Hosea 2:7–15

⁷She shall pursue her lovers,

but not overtake them;

and she shall seek them,

but shall not find them.

Then she shall say, ‘I will go

and return to my first husband,

for it was better with me then than now.’

⁸And she did not know

that it was I who gave her

the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and who lavished upon her silver

and gold which they used for Baal.

⁹Therefore I will take back

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.

¹⁰Now I will uncover her lewdness

in the sight of her lovers,

and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

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

her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths,

and all her appointed feasts.

¹²And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,

of which she said,

‘These are my hire,

which my lovers have given me.’

I will make them a forest,

and the beasts of the field shall devour them.

¹³And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals

when she burned incense to them

and decked herself with her ring and jewelry,

and went after her lovers,

and forgot me, says the Lord.

¹⁴“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her.

¹⁵And there I will give her her vineyards,

and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,

as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.