Hosea 2:7–15

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.

¹⁴Therefore, Look! I am going to allure her

and bring her into the desert,

and I will speak tenderly to her.^r

¹⁵From there I will give her

her vineyards,

and the Valley of Achor as a doorway of hope.

And there she will respond,

as in the days of her youth,

just as in the day of her coming out of

the land of Egypt.