< Hosea 2 >
1 Call ye your brethren My-people; and your sisters Pitied.
2 Contend ye with your mother, contend! For she is not my wife, Nor am I her husband; That she put away lewdness from her face, And adultery from her breasts, Lest I strip her naked, And expose her, as when she was born;
3 Lest I make her as the desert, and like a parched land, And kill her with thirst.
4 Upon her sons also I will not have pity, For they are the sons of lewdness.
5 For their mother hath been guilty of lewdness; She that bore them hath brought upon herself shame; For she said, I will go after my lovers, Who give me my food and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my strong drink.
6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, And I will enclose her with a wall, So that she shall not find her paths.
7 When she followeth after her lovers, she shall not overtake them; When she seeketh them, she shall not find them. Then shall she say, I will go back to my former husband, For then it was better with me than now.
8 For she did not consider that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, And multiplied silver unto her, And gold, of which they made images of Baal.
9 Therefore will I take back my corn in its time, And my new wine in its season, And I will take away my wool and my flax, Which covered her nakedness.
10 And now will I reveal her shame before the eyes of her lovers, And none shall deliver her out of my hand.
11 And I will cause all her joy to cease; Her feasts, and new moons, and sabbaths, And all her festal days.
12 I will destroy her vines, and her fig-trees, Of which she said, These are my hire, Which my lovers have given me; And I will make them a forest, And the wild beasts shall eat them.
13 I will punish her for the days of the Baals, When she burned incense to them, And decked herself with her rings and her jewels, And went after her lovers, And forgot me, saith Jehovah.
14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, And will lead her to the desert, And will speak kindly to her;
15 And thence will I give her her vineyards, And the valley of Achor for a door of hope; And there shall she sing, as in the days of her youth! As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
16 At that time, saith Jehovah, Thou shalt call me, MY HUSBAND; Thou shalt no more call me, MY BAAL;
17 For I will take away the name of the Baals out of her mouth, And their name shall no more be uttered.
18 At that time will I make for them a covenant With the beasts of the forest, and with the birds of heaven, And with the creeping things of the ground. The bow and the sword and the battle will I break from the land, And I will cause them to lie down in safety.
19 I will betroth thee to me forever; Yea, I will betroth thee to me in righteousness, and in justice, And in kindness, and in tender love.
20 Yea, I will betroth thee to me in faithfulness, And thou shalt know Jehovah.
21 At that time will I hear, saith Jehovah; I will hear the heavens; And they shall hear the earth,
22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the new wine, and the oil, And they shall hear Jezreel.
23 And I will plant her for myself in the land; And I will have pity upon her that was called Unpitied; And I will say to them called Not-my-people, Thou art my people; And they shall say, Thou art my God.
