Hosea 2

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

Say to your brothers, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

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.

Take up the cause against your mother, take it up, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; let her put away her loose ways from her face, and her false ways 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.

For fear that I may take away her robe from her, making her uncovered as in the day of her birth; making her like a waste place and a dry land, causing her death through need of water.

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

And I will have no mercy on her children, for they are the children of her loose ways.

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 been untrue; she who gave them birth has done things of shame, for she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my wine.

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.

For this cause I will put thorns in her road, building up a wall round her so that she may not go on 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.

And if she goes after her lovers she will not overtake them; if she makes search for them she will not see them; then will she say, I will go back to my first husband, for then it was better for me 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 had no knowledge that it was I who gave her the grain and the wine and the oil, increasing her silver and gold which they gave to the 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.

So I will take away again my grain in its time and my wine, and I will take away my wool and my linen with which her body might have been covered.

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 now I will make her shame clear before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will take her out of my hand.

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

And I will put an end to all her joy, her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her regular meetings.

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.

And I will make waste her vines and her fig-trees, of which she has said, These are the payments which my lovers have made to me; and I will make them a waste of trees, and the beasts of the field will take them for food.

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.

And I will give her punishment for the days of the Baals, to whom she has been burning perfumes, when she made herself fair with her nose-rings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, giving no thought to me, says the Lord.

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

For this cause I will make her come into the waste land and will say words of comfort to her.

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.

And I will give her vine-gardens from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will give her answer there as in the days when she was young, and as in the time when she came up out of the land 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.

And in that day, says the Lord, you will say to me, Ishi; and you will never again give me the name of Baali;

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 take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and never again will she say their names.

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.

And in that day I will make an agreement for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven and the things which go low on the earth; I will put an end to the bow and the sword and war in all the land, and will make them take their rest in peace.

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.

And I will take you as my bride for ever; truly, I will take you as my bride in righteousness and in right judging, in love and in mercies.

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

I will take you as my bride in good faith, and you will have knowledge of 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.

And it will be, in that day, says the Lord, that I will give an answer to the heavens, and the heavens 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 give its answer to the grain and the wine and the oil, and they will give an answer 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 put her as seed in the earth, and I will have mercy on her to whom no mercy was given; and I will say to those who were not my people, You are my people, and they will say, My God.