HOSEA 2 [†] [1] Say to your brothers,  x “You are my people,” [2] and to your sisters,  y “You have received mercy.” [3]

2[†] “Plead with your mother, plead—

for  z she is not my wife,

and I am not her husband—

that she put away  a her whoring from her face,

and her adultery from between her breasts;

3[^][†] lest  b I strip her naked

and make her as  c in the day she was born,

and  d make her like a wilderness,

and make her like a parched land,

and kill her with thirst.

4[†]  e Upon her children also I will have no mercy,

 f because they are children of whoredom.

5 For  g their mother has played the whore;

she who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For  h she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

who  i give me my bread and my water,

my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

6[†] Therefore  j I will hedge up her [4] way with thorns,

and  k 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.

 l Then she shall say,

‘I will go and return to  m my first husband,

 l for it was better for me then than now.’

8[†] And  n she did not know

that it was  o I who gave her

 p the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and who lavished on  q her silver and gold,

 r which they used for Baal.

9[†] Therefore  s I will take back

my grain in its time,

and my wine in its season,

and  s I will take away my wool and my flax,

which were to cover her nakedness.

10[†] Now  t I will uncover her lewdness

in the sight of her lovers,

and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

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

her feasts, her  v new moons, her  v Sabbaths,

and all her  w appointed feasts.

12[†] And  x I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,

 y of which she said,

‘These are  z my wages,

which my lovers have given me.’

I will make them a forest,

 a and the beasts of the field shall devour them.

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

when she burned offerings to them

and  d adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,

and went after her lovers

and forgot me, declares the LORD.

14[^][†] “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and  e bring her into the wilderness,

and  f speak tenderly to her.

15[†] And there I will give her her vineyards

and make the Valley of Achor [5] a door of hope.

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

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

16[†]“And  h in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17For  i I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18[†]And  j 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  k I will abolish [6] the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in  l safety. 19[†]And I will betroth you to me  m forever.  n I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 n I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And  o you shall know the LORD.

21[†] “And  p in that day  q 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  r Jezreel, [7]

23[^] and  s I will sow her for myself in the land.

And  t I  u will have mercy on No Mercy, [8]

and  v I will say to Not My People, [9]  w ‘You are my people’;

and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”