Hosea 2:1–13

Israel Is the Lord’s Unfaithful Wife

¹“So call your brothers Ammi ^[My People^[, 

and call your sisters Ruhamah ^[Loved^[. 

²“Plead with your mother; plead with her. 

She no longer acts like my wife. 

She no longer treats me like her husband. 

Tell her to stop acting like a prostitute. 

Tell her to remove the lovers from between her breasts. 

³If she refuses, I will strip her. 

I will leave her as naked as the day she was born. 

I will turn her into a dry and barren land, 

and she will die of thirst. 

⁴I won’t love her children, 

because they are children of a prostitute. 

⁵Their mother acted like a prostitute. 

The woman who became pregnant with them did shameful things. 

She said, ‘I’ll chase after my lovers. 

They will give me food and water, 

wool and linen, olive oil and wine.’ 

⁶“That is why I will block her way with thornbushes 

and build a wall so that she can’t get through. 

⁷She will run after her lovers, but she won’t catch them. 

She will search for them, but she won’t find them. 

Then she will say, ‘I’ll go back to my first husband. 

Things were better for me than they are now.’ 

⁸“She doesn’t believe that I gave her grain, new wine, and olive oil. 

I gave her plenty of silver and gold, 

but she used it to make statues of Baal. 

⁹That is why I will take back my grain when it has ripened 

and my new wine when it’s in season. 

I will take away the wool and the linen 

that I gave her to cover her naked body. 

¹⁰I will show her naked body to her lovers, 

and no one will rescue her from my power. 

¹¹I will put an end to all her celebrations: 

her annual festivals, her New Moon Festivals, 

her weekly worship days—all her appointed festivals. 

¹²I will destroy her grapevines and fig trees. 

She said that they were gifts from her lovers. 

I will turn her vineyards into a forest, and wild animals will devour them. 

¹³I will punish her for all the times she burned incense 

as an offering to other gods—the Baals. 

She put on her rings and jewelry, 

and she chased after her lovers. 

She forgot me,” declares the Lord.