Hosea 12
About HoseaWritten by AI
Hosea is the first of the twelve shorter prophets, sometimes called the Minor Prophets because the books are short, not because they matter less. Hosea preached in the northern kingdom of Israel in the 700s BC, in its last decades before Assyria swept it away. Kings came and went quickly, and the people mixed the worship of the LORD with the worship of Baal.
The book's picture is a marriage. God tells Hosea to marry Gomer, who will be unfaithful, and Hosea's heartbreak becomes a living sermon about Israel turning from God. Readers have long asked whether this was a literal marriage or a story told to make the point; most take it as real, and either way the pain is real.
Watch how quickly the book swings between judgment and tenderness. God is wounded, not merely angry, and He keeps coming back. The last word is an invitation to return and a promise: “I will freely love them.”
Before you read Hosea 12Written by AI
God reviews Israel's history, reaching back to Jacob, who grasped his brother's heel at birth and later wrestled with God and wept for His favor. The point is that Jacob's children should do what Jacob finally did: return to God, hold to love and justice, and wait for Him. Instead they trust in dishonest gain.
A Reproof of Ephraim, Judah, and Jacob
Ephraim feeds on the wind
and pursues the east wind all day long;
he multiplies lies and violence;
he makes a covenant with Assyria
and sends olive oil to Egypt.
The LORD has a charge to bring against Judah.
He will punish Jacob according to his ways
and repay him according to his deeds.
In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel,
and in his vigor he wrestled with God.
Yes, he struggled with the angel and prevailed;
he wept and sought His favor;
he found Him at Bethel
and spoke with Him there—
the LORD God of Hosts,
the LORD is His name of renown.
But you must return to your God;
maintain love and justice,
and always wait on your God.
A merchant loves to defraud
with dishonest scales in his hands.
And Ephraim boasts: “How rich I have become!
I have found wealth for myself.
In all my labors, they can find in me
no iniquity that is sinful.”
But I am the LORD your God
ever since the land of Egypt.
I will again make you dwell in tents,
as in the days of the appointed feast.
I spoke through the prophets
and multiplied their visions;
I gave parables through the prophets.
Is there iniquity in Gilead?
They will surely come to nothing.
Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal?
Indeed, their altars will be heaps of stones
in the furrows of the field.
Jacob fled to the land of Aram
and Israel worked for a wife—
for a wife he tended sheep.
But by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt,
and by a prophet he was preserved.
Ephraim has provoked bitter anger,
so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt upon him
and repay him for his contempt.