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Chapter 1
This is the message which came from the Lord to Osee, son of Beeri, during the reigns of Ozias, Joathan, Achaz and Ezechias in Juda, and during the reign of Jeroboam, son of Joas, in Israel.
When first the divine voice made itself heard through Osee, this was the command given him: Wanton wed you, wantons breed you; in a wanton land you dwell, that keeps troth with its Lord never. So it was he came to marry Gomer, a daughter of Debelaim. When he got her with child, and she bore him a son, This one, the Lord told him, you are to call Jezrahel; at Jezrahel the blood was spilt for which, ere long, Jehu's line must be punished, and Israel have kings no more; in Jezrahel valley, my doom is, bow of Israel shall be broken. And next, she was brought to bed of a daughter; of whom the Lord said, Unbefriended call her, in token that I will befriend Israel no longer, heed them no longer. To Juda I will be a friend yet, not with bow or sword of theirs delivering them, not in battle, with horse or horseman to give aid, but by the power of the Lord their God only.
Unbefriended, then, was the name of her; and after she was weaned, once more Gomer conceived, and had a son. This time the command was, Call him Strange-folk; no longer shall you be my people, or I be your...
... Measureless the race of Israel shall be and countless as the sand by the sea-shore. In the very place where once the doom was uttered, You are but strangers to me, they shall be welcomed as sons of the living God. As one people, Juda and Israel shall be rallied, under a leader of their common choice; and they shall come flocking from every corner of the land; such great doings there shall be at Jezrahel.
Chapter 2
God's-folk and Befriended, these are the names they should have by rights, brother and sister of yours. Blame her, blame your mother, that she is no true wife of mine, nor I any longer her Lord. Must she still flaunt the harlot's face of her, the wantonness of her breasts? Must I strip her, leave her naked as babe new-born, leave her desolate as the barren waste, the trackless desert, to die of thirst? Those children of hers, must I needs leave them unpitied, the children of her shame?
Harlot mother of theirs brought reproach on the womb that bore them; haste I away, she said, to those gallants of mine, the gods of whose gift bread comes to me, and water, wool and flax, oil and wine! See if I do not hedge her way about with thorns, fence in her prospect, till way she can find none! Then, it may be, when her gallants she courts in vain, searches for them in vain, she will have other thoughts: Back go I to the husband that was mine once; things were better with me in days gone by.
Yet I it was, did she but know it, that bread and wine and oil gave her, gave her all the silver and gold she squandered on Baal. And now I mean to revoke the gift; no harvest for her, no vintage; I will give wool and flax a holiday, that once laboured to cover her shame; no gallant of hers but shall see and mock at it; such is my will, and none shall thwart me. Gone the days of rejoicing, the days of solemnity; gone is new moon, and sabbath, and festival; vine and fig-tree blighted, whose fruit, she told herself, was but the hire those lovers paid; all shall be woodland, for the wild beasts to ravage as they will. Penance she must do for that hey-day of idolatry, when the incense smoked, and out she went, all rings and necklaces, to meet her lovers, the gods of the country-side, and for me, the Lord says, never a thought!
It is but love's stratagem, thus to lead her out into the wilderness; once there, it shall be all words of comfort. Clad in vine-yards that wilderness shall be, that vale of sad memory a passage-way of hope; and a song shall be on her lips, the very music of her youth, when I rescued her from Egypt long ago. Husband she calls me now, the Lord says, Master no longer; that name I stifle on her lips; master-gods of the country-side must all be forgotten. Beast and bird and creeping thing to peace pledge I; bow and sword and war's alarms break I; all shall sleep safe abed, the folk that dwell in her.
Everlastingly I will betroth you to myself, favour and redress and mercy of mine your dowry; by the keeping of his troth you shall learn to know the Lord. When that day comes, heaven shall win answer, the Lord says, answer from me; and from heaven, earth; and from earth, the corn and wine and oil it nourishes; and from these, the people of my sowing. Deep, deep I will sow them in the land I love; a friend, now, to her that was Unbefriended; to a people that was none of mine I will say, you are my people, and they to me, you are my God.
