Hosea 6
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 6Written by AI
It opens with what sounds like real repentance: "Come, let us return to the LORD." But God answers with grief, because their loyalty fades like morning mist. Look for 6:6, which Jesus quotes twice in Matthew: God wants mercy and the knowledge of Himself more than sacrifices.
The Unrepentance of Israel and Judah
Come, let us return to the LORD.
For He has torn us to pieces,
but He will heal us;
He has wounded us,
but He will bind up our wounds.
After two days He will revive us;
on the third day He will raise us up,
that we may live in His presence.
So let us know—
let us press on to know the LORD.
As surely as the sun rises,
He will appear;
He will come to us like the rain,
like the spring showers that water the earth.
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
For your loyalty is like a morning mist,
like the early dew that vanishes.
Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of My mouth,
and My judgments go forth like lightning.
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and the knowledge of God
rather than burnt offerings.
But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant;
there they were unfaithful to Me.
Gilead is a city of evildoers,
tracked with footprints of blood.
Like raiders who lie in ambush,
so does a band of priests;
they murder on the way to Shechem;
surely they have committed atrocities.
In the house of Israel
I have seen a horrible thing:
Ephraim practices prostitution there,
and Israel is defiled.
Also for you, O Judah,
a harvest is appointed,
when I restore
My people from captivity.