This book contains the account of Hosea telling about the Israeli people rejecting God, and foretelling about God punishing and restoring them. We call this book

Hosea

1

1I am Hosea, the son of Beeri. Yahweh gave me these messages at various times during the years that Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were the kings of Judah, and Jeroboam the son of Jehoash was the King of Israel.

Hosea’s wife and children

2When Yahweh first began to give messages to me to tell to the people of Israel, he said to me, “Go and marry a prostitute. But some of her children will be born as a result of her having sex with men to whom she is not married. That will illustrate how the people of Israel have turned away from me and worship ◄idols/other gods►.” 3So I married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. She became pregnant and gave birth to my son.

4Yahweh said to me, “Give him the name Jezreel, which means ‘God scatters’, because I will soon punish the descendants [MTY] of King Jehu by scattering them, because he killed many of my people at Jezreel town. Some day I will end the kingdom of Israel, 5by destroying the power [MTY] of the army of Israel in Jezreel Valley.”

6Later Gomer became pregnant again, and she gave birth to a daughter. Yahweh said to me “Give her the name Lo-ruhamah, which means ’ not loved,’ because I will no longer show that I love the people [MET] of Israel, and I will not forgive them for the sins that they have committed. 7But I will show that I love the people [MTY] of Judah by saving them from their enemies. However, it will not be by weapons and armies or horses and chariots that I will save them. Instead, it will be by the power that I, Yahweh their God, have.”

8After Gomer had ◄weaned/stopped breast-feeding► Lo-ruhamah, she became pregnant again, and she gave birth to another son. 9Yahweh said “Give him the name Lo-ammi, ’ which means not my people,’ because the people of Israel are no longer my people, and I am not their God.

10But some day the people of Israel will be as numerous as [SIM] the grains of sand on the seashore; no one will be able to count them. Now I am saying to them, ‘You are not my people,’ but then people will say to them, ‘You are the children of God who is all-powerful.’ 11At that time, the people of Judah and the people of Israel will unite. They will appoint one leader for all of them, and they will return from the countries to which they have been ◄exiled/forced to go►. That will be a great time; Jezreel also means ’God plants’, and it will be as though God will plant them in this country again.”

2

1At that time, you will say to your fellow-Israeli men, “You are God’s people,” and you will say to your fellow-Israeli women, “You are ones whom God loves.”

Israel will be punished and later restored

2Yahweh also said to me, “I want you to accuse the Israeli people.

It is as though [MET] this nation is your mother,

but this nation is no longer as though it is [MET] my wife,

and it is no longer as though [MET] I am its husband.

Tell the Israeli people that they must stop acting like a prostitute by worshiping other gods;

they must stop showing by their behavior that they ◄are unfaithful to/have abandoned► me [MET].

3If they do not do that,

I will not give them food and clothes as a husband should give to his wife;

I will take away those things,

and I will cause their nation to become as deserted as it was on the day that I brought their ancestors out of Egypt and caused them to become a nation [MET].

I will cause their country to be like [SIM] a desert;

there will be no rain to water the ground [MET].

4I will not pity the people,

because they have abandoned me as [MET] prostitutes abandon their husbands.

5Their parents are like prostitutes [MET]: they have been unfaithful to me,

and they have done very disgraceful things.

They said, ‘We will run to our idols/gods who love us;

they are the ones who give us food and water

and wool and linen and olive oil, and wine to drink.’

6So it will be as though [MET] I am blocking their road with thornbushes,

and putting put a wall around them

so that they do not know which way to go.

7They will run to their idols/gods that they think love them,

but they will not find them.

They will search for their false gods,

but they will not find them.

Then they will say, ‘Perhaps we should return to Yahweh, whom we worshiped previously [MET],

because things were better for us then than they are now.’

8But they do not realize that I, Yahweh, am the one who gave them grain and wine and olive oil;

I am the one who gave them silver and gold

which they used to worship Baal.

9Therefore I will return and take my grain and grapes from them when they are ripe.

I will take from them the wool and linen that I gave to them to make their clothes [MTY].

10I will show those false gods/idols that what my people are doing is disgusting [MET],

and no one will be able to hinder me from punishing them.

11I will cause their religious celebrations to cease,

the festivals that they celebrate every year and at every new moon and on their ◄Sabbath days/weekly days of rest►.

I will cause all their religious celebrations to cease.

12I will destroy all their grapevines and fig trees,

which they said were what their idols/gods who loved them paid them for worshiping those idols.

