Hosea 2

Israel’s Unfaithfulness Punished

1  ▼
▼ Ch 2:3 in Hebrew
 Say to your brothers b “You are my people,” ▼
▼ Hebrew ammi, which means  my people
 and to your sisters d “You have received mercy.” ▼
▼ Hebrew ruhama, which means she has received mercy

2  “Plead with your mother, plead—
for f she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put away g her whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts;
 3 lest h I strip her naked
and make her as i in the day she was born,
and j make her like a wilderness,
and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
 4  k Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
l because they are children of whoredom.
 5 For m their mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For n she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who o give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
 6 Therefore p I will hedge up her ▼
▼ Hebrew your
 way with thorns,
and r I will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
 7 She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
s Then she shall say,
‘I will go and return to t my first husband,
u for it was better for me then than now.’
 8 And v she did not know
that it was w I who gave her
x the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on y her silver and gold,
z which they used for Baal.
 9 Therefore aa I will take back
my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season,
and ab I will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
 10 Now ac I will uncover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
 11  ad And I will put an end to all her mirth,
her feasts, her ae new moons, her af Sabbaths,
and all her ag appointed feasts.
 12 And ah I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
ai of which she said,
‘These are aj my wages,
which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
ak and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
 13 And al I will punish her for am the feast days of the Baals
when she burned offerings to them
and an adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the  Lord.

The  Lord’s Mercy on Israel

14  “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and ao bring her into the wilderness,
and ap speak tenderly to her.
 15 And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor ▼
▼  Achor means trouble; compare Joshua 7:26
 a door of hope.
And there she shall answer ar as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

16 “And as in that day, declares the  Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For at I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And au 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 av I will abolish ▼
▼ Hebrew break
 the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in ax safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me ay forever. az I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20  ba I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And bb you shall know the  Lord.

21  “And bc in that day bd I will answer, declares the  Lord,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
 22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer be Jezreel ▼
▼  Jezreel means God will sow

 23 and bg I will sow her for myself in the land.
And bh I bi will have mercy on No Mercy ▼
▼ Hebrew Lo-ruhama

and bk I will say to Not My People ▼
▼ Hebrew Lo-ammi
 bm ‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”
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