< Hosea 2 >
1 “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’
“Say to your brothers—Ammi, And to your sisters—Ruhamah.
2 Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
Plead with your mother—plead (For she [is] not My wife, and I [am] not her husband), And she turns her whoredoms from before her, And her adulteries from between her breasts,
3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.
Lest I strip her naked. And have set her up as [in] the day of her birth, And have made her as a wilderness, And have set her as a dry land, And have put her to death with thirst.
4 I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery.
And her sons I do not pity, For they [are] sons of whoredoms,
5 For their mother has played the harlot and has conceived them in disgrace. For she thought, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water, wool and linen, oil and drink.’
For their mother has gone whoring, Their conceiver has acted shamefully, For she has said, I go after my lovers, Those giving my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.
6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way.
Therefore, behold, I am hedging up your way with thorns, And I have made a wall for her, And her paths she does not find.
7 She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will seek them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will return to my first husband, for then I was better off than now.’
And she has pursued her lovers, And she does not overtake them, And has sought them, and does not find [them], And she has said: I go, and I return to my first husband, For—better to me then than now.
8 For she does not acknowledge that it was I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, who lavished on her silver and gold— which they crafted for Baal.
And she did not know that I had given to her The grain, and the new wine, and the oil. Indeed, I multiplied silver to her, And the gold they prepared for Ba‘al.
9 Therefore I will take back My grain in its time and My new wine in its season; I will take away My wool and linen, which were given to cover her nakedness.
Therefore I return, And I have taken My grain in its season, And My new wine in its appointed time, And I have taken away My wool and My flax, covering her nakedness.
10 And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands.
And now I reveal her dishonor before the eyes of her lovers, And none deliver her out of My hand.
11 I will put an end to all her exultation: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths— all her appointed feasts.
And I have caused all her joy to cease, Her festival, her new moon, and her Sabbath, Even all her appointed times,
12 I will destroy her vines and fig trees, which she thinks are the wages paid by her lovers. So I will make them into a thicket, and the beasts of the field will devour them.
And made desolate her vine and her fig tree, Of which she said, They [are] a wage to me, That my lovers have given to me, And I have made them for a forest, And a beast of the field has consumed them.
13 I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, when she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers. But Me she forgot,”
And I have charged on her the days of the Ba‘alim, To whom she makes incense, And puts on her ring and her ornament, And goes after her lovers, And forgot Me,” a declaration of YHWH.
14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her and lead her to the wilderness, and speak to her tenderly.
“Therefore, behold, I am enticing her, And have caused her to go to the wilderness, And I have spoken to her heart,
15 There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
And given to her her vineyards from there, And the Valley of Achor for an opening of hope, And she has responded there as in the days of her youth, And as in the day of her coming up out of the land of Egypt.
16 In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call Me ‘my Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘my Master.’
And it has come to pass in that day,” A declaration of YHWH, “You call Me: My husband, And do not call Me anymore: My lord.
17 For I will remove from her lips the names of the Baals; no longer will their names be invoked.
And I have turned aside the names of the lords from her mouth, And they are not remembered anymore by their name.
18 On that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that crawl on the ground. And I will abolish bow and sword and weapons of war in the land, and will make them lie down in safety.
And I have made a covenant for them in that day, With the beast of the field, And with the bird of the heavens, And the creeping thing of the ground, And bow, and sword, and war I break from off the land, And have caused them to lie down confidently.
19 So I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in loving devotion and compassion.
And I have betrothed you to Me for all time, And betrothed you to Me in righteousness, And in judgment, and kindness, and mercies,
20 And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.”
And betrothed you to Me in faithfulness, And you have known YHWH.
21 “On that day I will respond—” declares the LORD— “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth.
And it has come to pass in that day, I answer,” A declaration of YHWH, “I answer the heavens, and they answer the earth.
22 And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.
And the earth answers the grain, And the new wine, and the oil, And they answer Jezreel.
23 And I will sow her as My own in the land, and I will have compassion on ‘No Compassion.’ I will say to those called ‘Not My People,’ ‘You are My people,’ and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”
And I have sowed her to Me in the land, And I have pitied Lo-Ruhamah, And I have said to Lo-Ammi, You [are] My people, And he says, My God!”