Chapter 3
The Lord's word came to me: To wife that will have gallants a-courting her, shew yourself a lover yet. The Lord is yet Israel's lover, that has no eyes but for alien gods, leaves grape for husk. So buy her back to me I must, fifteen pieces of silver paying for her ransom, and a core and a half of barley. A long time you must wait for me, I told her, your wantonness leaving, yet still unwed; and I will wait for you as faithfully.
A long time the sons of Israel must wait, neither king nor prince to rule them, neither sacrifice nor shrine to worship at, neither sacred mantle nor their own images to consult. Then they will come back, and to the Lord, their own God, betake them, and to David that is their true king; the Lord, and the Lord's goodness, holds them spell-bound at last.
Chapter 4
Listen, sons of Israel, to a message from the Lord, notice of a suit he prefers against all that dwell in this land of yours; a land where loyalty, and tenderness of heart, and knowledge of God is none.
Curse they and lie, murder they and steal and live adulterously, till there is no checking it; never feud ends but another feud begins. What wonder the land lies widowed, and its folk dwindle; gone, beast and bird, and the sea-beach piled high with fish? Nay, let us have no recriminations between man and man; so should this people of yours fall to railing at their priests! Ruin for you, sir priest, this day, and, come night, the prophet shall share your ruin; name of the mother that bore you shall perish, as, through your fault, this people of mine perishes for want of knowledge. Knowledge would you spurn, and shall not I spurn your priesthood; my law would you forget, and shall race of yours be spared oblivion? Priests a many, and sins to match their number; shall that title bring glory any longer, and not reproach? Fault if Israel committed, guilt if Israel incurred, it was but the meat and drink such priests craved for. Priest, now, shall fare no better than people; he shall pay for his ill living, reap what his false aims deserve; greed, that remained still so unsated, wantonness, that could never have enough. Ah, faithless guardians, that you should play your Lord false! That dalliance, and wine, and revelry, should so steal away your wits!
And what of my people? See where they have recourse to tree-stump or senseless wand, for an answer to their perplexities! Lust for strange worship swept them away, made them false to their troth with God; on mountain and hill-side, grateful for leafy shade of oak, poplar or terebinth, they slay the victim, and burn incense. What wonder daughters should turn harlot, wives play the wanton? Harlot daughter and adulterous wife shall go unpunished; what did father and husband, but keep harlots company, share revel with consecrated minions? Want wit, be sure a people is ruined.
Wanton though Israel be, at least let Juda shun the wrong; not for them the way that leads to Galgal, Bethaven's pilgrimage, or the oath taken by the living God...
Stubborn as frisking heifer, Israel turns away the head; would you have the Lord feed him, like a cade lamb, unconfined? Wedded to idols, this Ephraim; go his own way he must; here be revellers that will keep their own company, here be idolaters in grain, and princes that dote still on their own disgrace. Ay, but a storm is coming that shall carry them away on its wings, to rue the unavailing sacrifice.
Chapter 5
Priest and people, hear and heed! And you, too, mark it well, men of the court; whose but yours the blame, if there are snares on every commanding height, if Thabor itself is ringed with toils, and your quarry is driven down to the depths? But to all alike comes the warning. Think you that I have no eyes for Ephraim's wantonness? that Israel escapes my scrutiny, Israel, so defiled? Return to the Lord? Not for such hearts the message; lust for strange worship is there, and of the Lord they reck nothing. Self-condemned, the pride of Israel; what wonder Israel... and Ephraim should be entangled in guilt? Juda itself shall not escape their downfall. All their flocks and herds shall not win them access to the Lord; he stands aloof from them, sinners that have defied him; a bastard brood, that ere yonder moon rises new shall be disinherited and brought to nothing.
