Hosea 11

¹⁵where he stayed until the death of Herod. This fulfilled what the Lord had spoken through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”

²²Then tell Pharaoh that this is what the Lord says: ‘Israel is My firstborn son,

⁴Yet I am the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but Me, for there is no Savior besides Me.

¹⁵There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

²“Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the Lord says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.

²“I have loved you,” says the Lord. But you ask, “How have You loved us?” “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet Jacob I have loved,

¹⁵Yet My people have forgotten Me. They burn incense to worthless idols that make them stumble in their ways, leaving the ancient roads to walk on rutted bypaths instead of on the highway.

¹³I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, when she adorned herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers. But Me she forgot,” declares the Lord.

⁷both for your iniquities and for those of your fathers,” says the Lord. “Because they burned incense on the mountains and scorned Me on the hills, I will measure into their laps full payment for their former deeds.”

¹⁹And this is the verdict: The Light has come into the world, but men loved the darkness rather than the Light because their deeds were evil.

⁷My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call to the Most High, He will by no means exalt them.

¹³Yet through all His prophets and seers, the Lord warned Israel and Judah, saying, “Turn from your wicked ways and keep My commandments and statutes, according to the entire Law that I commanded your fathers and delivered to you through My servants the prophets.”

¹⁴But they would not listen, and they stiffened their necks like their fathers, who did not believe the Lord their God.

¹⁷But I will restore your health and heal your wounds, declares the Lord, because they call you an outcast, Zion, for whom no one cares.”

²⁶saying, “If you will listen carefully to the voice of the Lord your God, and do what is right in His eyes, and pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statutes, then I will not bring on you any of the diseases I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.”

³¹and in the wilderness, where the Lord your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way by which you traveled until you reached this place.”

¹⁵Although I trained and strengthened their arms, they plot evil against Me.

²Remember that these forty years the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments.

²⁶The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day that the Lord binds up the brokenness of His people and heals the wounds He has inflicted.

³²And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw everyone to Myself.”

¹³I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians. I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk in uprightness.

¹⁴For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that One died for all, therefore all died.

²This is what the Lord says: “The people who survived the sword found favor in the wilderness when Israel went to find rest.”

³The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion.

⁹In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

²³Yet He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of the heavens.

²⁴He rained down manna for them to eat; He gave them grain from heaven.

¹⁶They turn, but not to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword for the cursing of their tongue; for this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.

⁶Yes, it will be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king. Ephraim will be seized with shame; Israel will be ashamed of its wooden idols.

¹³Yet through all His prophets and seers, the Lord warned Israel and Judah, saying, “Turn from your wicked ways and keep My commandments and statutes, according to the entire Law that I commanded your fathers and delivered to you through My servants the prophets.”

¹⁴But they would not listen, and they stiffened their necks like their fathers, who did not believe the Lord their God.

¹³Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the Lord does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.

³They will not remain in the land of the Lord; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.

⁶For even if they flee destruction, Egypt will gather them and Memphis will bury them. Their precious silver will be taken over by thistles, and thorns will overrun their tents.

¹⁶Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.

⁶Yes, it will be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king. Ephraim will be seized with shame; Israel will be ashamed of its wooden idols.

¹⁴the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be demolished as Shalman devastated Beth-arbel in the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to pieces along with their children.

¹¹I will remove the cities of your land and tear down all your strongholds.

⁴³Many times He rescued them, but they were bent on rebellion and sank down in their iniquity.

⁴⁷Say to the forest of the Negev: Hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord God says: I am about to ignite in you a fire, and it will devour all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and by it every face from south to north will be scorched.

⁵Why then have these people turned away? Why does Jerusalem always turn away? They cling to deceit; they refuse to return.

¹¹And the Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel has shown herself more righteous than unfaithful Judah.

⁴I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them.

¹⁴Seek good, not evil, so that you may live. And the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be with you, as you have claimed.

¹⁵Hate evil and love good; establish justice in the gate. Perhaps the Lord, the God of Hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph.”

¹⁶They turn, but not to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword for the cursing of their tongue; for this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.

⁴For this is what the Lord says to the house of Israel: “Seek Me and live!

⁵Do not seek Bethel or go to Gilgal; do not journey to Beersheba, for Gilgal will surely go into exile, and Bethel will come to nothing.

²⁰Is not Ephraim a precious son to Me, a delightful child? Though I often speak against him, I still remember him. Therefore My heart yearns for him; I have great compassion for him,” declares the Lord.

⁴What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes.

³⁷O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!

³⁶For the Lord will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free.

⁷In like manner, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who indulged in sexual immorality and pursued strange flesh, are on display as an example of those who sustain the punishment of eternal fire.

²³All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His fierce anger.

¹⁹God is not a man, that He should lie, or a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He speak and not act? Does He promise and not fulfill?

⁸“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord.

⁹“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so My ways are higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts.

¹¹For I am with you to save you, declares the Lord. Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have scattered you, I will not completely destroy you. Yet I will discipline you justly, and will by no means leave you unpunished.”

⁶Cry out and sing, O citizen of Zion, for great among you is the Holy One of Israel.”

¹⁸Who is a God like You, who pardons iniquity and passes over the transgression of the remnant of His inheritance—who does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in loving devotion?

¹⁹He will again have compassion on us; He will vanquish our iniquities. You will cast out all our sins into the depths of the sea.

²⁷My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be My people.

²⁸Then the nations will know that I the Lord sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is among them forever.’”

¹⁶The Lord will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.

⁴For this is what the Lord has said to me: “Like a lion roaring or a young lion over its prey—and though a band of shepherds is called out against it, it is not terrified by their shouting or subdued by their clamor—so the Lord of Hosts will come down to do battle on Mount Zion and its heights.

²He said: “The Lord roars from Zion and raises His voice from Jerusalem; the pastures of the shepherds mourn, and the summit of Carmel withers.”

³⁰So you are to prophesy all these words against them and say to them: ‘The Lord will roar from on high; He will raise His voice from His holy habitation. He will roar loudly over His pasture; like those who tread the grapes, He will call out with a shout against all the inhabitants of the earth.

⁹They will come with weeping, and by their supplication I will lead them; I will make them walk beside streams of waters, on a level path where they will not stumble. For I am Israel’s Father, and Ephraim is My firstborn.”

²as fire kindles the brushwood and causes the water to boil, to make Your name known to Your enemies, so that the nations will tremble at Your presence!

¹¹On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.

¹⁰I will bring them back from Egypt and gather them from Assyria. I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon until no more room is found for them.

⁸Who are these who fly like clouds, like doves to their shelters?

¹¹So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove—calling out to Egypt, then turning to Assyria.

¹⁴I will restore My people Israel from captivity; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit.

¹⁵I will firmly plant them in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them,” says the Lord your God.

¹⁷But on Mount Zion there will be deliverance, and it will be holy, and the house of Jacob will reclaim their possession.

²¹To the one who overcomes, I will grant the right to sit with Me on My throne, just as I overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.

¹³Therefore the Lord said: “These people draw near to Me with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. Their worship of Me is but rules taught by men.

⁶who has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and power forever and ever! Amen.

²⁰He feeds on ashes. His deluded heart has led him astray, and he cannot deliver himself or say, “Is not this thing in my right hand a lie?”

²Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases?

⁷A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands.