Hosea 1:2

Bible in Basic English (1941)

The start of the word of the Lord by Hosea: And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take for yourself a wife of loose ways, and children of the same, for the land has been untrue to the Lord.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

תְּחִלַּ֥ת דִּבֶּר־יְהוָ֖ה בְּהוֹשֵׁ֑עַ פ וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְהוָ֜ה אֶל־הוֹשֵׁ֗עַ לֵ֣ךְ קַח־לְךָ֞ אֵ֤שֶׁת זְנוּנִים֙ וְיַלְדֵ֣י זְנוּנִ֔ים כִּֽי־זָנֹ֤ה תִזְנֶה֙ הָאָ֔רֶץ מֵֽאַחֲרֵ֖י יְהוָֽה׃

Transliteration

Təḥillat diber-YHWH in-Hôšēaʿ [paragraph mark] and-yōʾmer YHWH to-Hôšēaʿ lēk qaḥ-to-you ʾēšet zənûnîm and-yaldê zənûnîm for-zānōh tizneh the-ʾāreṣ from-ʾaḥărê YHWH.

Grammar Details

• *Təḥillat*: construct state, feminine singular - beginning of
• *diber*: piel infinitive construct - speaking of
• *YHWH*: proper noun, divine name - Yahweh/LORD
• *yōʾmer*: qal imperfect consecutive, 3rd person masculine singular - and he said
• *lēk*: qal imperative, masculine singular - go
• *qaḥ*: qal imperative, masculine singular - take
• *ʾēšet*: construct state, feminine singular - wife of
• *zənûnîm*: masculine plural noun - harlotries/prostitutions
• *yaldê*: construct state, masculine plural - children of
• *zānōh*: qal infinitive absolute - fornicate/commit harlotry
• *tizneh*: qal imperfect, 3rd person feminine singular - commits fornication/harlotry
• *ʾāreṣ*: definite noun, feminine singular - land/earth
• *ʾaḥărê*: preposition with 1cs suffix - from after/behind

Word Meanings

• *Təḥillat*: beginning/start/commencement
• *zənûnîm*: harlotry/fornication/prostitution/unfaithfulness
• *zānōh tizneh*: emphatically prostituting/surely committing harlotry
• *ʾāreṣ*: land/earth/ground/territory

