Israel’s Unfaithfulness Condemned

1 1Say to your brothers, “2Ammi,” and to your sisters, “3Ruhamah.”

2 “Contend with your mother, acontend,

For she is bnot my wife, and I am not her husband;

And let her put away her charlotry from her face

And her adultery from between her breasts,

3 Or I will strip her anaked

And expose her as on the bday when she was born.

I will also cmake her like a wilderness,

Make her like desert land

And slay her with dthirst.

4 “Also, I will have no compassion on her children,

Because they are achildren of harlotry.

5 “For their mother has aplayed the harlot;

She who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For she said, ‘aI will go after my lovers,

Who bgive me my bread and my water,

My wool and my flax, my coil and my drink.’

6 “Therefore, behold, I will ahedge up 1her way with bthorns,

And I will build 2a wall against her so that she cannot find her cpaths.

7 “She will apursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;

And she will seek them, but will not find them.

Then she will say, ‘bI will go back to my cfirst husband,

For it was dbetter for me then than now!’