¹⁴So I am going to take her into the desert again; there I will win her back with words of love. ¹⁵^*I will give back to her the vineyards she had and make Trouble Valley a door of hope. She will respond to me there as she did when she was young, when she came from Egypt. ¹⁶Then once again she will call me her husband—she will no longer call me her Baal.^f ¹⁷I will never let her speak the name of Baal again.

¹⁸At that time I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and birds, so that they will not harm my people. I will also remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, and will let my people live in peace and safety.

¹⁹Israel, I will make you my wife;

I will be true and faithful;

I will show you constant love and mercy

and make you mine for ever.

²⁰I will keep my promise and make you mine,

and you will acknowledge me as Lord.

^21–22At that time I will answer the prayers of my people Israel.^g

I will make rain fall on the earth,

and the earth will produce corn and grapes and olives.

²³^*I will establish my people in the land and make them prosper.

I will show love to those who were called “Unloved”,

and to those who were called “Not-my-People”

I will say, “You are my people,”

and they will answer, “You are our God.”

Read in Logos

Hosea 2:18: And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.

Footnotes

fbaal: This title of the Canaanite god means “Lord”; another meaning of the word is “husband”.
gisrael: The Hebrew text here refers to Israel as Jezreel (see 1:4, 11).

Cross references

*2.15: Js 7:24–26
*2.23: Ro 9:25; 1 P 2:10