Hosea 2

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

'Say ye to your brethren — 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.

Plead ye with your mother — plead, (For she [is] not My wife, and I [am] not her husband, ) And she turneth her whoredoms from before her, And her adulteries 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.

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

And her sons I do not pity, For sons of whoredoms [are] they,

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 gone a-whoring hath their mother, Acted shamefully hath their conceiver, For she hath said, I go after my lovers, Those giving my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my 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, lo, I am hedging up thy way with thorns, And I have made for her a wall, And her paths she doth not find.

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 she hath pursued her lovers, And she doth not overtake them, And hath sought them, and doth not find, And she hath said: I go, and I turn back unto My first husband, For — better to me then 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.

And she knew not that I had given to her, The corn, and the new wine, and the oil. Yea, silver I did multiply to her, And the gold they prepared 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 do I turn back, And I have taken My corn 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 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 do I reveal her dishonour before the eyes of her lovers, And none doth deliver 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 have caused to cease all her joy, Her festival, her new moon, and her sabbath, Even all her appointed times,

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 made desolate her vine and her fig-tree, Of which she said, A gift they [are] to me, That my lovers have given to me, And I have made them for a forest, And consumed them hath a beast of the field.

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 have charged on her the days of the Baalim, To whom she maketh perfume, And putteth on her ring and her ornament, And goeth after her lovers, And Me forgat — an affirmation of Jehovah.

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

Therefore, lo, I am enticing her, And have caused her to go to the wilderness, And I have spoken unto her heart,

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 given to her her vineyards from thence, And the valley of Achor for an opening of hope, And she hath 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 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 it hath come to pass, in that day, An affirmation of Jehovah, Thou dost call Me — My husband, And dost not call Me any more — My lord.

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

And I have turned aside the names of the lords from her mouth, And they are not remembered any more by their name.

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 I have made to them a covenant in that day, with the beast of the field, And with the fowl 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 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 have betrothed thee to Me to the age, And betrothed thee to Me in righteousness, And in judgment, and kindness, and mercies,

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

And betrothed thee to Me in faithfulness, And thou hast known Jehovah.

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 hath come to pass in that day, I answer — an affirmation of Jehovah, I answer the heavens, and they answer the earth.

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

And the earth doth answer the corn, And the new wine, and the oil, And they answer 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 have sowed her to Me in the land, And I have pitied Lo-Ruhamah, And I have said to Lo-Ammi, My people thou [art], and it saith, My God!'