meta: {"file": "/data/tomer/Sefaria-Export/txt/Tanakh/Prophets/Hosea/English/The Koren Jerusalem Bible.txt"}
text: Hosea
  הושע
  The Koren Jerusalem Bible
  
  
  Hosea
  
  
  
  
  
  The word of the Lord that came to Hoshea, the son of Be᾽eri, in the days of ῾Uzziyya, Yotam, Aĥaz, and Yeĥizqiyya, kings of Yehuda, and in the days of Yorov῾am the son of Yo᾽ash, king of Yisra᾽el.
  When the Lord spoke at first with Hoshea, the Lord said to Hoshea, Go take to thee a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry; for the land has lewdly gone astray from the 
  					Lord.
  So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Divlayim; who conceived, and bore him a son.
  And the Lord said to him, Call his name Yizre᾽el; for yet a little while, and I will visit the blood of Yizre᾽el upon the house of Yehu, and will bring the kingdom of the house of Yisra᾽el to an end.
  And it shall come to pass on that day, that I will break the bow of Yisra᾽el in the valley of Yizre᾽el.
  And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And God said to him, Call her name Lo-ruĥama (Unpitied:) for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Yisra᾽el to forgive them at all.
  But I will have mercy upon the house of Yehuda, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.
  Now when she had weaned Lo-ruĥama, she conceived, and bore a son.
  Then God said, Call his name Lo-῾ammi (Not-my-people:) for you are not my people, and I will not be your God.
  
  
  
  Yet the number of the children of Yisra᾽el shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered; and it shall come to pass, that instead of that which was said to them, You are not my people, it shall be said to them, You are the sons of the living 
  					God.
  Then shall the children of Yehuda and the children of Yisra᾽el be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Yizre᾽el.
  Say to your brothers, ῾Ammi (My people;) and to your sisters, Ruĥama (Pitied.)
  Contend with your mother, contend: for she is not my wife, nor am I her husband: let her therefore put away her harlotry out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
  lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
  And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they are the children of harlotry.
  For their mother has played the harlot: she who conceived them has acted shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.
  Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall against her, that she shall not find her paths.
  And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not catch them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then it was better with me than now.
  For she did not know that it was I who gave her the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and multiplied silver and gold for her, which they used for the Ba῾al.
  Therefore I will take back my corn in its time, and my wine in its season, and will take away my wool and my flax which were to cover her nakedness.
  And now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand.
  I will also bring all her mirth to an end, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her appointed times.
  And I will blight her vines and her fig trees, concerning which she has said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the wild beasts shall eat them.
  And I will visit upon her the days of the Be῾alim, on which she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me, says the 
  					Lord.
  Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.
  And will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of ῾Akhor (Troubling) for a Gate of Hope: and she shall respond there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Miżrayim.
  And it shall be on that day, says the Lord, that thou shalt say, Ishi (my Husband;) and shalt no more say to me Ba῾ali (my Master.)
  For I will take away the names of the Be῾alim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be mentioned by their name.
  And on that day I will make a covenant for them with the wild beasts, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them lie down in safety.
  And I will betroth thee to me for ever; and I will betroth thee to me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loyal love, and in mercies.
  And I will betroth thee to me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord.
  And it shall come to pass on that day, that I will respond, says the Lord; I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth;
  and the earth shall answer the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall answer Yizre᾽el.
  And I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them that were not my people. Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my 
  					God.
  
  
  
  Then the Lord said to me, Go yet, love a women who is beloved by a paramour, and an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord towards the children of Yisra᾽el, who look to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.
  So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a ĥomer of barley, and a letekh of barley:
  And I said to her, Thou shalt remain as mine for many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not belong to another man: so will I also be towards thee.
  For the children of Yisra᾽el shall remain for many days, having no king, nor prince, nor sacrifice, nor pillar, nor efod, nor terafim:
  afterwards the children of Yisra᾽el shall return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; and shall come trembling to the 
  					Lord and his goodness in the latter days.
  
