Hosea 2

Chapter 2

Israel’s Unfaithfulness Condemned

¹¹Say 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,

³Or 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, ‘I 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!’

⁸“For she does ^anot know that it was ^bI who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil,

And lavished on her silver and gold,

Which they ¹used for Baal.

⁹“Therefore, I will ^atake back My grain at ¹harvest time

And My new wine in its season.

I will also take away My wool and My flax

Given to cover her nakedness.

¹⁰“And then I will ^auncover her lewdness

In the sight of her lovers,

And no one will rescue her out of My hand.

¹¹“I will also ^aput an end to all her gaiety,

Her ^bfeasts, her ^cnew moons, her sabbaths

And all her festal assemblies.

¹²“I will ^adestroy her vines and fig trees,

Of which she said, ‘These are my wages

Which my lovers have given me.’

And I will ^bmake them a forest,

And the ^cbeasts of the field will devour them.

¹³“I will punish her for the ^adays of the Baals

When she used to ^1boffer sacrifices to them

And ^cadorn herself with her ²earrings and jewelry,

And follow her lovers, so that she ^dforgot Me,” declares the Lord.

Restoration of Israel

¹⁴“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

^aBring her into the wilderness

And speak ¹kindly to her.

¹⁵“Then I will give her her ^avineyards from there,

And ^bthe valley of Achor as a door of hope.

And she will ^1csing there as in the days of her youth,

As in the ^dday when she came up from the land of Egypt.

¹⁶“It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord,

“That you will call Me ^1aIshi

And will no longer call Me ²Baali.

¹⁷“For ^aI will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth,

So that they will be ¹mentioned by their names no more.

¹⁸“In that day I will also make a covenant for them

With the ^abeasts of the field,

The birds of the sky

And the creeping things of the ground.

And I will ^1babolish the bow, the sword and war from the land,

And will make them ^clie down in safety.

¹⁹“I will ^abetroth you to Me forever;

Yes, I will betroth you to Me in ^brighteousness and in justice,

In lovingkindness and in compassion,

²⁰And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.

Then you will ^aknow the Lord.

²¹“It will come about in that day that ^aI will respond,” declares the Lord.

“I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth,

²²And the ^aearth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and to the oil,

And they will respond to ¹Jezreel.

²³“I will ^asow her for Myself in the land.

^bI will also have compassion on ¹her who had not obtained compassion,

And ^cI will say to ²those who were ^dnot My people,

‘You are My people!’

And ³they will say, ‘You are my God!’ ”