Hosea 2

1 Say ye to your brethren: You are my people, and to your sister: Thou hast obtained mercy.

“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’

2 Judge your mother, judge her: because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her put away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts.

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.

3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born: and I will make her as a wilderness, and will set her as a land that none can pass through, and will kill her with drought.

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.

4 And I will not have mercy on her children: for they are the children of fornications.

I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery.

5 For their mother hath committed fornication, she that conceived them is covered with shame: for she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink.

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.’

6 Wherefore behold I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will stop it up with a wall, and she shall not find her paths.

Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way.

7 And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, and shall not find, and she shall say: I will go, and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then, than now.

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.’

8 And she did not know that I gave her corn and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver, and gold, which they have used in the service of Baal.

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.

9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in its season, and my wine in its season, and I will set at liberty my wool, and my flax, which covered her disgrace.

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.

10 And now I will lay open her folly in the eyes of her lovers: and no man shall deliver her out of my hand:

And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands.

11 And I will cause all her mirth to cease, her solemnities, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her festival times.

I will put an end to all her exultation: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths— all her appointed feasts.

12 And I will destroy her vines, and her fig trees, of which she said: These are my rewards, which my lovers have given me: and I will make her as a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour her.

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.

13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, to whom she burnt incense, and decked herself out with her earrings, and with her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord.

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,”

14 Therefore, behold I will allure her, and will lead her into the wilderness: and I will speak to her heart.

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her and lead her to the wilderness, and speak to her tenderly.

15 And I will give her vinedressers out of the same place, and the valley of Achor for an opening of hope: and she shall sing there according to the days of her youth, and according to the days of her coming up out of the land of Egypt.

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.

16 And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord, That she shall call me: My husband, and she shall call me no more Baali.

In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call Me ‘my Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘my Master.’

17 And I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and she shall no more remember their name.

For I will remove from her lips the names of the Baals; no longer will their names be invoked.

18 And in that day I will make a covenant with them, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the air, and with the creeping things of the earth: and I will destroy the bow, and the sword, and war out of the land: and I will make them sleep secure.

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.

19 And I will espouse thee to me for ever: and I will espouse thee to me in justice, and judgment, and in mercy, and in commiserations.

So I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in loving devotion and compassion.

20 And I will espouse thee to me in faith: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.”

21 And it shall come to pass in that day: I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth.

“On that day I will respond—” declares the LORD— “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth.

22 And the earth shall hear the core, and the wine, and the oil, and these shall hear Jezrahel.

And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.

23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy on her that was without mercy. And I will say to that which was not my people: Thou art my people: and they shall say: Thou art my God.

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.’”