6 He went out and made war against the Philistines and broke through the wall of Gath and the wall of Jabneh and the wall of Ashdod, and he built cities in the territory of Ashdod and elsewhere among the Philistines. 7 God helped him against the Philistines and against the Arabians who lived in Gurbaal and against the pMeunites. 8 The Ammonites paid tribute to Uzziah, and his fame spread even to the border of Egypt, for he became very strong. 9 Moreover, Uzziah built towers in Jerusalem at the Corner Gate and at the Valley Gate and at the Angle, and fortified them. 10 And he built towers in the wilderness and cut out many cisterns, for he had large herds, both in the Shephelah and in the plain, and he had farmers and vinedressers in the hills and in the fertile lands, for he loved the soil. 11 Moreover, Uzziah had an army of soldiers, fit for war, in divisions according to the numbers in the muster made by Jeiel the secretary and Maaseiah the officer, under the direction of Hananiah, one of the king’s commanders. 12 The whole number of the heads of fathers’ houses of mighty men of valor was 2,600. 13 Under their command was an army of 307,500, who could make war with mighty power, to help the king against the enemy. 14 And Uzziah prepared for all the army shields, spears, helmets, coats of mail, bows, and stones for slinging. 15 In Jerusalem he made machines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows and great stones. And his fame spread far, for he was marvelously helped, till he was strong.
1 The word of the Lord that came to aHosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of bUzziah, cJotham, dAhaz, and eHezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of fJeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
Hosea’s Wife and Children
2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, g“Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great hwhoredom by forsaking the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 And the Lord said to him, “Call his name iJezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the jblood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy,1 for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. kI will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”
8 When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. 9 And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People,2 for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”3
10 4 lYet the number of the children of Israel shall be mlike the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. nAnd in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, o“Children5 of the living God.” 11 And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered ptogether, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Israel’s Unfaithfulness Punished
1 6 Say to your brothers, “You are my people,”7 and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.”8
2 “Plead with qyour mother, plead—
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put away her rwhoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts;
3 lest I strip her naked
and make her as in the day she was born,
and make her like a wilderness,
and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
4 Upon her children also I will have sno mercy,
because they are children of whoredom.
5 For their mother has played the whore;
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.’
6 Therefore tI will hedge up her9 way with thorns,
and uI will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
Then she shall say,
‘I will go and vreturn to my first whusband,
for it was better for me then than now.’
8 And she did not know
that it was I who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on her silver and gold,
xwhich they used for Baal.
9 Therefore I will take back
my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season,
and I will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
10 Now I will yuncover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
11 And zI will put an end to all her mirth,
her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths,
and all her appointed feasts.
12 And I will lay waste her avines and her fig trees,
of which she said,
‘These are my wages,
which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
13 And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals
when she bburned offerings to them
and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and cforgot me, declares the Lord.
The Lord’s Mercy on Israel
14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak tenderly to her.
15 And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the dValley of Achor10 a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
16 “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me e‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the fnames of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And gI will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will habolish11 the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall iknow the Lord.
21 “And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer jJezreel,12
23 and I will sow her for myself in the land.
kAnd lI will have mercy on mNo Mercy,13
and I will say to nNot My People,14 o‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”
Hosea Redeems His Wife
1 And the Lord said to me, p“Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord qloves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech15 of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” 4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days rwithout king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without sephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and tseek the Lord their God, uand vDavid their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.
