Hosea 1-2
New Catholic Bible
Prologue
The Word of the Lord
Chapter 1
1 This is the word of the Lord[a] that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel.
The Marriage of Hosea Is a Symbol[b]
The Harlot and Her Children[c]
2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:
“Go forth and take a harlot for a wife,
and father children of harlotry,
for the people have devoted themselves to adultery
and turned away from the Lord.”
3 Therefore, Hosea went forth and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. 4 Then the Lord said to him:
“Name the boy Jezreel,
for in a short time
I will punish the house of Jehu
for the blood shed at Jezreel,
and I will bring an end to the kingdom
of the house of Israel.
5 On that day I will demolish the bow of Israel
in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 When Gomer conceived again and bore him a daughter, the Lord said to him:
“Give her the name Lo-ruhama,
for I no longer have compassion for the house of Israel,
nor do I wish to forgive them.
7 However, I do have pity on the house of Judah,
and I will save them by the Lord, their God.
But I will not deliver them by war,
nor by sword or bow,
nor by horses or horsemen.”[d]
8 After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhama, she conceived and bore him a son. 9 Then the Lord said:
“Give him the name Lo-ammi,
for you are not my people,
and I am not your God.”
Chapter 2
To Conjure Up One’s Destiny
1 The Israelites will be as numerous
as the sands of the sea,
which can be neither measured nor numbered.
And in the very place where it was said to them,
“You are not my people,”
they will be called, “Children of the Living God.”
2 The people of Judah and of Israel
shall be gathered together.
They will choose one person to be their leader,
and they shall enlarge their boundaries,
for great will be the day of Jezreel.
3 Say to your brothers, “You are my people,”
and to your sisters, “You are beloved.”
Repudiation and Return to First Love[e]
I Shall Strip Her Bare[f]
4 Insist that your mother repent,[g]
for she is no longer my wife,
and I am not her husband.
If she does not cease her harlotry
and the use of her breasts in adulterous acts,
5 I shall strip her bare,[h]
leaving her as naked as the day she was born.
I shall make her as barren as the wilderness
and as parched as the desert,
leaving her to die of thirst.
6 Nor will I feel any pity for her children,
since they are the offspring of adultery.
7 Yes, their mother has been a whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, “I will go after my lovers;
they will supply me with my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.”
8 That is why I will block her path with thornbushes
and erect a wall to hinder her,
so that she cannot proceed on her journey.
9 Although she pursues her lovers,[i]
she will not be able to overtake them.
If she looks for them,
she will not find them.
Finally she will say,
“I will return to my first husband,
since I was far better off then than I am now.”
10 She has never realized
that I was the one who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished upon her the silver and gold
that they used for Baal.
11 For this reason I intend to take back
my grain when it is ready for the harvest
and my new wine during the time of vintage.
And I will retrieve the wool and the flax
with which her nakedness was to be covered.
12 Now I will reveal her lewdness
before the eyes of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her from my hands.
13 I will put an end to all her merrymaking,
her festivals, her new moons, and her sabbaths,
and all of her solemn festivals.
14 I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
about which she said,
“These are the payment
I have received from my lovers.”
I shall allow them to grow wild,
and ferocious beasts will devour them.
15 I will inflict punishment on her
for the festival days of the Baals,
when she burned incense to them,
and adorned herself with her rings and jewels
and ran after her lovers
while she forgot me, says the Lord.
I Intend To Allure Her . . . and Speak Tenderly to Her[j]
16 As a result, now I intend to allure her,
lead her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
17 From there I will restore her vineyards to her
and make the Valley of Achor[k] a gateway of hope.
There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth,
when she came up from the land of Egypt.
18 On that day, says the Lord,
she will call me “My husband,”
and never again call me “My Baal.”
19 I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth;
never again shall their names be invoked.
20 On that day I will make for you
a covenant with the wild animals,
with the birds of the air,
and the things that creep on the ground.
I will destroy bows and swords and warfare
and banish them from the land
so that you may lie down in security.