I will cause those places to become a desert,

and wild animals will eat the fruit that remains.

13I will punish my people for all the times that they burned incense to honor the idols of Baal.

They decorated themselves with rings and jewelry,

and they went to worship those false gods/idols that they thought [IRO] loved them,

but they abandoned/forgot me!

That is what I, Yahweh, say.

14But listen! Some day I will persuade my people to worship me again;

I will lead them out into the desert

and speak kindly to them there.

15I will give their vineyards back to them,

and I will cause Achor Valley, which means ’valley of trouble,’ to become a valley where they will confidently expect me to do good things for them.

They will ◄respond to/want to please► me there

like they did long ago,

when I freed them from being slaves in Egypt.

16At that time,

they will say to me, ‘It is as though [MET] you are our husband.’

They will not say that I am their master, like they considered that Baal was.

17I will not allow them to speak [MTY] the names of Baal;

they will never use those names again.

18At that time it will be as though I will make an agreement

with all the wild animals and birds,

and even with the little animals that crawl along the ground,

so that they will never harm my people again.

And I will remove from their nation all the weapons for fighting battles,

like swords and bows and arrows.

The result will be that my people will live peacefully and safely,

and will not be afraid.

19I will cause them to be as though they are [MET] my bride forever.

I will be righteous and fair/just;

I will faithfully love them and be kind to them.

20I will not abandon them,

and they will realize that I Yahweh, have the power to do what I say that I will do.

21At that time, when they request me to do things for them,

I will do those things.

When they request clouds and rain to fall on their land,

I will speak to the clouds, and rain will fall on the earth,

22and grain will grow, and the vineyards and the olive trees will grow in Jezreel Valley.

23At that time, I will take care of the Israeli people

like a farmer plants and takes care of his crops [MET].

I will love those people that I previously said were ones I did not love,

and I previously said, ‘You are not my people,’

and then they will say to me, ‘You are our God.’”

3

Hosea bought his wife again

1Then Yahweh said to me, “Go and show to your wife that you still love her, even though she has been committing adultery with another man who loves her. That will show that I still love the people of Israel, even though they worship other gods/idols and eat raisin cakes in feasts that honor those gods.”

2My wife had become a slave, but I bought her for ◄6 ounces/179 grams► of silver and ten bushels of barley. 3Then I said to her, “You must wait for many days before we sleep together [EUP]. During that time, you must not be a prostitute, and you must not have sex with any other man; but I will live with you.”

4Our doing that will show that in the same way, the people of Israel will not have a king and other leaders for many years. They will not offer sacrifices or have sacred stone pillars, no sacred vest for the Supreme Priest, and no idols! 5But later, the people of Israel will return to Yahweh their God and be guided by him and by a king who is a descendant of King David. In the last/future days they will come to Yahweh, revering him and trembling in his presence, and he will bless them.

4

Yahweh’s accusation against Israel

1You Israeli people, listen to this message from Yahweh!

He is accusing you people who live in this country,

saying “The people are not faithfully doing what pleases me,

they are not kind to others,

and they do not even know me!

2Everywhere in this land they curse others, they murder others, they steal, and they commit adultery.

They act violently toward others

and commit one murder after another.

3It is because of their doing those things that there is no rain [MTY], the land has become dry,

the people are mourning,

and the people are dying from hunger.

Even the wild animals and the birds and the fish in the sea are dying.

4But no one should accuse someone else

and say it is his fault.

It is you priests whom I am accusing.

5So I will punish [MTY] you priests, night and day,

and I will punish the prophets with you.

I am going to destroy Israel, the nation that is like [MET] a mother to you.

6It is because my people do not know about me that they will be destroyed.

And their not knowing about me is because you priests have refused to teach them about me;

so I will no longer allow you to be my priests.

You have forgotten the things that I taught you,

so I will forget to bless your children.

7As there are more and more priests,

they have sinned against me more and more.

So I will no longer allow them to be honored;

instead, I will cause them to be disgraced.

8The priests get food from the offerings that the people bring in order to be forgiven for having sinned,

so the priests want the people to sin more and more

in order that the people will bring them more and more offerings.

9The priests are as sinful as the other people,

and I will punish all of them for what they have done;

I will pay them back for the evil things that they have done.

10The priests will eat, but they will still be hungry;

they will have sex with prostitutes, but they will not have any children,

because they have abandoned me, Yahweh,

11and they are devoting themselves to sleeping with prostitutes,

and to drinking old wine and new wine,

which results in their not being able to think clearly.”

