Study Desk

When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, "Go, take for yourself a wife inclined to infidelity, and children of infidelity; for the land commits flagrant infidelity, abandoning the LORD."

And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together, And they will appoint for themselves one leader, And they will go up from the land, For the day of Jezreel will be great.

"Then I will give her her vineyards from there, And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she will respond there as in the days of her youth, As in the day when she went up from the land of Egypt.

"On that day I will also make a covenant for them With the animals of the field, The birds of the sky, And the crawling things of the ground. And I will eliminate the bow, the sword, and war from the land, And will let them lie down in safety.

"I will sow her for Myself in the land. I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion, And I will say to those who were not My people, 'You are My people!' And they will say, 'You are my God!'"

Listen to the word of the LORD, you sons of Israel, Because the LORD has a case against the inhabitants of the land, For there is no faithfulness, nor loyalty, Nor knowledge of God in the land.

Therefore the land mourns, And everyone who lives in it languishes Along with the animals of the field and the birds of the sky, And even the fish of the sea disappear.

They turn, but not upward, They are like a loose bow; Their officials will fall by the sword Because of the insolence of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.

They will not return to the land of Egypt; But Assyria—he will be their king Because they refused to return to Me.

They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, And like doves from the land of Assyria; And I will settle them in their houses, declares the LORD.

But I have been the LORD your God since the land of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, As in the days of the appointed festival.

Now Jacob fled to the land of Aram, And Israel worked for a wife, And for a wife he kept sheep.

Yet I have been the LORD your God Since the land of Egypt; And you were not to know any god except Me, For there is no savior besides Me.

I cared for you in the wilderness, In the land of drought.