Hosea

Chapter 1

1The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel.

I. The Prophet’s Marriage and Its Symbolism

Marriage of Hosea and Gomer. 2When the Lord began to speak with Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: Go, get for yourself a woman of prostitution and children of prostitution, for the land prostitutes itself, turning away from the Lord.

3So he went and took Gomer, daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived and bore him a son. 4Then the Lord said to him: Give him the name “Jezreel,” for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the bloodshed at Jezreel and bring to an end the kingdom of the house of Israel; 5on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

6She conceived again and bore a daughter. The Lord said to him: Give her the name “Not-Pitied,” for I will no longer feel pity for the house of Israel: rather, I will utterly abhor them. 7Yet for the house of Judah I will feel pity; I will save them by the Lord, their God; but I will not save them by bow or sword, by warfare, by horses or horsemen.

8After she weaned Not-Pitied, she conceived and bore a son. 9Then the Lord said: Give him the name “Not-My-People,” for you are not my people, and I am not “I am” for you.

Chapter 2

1The number of the Israelites
    will be like the sand of the sea,
    which can be neither measured nor counted.
Instead of being told,
    “You are Not-My-People,”
They will be called,
    “Children of the living God.”
2Then the people of Judah and of Israel
    will gather together;
They will appoint for themselves one head
    and rise up from the land;
    great indeed shall be the day of Jezreel!
3Say to your brothers, “My People,”
    and to your sisters, “Pitied.”

The Lord and Israel His Spouse

4Accuse your mother, accuse!
    for she is not my wife,
    and I am not her husband.
Let her remove her prostitution from her face.
    her adultery from between her breasts,

5Or I will strip her naked,
    leaving her as on the day of her birth;
I will make her like the wilderness,
    make her like an arid land,
    and let her die of thirst.
6I will have no pity on her children,
    for they are children of prostitution.
7Yes, their mother has prostituted herself;
    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.”
8Therefore, I will hedge in her way with thorns
    and erect a wall against her,
    so that she cannot find her paths.
9If she runs after her lovers, she will not overtake them;
    if she seeks them she will not find them.
Then she will say,
    “I will go back to my first husband,
    for I was better off then than now.”

10She did not know
    that it was I who gave her
    the grain, the wine, and the oil,
I who lavished upon her silver,
    and gold, which they used for Baal,
11Therefore I will take back my grain in its time,
    and my wine in its season;
I will snatch away my wool and my flax,
    which were to cover her nakedness.
12Now I will lay bare her shame
    in full view of her lovers,
    and no one can deliver her out of my hand.
13I will put an end to all her joy,
    her festivals, her new moons, her sabbaths—
    all her seasonal feasts.
14I will lay waste her vines and fig trees,
    of which she said, “These are the fees
    my lovers have given me”;
I will turn them into rank growth
    and wild animals shall devour them.
15I will punish her for the days of the Baals,
    for whom she burnt incense,
When she decked herself out with her rings and her jewelry,
    and went after her lovers—
    but me she forgot—oracle of the Lord.
16Therefore, I will allure her now;
    I will lead her into the wilderness
    and speak persuasively to her.
17Then I will give her the vineyards she had,
    and the valley of Achor as a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
    as on the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

18On that day—oracle of the Lord
You shall call me “My husband,”
    and you shall never again call me “My baal.”
19I will remove from her mouth the names of the Baals;
    they shall no longer be mentioned by their name.

20I will make a covenant for them on that day,
    with the wild animals,
With the birds of the air,
    and with the things that crawl on the ground.
Bow and sword and warfare
    I will destroy from the land,
    and I will give them rest in safety.

21I will betroth you to me forever:
    I will betroth you to me with justice and with judgment,
    with loyalty and with compassion;
22I will betroth you to me with fidelity,
    and you shall know the Lord.
23On that day I will respond—oracle of the Lord
    I will respond to the heavens,
    and they will respond to the earth;
24The earth will respond to the grain, and wine, and oil,
    and these will respond to Jezreel.
25I will sow her for myself in the land,
    and I will have pity on Not-Pitied.
I will say to Not-My-People, “You are my people,”
    and he will say, “My God!”