The people are condemned for idolatry

12“You my people request wooden idols

to tell you what you should do!

Like prostitutes who have left/abandoned their husbands,

13you have abandoned me your God, and you are chasing after other gods on the tops of hills and mountains;

you burn incense under oak trees, poplar trees, and other trees

where there is nice/pleasing shade.

So your daughters have become prostitutes,

and your daughters-in-law have committed adultery.

14But it is not only your daughters

whom I will punish for having become prostitutes,

and it is not only your daughters-in-law

whom I will punish for committing adultery,

because the men also are having sex with prostitutes,

and they offer sacrifices

with the prostitutes who search for men at the shrines of the idols.

They are all foolish people, and they will all be ruined.

15You Israeli people have abandoned me

like [MET] those who commit adultery have abandoned their spouses.

But do not cause the people of Judah to sin also.

Do not go to Gilgal or go up to Beth-Aven towns

to worship idols there.

Do not make solemn promises there, saying ‘Just as surely as Yahweh lives, I will do what I am promising.’

16You people of Israel are as stubborn as [SIM] a young cow.

So there is no way [RHQ] that I, Yahweh, will provide food for them

like a shepherd provides food for his lambs

by leading them to a nice meadow.

17The people of Israel have chosen to worship idols [MET],

so allow them to do what they want to do.

18When their rulers finish drinking their wine,

they go to find prostitutes;

they love their disgraceful behavior.

19But they will disappear

as though [MET] they were blown away by a whirlwind.

They will become very ashamed because of their offering sacrifices to idols.”

5

Yahweh’s accusation against the Israeli people

1“Listen, you priests!

And you other Israeli people, you also pay attention!

And you who are members of the king’s family, you also need to listen,

because I am going to judge you!

Your worshiping idols has been like [MET] a trap for the people at Mizpah town;

it has been like [MET] a net spread out to catch people at Tabor Mountain.

2You have done many evil things,

so I will punish all of you.

3I know everything about the people of Israel;

nothing that they have done is hidden from me.

Because the people of Israel have given themselves to worshiping idols

like [MET] prostitutes give themselves to the men they sleep with,

they have become unacceptable to me.

4Because they like to do evil things,

they will not return to me, their God.

Like prostitutes who have abandoned their husbands [MET], they have [IDM] abandoned [MET] me;

they do not even know me, Yahweh.

5It is as though their being proud testifies [PRS] against them.

The sins that the people of Israel have committed are like a heavy load that causes them to stumble,

and the people of Judah stumble with them.

6They will come to worship me, Yahweh,

bringing their herds of sheep and cattle,

but they will not be able to find me,

because I have abandoned them.

7They have abandoned me;

and their children do not belong to me [MET].

So they will not be able to celebrate their festivals at the new moons

because I will destroy them and the crops in their fields.

8Blow the rams’ horns in Gibeah town

and blow the trumpets in Ramah town!

Warn the people at Beth-Aven town;

you warriors of the tribe of Benjamin, lead the troops into the battle.

9Israel will be ruined on the day that I destroy them.

What I am telling to the tribes of Israel will certainly happen.

10Because the leaders of Judah seized some land that belonged to Israel,

they are like [SIM] those who move boundary markers to get more land for themselves;

so I will punish them severely [MET].

11And the people of Israel will suffer greatly when I punish them,

because they are very determined to worship idols.

12I will destroy the people of Israel like [SIM] ◄larvae of moths/cockroaches► destroy wool,

and I will cause the people of Judah to be like [SIM] rotten wood.

13When the leaders of Israel and Judah saw that the people were suffering

because of what their enemies were doing to them [MET],

they sent messages to the great King of Assyria

requesting his help.

But he cannot help you;

he cannot cause you to stop suffering,

because I am the one who is punishing Israel and Judah.

14I will become like [SIM] a lion [DOU] to both nations;

I will attack them and tear them to pieces.

I will drag them away,

and no one will be able to rescue them.

15After that, I will return to my place in heaven

until they admit that they have sinned [MTY] and return to me;

when they will experience many troubles,

they will request me to help them.”

6

The Israeli people were insincere about repenting

1The Israeli people say, “Come, let’s return to Yahweh!

He has caused us to be injured,

but he will heal us.

He has caused us to be wounded,

but it is as though he will put bandages on our wounds [MET].