Referenced Verses

• Deut 31:16 : 16 And the Lord said to Moses, Now you are going to rest with your fathers; and this people will be false to me, uniting themselves to the strange gods of the land where they are going; they will be turned away from me and will not keep the agreement I have made with them.
• Hos 3:1 : 1 And the Lord said to me, Give your love again to a woman who has a lover and is false to her husband, even as the Lord has love for the children of Israel, though they are turned to other gods and are lovers of grape-cakes.
• Hos 2:4-5 : 4 And I will have no mercy on her children, for they are the children of her loose ways. 5 For their mother has been untrue; she who gave them birth has done things of shame, for she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my wine.
• Exod 34:15-16 : 15 So see that you make no agreement with the people of the land, and do not go after their gods, or take part in their offerings, or be guests at their feasts, 16 Or take their daughters for your sons; for when their daughters give worship before their gods, they will make your sons take part with them.
• Rev 17:1-2 : 1 And one of the seven angels who had the seven vessels came and said to me, Come here, so that you may see the judging of the evil woman who is seated on the great waters; 2 With whom the kings of the earth made themselves unclean, and those who are on the earth were full of the wine of her evil desires.
• Hos 5:3 : 3 I have knowledge of Ephraim, and Israel is not secret from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have been false to me, Israel has become unclean.
• Jer 3:9 : 9 So that through all her loose behaviour the land became unclean, and she was untrue, giving herself to stones and trees.
• Ezek 6:9 : 9 And those of you who are kept safe will have me in mind among the nations where they have been taken away as prisoners, how I sent punishment on their hearts which were untrue to me, and on their eyes which were turned to their false gods: and they will be full of hate for themselves because of the evil things which they have done in all their disgusting ways.
• Ezek 16:1-9 : 1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, make clear to Jerusalem her disgusting ways, 3 And say, This is what the Lord has said to Jerusalem: Your start and your birth was from the land of the Canaanite; an Amorite was your father and your mother was a Hittite. 4 As for your birth, on the day of your birth your cord was not cut and you were not washed in water to make you clean; you were not salted or folded in linen bands. 5 No eye had pity on you to do any of these things to you or to be kind to you; but you were put out into the open country, because your life was hated at the time of your birth. 6 And when I went past you and saw you stretched out in your blood, I said to you, Though you are stretched out in your blood, have life; 7 And be increased in number like the buds of the field; and you were increased and became great, and you came to the time of love: your breasts were formed and your hair was long; but you were uncovered and without clothing. 8 Now when I went past you, looking at you, I saw that your time was the time of love; and I put my skirts over you, covering your unclothed body: and I gave you my oath and made an agreement with you, says the Lord, and you became mine. 9 Then I had you washed with water, washing away all your blood and rubbing you with oil. 10 And I had you clothed with needlework, and put leather shoes on your feet, folding fair linen about you and covering you with silk. 11 And I made you fair with ornaments and put jewels on your hands and a chain on your neck. 12 And I put a ring in your nose and ear-rings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. 13 So you were made beautiful with gold and silver; and your clothing was of the best linen and silk and needlework; your food was the best meal and honey and oil: and you were very beautiful. 14 You were so beautiful that the story of you went out into all nations; you were completely beautiful because of my glory which I had put on you, says the Lord. 15 But you put your faith in the fact that you were beautiful, acting like a loose woman because you were widely talked of, and offering your cheap love to everyone who went by, whoever it might be. 16 And you took your robes and made high places for yourself ornamented with every colour, acting like a loose woman on them, without shame or fear. 17 And you took the fair jewels, my silver and gold which I had given to you, and made for yourself male images, acting like a loose woman with them; 18 And you took your robes of needlework for their clothing, and put my oil and my perfume before them. 19 And my bread which I gave you, the best meal and oil and honey which I gave you for your food, you put it before them for a sweet smell, says the Lord. 20 And you took your sons and your daughters whom I had by you, offering even these to them to be their food. Was your loose behaviour so small a thing, 21 That you put my children to death and gave them up to go through the fire to them? 22 And in all your disgusting and false behaviour you had no memory of your early days, when you were uncovered and without clothing, stretched out in your blood. 23 And it came about, after all your evil-doing, says the Lord, 24 That you made for yourself an arched room in every open place. 25 You put up your high places at the top of every street, and made the grace of your form a disgusting thing, opening your feet to everyone who went by, increasing your loose ways. 26 And you went with the Egyptians, your neighbours, great of flesh; increasing your loose ways, moving me to wrath. 27 Now, then, my hand is stretched out against you, cutting down your fixed amount, and I have given you up to the desire of your haters, the daughters of the Philistines who are shamed by your loose ways. 28 And you went with the Assyrians, because of your desire which was without measure; you were acting like a loose woman with them, and still you had not enough. 