1 The word of the Lord which came to Osee the son of Beeri, in the days of Ozias, and Joatham, and Achaz, and Ezekias, kings of Juda, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joas, king of Israel.
2 The beginning of the word of the Lord by Osee. And the Lord said to Osee, Go, take to thyself a wife of fornication, and children of fornication: for the land will surely go a-whoring in departing from the Lord.
3 So he went and took Gomer, daughter of Debelaim; and she conceived, and bore him a son. 4 And the Lord said to him, Call his name Jezrael; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezrael on the house of Juda, and will make to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And it shall be, in that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezrael.
6 And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And he said to him, Call her name, Unpitied: for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, but will surely set myself in array against them. 7 But I will have mercy on the house of Juda, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them with bow, nor with sword, nor by war, nor by horses, nor by horsemen.
8 And she weaned Unpitied; and she conceived again, and bore a son. 9 And he said, Call his name, Not my people: for ye are not my people, and I am not your God.
About this text. This is Sir Lancelot Brenton’s 1851 translation of the Septuagint — the Greek Old Testament the Orthodox Church reads, rather than the Hebrew text behind most English Bibles. It is in the public domain. Words in italics are ones Brenton supplied that the Greek does not have; he marked them so that a reader could tell the difference, and they are kept that way here. The numbered notes are his own. Its English is Victorian, and does not match the modern English of the New Testament pages on this site.