Hosea

2 Say ye unto your brethren, O Ammi [“O my people”], And unto your sisters, O Ruhamah [“O compassionated one”]:

2 Contend ye with your mother, contend, For she is no wife of mine, And I am no husband of hers, Let her then put away her paramours from before her, And her partners in adultery from her embraces:

3 Lest I strip off her under-clothing, And set her forth to view as in the day she was born,—And make her like a wilderness And render her like a land that is parched, And suffer her to die of thirst;

4 And on her children not have compassion,—Because the children of paramours they are.

5 For their mother hath been unchaste, And she that conceived them hath caused shame,—For she said, Let me go after my lovers! who used to give my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.

6 Therefore behold me! hedging up her way with thorns,—And I will wall her in, and her footpaths shall she not find.

7 And when she shall pursue her lovers and not overtake them, And shall seek them and not find Then will she say, Let me go my way now! and return unto my first husband, For it was better with me then than now!

8 But she owneth not, that I gave her—the corn and the new wine and the oil,—silver also increased I unto her and gold—[which] they offered to Baal!

9 Therefore will I again take away my corn in the time thereof, And my new wine in the season thereof,—And will recover my wool and my flax [given] to hide her shame.

10 Now therefore will I expose her unseemliness before the eyes of her lovers,—And no man shall deliver her out of my hand!

11 And I will cause to cease all her mirth, Her pilgrim-festival, her new moon and her sabbath,—and her every appointed meeting;

12 And will lay waste her vine and her fig-tree, As to which she hath said, A present are they for myself, which my lovers have given me,—And I will make of them a thicket, and the wild beasts of the field shall devour them.

13 So will I visit upon her the days of the Baals, Unto whom she used to burn incense and decked herself with her nose-ring and her jewelry, and went her way after her lovers,—Whereas me she forgat, Declareth Yahweh.

14 Therefore lo! I am going to persuade her, And though I conduct her forth into wilderness, Yet will I speak unto her heart.

15 Then will I give to her her vineyards from thence, And the vale of Achor [“trouble”] for a door of hope,—And she will respond 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 come to pass in that day Declareth Yahweh, That she will call me Ishi [“My husband”], And will not call me any more Baali [“Mine owner”].

17 So will I take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth,—And they shall not be called to mind any more by their name.

18 And I will solemnize to them a covenant in that day, With the wild-beast of the field And with the bird of the heavens, And the creeping thing of the ground,—And bow and sword and battle will I break in pieces out of the land, So will I cause them to lie down in security.

19 And I will take thee unto myself, unto times age-abiding,—Yea I will take thee unto myself in righteousness and in justice, and in lovingkindness and in abounding compassion:

20 Yea I will take thee unto myself in faithfulness,—So shalt thou know Yahweh.

21 And it shall come to pass in that day that I will respond, Declareth Yahweh, I will respond to the heavens,—And they shall respond to the earth;

22 And the earth shall respond to the corn and to the new wine and to the oil,—And they shall respond to Jezreël [“Whom God scattereth,” “Whom God soweth”].

23 So will I sow her unto me in the land, And will have compassion upon the Uncompassionated one [“Lo-ruhamah”],—And will say to him who was No-people-of-mine [to “Lo-ammi”] My people thou art, And he shall say, My God!