29 And you went on in your loose ways, even as far as the land of Chaldaea, and still you had not enough. 30 How feeble is your heart, says the Lord, seeing that you do all these things, the work of a loose and overruling woman; 31 For you have made your arched room at the top of every street, and your high place in every open place; though you were not like a loose woman in getting together your payment. 32 The untrue wife who takes strange lovers in place of her husband! 33 They give payment to all loose women: but you give rewards to your lovers, offering them payment so that they may come to you on every side for your cheap love. 34 And in your loose behaviour you are different from other women, for no one goes after you to make love to you: and because you give payment and no payment is given to you, in this you are different from them. 35 For this cause, O loose woman, give ear to the voice of the Lord: 36 This is what the Lord has said: Because your unclean behaviour was let loose and your body uncovered in your loose ways with your lovers and with your disgusting images, and for the blood of your children which you gave to them; 37 For this cause I will get together all your lovers with whom you have taken your pleasure, and all those to whom you have given your love, with all those who were hated by you; I will even make them come together against you on every side, and I will have you uncovered before them so that they may see your shame. 38 And you will be judged by me as women are judged who have been untrue to their husbands and have taken life; and I will let loose against you passion and bitter feeling. 39 I will give you into their hands, and your arched room will be overturned and your high places broken down; they will take your clothing off you and take away your fair jewels: and when they have done, you will be uncovered and shamed. 40 And they will get together a meeting against you, stoning you with stones and wounding you with their swords. 41 And they will have you burned with fire, sending punishments on you before the eyes of great numbers of women; and I will put an end to your loose ways, and you will no longer give payment. 42 And the heat of my wrath against you will have an end, and my bitter feeling will be turned away from you, and I will be quiet and will be angry no longer. 43 Because you have not kept in mind the days when you were young, but have been troubling me with all these things; for this reason I will make the punishment of your ways come on your head, says the Lord, because you have done this evil thing in addition to all your disgusting acts. 44 See, in every common saying about you it will be said, As the mother is, so is her daughter. 45 You are the daughter of your mother whose soul is turned in disgust from her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters who were turned in disgust from their husbands and their children: your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. 46 Your older sister is Samaria, living at your left hand, she and her daughters: and your younger sister, living at your right hand, is Sodom and her daughters. 47 Still you have not gone in their ways or done the disgusting things which they have done; but, as if that was only a little thing, you have gone deeper in evil than they in all your ways. 48 By my life, says the Lord, Sodom your sister never did, she or her daughters, what you and your daughters have done. 49 Truly, this was the sin of your sister Sodom: pride, a full measure of food, and the comforts of wealth in peace, were seen in her and her daughters, and she gave no help to the poor or to those in need. 50 They were full of pride and did what was disgusting to me: and so I took them away as you have seen. 51 And Samaria has not done half your sins; but you have made the number of your disgusting acts greater than theirs, making your sisters seem more upright than you by all the disgusting things which you have done. 52 And you yourself will be put to shame, in that you have given the decision for your sisters; through your sins, which are more disgusting than theirs, they are more upright than you: truly, you will be shamed and made low, for you have made your sisters seem upright. 53 And I will let their fate be changed, the fate of Sodom and her daughters, and the fate of Samaria and her daughters, and your fate with theirs. 54 So that you will be shamed and made low because of all you have done, when I have mercy on you. 55 And your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, will go back to their first condition, and Samaria and her daughters will go back to their first condition, and you and your daughters will go back to your first condition. 56 Was not your sister Sodom an oath in your mouth in the day of your pride, 57 Before your shame was uncovered? Now you have become like her a word of shame to the daughters of Edom and all who are round about you, the daughters of the Philistines who put shame on you round about. 58 The reward of your evil designs and your disgusting ways has come on you, says the Lord. 59 For this is what the Lord has said: I will do to you as you have done, you who, putting the oath on one side, have let the agreement be broken. 60 But still I will keep in mind the agreement made with you in the days when you were young, and I will make with you an eternal agreement. 61 Then at the memory of your ways you will be overcome with shame, when I take your sisters, the older and the younger, and give them to you for daughters, but not by your agreement. 62 And I will make my agreement with you; and you will be certain that I am the Lord: 63 So that, at the memory of these things, you may be at a loss, never opening your mouth because of your shame; when you have my forgiveness for all you have done, says the Lord.
