Hosea (KJV)
14 chapters · 197 verses. Choose a chapter to read it in the King James Version.
About the Book of Hosea
Hosea uses the prophet's painful marriage as a living parable of Israel's unfaithfulness and God's persistent love. It indicts idolatry while revealing a God who longs to restore his wayward people.
- Genre
- Prophecy (minor)
- Author
- Traditionally attributed to the prophet Hosea
- First audience
- The northern kingdom of Israel
How to read it: Read prophecy with its near and far horizons; feel the marriage metaphor's force without flattening its imagery into a formula.
It opens: “The word of the LORD that came unto 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.” (Hosea 1:1)
Chapters
Key verses in Hosea
The verses of Hosea that the rest of Scripture cross-references most often.
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.
Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.
Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.