  
  
  Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Yisra᾽el: for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor love, nor knowledge of 
  					God in the land.
  There is swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and blood leads to blood.
  Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwells in it shall languish, along with the wild beasts, and the birds of the sky; indeed, the fish of the sea also shall be taken away.
  Yet let no man strive, and let none accuse: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
  Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.
  My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the Tora of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
  As they were increased, the more they sinned against me: I will change their glory into shame.
  They feed on the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.
  And it shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them for their doings.
  For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit harlotry, and shall not increase: because they have ceased to take heed to the Lord.
  Harlotry and wine and new wine take away the heart.
  My people ask counsel of a piece of wood, and their staff declares to them! For the spirit of harlotry has caused them to err, and they have gone astray lewdly from under their God.
  They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters commit harlotry, and your daughters in law commit adultery.
  I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry, nor your daughters in law when they commit adultery: for they themselves go aside with harlots, and they sacrifice with prostitutes: therefore the people that does not understand shall be trodden down.
  Though thou, Yisra᾽el, dost play the harlot, let not Yehuda also be guilty; and do not come to Gilgal, nor go up to Bet-aven, nor swear, As the Lord lives.
  For Yisra᾽el is headstrong like a headstrong heifer: now shall the Lord feed them as a lamb in a broad pasture?
  Efrayim is joined to idols: let him alone.
  Their drunken bout is over; their lewd orgy is done; they have had their fill of love; their shield is disgrace.
  The wind has bound her up in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
  
  
  
  Hear this, O priests; and hearken, O house of Yisra᾽el; and give ear, O house of the king; for yours is the judgment, because you have been a snare on Miżpa, and a net spread upon Tavor.
  And the apostates are deep dyed in slaughter, and I am rejected by them all.
  I know Efrayim and Yisra᾽el is not hid from me: for now, O Efrayim, thou committest harlotry, and Yisra᾽el is defiled.
  Their doings will not allow them to return to their God: for the spirit of harlotry is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord.
  And the pride of Yisra᾽el does testify to his face: therefore shall Yisra᾽el and Efrayim stumble in their iniquity; Yehuda also shall stumble with them.
  They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord; but they shall not find him; he has withdrawn himself from them.
  They have dealt treacherously against the Lord: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.
  Blow the shofar in Giv῾a, and the trumpet in Rama: cry loud at Bet-aven, They are after thee, O Binyamin.
  Efrayim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Yisra᾽el I have made known that which shall surely be.
  The princes of Yehuda are like them that remove the landmark: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.
  Efrayim is oppressed and crushed in judgment, because he willingly walked after vanity.
  Therefore will I be to Efrayim as a moth, and to the house of Yehuda as rottenness.
  When Efrayim saw his sickness, and Yehuda saw his wound, then Efrayim went to Ashshur, and sent to king Yarev: but he is not able to heal you, nor cure you of your wound.
  For I will be to Efrayim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Yehuda: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and there shall be none to deliver.
  I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me, saying,
  
  
  
  Come, and let us return to the Lord: for he has torn, and he will heal us; he has smitten, and 
  					he will bind us up.
  After two days he will revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his presence.
  Let us therefore know, let us follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is sure as the morning; and he shall come to us as the rain, as the latter rain that waters the earth.
  O Efrayim, what shall I do to thee? O Yehuda, what shall I do to thee? for your love is like a morning cloud, and as the early dew that early passes away.
  Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgment goes forth like the light.
  For I desired loyal love, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
  But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there have they dealt treacherously against me.
  Gil῾ad is a city of them that work iniquity; it is polluted with blood.
  And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so does the company of priests; they murder on the way to Shekhem: for they commit lewdness.
  I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Yisra᾽el: there harlotry is found in Efrayim, Yisra᾽el is defiled:
  also, O Yehuda, there is a harvest appointed for thee. When I would have returned the captivity of my people,
  
  
  
  when I would have healed Yisra᾽el, then the iniquity of Efrayim was uncovered, and the wickedness of Shomeron: for they commit falsehood; and the thief comes in, and the bandits raid without.
  And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.
  They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
  They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker; he rests from stoking the fire; from the time of the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.
  On the day of our king, the princes were sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.
  For they made ready their heart like an oven, whilst they lie in wait: their baker sleeps all the night; in the morning it burns like a flaming fire.
  They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calls to me.
  Efrayim, he has mingled himself among the peoples; Efrayim is a cake not turned.
  Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knows it not: yea, grey hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knows not.
  And the pride of Yisra᾽el testifies to his face: and they do not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this.
  Efrayim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Miżrayim, they go to Ashshur.
  As they go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down like the birds of the sky; I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard.
  Woe to them! for they have fled from me: destruction to them! because they have transgressed against me: I would have redeemed them, but they have spoken lies against 
  					me.
  And they have not cried to me with their heart, though they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me.
  Though I have trained them and strengthened their arms, yet do they devise mischief against me.
  They turn to them, but to no avail: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Miżrayim.
  