• Ezek 23:1-9 : 1 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying, 2 Son of man, there were two women, daughters of one mother: 3 They were acting like loose women in Egypt; when they were young their behaviour was loose: there their breasts were crushed, even the points of their young breasts were crushed. 4 Their names were Oholah, the older, and Oholibah, her sister: and they became mine, and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem, Oholibah. 5 And Oholah was untrue to me when she was mine; she was full of desire for her lovers, even for the Assyrians, her neighbours, 6 Who were clothed in blue, captains and rulers, all of them young men to be desired, horsemen seated on horses. 7 And she gave her unclean love to them, all of them the noblest men of Assyria: and she made herself unclean with the images of all who were desired by her. 8 And she has not given up her loose ways from the time when she was in Egypt; for when she was young they were her lovers, and by them her young breasts were crushed, and they let loose on her their unclean desire. 9 For this cause I gave her up into the hands of her lovers, into the hands of the Assyrians on whom her desire was fixed. 10 By these her shame was uncovered: they took her sons and daughters and put her to death with the sword: and she became a cause of wonder to women; for they gave her the punishment which was right. 11 And her sister Oholibah saw this, but her desire was even more unmeasured, and her loose behaviour was worse than that of her sister. 12 She was full of desire for the Assyrians, captains and rulers, her neighbours, clothed in blue, horsemen going on horses, all of them young men to be desired. 13 And I saw that she had become unclean; the two of them went the same way. 14 And her loose behaviour became worse; for she saw men pictured on a wall, pictures of the Chaldaeans painted in bright red, 15 With bands round their bodies and with head-dresses hanging round their heads, all of them looking like rulers, like the Babylonians, the land of whose birth is Chaldaea. 16 And when she saw them she was full of desire for them, and sent servants to them in Chaldaea. 17 And the Babylonians came to her, into the bed of love, and made her unclean with their loose desire, and she became unclean with them, and her soul was turned from them. 18 So her loose behaviour was clearly seen and her shame uncovered: then my soul was turned from her as it had been turned from her sister. 19 But still she went on the more with her loose behaviour, keeping in mind the early days when she had been a loose woman in the land of Egypt. 20 And she was full of desire for her lovers, whose flesh is like the flesh of asses and whose seed is like the seed of horses. 21 And she made the memory of the loose ways of her early years come back to mind, when her young breasts were crushed by the Egyptians. 22 For this cause, O Oholibah, this is what the Lord has said: See, I will make your lovers come up against you, even those from whom your soul is turned away in disgust; and I will make them come up against you on every side; 23 The Babylonians and all the Chaldaeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them: young men to be desired, captains and rulers all of them, and chiefs, her neighbours, all of them on horseback. 24 And they will come against you from the north on horseback, with war-carriages and a great band of peoples; they will put themselves in order against you with breastplate and body-cover and metal head-dress round about you: and I will make them your judges, and they will give their decision against you as seems right to them. 25 And my bitter feeling will be working against you, and they will take you in hand with passion; they will take away your nose and your ears, and the rest of you will be put to the sword: they will take your sons and daughters, and the rest of you will be burned up in the fire. 26 And they will take all your clothing off you and take away your ornaments. 27 So I will put an end to your evil ways and your loose behaviour which came from the land of Egypt: and your eyes will never be lifted up to them again, and you will have no more memory of Egypt. 28 For this is what the Lord has said: See, I will give you up into the hands of those who are hated by you, into the hands of those from whom your soul is turned away in disgust: 29 And they will take you in hand with hate, and take away all the fruit of your work, and let you be unveiled and without clothing: and the shame of your loose behaviour will be uncovered, your evil designs and your loose ways. 30 They will do these things to you because you have been untrue to me, and have gone after the nations, and have become unclean with their images. 31 You have gone in the way of your sister; and I will give her cup into your hand. 32 This is what the Lord has said: You will take a drink from your sister's cup, which is deep and wide: you will be laughed at and looked down on, more than you are able to undergo. 33 You will be broken and full of sorrow, with the cup of wonder and destruction, with the cup of your sister Samaria. 34 And after drinking it and draining it out, you will take the last drops of it to the end, pulling off your breasts: for I have said it, says the Lord. 35 So this is what the Lord has said: Because you have not kept me in your memory, and because your back has been turned to me, you will even undergo the punishment of your evil designs and your loose ways. 36 Then the Lord said to me: Son of man, will you be the judge of Oholibah? then make clear to her the disgusting things she has done. 37 For she has been false to me, and blood is on her hands, and with her images she has been untrue; and more than this, she made her sons, whom she had by me, go through the fire to them to be burned up. 38 Further, this is what she has done to me: she has made my holy place unclean and has made my Sabbaths unclean. 39 For when she had made an offering of her children to her images, she came into my holy place to make it unclean; see, this is what she has done inside my house. 