CHAPTER 1
This is the word
of the LORD
that
came
to
Hosea
son
of Beeri
in the days
of Uzziah,
Jotham,
Ahaz,
and Hezekiah,
kings
of Judah,
and of
Jeroboam
son
of Jehoash,
king
of Israel.
When the LORD
first
spoke
to Hosea,
He
told
him,
“Go,
take
a prostitute
as your
wife
and have children
of adultery,
because
this land
is flagrantly prostituting itself
by departing from
the LORD.”
Then the LORD
said
to Hosea,
“Name
him Jezreel,
for
soon
I will bring
the bloodshed
of Jezreel
upon
the house
of Jehu,
and I will put an end
to the kingdom
of Israel.
Gomer again
conceived
and gave birth to
a daughter,
and the LORD said
to Hosea,
“Name
her
Lo-ruhamah,
for
I will no
longer
have compassion
on the house
of Israel,
that
I should ever
forgive
them.
Yet
I will have compassion
on the house
of Judah,
and I will deliver them,
not
by bow
or sword
or war,
not by horses
and cavalry,
but by the LORD
their God.”
Yet the number
of the Israelites
will be
like the sand
of the sea,
which
cannot
be measured
or
numbered.
And
in the place
where
it was said
to them,
‘You
are not
My people,’
they will be called
‘sons
of the living
God.’
Then the people
of Judah
and
of Israel
will be gathered
together,
and they will appoint
for themselves one
leader,
and will go up
out
of the land.
For
great will be
the day
of Jezreel.