Hosea 2:1–13

“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’^a

Israel Punished and Restored

²“Rebuke your mother,^b rebuke her,

for she is not my wife,

and I am not her husband.

Let her remove the adulterous^c look from her face

and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.

³Otherwise I will strip^d her naked

and make her as bare as on the day she was born;^e

I will make her like a desert,^f

turn her into a parched land,

and slay her with thirst.

⁴I will not show my love to her children,^g

because they are the children of adultery.^h

⁵Their mother has been unfaithful

and has conceived them in disgrace.

She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,ⁱ

who give me my food and my water,

my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’^j

⁶Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;

I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.^k

⁷She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;

she will look for them but not find them.^l

Then she will say,

‘I will go back to my husband^m as at first,ⁿ

for then I was better off^o than now.’

⁸She has not acknowledged^p that I was the one

who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,^q

who lavished on her the silver and gold^r—

which they used for Baal.^s

⁹“Therefore I will take away my grain^t when it ripens,

and my new wine^u when it is ready.

I will take back my wool and my linen,

intended to cover her naked body.

¹⁰So now I will expose^v her lewdness

before the eyes of her lovers;^w

no one will take her out of my hands.^x

¹¹I will stop^y all her celebrations:^z

her yearly festivals, her New Moons,

her Sabbath days—all her appointed festivals.^a

¹²I will ruin her vines^b and her fig trees,^c

which she said were her pay from her lovers;^d

I will make them a thicket,^e

and wild animals will devour them.^f

¹³I will punish her for the days

she burned incense^g to the Baals;^h

she decked herself with rings and jewelry,ⁱ

and went after her lovers,^j

but me she forgot,^k”

declares the Lord.^l