Hosea הוֹשֵׁעַ

Hosea (Hoshea) the son of Beeri, first of the Twelve, prophesies to the northern kingdom in its last generations — and is commanded to live his message: to take a wife of harlotry, Gomer, and to name her children Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah ('she has not obtained compassion'), and Lo-ammi ('not My people'), for Israel has gone astray from her God as a faithless wife. Yet the same book that exposes the betrayal overflows with the tenderest love in the prophets: 'When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son'; 'How shall I give you up, Ephraim?'; 'I will betroth you to Me for ever.' Hosea indicts priest and king, Beth-el's calf and Assyrian alliances, a people destroyed for lack of knowledge — and pleads to the end: 'Return, O Israel, to Hashem your God... I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; I will be as the dew to Israel.' This volume presents the complete Hebrew text with English translation, a word-by-word interlinear layer with transliteration, roots, and gematria, and the classic commentaries of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, Radak, Metzudat David, Metzudat Zion, Malbim, and Abarbanel, newly translated into English.