The trumpet, there, in Gabaa; at Rama sound for battle; let Bethaven echo with the rallying-cry! Benjamin, to arms! Alas for Ephraim, in the hour of punishment left forlorn! Mine to teach Israel's tribes a lesson of faithfulness. And what of Juda's chieftains? A neighbour's landmark scrupled they never to remove; on these, too, the full flood of my vengeance shall come down. Poor Ephraim, ever since he set his face towards the mire, all is oppression with him, all is judgement gone amiss. And all the while I, none other, wear away strength of Ephraim and Juda alike; moth nor canker so surely! What did Ephraim, in his great sickness, what did Juda, bound hand and foot? To Assyria Ephraim would despatch envoys, to yonder ruthless king; but heal you he could not, nor unbind. Mine the encounter Ephraim has to fear, and Juda both; lion's dam nor whelp mauls prey and carries it off so inexorably. All in a moment come and gone from where I came! Who knows if weariness will drive you back to my presence?
Chapter 6
Ay, in their distress they will be waiting full early at my door; Back to the Lord! will be their cry; salve he only can bring, that wounded us; hand that smote us shall heal. Dead men to-day and to-morrow, on the third day he will raise us up again, to live in his presence anew. Acknowledge we, cease we never to acknowledge the Lord, he will reveal himself, sure as the dawn, come back to us, sure as the rains of winter and spring come back to the earth. What way will serve with you, men of Ephraim? Juda, what way will serve? Ruth of yours is but momentary, fades like the early mist, like morning dew. What wonder I should send prophets first, to shape men to my will if they could, and then utter my sentence of ruin? Believe me, this doom of yours shall be clear as daylight. A tender heart wins favour with me, not sacrifice; God's acknowledging, not victim's destroying; and these be very children of Adam, keep troth they cannot, here is a land where my will is set at defiance. What is Galaad but a stronghold of idolatry, bedabbled with footprints of blood? Nor much imports it, company of priests you meet on Sichem road, or troop of robbers thirsting for men's lives; be sure there is mischief afoot; foul deeds I see done in Israel. Ephraim so wanton, Israel so defiled; and, Juda, what of yourself? For you, no harvest?
When I restore my people from exile...
Chapter 7
When I would grant healing to Israel...
Foul shews the guilt of Ephraim, Samaria's malice is plain to view. What a workshop of wrong-doing is here, all thieving within doors, all robbery without! Let them never complain I am too nice over the chronicling of their misdeeds; why, they blazon these ill designs of theirs, under my very eyes! King himself there is no pleasing but by villainy, nor his nobles but by flattering speeches; false is every one of them to his troth. What else is this whole realm but baker that lights his fire, and then takes a rest from his kneading, leaves yeast to spread as it will? Huzza for our king? Ay, but see how the princes fall to their carousing, and he himself reaches out for the wine, reckless as they! Their scheming adds fuel to the fire; are there not plots afoot? Sleeps baker the long night through, and morning finds him flaming hot like the rest. A very furnace the city is; ruler may not abide nor king stand before the heat of it, and never a man among them invokes my name! What wonder Ephraim should throw in his lot with the Gentiles? No better than a girdle-cake is Ephraim, baked only on one side.
Foreign neighbours, all unawares, have drained the strength of him; the dark locks, all unawares, dappled with grey; and even now self-condemned stands the pride of Israel; return to the Lord, recourse to the Lord is none, even now. Never silly dove so lost her wits as this Ephraim, now calling on Egypt, now turning to Assyria for aid! Fatal the journey; my net I mean to spread over them, catch them as in the fowler's snare; public the chastisement shall be, as public the warning. Dearly they shall pay for their wandering from me, ruin follow on the heels of rebellion; I their ransomer, and they so false! Never do their hearts cry out to me; growl they like beast in den, or beast-like eat and drink and chew the cud; me they have forsaken. Now I chasten them, now I strengthen their hands, and still they have no thought for me but of hatred; ever they step back from the yoke, like a twisted bow recoil.
Put to the sword their nobles must be, railing tongues the ruin of them. This the taunt that shall be uttered against them in the land of Egypt...
