Hosea 2

1 Call ye your brothers, 'Ammi [[my people]]; and your sisters, Ruchamah [[That hath obtained mercy]].

2 Contend with your mother, contend; for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; but let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts:

3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her, as on the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and render her like a dry land, and let her die with thirst.

4 And upon her children will I not have mercy; for they are children of prostitution;

5 For their mother hath played the harlot; she that conceived them hath done shamefully; 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.

6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will close it up with a fence, that she shall not find her paths.

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

8 But she indeed did not acknowledge, that it was I that had given her the corn, and the wine, and the oil, and multiplied for her silver and gold, which they devoted for Ba'al.

9 Therefore will I turn back, and take away my corn in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will snatch away my wool and my flax, [given] to cover her nakedness.

10 And now will I lay open her disgrace before the eyes of her lovers, and no man shall deliver her out of my hand.

11 And I will cause to cease all her mirth, her festival, her new-moon, and her sabbath, and all her appointed feasts.

12 And I will make desolate her vine and her fig-tree, whereof she hath said, These are my reward which my lovers have given me: and I will change them into a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them.

13 And I will visit upon her the days of the Be'alim, to which she used to burn incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and me she forgot, saith the Lord.

14 Therefore, behold, will I allure her, and lead her forth into the wilderness, and I will speak comfortingly unto her heart.

15 And I will give her [again] her vineyards from there, and the valley of 'Achor [[sorrow]] as an entrance for hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as on the day of her coming up out of the land of Egypt.

16 And it shall happen at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi [[my husband]], and shalt not call me any more Ba'ali [[my lord]].

17 For I will remove the names of the Be'alim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be mentioned by their name.

18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and bow, and sword, and war I will break away out of the land, and I will cause them to lie down in safety.

19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever: yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in justice, and in loving-kindness, and in mercy.

20 And I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness; and thou shalt know the Lord.

21 And it shall come to pass on that day, that I will answer prayer, saith the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth;

22 And the earth shall answer the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall answer Yizre'el.

23 And I will sow her for me in the land; and I will have mercy upon “Her that had not obtained mercy” [[Lo-ruchamah]]; and I will say to those who were “Not my people” [[Lo-'ammi]], Thou art my people: and they shall say, Thou art my God.