2After a very short time he will revive us;

in less than three days he will restore us

in order that we may live in his presence.

3We must try to know Yahweh;

if we do that, he will come and help us,

as surely as the sun rises every morning,

as surely as rain falls every winter/cold season,

and as surely as the rain falls again ◄in the springtime/at the end of the cold season►.”

4But Yahweh knows they are insincere;

so he says to them, “You people of Israel, and you people of Judah,

I do not know [RHQ] what I should do to you.

Your being faithful to me will disappear as quickly as [SIM] the morning mist disappears,

like [SIM] the dew on the ground that disappears quickly when the sun shines.

5I warned [HYP] you by the messages that I gave to the prophets,

but you did not pay attention to my messages.

Therefore I will completely destroy you;

the punishment that I give you will strike you like lightning.

6I want my people to faithfully love me

more than I want them to offer sacrifices to me;

I want them to know me

more than I want them to completely burn sacrifices on the altar.

7But they have refused to obey my agreement, just like Adam did;

they have not been faithful to me.

8Gilead is a city full of people who do wicked things;

in the streets are the bloody footprints of those who have murdered others.

9The priests are like [SIM] bandits who wait ◄in ambushes/along the road► to attack people;

they murder people who are walking on the road to Shechem,

and they commit other disgraceful crimes.

10I have seen horrible things being done in Israel [MTY].

The people have abandoned me like prostitutes who have abandoned their husbands [MET];

so the people of Israel have become unacceptable to me.

11And you people of Judah,

I have appointed a time when I will punish [MET] you, too.

Whenever I wanted to enable my people to prosper again,

7

1and when I wanted to heal them again,

I did not do it,

because I saw the wicked things that the people of Samaria city and other places in Israel [DOU] have done.

They constantly deceive others;

bandits rob people in the streets.

2But they do not realize that I do not forget all the evil things that they do.

It is as though they are surrounded by all the sins that they commit;

and it is though those sins are always right in front of me [MTY].

3Their king is delighted with the wicked things that the people do;

his officials are happy about the people’s lies.

4The king and his officials are all treacherous.

They are always eager to do wicked things;

they are like [SIM] an oven that is very hot:

a baker mixes the dough and waits for it to expand,

and he does not need to cause the oven to become hotter.

5The king and his officials get very drunk during their festivals,

carousing with others who also do foolish things.

6The officials angrily plan to murder the king;

it is like [SIM] they have an oven in their inner beings.

All during the night their eagerness/wanting to murder the king is like a fire that is smouldering,

but in the morning it becomes like [MET] a roaring fire.

7All those officials are like [MET] hot flames

that completely burn up their rulers,

so all their kings are murdered,

and no one pleads with me to help them.”

Other nations will not help them

8“The leaders of Israel join with leaders of godless nations;

so the leaders of Israel are as worthless as a pancake that is cooked on only one side.

9Joining with the rulers of foreign nations has caused Israel to be a weak nation,

but the Israelis do not realize that.

Israel has become like [MET] a gray-haired old man,

but the people of Israel do not realize it.

10Their being proud [PRS] testifies against them,

but in spite of that, they do not return to me, Yahweh, their God,

or even try to know me.

11The people of Israel have become foolish and stupid like [SIM] doves.

First they called out to Egypt to help them,

and then they sought help from Assyria.

12But wherever they go to get help,

I will not allow them to succeed;

it will be as though [MET] I will throw a net over them

like [SIM] a hunter uses a net to capture birds;

I will punish them for the evil things that they do.

13Terrible things will happen to them

because they abandoned/deserted me!

They will be destroyed

because they rebelled against me.

I wanted to rescue them,

but they tell lies about me.

14They do not cry out to me sincerely [IDM];

they only lie on their beds and wail.

They gather together and ask me to give them grain and wine,

but they turn away from me.

15I trained/taught them and enabled them to become strong,

but now they plan to do evil things to me.

16They have rejected me, their Great God, and turned to their god Baal;

they are as useless as [SIM] a crooked bow.

Their leaders boast that they are very strong,

but they will be killed by their enemies’ swords.

As a result, the people of Egypt will laugh at them.”

8

The Israelis will be punished because of their wrong decisions

1Yahweh said to me, “Blow [MTY] your trumpet

to warn the people!

My people have rejected the agreement that I made with them,

and they have rebelled against obeying my laws.

Therefore, their enemies are swooping down on my people’s country like [SIM] an eagle.