Chapter 9
The trumpet to your mouth! Eagle's wings threatening the Lord's domain! Conscious of faith forsworn, of my law defied, to me Israel cries out, My God! cries out, We acknowledge you! Estranged, poor Israel, from the good that was his, and the enemy pressing hard upon him.
Kings a many, and with no warrant from me; princes a many, that were none of my choosing; idols a many, of their own gold and silver minted; here is cause enough for their undoing. Cast calf, Samaria, is yonder calf of yours; for this burning affront, it shall be long ere you can find acquittal. Israel gave birth to it, this calf of Samaria, that came of man's fashioning, and god is none; it shall be beaten fine as filigree.
Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind; empty stook is empty bin, and here if grain is any, alien folk shall have the eating of it! Poor Israel, already engulfed, the heathen all around making a despised tool of him! Lone as wild ass in the desert, to Assyria he betakes himself; if mate he would, he must pay for his dalliance. Well, hire they mercenaries where they will, they shall be cooped up in their own land none the less, and have respite from the exactions of king and nobles both.
So many the altars Ephraim has, and they shall increase his guilt, none of them but shall increase his guilt; so many the laws I gave him, and all alike went unrecognized. Appointed sacrifice they still offer, flesh of the sacrifice still eat, but the Lord will have none of it; no more their guilt shall go unrecorded, their sins unpunished; Egypt once again for them! The God that made them forgotten, Israel builds shrine and Juda stronghold still; but the fire I am kindling shall fall upon Juda's cities, shall devour them, citadel and all.
Chapter 9
No rejoicing, Israel, no cries of gladness now! Would you be like the heathen, and rejoice that you have played your God false, ever selling your favours to the first corner, in return for a full threshing-floor? Not for such reapers harvest and vintage; the wanton must go without her wine; dispeopled, now, the Lord's territory, Ephraim back in Egypt again, or tasting, among the Assyrians, unhallowed food. Libation shall be none to win the Lord's favour, nor any sacrifice; bread of theirs shall be as the bread mourners eat, defiling to the lips; fill their bellies it may, but into the Lord's house it cannot enter. Alas, what shift will you make when the great days come round, the Lord's festivals? Ruin fell on the citizens, and they are gone; Egypt the home of them now, Memphis the tomb of them; bowers that shone with silver the nettles have claimed, burdocks grow in the doorways.
Close at hand the audit-day, the doom close at hand! And would you know, Israel, why prophet is turned fool, and he can but rave now that once was inspired? God's heavy plague is this for your much sinning; prophet of yours, watchman of a yours, Ephraim, is a snare at every turn, luring you to your ruin, and at God's decree; he stands there in God's house, a plague to you. So deep the canker of their sin; Gabaa itself never knew worse wrong. For the remembered guilt of it they shall be called to account.
When I kept tryst with Israel long ago, rare the encounter, as of grapes out in the desert, of spring figs a-ripening high up on the tree. And all at once to Beelphegor they betook themselves, sold honour for shame, caught foul contagion from the things they loved! Light as bird on bough, Ephraim's glory has come and gone; womb is none that breeds, or, breeding, bears; ay, though they should bring sons to manhood, childless their race shall be, nameless among men.
Woe betide them indeed, when I withdraw my presence from them! Ephraim's land, so fair a garden, as I look out over it towards Tyre! And must Ephraim rear her sons for the slaughter-house? Your gift to them, Lord, what is the best gift they can have of you? A womb, assuredly, that miscarries, and dried-up breasts! See where, at Galgal, their offence comes to a head; there it is they have made an enemy of me. They shall dwell in my domain no longer, claim love from me no longer; chieftains of theirs are no vassals of mine. On Ephraim blight has fallen; withered the root now, wizened the fruit; beget they, doom of death is on their offspring, so dearly loved. Cast away, my God, from your presence, because heed you they would not, cast away to wander homeless through the world!
