Hosea 2:1–13

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.