2My Israeli people cry out to me,

‘Our God, we know that you are our God!’

3But because the Israeli people have rejected what is good,

their enemies will pursue them.

4The Israel people appointed their last three kings,

but they did not ask me if I agreed to what they were doing.

They chose their own leaders

without asking if I would approve of them.

They used their own silver and gold to make for themselves idols,

and doing that led them to be destroyed.

5You people of Samaria, throw away your idol that resembles a calf!

I am extremely angry with you people!

How long [RHQ] will you do things that cause you to be unacceptable to me?

6Someone in Israel made that idol for you;

but I am God and it is not.

So that idol of a calf in Samaria must be smashed to pieces.

7The foolish thing that the people of Israel have done is like [MET] trying to plant wind;

but what they harvest will be like [MET] a whirlwind.

So the grain that they planted will have no heads on the stalks,

and as a result there will be no grain from which to make flour.

And if it did produce good grain,

foreigners would come and steal it.

8The people of Israel will be defeated [MET] by their enemies;

they will be scattered among other nations and become worthless.

9Like [MET] donkeys that are looking for mates,

they have requested help from Assyria;

they paid money to the leaders of Assyria

in order to persuade those leaders to protect them.

10But although they have agreed to pay money each year to the leaders of those countries,

I will soon gather them together to punish them.

The great King of Assyria will cause them to suffer greatly.

11Although the people of Israel built many altars to present offerings to their idols to take away their guilt for sinning,

those altars have become places where they commit more sins.

12I wrote many laws for them,

but they disregarded them, saying that they did not have to obey them because they were different from laws that they had known previously.

13They offer sacrifices to me,

and they eat some of the meat of those sacrifices, which is what I permitted them to do.

But I, Yahweh, am not pleased with those sacrifices.

I remember the evil things that they have done,

and I will punish them for the sins that they have committed:

I will force them to go to other countries

and become slaves like they were [MET] in Egypt.

14The people of Israel have abandoned/forgotten me, the one who created their nation;

they have built palaces,

and the people of Judah have built walls around many towns.

But I will send a fire

that will destroy all their cities and their fortresses.”

9

Israel will be punished

1You people of Israel, do not shout joyfully during your festivals like people of other nations do!

I say that because you have ◄not been faithful to/abandoned► me, your God.

At every place where the people thresh grain

you have presented gifts to your idols like men pay money to prostitutes.

2But soon there will not be enough grain [MTY, PRS] and wine [MTY, PRS] for you.

3And you people will not remain in the land that I, Yahweh, gave to your ancestors.

You will be captured and taken to Assyria,

where you will become slaves like your ancestors were in Egypt;

and in Assyria you will be forced to eat food that Yahweh has forbidden you to eat.

4You Israelis will not be able to give wine offerings to him,

or bring sacrifices to him.

None of your other sacrifices will please him;

they will be unacceptable to him, like [SIM] food that is touched by people at funerals,

and everyone who eats that food will become unacceptable to him.

They will be permitted to eat that food themselves,

but they will not be permitted to bring it into the temple.

5At that time you will not [RHQ] be able to celebrate the feasts and sacred festivals.

6And even if you escape and are not killed by the Assyrians,

you will be captured by the army of Egypt,

and you will die and be buried in Memphis, the capital of Egypt.

Briers will grow up and cover your treasures of silver,

and thorns will grow in your ruined tents/houses.

7It is now the time for Yahweh to punish you,

to pay you back for all the sins that you have committed.

You people will soon know that.

You have committed very many sins,

and you very much hate Yahweh.

You consider that the prophets are foolish,

and you think that those who proclaim messages from him are crazy.

8My God appointed me and the other prophets

to be like [MET] watchmen to warn you people of Israel,

but everywhere that we go, it is as though people set traps for us

and people are hostile to us, even in the temple of our God.

9The sins that the Israeli people have committed are as awful as what the men of Gibeah did long ago;

so God will not forget the wicked things that they have done;

he will punish the Israelis for all those sins.

10Yahweh says, “When I first started to do things to help Israel,

it seemed to me as though [SIM] I had found grapes in the desert.

Your ancestors were delightful,

like [SIM] the first figs that grow on fig trees each year.

But when they came to Peor Mountain,

they worshiped that disgusting idol Baal,

and they became as disgusting as the idol that they loved.

11The things that cause Israel to be great will disappear

like [SIM] a bird that flies away;

most of their women will not become pregnant [DOU] or give birth to children.