Chapter 10
A spreading vine is yonder vine of Israel, and fruit of him matches leaf. Rich, fertile soil; alas, how rich in altars, in sacred trees how fertile! A race half loyal, half false, but the penalty must be paid in full; those altars God himself will devote to extinction, strip those trees bare.
King we have none, you say; God we fear not; what of the great king? What will he do to us? All is vain promise and making of treaties; never a furrow in your land but shall yield the bitter fruit of punishment.
Calf of Bethaven, the folk of Samaria once honoured, what ado is here! Mourns people and writhes priest at the passing of its glory; carried off, now, into Assyria, for the pleasure of a ruthless king; fooled is Ephraim, Israel's hopes have played him false. Like foam on the river Samaria sees her king pass by; and with that, vanish the hill-shrines of false worship, Israel's darling sin; grows thorn and thistle on their altars; no prayer have the men of Israel now but that mountains should fall on them, hills should bury them alive.
Old is the tale of Israel's guilt, old as what befell at Gabaa; there stood they unmoved; was it not at Gabaa the tide of battle reached them, battle against the champions of wrong? A jealous chastiser I will be to them; twofold their guilt, and many the nations I will muster for their chastisement. Heifer that has learned the welcome task of the threshing-floor, such is Ephraim; that sleek neck of hers I have spared till now; now she is to be harnessed; when Juda goes a-ploughing, Jacob it shall be that breaks the clods for him.
If mercy is to be the measure you reap by, seed of yours must be sown in right doing; there are fallow acres to be tilled. Not too late to have recourse to the Lord, waiting for him to come and brings you redress! But alas, shameful furrows they were you traced, and what came of it? A harvest of wrong, fruit that cheated you in the tasting!
So you would trust in your own devices, in your own warrior strength? Believe me, there shall be turmoil among your folk, and all your strongholds shall fall, as fell Salmana before Jerobaal when the day was won; fell child, fell mother, dashed to pieces. So much shall yonder Bethel countervail the heinousness of your guilt!
Chapter 11
Soon fades the dawn; soon passes king of Israel.
Israel in his boyhood, what love I bore him! Away from Egypt I beckoned him, henceforth my son.
... They called them, the more they refused obedience; gods of the country-side must have their victims, dumb idols their incense! Yet it was I, none other, guided those first steps of theirs, and took them in my arms, and healed, all unobserved, their injuries. Sons of Adam, they should be drawn with leading-strings of love; never waggoner was at more pains to ease bridle on jaw, fed beast so carefully.
Never again to Egypt; Assyria shall rule him now, the unrepentant; already the sword is let loose in those towns of his, the brave shall engulf, the wise shall devour. Can my people be reconciled with me? All hangs in doubt, until at last I put a yoke on all alike, never to be taken away from them. What, Ephraim, must I abandon you? Must I keep Israel under watch and ward? Can I let you go the way of Adama, share the doom of Seboim? All at once my heart misgives me, and from its embers pity revives. How should I wreak my vengeance, of Ephraim take full toll?
God am I, not a man in the midst of you, the Holy One, that may not enter those city walls; the Lord must lead, and man follow.
Loud he will call, like lion roaring, and at the sound of it, sons of his will come trembling from the distant sea; fluttering like sparrow or dove from Egypt, from the Assyrian country, and in their own home, the Lord says, I will give them rest.
Ephraim so false, Israel so treacherous, all about me! But Juda governs his folk with God to aid him; Juda takes part with the holy ones, loyal yet.
Chapter 12
Ephraim, that would still play shepherd to the wind, still hunt in the track of the storm and nothing hoard up but treachery, nothing but his own ruin! See him making treaties with the Assyrian, sending tribute of oil to Egypt! On Juda's part the Lord takes up the quarrel, will call Jacob to account, for ill deeds and ill designs rewarding him.
Here was one that took precedence of his brother even in the womb; strength was his, of celestial strength the rival. Did he not hold his own in contest with an angel, and prefer, with tears, his suit? Ay, and what of that encounter at Bethel, when the promises came to us from him, the Lord of hosts, from the God whose name we remember yet?
