Hosea 2:8–17

⁸She doesn’t realize it was I who gave her everything she has—

the grain, the new wine, the olive oil;

I even gave her silver and gold.

But she gave all my gifts to Baal.

⁹“But now I will take back the ripened grain and new wine

I generously provided each harvest season.

I will take away the wool and linen clothing

I gave her to cover her nakedness.

¹⁰I will strip her naked in public,

while all her lovers look on.

No one will be able

to rescue her from my hands.

¹¹I will put an end to her annual festivals,

her new moon celebrations, and her Sabbath days—

all her appointed festivals.

¹²I will destroy her grapevines and fig trees,

things she claims her lovers gave her.

I will let them grow into tangled thickets,

where only wild animals will eat the fruit.

¹³I will punish her for all those times

when she burned incense to her images of Baal,

when she put on her earrings and jewels

and went out to look for her lovers

but forgot all about me,”

says the Lord.

The Lord’s Love for Unfaithful Israel

¹⁴“But then I will win her back once again.

I will lead her into the desert

and speak tenderly to her there.

¹⁵I will return her vineyards to her

and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope.

She will give herself to me there,

as she did long ago when she was young,

when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.

¹⁶When that day comes,” says the Lord,

“you will call me ‘my husband’

instead of ‘my master.’

¹⁷O Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips,

and you will never mention them again.