12Even if their children are born and start to grow up,

I will cause all of them to die while they are still young.

Terrible things will happen to them

when I abandon them!

13I have seen Israel become beautiful and prosperous like Tyre city was before it was destroyed,

but now the people of Israel will be forced to take their children to be slaughtered by their enemies.”

14Yahweh, I do not know [RHQ] what I should ask for my people.

So I ask that you do this one thing:

Cause the women who are pregnant to have miscarriages

and unable to nurse their babies.

15Yahweh says, “Because of all the wicked things that my people did at Gilgal,

that is where I started to hate them.

And now, because of all the sinful things that they have done,

I will expel them from my country.

I will not love them any longer;

all their leaders rebel against me.

16Israel is like [MET] a grapevine that is dried up;

like a vine [MET] whose roots are withered

and that produces no fruit.

Even if the women of Israel give birth to more children,

I will cause those children, whom they love, to die.

17The people of Israel have not obeyed me, their God,

so I will reject them.

As a result, they will wander among the other nations, searching for a place to live.”

10

1“Israel was like a large healthy/luxuriant vine [MET]

that produced a lot of grapes.

But as the people became richer,

they made more altars at which to worship idols.

As the people prospered,

they built and decorated sacred pillars that they worshiped.

2They are deceitful;

so now they are guilty and must be punished.

I, Yahweh, will tear down their altars

and smash those pillars.

3Then they will say, ‘It is because we did not revere Yahweh

that we no longer have a king.

But even if we had a king,

he certainly could not [RHQ] do anything to help us.’

4They falsely promise that they will do many things;

they solemnly promise and make agreements,

but they do not do what they promise.

So people accuse and sue each other in the courts;

they are like [SIM] poisonous weeds that grow in a plowed field.

5The people who live in Samaria city are worried about what may happen to the idol that resembles a calf that they set up at Beth-Aven town.

The people in Samaria will mourn,

and the priests there will cry about it

if it is damaged or destroyed.

Previously they shouted joyfully

about its being very great;

but now it will not be great anymore.

6It will be taken to Assyria

to be a gift for the great King of Assyria.

So the people of Israel will be disgraced,

and they will be ashamed

because they trusted in that idol.

7The King of Samaria and the other people in Samaria will be gone;

they will be like [SIM] a twig that floats away on the surface of the water and disappears.

8The altars on the tops of hills where the people worshiped idols will be destroyed;

those have been the places where the people of Israel sinned greatly.

Thorns and weeds will grow and cover those altars.

Then the people will plead to the mountains and hills,

‘Fall down and cover us

to protect us from God punishing us!’

9You people of Israel, ever since your ancestors did evil things at Gibeah,

you have continued to sin.

When the people at [PRS] Gibeah did evil things,

the result was a war in which thousands of people died.

10So now, when I want to, I will punish the Israeli people.

Because of the many sins that they have committed,

the armies of other nations will gather to attack them,

and they will cause the Israeli people to become their slaves.

11Israel is like [MET] a well-trained ◄heifer/young cow►

that likes to thresh grain.

So now you will become slaves.

It will be as though I will put a yoke on your neck,

and you will be forced to work hard for your enemies in their fields.

You people of Israel and Judah will be forced to go to Assyria;

there you [DOU] will pull plows to break up the ground for planting seeds.

12You plow your fields and plant your seeds and harvest your crops [MET],

but what you need to do is to act righteously and to faithfully love me;

you need to repent [MET],

because it is time to try to know me, Yahweh;

and if you do that, I will pour out [MET] many blessings on you.

13You plant seeds and harvest the crops and eat them;

but what I consider that you have really done is that you have planted wicked things and harvested evil things

and eaten [MET] the results [IDM] of the lies that you have told.

Instead of trusting in me, you have ◄depended on/trusted in► your own power

and in your many soldiers.

14As a result, you will soon hear the roar of battle,

and all your cities that have walls around them will be destroyed,

like [SIM] Shalman’s army destroyed Beth-Arbel city in a battle,

and the women in that city and their children were bashed to death.

15You people of [APO] Bethel city, that is what will happen to you,

because you are very wicked.

And when the sun rises on that day,

the King of Israel will be killed in the battle.”

11

God’s love for Israel

1“Before the Israeli people became a nation [MET],

I loved them like a man loves his son,

and I called them out of Egypt.

2But while I continued to call them,

they continued to turn away from me more and more.

