Hosea 2

1 Say ye to your brethren: You are my people, and to your sister: Thou hast obtained mercy.

So call your brothers, My People, and your sisters, Compassion.

2 Judge your mother, judge her: because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her put away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts.

Accuse, accuse your mother: for she is not my wife, and I will not be her husband. Let her put her acts of infidelity out of her sight, and her lovers from between her breasts,

3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born: and I will make her as a wilderness, and will set her as a land that none can pass through, and will kill her with drought.

else I will strip her bare, expose her as she was on the day of her birth, make her like the wilderness, let her become like a parched land, and let her die of thirst.

4 And I will not have mercy on her children: for they are the children of fornications.

And on her children I will have no pity, since they are children of adultery,

5 For their mother hath committed fornication, she that conceived them is covered with shame: for she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink.

for their mother has become a prostitute, she who conceived them has behaved shamefully. She has said, “I will go after my lovers who gave me my bread and my water, my wool, my flax, my oil, and my drink.”

6 Wherefore behold I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will stop it up with a wall, and she shall not find her paths.

That is why I am going to hedge up her ways with thorns, and build a wall about her, so that she cannot find her paths.

7 And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, and shall not find, and she shall say: I will go, and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then, than now.

She will pursue her lovers, but will not overtake them. She will seek them, but not find them. In time she will say, “I will go back to my first husband, I was better off then than now.”

8 And she did not know that I gave her corn and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver, and gold, which they have used in the service of Baal.

She herself did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the sweet wine, and the oil, who lavished on her silver and gold – that they used in worshipping Baal!

9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in its season, and my wine in its season, and I will set at liberty my wool, and my flax, which covered her disgrace.

So I will take back my grain at the harvest, and my sweet wine in its season. I will withdraw my wool and my flax, given to cover her nakedness;

10 And now I will lay open her folly in the eyes of her lovers: and no man shall deliver her out of my hand:

and so I will strip her naked before her lovers, and no one shall deliver her out of my hand.

11 And I will cause all her mirth to cease, her solemnities, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her festival times.

I will end all her celebrations, her yearly feasts, her new moons, and her sabbaths, all her festivals.

12 And I will destroy her vines, and her fig trees, of which she said: These are my rewards, which my lovers have given me: and I will make her as a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour her.

I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she says, “These are my wages which my lovers have given me.” I will make them a thicket, and the wild animals will eat them.

13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, to whom she burnt incense, and decked herself out with her earrings, and with her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord.

In this way I will punish her for the days of the Baals, in which she made offerings to them, and decked herself with earrings and jewels, and went after her lovers, but forgot me, – declares the Lord.

14 Therefore, behold I will allure her, and will lead her into the wilderness: and I will speak to her heart.

So I am going to court her, bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.

15 And I will give her vinedressers out of the same place, and the valley of Achor for an opening of hope: and she shall sing there according to the days of her youth, and according to the days of her coming up out of the land of Egypt.

I will give her from there her vineyards, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the days when she came up from the land of Egypt.

16 And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord, That she shall call me: My husband, and she shall call me no more Baali.

At that time, declares the Lord, you will call me your husband, and will no more call me your master.

17 And I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and she shall no more remember their name.

I will remove the name of the Baals from her mouth, their names never again uttered.

18 And in that day I will make a covenant with them, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the air, and with the creeping things of the earth: and I will destroy the bow, and the sword, and war out of the land: and I will make them sleep secure.

On that day I will make for them a covenant with the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the creatures that crawl on the earth. I will break the bow and the sword, banish battle from the land, and I will make them lie down in safety.

19 And I will espouse thee to me for ever: and I will espouse thee to me in justice, and judgment, and in mercy, and in commiserations.

I will take you for my wife forever, I will take you for my wife in righteousness, in justice, in kindness, and in mercy.

20 And I will espouse thee to me in faith: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

I will take you for my wife in faithfulness, and you will know the Lord.

21 And it shall come to pass in that day: I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth.

On that day I will answer – declares the Lord, I will answer the empty skies, and they will answer the dry earth.

22 And the earth shall hear the core, and the wine, and the oil, and these shall hear Jezrahel.

The earth will answer with grain, and new wine and oil, and they will answer Jezreel,

23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy on her that was without mercy. And I will say to that which was not my people: Thou art my people: and they shall say: Thou art my God.

and I will plant her in the land. I will have compassion to No-Compassion, I will say to Not-My-People, “You are my people,” and they will say, “You are my God.”