Hosea

1 The word of Jehovah+ that occurred to Ho·seʹa+ the son of Be·eʹri in the days+ of Uz·ziʹah,+ Joʹtham,+ Aʹhaz+ [and] Hez·e·kiʹah,+ kings of Judah, and in the days of Jer·o·boʹam+ the son of Joʹash,+ the king of Israel. 2 There was a start of the word of Jehovah by Ho·seʹa, and Jehovah proceeded to say to Ho·seʹa: “Go,+ take to yourself a wife of fornication* and children of fornication, because by fornication the land positively turns from following Jehovah.”+

3 And he proceeded to go and take Goʹmer the daughter of Dib·laʹim, so that she became pregnant and in time bore to him a son.+

4 And Jehovah went on to say to him: “Call his name Jezʹre·el,+ for yet a little while and I must hold an accounting for the acts of bloodshed of Jezʹre·el* against the house of Jeʹhu,+ and I must cause the royal rule of the house of Israel to cease.+ 5 And it must occur in that day that I must break the bow+ of Israel in the low plain* of Jezʹre·el.”

6 And she proceeded to become pregnant another time and to give birth to a daughter. And He* went on to say to him: “Call her name Lo-ru·haʹmah,*+ for I shall no more show mercy+ again to the house of Israel, because I shall positively take them away.*+ 7 But to the house of Judah I shall show mercy,+ and I will save them by Jehovah their God;*+ but I shall not save them by a bow or by a sword or by war, by horses or by horsemen.”+

8 And she gradually weaned Lo-ru·haʹmah, and she proceeded to become pregnant and give birth to a son. 9 So He said: “Call his name Lo-amʹmi,* because YOU men are not my people* and I myself shall prove to be not YOURS.*

10 “And the number of the sons of Israel must become like the grains of the sand of the sea that cannot be measured or numbered.+ And it must occur that in the place in which it used to be said to them, ‘YOU men are not my people,’+ it will be said to them, ‘The sons of the living God.’*+ 11 And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will certainly be collected together into a unity*+ and will actually set up for themselves one head and go up out of the land,+ because great will be the day of Jezʹre·el.*+