They offered sacrifices to their statues of Baal,

and they burned incense to honor them.

3The people of Israel were like a little boy [MET],

and it was as though it was I who taught them to walk,

holding them by their hands.

But they did not realize that it was I who was taking care of them.

4It was as though I fastened ropes around them to lead them,

while I loved them and was kind to them.

It was as though they were young oxen [MET],

and I lifted the yoke from their necks and bent down to feed them.

5But the people of Israel will become slaves again,

like they were in Egypt,

and the people of Assyria will [RHQ] rule over them,

because the people of Israel refused to repent.

6Their enemies will use their swords to attack the cities in Israel

and will destroy the bars in the gates of the city walls.

As a result, the people of Israeli will not be able to accomplish the things that they planned to do.

7My people are determined to ◄turn away from/abandon► me.

They say that I am the great all-powerful God,

but they do not honor me at all.

8You people of Israel, I certainly do not want to [RHQ] abandon you

and allow your enemies to capture you.

I do not [RHQ] want to act toward you like I acted toward Admah and Zeboiim,

cities that I completely destroyed when I destroyed Sodom.

I [SYN] have changed my mind about punishing you;

my desire to pity you has increased.

9Although I am extremely angry,

I do not want to punish you severely;

I do not want to ◄devastate/completely ruin► Israel.

Humans would easily decide to do that,

but I am God, not a human.

I, the Holy One, am with you;

although I am very angry with you, I will not destroy you.

10You will follow me when I roar like [SIM] a lion;

when I roar, some of you my children will tremble as you return to Israel from the islands and seacoasts toward the west.

11Some of you will come swiftly from Egypt

like a flock of birds;

others will return from Assyria, like doves.

I will enable you to live in your homes in Israel again.

That will surely happen, because I, Yahweh, have said it.”

Israel and Judah are condemned now

12Yahweh says, “The people of Israel have ◄surrounded me with lies/constantly told lies to me►.

And the people of Judah have also turned/rebelled against me, their God,

the Holy One who always does what I promise to do,

and the people of Judah worship other gods.”

12

1The leaders of Israel are constantly wavering about seeking help from other countries.

Seeking their help is as useless as [MET] chasing the wind.

They pile up their lies and violent acts.

First, they make a treaty with Assyria,

and then they send olive oil to the rulers of Egypt to seek their help.

2Yahweh says that he will bring accusations against the leaders of Judah,

and that he will punish the descendants of Jacob for what they have done.

3When Jacob was in his mother’s womb, he grabbed his brother Esau’s heel because he wanted to be born first.

When Jacob grew up, he wrestled with God.

4He struggled with the one who had appeared to him in the form of an angel, and Jacob defeated him,

but then he cried and asked the angel to bless him.

Later, God came to Jacob at Bethel

and talked with him there.

5That was the Commander of the armies of angels

whose name is Yahweh who talked with him!

6But you people of Israel must return to your God!

You must faithfully love him, and you must do what is fair/just

and always depend on him.

7The merchants among you use scales that do not weigh correctly;

they love/like to cheat people.

8The people of Israel boast, saying

“We are very rich [DOU];

and we got all that money by our own efforts,

and without committing any sin.”

9“I am Yahweh your God,

the one who brought your ancestors out of Egypt.

And some day I will force you to live in tents again like your ancestors did

when they celebrated the Festival of Living in Temporary Shelters.

10Many times I spoke to the prophets,

and I gave them many visions,

and I gave them parables to tell to the people.”

11The people of Gilead city are [RHQ] extremely wicked;

they are worthless.

The people sacrifice bulls in Gilgal city,

but their altars will soon become like [SIM] piles of stone at the edge of a plowed field.

12Your ancestor Jacob fled from his brother Esau

and went to northwest Mesopotamia.

He worked for his uncle Laban for many years to get a wife;

he took care of his uncle’s sheep to pay for her.

13Many years later, Yahweh enabled a prophet to bring the ancestors of you people of Israel here from Egypt;

that prophet, Moses, took care of them.

14But now the people of Israel have caused Yahweh to become very angry;

Yahweh says that they deserve to die because they caused many others to die [MTY];

he will pay them back for the sins that they have committed against him and for insulting him.

13

Israel is doomed to be destroyed

1Previously, when the leaders of Israel spoke,

the people trembled;

those leaders were highly respected by the Israeli people.

But the people sinned greatly by worshiping Baal,

so now they will be killed by their enemies.

