Israel’s Unfaithfulness Condemned

1 1Say to your brothers, “2Ammi,” and to your sisters, “3Ruhamah.”

2 “Contend with your mother, acontend,

For she is bnot my wife, and I am not her husband;

And let her put away her charlotry from her face

And her adultery from between her breasts,

3 Or I will strip her anaked

And expose her as on the bday when she was born.

I will also cmake her like a wilderness,

Make her like desert land

And slay her with dthirst.

4 “Also, I will have no compassion on her children,

Because they are achildren of harlotry.

5 “For their mother has aplayed the harlot;

She who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For she said, ‘aI will go after my lovers,

Who bgive me my bread and my water,

My wool and my flax, my coil and my drink.’

6 “Therefore, behold, I will ahedge up 1her way with bthorns,

And I will build 2a wall against her so that she cannot find her cpaths.

7 “She will apursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;

And she will seek them, but will not find them.

Then she will say, ‘bI will go back to my cfirst husband,

For it was dbetter for me then than now!’

8 “For she does anot know that it was bI who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil,

And lavished on her silver and gold,

Which they 1used for Baal.

9 “Therefore, I will atake back My grain at 1harvest time

And My new wine in its season.

I will also take away My wool and My flax

Given to cover her nakedness.

10 “And then I will auncover her lewdness

In the sight of her lovers,

And no one will rescue her out of My hand.

11 “I will also aput an end to all her gaiety,

Her bfeasts, her cnew moons, her sabbaths

And all her festal assemblies.

12 “I will adestroy her vines and fig trees,

Of which she said, ‘These are my wages

Which my lovers have given me.’

And I will bmake them a forest,

And the cbeasts of the field will devour them.

13 “I will punish her for the adays of the Baals

When she used to 1boffer sacrifices to them

And cadorn herself with her 2earrings and jewelry,

And follow her lovers, so that she dforgot Me,” declares the Lord.

Restoration of Israel

14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

aBring her into the wilderness

And speak 1kindly to her.

15 “Then I will give her her avineyards from there,

And bthe valley of Achor as a door of hope.

And she will 1csing there as in the days of her youth,

As in the dday when she came up from the land of Egypt.

16 “It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord,

“That you will call Me 1aIshi

And will no longer call Me 2Baali.

17 “For aI will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth,

So that they will be 1mentioned by their names no more.

18 “In that day I will also make a covenant for them

With the abeasts of the field,

The birds of the sky

And the creeping things of the ground.

And I will 1babolish the bow, the sword and war from the land,

And will make them clie down in safety.

19 “I will abetroth you to Me forever;

Yes, I will betroth you to Me in brighteousness and in justice,

In lovingkindness and in compassion,

20 And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.

Then you will aknow the Lord.

21 “It will come about in that day that aI will respond,” declares the Lord.

“I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth,

22 And the aearth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and to the oil,

And they will respond to 1Jezreel.