“1 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. 2
Plead with your mother, plead: for she [is] not my wife, neither [am] I
her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight,
and her adulteries from between her breasts; 3 Lest I strip her naked,
and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a
wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. 4 And
I will not have mercy upon her children; for they [be] the children of
whoredoms. 5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived
them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that
give [me] my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my
drink.”
“6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a
wall, that she shall not find her paths. 7 And she shall follow after
her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them,
but shall not find [them]: then shall she say, I will go and return to
my first husband; for then [was it] better with me than now. 8 For she
did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her
silver and gold, [which] they prepared for Baal. 9 Therefore will I
return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the
season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax [given] to cover
her nakedness. 10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of
her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand. 11 I will also
cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her
sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. 12 And I will destroy her vines and
her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These [are] my rewards that my
lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of
the field shall eat them. 13 And I will visit upon her the days of
Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with
her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat
me, saith the LORD.”
“14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the
wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. 15 And I will give her her
vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and
she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day
when she came up out of the land of Egypt. 16 And it shall be at that
day, saith the LORD, [that] thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me
no more Baali. 17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her
mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. 18 And in
that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field,
and with the fowls of heaven, and [with] the creeping things of the
ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the
earth, and will make them to lie down safely. 19 And I will betroth thee
unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and
in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. 20 I will even
betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt 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; 22 And the earth
shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear
Jezreel. 23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have
mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to [them
which were] not my people, Thou [art] my people; and they shall say,
[Thou art] my God.” (Hosea 2:1-23 AV)