21 I will betroth you to myself forever;
I will espouse you in righteousness and in justice,
in steadfast love and in mercy.
22 I will take you for my wife in fidelity,
and you will know the Lord.
23 On that day I will respond,
says the Lord.
I will respond to the heavens,
and they will respond to the earth,
24 and the earth will respond to the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they will respond to Jezreel.
25 I will sow her for myself in the land,
and I will have pity on Lo-ruhama.
I will say to Lo-ammi, “You are my people,”
and he will say, “You are my God.”
Footnotes
- Hosea 1:1 The word of the Lord: refers to the entire revelation received by the prophet over the course of a ministry that began around 750 B.C. The indications of the period of the prophet’s activity are somewhat vague; indeed, the list of kings is incomplete as far as the kingdom of Israel is concerned.
- Hosea 1:2 A prophet proclaims his message not only by what he says but also by what he does and by the way he lives. Hosea becomes a sign by reason of his strange and painful marital history and also by reason of the provocative names that he gives to his children. We are given two accounts of his marriage; these repeat and complete each other. His married life is a kind of parable of the history of Israel. God is attached to his people with a passion that resembles that of a husband; as time passes, Israel increasingly betrays the covenant by seeking to find its happiness in the many Canaanite fertility cults. Degradation leads to a complete break, but God cannot forever abandon his own; one day they will return and enjoy a new life. The Lord remains faithful, despite the continuing infidelity of the people.
- Hosea 1:2 Gomer was perhaps a sacral prostitute at some high place, or perhaps simply a young girl who vowed herself to the god Baal in order to become fertile. She represents here the situation of the country and its children, who have been contaminated by the worship of false gods. Even the name given to the children symbolizes the threat that hangs over Israel and the royal house. At Jezreel, royal residence of the northern kingdom, Jehu had ordered the massacre, in 841 B.C., of all the descendants of the wicked King Ahab (see 2 Ki 9–10). The new dynasty has likewise become unfaithful, and King Zechariah will pay for his misdeeds with his life after only a six months’ rule. The bow (v. 5), that is, the military power, will be broken in 732 B.C., by Tiglath-pileser III, who turns the Transjordan area and Galilee into Assyrian provinces. Contrary to all custom, the name of Hosea’s second child is a negative one, signifying the end, at least provisionally, of God’s mercy. The name of the third child signifies the complete break.
- Hosea 1:7 This verse was probably added by a Judean editor in order to exclude Jerusalem from the threat; Jerusalem was, in fact, spared from the Assyrian peril in 701 B.C.
- Hosea 2:4 This passage gives the religious meaning of the history of Hosea. The prophet attributes to God the language of love, passion, jealousy, threats, but also tender love and forgiveness.
- Hosea 2:4 Rich and harsh images are presented here, showing the trial of unfaithful Israel, for whom God had done everything and had drawn her out of wretchedness like an abandoned daughter (see Ezek 16:8). He is now going to bar the way and prevent her from falling back into this wretchedness, because with the false gods, her lovers, she has messed up the country received as a marriage gift. The land will be sacked. Then perhaps the hearts of the ungrateful ones will return, for God cannot bring himself to apply to them what the law calls for—the punishment of death (see Lev 20:1-27).
- Hosea 2:4 Your mother repent: the reference seems to be to amulets or other signs representing Baal.
- Hosea 2:5 I shall strip her bare: this seems to have been a customary punishment for adultery.
- Hosea 2:9 Lovers: the Canaanite divinities of fertility (the Baal of v. 8).
- Hosea 2:16 The prophet announces that God’s love does not accept being checked. To better reconquer his people, he brings them back to the time of Sinai, the place where he showed his initial tenderness and the first covenant.
- Hosea 2:17 Valley of Achor: this served as a passageway from the area of Jericho to the plateaus of the interior. The Israelites took possession of it when they conquered Canaan: the name means “Valley of Misfortune” (see the sad end of Achan in Jos 7:24-26).
