Hosea 2

1 'Say ye to your brethren — Ammi, And to your sisters — Ruhamah.

“On that day you will call your brothers Ammi, and you will call your sisters Ruhamah.

2 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,

Condemn your mother, condemn her because she is not my wife and I am not her husband. Tell her to stop looking like a prostitute—get rid of the makeup and the provocative clothing.

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.

Otherwise I will strip her naked as the day she was born, and make her like a desert, a barren land, and let her die of thirst.

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

I will have no pity on her children because they are children of prostitution.

5 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.

For their mother was a prostitute who conceived them in a shameful way. She said, ‘I'll run after my lovers who give me my food and water, my wool and flax and olive oil, and my drink.’

6 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.

That is why I am going to block her path with thorn bushes, and build a stone wall to stop her so she won't find her way.

7 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.

When she runs after her lovers she won't catch up with them; she'll look for them but she won't find them. Then she'll say, ‘Let me go back to my former husband, because it was better for me then than now.’

8 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.

She doesn't consider that it was me who gave her grain, new wine, and olive oil; the silver and the gold which I gave her abundantly that they made into an idol of Baal.

9 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.

So I will take back my ripened grain and my new wine I gave at harvest time. I will take back my wool and my flax I provided to cover her nakedness.

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

I will strip her naked while her lovers watch; no one will be able to rescue her from me.

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

I will put a stop to all her festivities: her feasts, new moon celebrations, special Sabbaths—all her festivals.

12 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.

I will destroy her vines and fig trees that she said were given to her as payment for being a prostitute. I will turn them into scrub-land; only wild animals will eat the remaining fruit.

13 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.

I will punish her for all the times she offered incense to Baal, dressing herself up, putting on rings and jewelry, going after her lovers, but forgetting about me, declares the Lord.

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

See what I'm going to do! I will win her back, taking her into the desert where I will speak to her heart-to-heart.

15 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.

There I will return her vineyards to her and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond to me as she did when she was young, as in the time when she left the land of Egypt.

16 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.

Then on that day, says the Lord, you will call me ‘my husband’ and not ‘my Baal.’

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

I will stop her appealing to the Baals—their names won't be mentioned ever again.

18 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.

At that time I will make a solemn agreement with the wild animals and the birds of the sky and the creeping things of the ground. I will do away with the bow and the sword; I will abolish war from the land so you can lie down in safety.

19 And I have betrothed thee to Me to the age, And betrothed thee to Me in righteousness, And in judgment, and kindness, and mercies,

I will make you my wife forever; I will make you my wife in goodness and justice and love and mercy.

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

I will be faithful to you, my wife, and you will know me as the Lord.

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

On that day, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens and they will answer the earth.

22 And the earth doth answer the corn, And the new wine, and the oil, And they answer Jezreel.

The earth will answer the grain, and the new wine, and the olive oil, and they shall answer, ‘Jezreel’ (God sows).

23 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!'

I will ‘sow’ her for myself in the earth. I will love Lo-ruhamah (unloved) and I will say ‘you are my people’ to Lo-ammi (not my people), and they will say ‘You are my God.’”