Hosea 2:1–13

The Unfaithful Wife

2Say to your brother,^a “Ammi,”^b

and to your sister,^c “Ruhamah.”^d

²Plead with your mother, plead—

because she is not my wife,

and I am not her husband.

Let her put away her whoring from before her,^e

and her adultery from between her breasts.

³Lest I strip her naked

and expose her like the day when she was born;

I will make her like the desert

and turn her into parched land;

I will kill her with thirst.

⁴And I will not have pity on her children,

because they are children of whoredom.

⁵Because their mother was unfaithful;^f

she who conceived them has acted shamefully,

for she said:

“I will go after my lovers,

the ones who give me my bread, my water,

my wool, and my flax,

my oil, and my drink.”

⁶Therefore, Look!

I am going to hedge her path^g with thorns,^h

and I will build a stone wall, a stone wall against her,

and she will not find her paths.

⁷Then she will pursue her lovers,ⁱ

but she will not overtake them;

she will seek them and not find them;

and she will say, “I will go

and return to my first husband

because it was better for me then than now.”

⁸But she did not know

that it was I who gave her

grain, new wine, and oil,

and who gave her silver in abundance,

and gold which they made into a Baal.

⁹Therefore I will take again

my grain in its time,

and my wine in its season;

and I will take away my wool and my flax,

which were to cover her nakedness.

¹⁰And now I will uncover her nakedness

before the eyes of her lovers,

and no one will rescue her from my hand.

¹¹And I will put an end to all her mirth,

her festivals,^j her new moons,^k and her Sabbaths,^l

and all her appointed festivals;^m

¹²and I will lay waste to her vinesⁿ and her fig trees,^o

of which she said,

“They are my payment for prostitution,

which my lovers gave to me.”

I will make them a forest,

and the wild animals^p of the field will devour them.

¹³I will punish her^q for the days of the Baals,

to whom she burns incense,

and she decked herself with her ornamental ring and jewelry,

and she went after her lovers, and forgot me

—a declaration of Yahweh.