Hosea 2

1 “Say to your brothers—Ammi, And to your sisters—Ruhamah.

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

2 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,

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.

3 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.

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.

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

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

5 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.

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.

6 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.

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.

7 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.

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.

8 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.

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.

9 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.

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.

10 And now I reveal her dishonor before the eyes of her lovers, And none deliver her out of My hand.

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

11 And I have caused all her joy to cease, Her festival, her new moon, and her Sabbath, Even all her appointed times,

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

12 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.

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.

13 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.

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.

14 “Therefore, behold, I am enticing her, And have caused her to go to the wilderness, And I have spoken to her heart,

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

15 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.

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.

16 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.

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.

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

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

18 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.

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.

19 And I have betrothed you to Me for all time, And betrothed you to Me in righteousness, And in judgment, and kindness, and mercies,

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.

20 And betrothed you to Me in faithfulness, And you have known YHWH.

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

21 And it has come to pass in that day, I answer,” A declaration of YHWH, “I answer the heavens, and they answer the earth.

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.

22 And the earth answers the grain, And the new wine, and the oil, And they answer Jezreel.

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

23 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!”

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.