Isaiah

B. The Book of Emmanuel

Chapter 6

The Sending of Isaiah. 1In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. 2Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they hovered. 3One cried out to the other:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!
    All the earth is filled with his glory!”

4At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke.

5Then I said, “Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar.

7He touched my mouth with it. “See,” he said, “now that this has touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged.”

8Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” “Here I am,” I said; “send me!” 9And he replied: Go and say to this people:

Listen carefully, but do not understand!
Look intently, but do not perceive!
10Make the heart of this people sluggish,
    dull their ears and close their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,
    and their heart understand,
    and they turn and be healed.

11“How long, O Lord?” I asked. And he replied:

Until the cities are desolate,
    without inhabitants,
Houses, without people,
    and the land is a desolate waste.
12Until the Lord sends the people far away,
    and great is the desolation in the midst of the land.
13If there remain a tenth part in it,
    then this in turn shall be laid waste;
As with a terebinth or an oak
    whose trunk remains when its leaves have fallen.
    Holy offspring is the trunk.

Chapter 7

The Syro-Ephraimite War

Crisis in Judah. 1In the days of Ahaz, king of Judah, son of Jotham, son of Uzziah, Rezin, king of Aram, and Pekah, king of Israel, son of Remaliah, went up to attack Jerusalem, but they were not able to conquer it. 2When word came to the house of David that Aram had allied itself with Ephraim, the heart of the king and heart of the people trembled, as the trees of the forest tremble in the wind.

3Then the Lord said to Isaiah: Go out to meet Ahaz, you and your son Shear-jashub, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool, on the highway to the fuller’s field, 4and say to him: Take care you remain calm and do not fear; do not let your courage fail before these two stumps of smoldering brands, the blazing anger of Rezin and the Arameans and of the son of Remaliah— 5because Aram, with Ephraim and the son of Remaliah, has planned evil against you. They say, 6“Let us go up against Judah, tear it apart, make it our own by force, and appoint the son of Tabeel king there.”

7Thus says the Lord God:
    It shall not stand, it shall not be!
8The head of Aram is Damascus,
    and the head of Damascus is Rezin;
9The head of Ephraim is Samaria,
    and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah.
Within sixty-five years,
    Ephraim shall be crushed, no longer a nation.
Unless your faith is firm,
    you shall not be firm!

Emmanuel. 10Again the Lord spoke to Ahaz: 11Ask for a sign from the Lord, your God; let it be deep as Sheol, or high as the sky! 12But Ahaz answered, “I will not ask! I will not tempt the Lord!” 13Then he said: Listen, house of David! Is it not enough that you weary human beings? Must you also weary my God? 14Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign; the young woman, pregnant and about to bear a son, shall name him Emmanuel. 15Curds and honey he will eat so that he may learn to reject evil and choose good; 16for before the child learns to reject evil and choose good, the land of those two kings whom you dread shall be deserted.

17The Lord shall bring upon you and your people and your father’s house such days as have not come since Ephraim seceded from Judah (the king of Assyria). 18On that day

The Lord shall whistle
    for the fly in the farthest streams of Egypt,
    and for the bee in the land of Assyria.
19All of them shall come and settle
    in the steep ravines and in the rocky clefts,
    on all thornbushes and in all pastures.

20On that day the Lord shall shave with the razor hired from across the River (the king of Assyria) the head, and the hair of the feet; it shall also shave off the beard.

21On that day a man shall keep alive a young cow or a couple of sheep, 22and from their abundant yield of milk he shall eat curds; curds and honey shall be the food of all who are left in the land. 23On that day every place where there were a thousand vines worth a thousand pieces of silver shall become briers and thorns. 24One shall have to go there with bow and arrows, for all the country shall be briers and thorns. 25But as for all the hills which were hoed with a mattock, for fear of briers and thorns you will not go there; they shall become a place for cattle to roam and sheep to trample.