares the Lord.

14 “Therefore I am now going to allure her;

I will lead her into the wilderness

and speak tenderly to her.

15 There I will give her back her vineyards,

and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

There she will respond2:15 Or sing as in the days of her youth,

as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

16 “In that day,” declares the Lord,

“you will call me ‘my husband’;

you will no longer call me ‘my master.

17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;

no longer will their names be invoked.

18 In that day I will make a covenant for them

with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky

and the creatures that move along the ground.

Bow and sword and battle

I will abolish from the land,

so that all may lie down in safety.

19 I will betroth you to me forever;

I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,

in love and compassion.

20 I will betroth you in faithfulness,

and you will acknowledge the Lord.

21 “In that day I will respond,”

declares the Lord—

“I will respond to the skies,

and they will respond to the earth;

22 and the earth will respond to the grain,

the new wine and the olive oil,

and they will respond to Jezreel.

23 I will plant her for myself in the land;

I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.

I will say to those called ‘Not my people, ‘You are my people’;

and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ”

Chapter 3

Hosea’s Reconciliation With His Wife

1 The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”

2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. 3 Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.”

4 For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.

Chapter 4

The Charge Against Israel

1 Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites,

because the Lord has a charge to bring

against you who live in the land:

“There is no faithfulness, no love,

no acknowledgment of God in the land.

2 There is only cursing, lying and murder,

stealing and adultery;

they break all bounds,

and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

3 Because of this the land dries up,

and all who live in it waste away;

the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky

and the fish in the sea are swept away.

4 “But let no one bring a charge,

let no one accuse another,

for your people are like those

who bring charges against a priest.

5 You stumble day and night,

and the prophets stumble with you.

So I will destroy your mother—

6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

“Because you have rejected knowledge,

I also reject you as my priests;

because you have ignored the law of your God,

I also will ignore your children.

7 The more priests there were,

the more they sinned against me;

they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful.

8 They feed on the sins of my people

and relish their wickedness.

9 And it will be: Like people, like priests.

I will punish both of them for their ways

and repay them for their deeds.

10 “They will eat but not have enough;

they will engage in prostitution but not flourish,

because they have deserted the Lord

to give themselves 11 to prostitution;

old wine and new wine

take away their understanding.

12 My people consult a wooden idol,

and a diviner’s rod speaks to them.

A spirit of prostitution leads them astray;

they are unfaithful to their God.

13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops

and burn offerings on the hills,

under oak, poplar and terebinth,

where the shade is pleasant.

Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution

and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

14 “I will not punish your daughters

when they turn to prostitution,

nor your daughters-in-law

when they commit adultery,

because the men themselves consort with harlots

and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes—

a people without understanding will come to ruin!

15 “Though you, Israel, commit adultery,

do not let Judah become guilty.

“Do not go to Gilgal;

do not go up to Beth Aven.

And do not swear, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’

16 The Israelites are stubborn,

like a stubborn heifer.

How then can the Lord pasture them

like lambs in a meadow?

17 Ephraim is joined to idols;

leave him alone!

18 Even when their drinks are gone,

they continue their prostitution;

their rulers dearly love shameful ways.

19 A whirlwind will sweep them away,

and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

Hosea 5

Judgment Against Israel

1 “Hear this, you priests!

Pay attention, you Israelites!

Listen, royal house!

This judgment is against you:

You have been a snare at Mizpah,

a net spread out on Tabor.

2 The rebels are knee-deep in slaughter.

I will discipline all of them.

3 I know all about Ephraim;

Israel is not hidden from me.

Ephraim, you have now turned to prostitution;

Israel is corrupt.

4 “Their deeds do not permit them

to return to their God.

A spirit of prostitution is in their heart;

they do not acknowledge the Lord.

5 Israel’s arrogance testifies against them;

the Israelites, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin;

Judah also stumbles with them.

6 When they go with their flocks and herds

to seek the Lord,

they will not find him;

he has withdrawn himself from them.

7 They are unfaithful to the Lord;

they give birth to illegitimate children.

When they celebrate their New Moon feasts,

he will devour their fields.

8 “Sound the trumpet in Gibeah,

the horn in Ramah.

Raise the battle cry in Beth Aven

lead on, Benjamin.

9 Ephraim will be laid waste

on the day of reckoning.

Among the tribes of Israel

I proclaim what is certain.

10 Judah’s leaders are like those

who move boundary stones.

I will pour out my wrath on them

like a flood of water.

11 Ephraim is oppressed,

trampled in judgment,

intent on pursuing idols.

12 I am like a moth to Ephraim,

like rot to the people of Judah.

13 “When Ephraim saw his sickness,

and Judah his sores,

then Ephraim turned to Assyria,

and sent to the great king for help.

But he is not able to cure you,

not able to heal your sores.

14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,

like a great lion to Judah.

I will tear them to pieces and go away;

I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them.

15 Then I will return to my lair

until they have borne their guilt

and seek my face—

in their misery

they will earnestly seek me.”

Chapter 2

Warning to Pay Attention

1 We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. 2 For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, 3 how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. 4 God also testified to it by signs, wonders and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

Jesus Made Fully Human

5 It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. 6 But there is a place where someone has testified:

“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,

a son of man that you care for him?

7 You made them a little lower than the angels;

you crowned them with glory and honor

8 and put everything under their feet.”

In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. 9 But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.

10 In bringing many sons and daughters to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the pioneer of their salvation perfect through what he suffered. 11 Both the one who makes people holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters. 12 He says,

“I will declare your name to my brothers and sisters;

in the assembly I will sing your praises.”

13 And again,

“I will put my trust in him.”

And again he says,

“Here am I, and the children God has given me.”

14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. 16 For surely it is not angels he helps, but Abraham’s descendants. 17 For this reason he had to be made like them, fully human in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. 18 Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.