1[1] ‘Say of your brothers, “My people”, and of your sisters, “My loved one”.
Israel punished and restored
2‘Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.3Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst.4I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery.5Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, “I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.”6Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.7She will chase after her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, “I will go back to my husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.”8She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold – which they used for Baal.9‘Therefore I will take away my corn when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her naked body.10So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no-one will take her out of my hands.11I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days – all her appointed festivals.12I will ruin her vines and her fig-trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them.13I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewellery, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,’ declares the Lord.14‘Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her.15There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor[2] a door of hope. There she will respond[3] as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.16‘In that day,’ declares the Lord, ‘you will call me “my husband”; you will no longer call me “my master[4]”.17I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.18In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.19I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you in[5] righteousness and justice, in[6] love and compassion.20I will betroth you in[7] faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.21‘In that day I will respond,’ declares the Lord – ‘I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth;22and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.[8]23I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called “Not my loved one[9]”. I will say to those called “Not my people[10]”, “You are my people”; and they will say, “You are my God.” ’
Hosea 2
English Standard Version
Israel’s Unfaithfulness Punished
1[1] Say to your brothers, “You are my people,”[2] and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.”[3] (Ho 1:6; Ho 1:9)2“Plead with your mother, plead— for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband— that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; (Isa 50:1; Eze 16:25; Ho 4:12)3lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. (Eze 16:4; Eze 16:39; Eze 19:13; Ho 2:9)4Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. (Ho 1:2; Ho 1:6)5For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’ (Jer 44:17; Ho 1:2; Ho 2:8; Ho 2:12)6Therefore I will hedge up her[4] way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. (Job 3:23; Job 19:8; La 3:7; La 3:9)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 for me then than now.’ (Isa 54:5; Lu 15:17)8And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. (De 7:13; Isa 1:3; Eze 16:17; Eze 16:19; Ho 2:20; Ho 13:2)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. (Ho 2:3; Joe 1:10)10Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. (La 1:8; Eze 16:37; Eze 23:29)11And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. (Isa 1:13; Jer 7:34; Ho 9:5; Am 8:5; Am 8:10)12And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.’ I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them. (Isa 5:5; Ho 2:5; Ho 13:8; Mic 1:7)13And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the Lord. (Isa 61:10; Eze 23:40; Ho 4:9; Ho 11:2; Ho 13:1)
The Lord’s Mercy on Israel
14“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. (Isa 40:2; Eze 20:35)15And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor[5] 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. (Jer 2:2; Eze 16:22; Eze 16:60; Ho 9:10; Ho 11:1)16“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ (Ho 2:18; Ho 2:21)17For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. (Ex 23:13; Zep 1:4; Zec 13:2)18And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish[6] the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. (Le 26:5; Job 5:23; Ps 46:9; Isa 2:4; Isa 9:5; Jer 23:6; Eze 34:25; Eze 39:9)19And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. (Jer 3:14; Eze 43:7; Ho 2:7; Ho 2:16; 2Co 11:2)20I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord. (Jer 31:34; Ho 2:19; Joh 17:3)21“And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, (Ho 2:16; Zec 8:12)22and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel,[7] (Ho 1:4; Ho 1:11)23and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy,[8] and I will say to Not My People,[9] ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’” (Le 26:12; Jer 31:33; Eze 36:9; Ho 1:6; Ho 1:9; Ho 1:10; Ho 2:1; Zec 13:9; Ro 9:25; 1Pe 2:10)