  
  
  Set the shofar to thy mouth. He shall come like an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they have transgressed my covenant, and rebelled against 
  					my Tora.
  Yisra᾽el shall cry to me, My God, we know thee.
  Yisra᾽el has cast off that which is good: the enemy shall pursue him.
  They have set up kings, but not from me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols, that they may be cut off.
  Thy calf, O Shomeron, has cast thee off; my anger burns against them: how long will it be before they attain to innocency?
  For from Yisra᾽el was it also: the workman made it; it is not God: but the calf of Shomeron shall be broken in pieces.
  For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the stormwind: it has no stalk: the bud that shall yield no meal: if perhaps it yields, strangers shall swallow it up.
  Yisra᾽el is swallowed up: now shall they be among the nations like a useless vessel.
  For they are gone up to Ashshur, a wild ass alone by himself: Efrayim has hired lovers.
  Though they have hired lovers among the nations, now I will gather them; and in a little while they will tremble at the burden of a king and princes.
  Because Efrayim has multiplied altars for sin, the altars have been to him a cause of sinning.
  Though I write for him the great things of my Tora, they are reckoned a strange thing.
  As for the sacrifices that they burn for me, let them slaughter the flesh, and eat it; the Lord desires them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and punish their sins: they shall return to Miżrayim.
  For Yisra᾽el has forgotten his Maker, and builds palaces; and Yehuda has multiplied fortified cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour their palaces.
  
  
  
  Rejoice not, O Yisra᾽el, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone lewdly astray from thy God, thou hast loved a harlot’s pay upon every cornfloor.
  The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail her.
  They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land; but Efrayim shall return to Miżrayim, and they shall eat unclean food in Ashshur.
  They shall not pour out wine offerings to the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing to him: their sacrifices shall be to them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread shall be for their hunger only; it shall not come into the house of the 
  					Lord.
  What will you do on the solemn day, and on the day of the feast of the Lord?
  For, lo, they are gone from destruction: Miżrayim shall gather them up, Mof shall bury them: the treasuries for their silver, nettles, shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tents.
  The days of punishment are come, the days of recompense are come; Yisra᾽el shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the man of spirit is mad; because of the multitude of thy iniquity, great is the hatred.
  The watchman of Efrayim with my God, the prophet; a fowler’s snare is in all his ways, and enmity in the house of his God.
  They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Giv῾a: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will punish their sins.
  I found Yisra᾽el like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe fruit in the fig tree at her first season: but when they came to Ba῾al-pe῾or, they dedicated themselves to that shame; and they became detestable like the thing which they loved.
  As for Efrayim, their glory shall fly away like a bird; no birth, and no pregnancy, and no conception.
  Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: woe also to them when I depart from them!
  Efrayim, as I saw Żor, is planted in pleasant place: but Efrayim shall bring forth his children to the slayer.
  Give them, O Lord: what wilt Thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
  All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house: I will love them no more: all their princes are rebellious.
  Efrayim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay the beloved fruit of their womb.
  My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken to him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
  
  
  
  Yisra᾽el is an emptied vine; how should he bring forth fruit to himself? as his fruit increased, so has he multiplied his altars; the more goodly was his land, so did he improve his pillars.
  Their heart is divided; now they shall be found guilty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their pillars.
  For now they shall say, We have no king, because we did not fear the Lord; what then should a king do for us?
  They have spoken mere words; with empty oaths they make a covenant: this judgment springs up like hemlock in the furrows of the field.
  The inhabitants of Shomeron shall fear because of the calves of Bet-aven: for its people shall mourn over it, and its priests that rejoiced on it, for its glory, because it is departed from it.
  It shall be also carried to Ashshur for a present to king Yarev: Efrayim shall receive shame, and Yisra᾽el shall be ashamed of his own counsel.
  As for Shomeron, her king is cut off like the foam on the surface of water.
  The high places also of Aven, the sin of Yisra᾽el, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.
  O Yisra᾽el, thou hast sinned more than in the days of Giv῾a: there they have remained: shall not war overtake them, those children of iniquity, as in Giv῾a?
  When I so desire, I will chastise them; and the peoples shall be gathered against them, when they are harnessed for labour in their two furrows.
  And Efrayim is like a heifer well taught, that loves to tread out the corn; but I passed over her fair neck: I will make Efrayim to ride; Yehuda shall plough, and Ya῾aqov shall break his clods.
  Sow for yourselves by righteousness, reap by the scale of love; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he comes and rains righteousness upon you.
  You have ploughed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity; you have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men.
  Therefore shall a tumult arise among thy peoples, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled, as Shalman spoiled Bet-arbel in the day of battle: the mother was dashed in pieces upon her children.
  So has Bet-el done to you because of your great wickedness: at day break was the king of Yisra᾽el utterly cut off.
  
