Hosea 1-4 - Destroyed for Lack of Knowledge

From today's Bible reading:

Hosea 1:

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

When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.

So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the LORD said to him, Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the LORD their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.

When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the LORD said, Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

Hosea 2:

Plead with your mother, plead—for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband—that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst.

Then she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.

And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.

I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the LORD.

And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me My Husband, and no longer will you call me My Baal.

(My Baal: that's like comparing your husband to an old boyfriend, or your wife to an old girlfriend.)

For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.

And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.

And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness.

And you shall know the LORD.

And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer Jezreel,
and I will sow her for myself in the land.

And I will have mercy on No Mercy,
and I will say to Not My People, You are my people;
and he shall say, You are my God.

Hosea 3:

And the LORD said to me, Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.

So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. And I said to her, You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.

For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods.

Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.

Hosea 4:

Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel,
for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.

There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,
and no knowledge of God in the land;

there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;
they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Therefore the land mourns,
and all who dwell in it languish,
and also the beasts of the field
and the birds of the heavens,
and even the fish of the sea are taken away.

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;
because you have rejected knowledge,
I reject you from being a priest to me.

My people inquire of a piece of wood,
and their walking staff gives them oracles.

For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray,
and they have left their God to play the whore.