2Now they sin more and more;

they make idols for themselves

and coat the idols with their silver.

Those idols are statues that are very cleverly made,

but those statues are made by mere humans.

But the people are told, “Kiss those idols that resemble a calf,

and offer sacrifices to them!”

3Therefore, those people will disappear quickly like [SIM] the morning mist or the dew that lies on the ground early in the morning;

they will disappear like [SIM] chaff that is blown away from where the wheat is threshed,

like [SIM] smoke that goes out of a chimney.

4But Yahweh says to his people, “I am Yahweh, your God,

the one who brought your ancestors out of Egypt.

You must believe that only I am God

and that there is no other God,

and that there is no one else who can save you!

5I took care of your ancestors when they were in the desert,

where it was extremely hot and dry.

6When I provided food for them,

their stomachs were full, and they were satisfied.

But then they became proud

and they forgot about me,

and you are like your ancestors!

7So I will attack you like [SIM] a lion attacks other animals;

I will be like [SIM] a leopard that waits beside the road to attack another animal.

8Like [SIM] a female bear attacks anyone that steals her cubs,

I will attack you Israelis and rip you open.

I will completely destroy you

like [SIM] lions or other wild animals tear apart the animals that they catch and devour them.

9You people of Israel, you will be destroyed

because you oppose me, the only one who ◄can help/helps► you.

10You have a king;

◄why is he unable to save you?/but he is unable to save you. ► [RHQ]

You have [RHQ] rulers in all your towns,

but they are not helping you, either.

Your ancestors said, ‘Appoint for us a king and other leaders to rule over us

like the other nations have!’

11I was angry with them for requesting that,

but I appointed a king to rule over them.

But later I became very angry with them again,

so I took their king away.

12I have written on a scroll a record of the sins that have been committed by you people of Israel,

and I have stored away that record.

13You people are not wise;

and now you are helpless.

You are like [MET] a woman who is having birth pains

but who is unable to give birth to the baby.

14I certainly will not [RHQ] save you from being killed

and from going to the place where the dead people are.

I will [RHQ] cause you to be afflicted by plagues

and to die and be buried in graves.

I will not be merciful to you.

15Even if you people of Israel prosper more than the nearby nations do,

the army of Assyria will come like [MET] an east wind that blows from the desert;

the springs and wells in Israel will become dry;

and your enemies will take away all your valuable possessions.

16You people of Samaria must be punished

because you have rebelled against me, your God.

You will be killed by your enemies’ swords;

your little children will be killed by being dashed/thrown to the ground;

the bellies ofpregnant women among you will be ripped open.”

14

Those who repent will be blessed

1You people of Israel, return to Yahweh our God.

You are being punished because of the sins which you have committed.

2So now return to Yahweh

and say [MTY] this to him:

“Forgive us for all the sins that we have committed,

and kindly accept ◄us/our sacrifices►

in order that we may thank/praise you [IDM].

3We admit that Assyria will not save us,

and our war horses will not save us, either.

We will never again say, ‘You are our gods’

to the idols that we [SYN] have made.

You are the one who acts mercifully to orphans.”

4Yahweh says, “If they say that to me, I will forgive them for having ◄turned away from/abandoned► me,

and I will love them with all my inner being,

because I [PRS] will have stopped being angry with them.

5I will be to the people of Israel

like dew that refreshes the soil.

When I do that, they will become as delightful as [MET] lilies are when they are blooming.

No one will be able to conquer them;

they will be as unmovable as [SIM] the roots of cedar trees.

6Their good influence will spread like [MET] the branches of a tree.

They will be like [SIM] beautiful olive trees,

and they will be as delightful as [SIM] the aroma of the cedar trees in Lebanon.

7People will come to them to be protected

like people are protected from the hot sun by being [MET] in the shade of a tree.

They will ◄flourish/be strong► like [SIM] grain that grows well.

They will be successful like a vineyard in which grapes grow abundantly.

They will become as famous/well-known as [SIM] the wines from Lebanon.

8You people of Israel, do not [RHQ] have anything more to do with idols;

if you get rid of your idols, I will answer your prayers and take care of you.

I am like [MET] a strong/green pine tree,

and your blessings come from me.”

9Those who are wise will understand the things about which I have written.

Those who think well will pay careful attention to them.

The things that Yahweh wants us to do [MET] are right;

righteous people will conduct their lives adhering to them.

But those who rebel against Yahweh will be ruined.