  
  
  When Yisra᾽el was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Miżrayim.
  As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed to the Be῾alim, and burned incense to graven images.
  It was I who taught Efrayim to walk, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.
  I drew them with human cords, with leading strings of love: and I was to them as they that lift off the yoke from their jaws, and I held food out to them.
  He should not have returned to the land of Miżrayim; nor should Ashshur have been their king.
  Because they refused to return, the sword shall abide in his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels.
  And my people are bent on turning away from me: though they called them to rise, none at all would raise himself.
  How shall I give thee up, O Efrayim? how shall I surrender thee, O Yisra᾽el? how shall I make thee like Adma; how shall I set thee like Żevoyim? my heart is turned within 
  					me, all my compassion is kindled.
  I will not execute the fierceness of my anger, I will not turn to destroy Efrayim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not come as an enemy.
  They shall walk after the Lord, who shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall come trembling from the west.
  They shall come trembling like a bird out of Miżrayim and like a dove out of the land of Ashshur: and I will place them in their houses, says the Lord.
  
  
  
  Efrayim compasses me about with lies, and the house of Yisra᾽el with deceit: but Yehuda still rules with God, and is faithful with holy ones.
  Efrayim guards the wind, and follows after the east wind: he daily increases lies and desolation; and they make an alliance with Ashshur, and oil is carried into Miż­rayim.
  The Lord has also a controversy with Yehuda, and will punish Ya῾aqov according to his ways: according to his doings will he recompense him.
  He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he strove with God:
  and he strove with an angel, and prevailed: he wept, and made supplication to him: he would find him in Bet-el, and there he would speak with us.
  But the Lord is the God of hosts; The Lord is his name.
  Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep troth and justice, and wait on thy God continually.
  As for the merchant, the balances of deceit are in his hand: he loves to oppress.
  And Efrayim said, Yet I am become rich, I have found wealth for myself: in all my labours they shall find no iniquity in me that were sin.
  But I am the Lord thy God from the land of Miżrayim. I will yet make thee dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast.
  I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similes by means of the prophets.
  Indeed, Gil῾ad is iniquitous; they are become mere vanity; in Gilgal they have sacrificed bullocks: their altars are like droppings on the furrows of the field.
  And Ya῾aqov fled into the country of Aram, and Yisra᾽el served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep.
  And by a prophet the Lord brought Yisra᾽el out of Miżrayim, and by a prophet was he preserved.
  Efrayim provoked him to anger most bitterly: therefore shall he leave his blood guilt upon him, and his Lord shall requite his reproach on him.
  
  
  
  When Efrayim spoke, there was trembling; he exalted himself in Yisra᾽el; but when he became guilty through the Ba῾al, he died.
  And now they sin more and more, and have made for themselves molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men who sacrifice kiss calves.
  Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the dew that passes early away, as the chaff that is driven with the wind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the window.
  Yet I am the Lord thy God from the land of Miżrayim, and thou knowst no god but me: for there is no saviour besides 
  					me.
  I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
  When they were fed, they became full; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore they have forgotten me.
  Therefore I will be to them as a lion: as a leop­ard by the way I will observe them:
  I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and I will rend their closed up heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.
  O Yisra᾽el thou hast destroyed thyself; for thou art against me, against thy help.
  Where is thy king, that he may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou didst say, Give me a king and princes?
  I give thee a king in my anger, and take him away in my wrath.
  The iniquity of Efrayim is bound up; his sin is laid in store.
  The pangs of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for this is no time to tarry, at the moment of childbirth.
  I would ransom them from the power of She᾽ol; I would redeem them from death: O death where are thy plagues? O She᾽ol, where is thy destruction? compassion shall be hidden from my eyes.
  Though he be fertile among the reed grass, an east wind shall come, the wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all precious vessels.
  
  
  
  Shomeron shall be found guilty, for she has rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.
  O Yisra᾽el, return to the Lord thy God; for thou hast stumbled in thy iniquity.
  Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say to him, Forgive all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so we will offer the words of our lips instead of calves.
  Ashshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: nor shall we say any more to the work of our hands, You are our gods: for in Thee the fatherless finds mercy.
  I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for my anger is turned away from him.
  I will be as the dew to Yisra᾽el: he shall flower like the lily, and cast forth his roots like the Levanon.
  His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like the Levanon.
  They who dwell in his shadow, shall return; they shall revive like corn, and blossom like the vine: their fragrance shall be like the wine of Levanon.
  Efrayim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I answer him and look on him: I am like a leafy cypress tree; from me is thy fruit found.
  Whoever is wise, let him understand these things: whoever is prudent let him know them; for the ways of the Lord are right, and the just do walk in them: but the transgressors shall stumble in them.