Would you to your God return? A tender heart keep you must, and a right mind, and wait for your God's help continually.
Is it the Chanaanite that carries false weights, and loves ill gotten gain? Here is Ephraim boasting that he has grown rich, has found a false god to worship; will not these earnings of mine, thinks he, buy me out from the punishment I have deserved?
I, the Lord, your God in Egypt, and your God still! Once again you shall dwell in tents, as in the days when I kept tryst with you; once again I will bestow utterance upon the prophets. Mine it is, by the prophets means, to grant clear vision, to speak in parables.
If Galaad is all idolatry, vain the sacrifice of oxen that is made at Galgal; stone heaps their altars shall be, out in the ploughlands.
Time was when Jacob fled to the Aram country; Israel worked for a wife, and for that wife's sake loyally kept his troth. Time was, when the Lord rescued Israel from Egypt by a prophet's means, and, for that prophet's sake loyally preserved them.
For bitter jealousy of mine Ephraim must pay the penalty; spurned Master spurns him now.
Chapter 13
Spoke Ephraim, all Israel trembled at his word; how else came they, for Baal's worship, to barter away life itself? And they are busy yet over their sinning; melt down silver of theirs to fashion models of yonder images, craftsman copying craftsman's design! And of such models they say, The man who would do sacrifice has but to kiss these calves. Fades the memory of them, light as early mist or morning dew, light as chaff on the threshing-floor, smoke from the chimney, when high blows the wind!
And all the while I am the Lord your God... from the land of Egypt; God you shall own no other, other deliverance is none; out in the desert, out in the parched wastes, owned I you. Fatal pasturing! With food came satiety, and with satiety pride, and with pride forgetfulness of me! Now their way lies to Assyria and on that road I will meet them again, their enemy now, watchful as lion or leopard; bear robbed of its young should not tear open breast more cruelly, lion devour more greedily; they shall be a prey, now, to the wild beasts.
Alas, Israel, undone! Who but I can aid you? Your king, where is he? Now, if ever, from end to end of you you have sore need of king and princes both; king and court you did demand of me, and gift of mine was never so grudgingly made, so angrily withdrawn.
Trust me, it is stored away, it is jealously preserved, the record of Ephraim's sinning. Pangs like the pangs of travail shall come upon him; or say he is babe ill-guided, that shall thrive never when it comes to the birth. From the grave's power to rescue them, from death to ransom them; I, death's mortal enemy, I, corruption's undoing!
Pity? My eyes are closed to it; these, that now have a share among their brethren, shall feel the Lord's vengeance, a burning desert wind that shall dry up their brooks, foul their springs, lay waste the store-houses where they hoard their treasure.
Chapter 14
Death to Samaria, that has provoked her God's anger! Death at the sword's point; children dashed headlong, ripped open the womb!
Come back, Israel, to the Lord your God; it is sin that has caused your overthrow. Come back, men of Israel, with a plea ready on your lips: Pardon all our guilt, and take the best we have in return; the praises we utter shall be our victims now. No longer we will find refuge in Assyrian help, mount our men on horses from Egypt; no longer will we give the name of gods to the things our own hands have made; you are the friend of the friendless who trust in you.
I will bring healing to their crushed spirits; in free mercy I will give them back my love; my vengeance has passed them by. I will be morning dew, to make Israel grow as the lilies grow, strike roots deep as the forest of Lebanon. Those branches shall spread, it shall become fair as the olive, fragrant as Lebanon cedar. None that dwells under the protection of that name but shall come back to me; corn shall be theirs in plenty, and they will grow like one of their own vineyards, famed as the vintage of Lebanon itself. The false gods of Ephraim are forgotten; mine to answer his prayer and tend him, ever-green as a fir-tree; from me all your increase comes. All this the wise discern, the thoughtful understand; straight paths the Lord has shewn us for his friends to walk in; who leaves them shall stumble to his ruin.