40 And she even sent for men to come from far away, to whom a servant was sent, and they came: for whom she was washing her body and painting her eyes and making herself fair with ornaments. 41 And she took her seat on a great bed, with a table put ready before it on which she put my perfume and my oil. 42 ... and they put jewels on her hands and beautiful crowns on her head. 43 Then I said ... now she will go on with her loose ways. 44 And they went in to her, as men go to a loose woman: so they went in to Oholibah, the loose woman. 45 And upright men will be her judges, judging her as false wives and women who take lives are judged; because she has been untrue to me and blood is on her hands. 46 For this is what the Lord has said: I will make a great meeting of the people come together against her, and will send on her shaking fear and take everything from her. 47 And the meeting, after stoning her with stones, will put an end to her with their swords; they will put her sons and daughters to death and have her house burned up with fire. 48 And I will put an end to evil in all the land, teaching all women not to do as you have done. 49 And I will send on you the punishment of your evil ways, and you will be rewarded for your sins with your images: and you will be certain that I am the Lord.
• Jer 13:1-9 : 1 This is what the Lord said to me: Go and get yourself a linen band and put it round you and do not put it in water. 2 So, as the Lord said, I got a band for a price and put it round my body. 3 And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, 4 Take the band which you got for a price, which is round your body, and go to Parah and put it in a secret place there in a hole of the rock. 5 So I went and put it in a secret place by Parah, as the Lord had said to me. 6 Then after a long time, the Lord said to me, Up! go to Parah and get the band which I gave you orders to put there. 7 So I went to Parah and, uncovering the hole, took the band from the place where I had put it away: and the band was damaged and of no use for anything. 8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 9 The Lord has said, In this way I will do damage to the pride of Judah and to the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 These evil people who say they will not give ear to my words, who go on in the pride of their hearts and have become servants and worshippers of other gods, will become like this band which is of no use for anything. 11 For as a band goes tightly round a man's body, so I made all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah tightly united to me; so that they might be a people for me and a name and a praise and a glory: but they would not give ear.
• Ezek 4:1-5 : 1 And you, son of man, take a back and put it before you and on it make a picture of a town, even Jerusalem. 2 And make an attack on it, shutting it in, building strong places against it, and making high an earthwork against it; and put up tents against it, placing engines all round it for smashing down its walls. 3 And take a flat iron plate, and put it for a wall of iron between you and the town: and let your face be turned to it, and it will be shut in and you will make an attack on it. This will be a sign to the children of Israel. 4 Then, stretching yourself out on your left side, take the sin of the children of Israel on yourself: for as long as you are stretched out, so long will the sin of the children of Israel be on you. 5 For I have had the years of their sin measured for you by a number of days, even three hundred and ninety days: and you will take on yourself the sin of the children of Israel.
• 2 Chr 21:13 : 13 But have gone in the way of the kings of Israel, and have made Judah and the people of Jerusalem go after false gods, as the family of Ahab did: and because you have put to death your father's sons, your brothers, who were better than yourself:
• Ps 73:27 : 27 For those who are far away from you will come to destruction: you will put an end to all those who have not kept faith with you.
• Ps 106:39 : 39 So they became unclean through their works, going after their evil desires.
• Isa 20:2-3 : 2 At that time the word of the Lord came to Isaiah, the son of Amoz, saying, Go, and take off your robe, and your shoes from your feet; and he did so, walking unclothed and without shoes on his feet. 3 And the Lord said, As my servant Isaiah has gone unclothed and without shoes for three years as a sign and a wonder to Egypt and Ethiopia,
• Jer 2:13 : 13 For my people have done two evils; they have given up me, the fountain of living waters, and have made for themselves water-holes, cut out from the rock, broken water-holes, of no use for storing water.
• Jer 3:1-4 : 1 They say, If a man puts away his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man's, will he go back to her again? will not that land have been made unclean? but though you have been acting like a loose woman with a number of lovers, will you now come back to me? says the Lord. 2 Let your eyes be lifted up to the open hilltops, and see; where have you not been taken by your lovers? You have been seated waiting for them by the wayside like an Arabian in the waste land; you have made the land unclean with your loose ways and your evil-doing. 3 So the showers have been kept back, and there has been no spring rain; still your brow is the brow of a loose woman, you will not let yourself be shamed. 4 Will you not, from this time, make your prayer to me, crying, My father, you are the friend of my early years?
• Mark 1:1 : 1 The first words of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
• 2 Pet 2:14 : 14 Having eyes full of evil desire, never having enough of sin; turning feeble souls out of the true way; they are children of cursing, whose hearts are well used to bitter envy;
• Rev 17:5 : 5 And on her brow was a name, SECRET, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE EVIL WOMEN AND OF THE UNCLEAN THINGS OF THE EARTH.