Hosea 2

2 ¹ Say to your brothers, "My People," and to your sisters, "Shown Mercy."

² Plead with your mother, plead—for she is not my wife and I am not her husband—that she put away her whoring from her face and her unfaithfulness from between her breasts,

³ or I will strip her bare and leave her as naked as the day she was born I will make her like a wilderness, turn her into a parched land and let her die of thirst. ⁴ I will show her children no compassion for they are the children of whoring. ⁵ Their mother has prostituted herself; she who carried them acted in shame. She said, "I will chase after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink."

⁶ Therefore I am about to block her path with thorns I will wall her in so she cannot find her paths. ⁷ She will chase her lovers but not catch them she will look for them but not find them. Then she will say, "I will go back to my first husband for it was better for me then than now." ⁸ She has not realized that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil, I who lavished silver and gold on her—which they spent on Baal.

⁹ Therefore I will take back my grain when it ripens and my new wine in its season I will reclaim my wool and my flax, given to cover her nakedness. ¹⁰ Now I will expose her shame before the eyes of her lovers and no one will rescue her from my hand. ¹¹ I will put an end to all her rejoicing—her festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbaths, all her appointed festivals. ¹² I will lay waste her vines and fig trees, of which she said, "These are my wages that my lovers gave me." I will turn them into a thicket and the wild animals will devour them. ¹³ I will hold her accountable for the days she burned offerings to the Baals, when she decked herself with rings and jewelry and chased after her lovers—but me she forgot, declares our Father.

The Father Wins Her Back

¹⁴ Therefore, look, I am going to win her back: I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her heart. ¹⁵ There I will give her back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a doorway of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as on the day she came up out of Egypt.

¹⁶ On that day, declares our Father, you will call me "my husband," and no longer will you call me "my Baal." ¹⁷ I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth never again will they be invoked by name. ¹⁸ On that day I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds of the sky and the creatures that move along the ground I will banish bow and sword and war from the land so that all may lie down in safety. ¹⁹ I will betroth you to me forever I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and compassion. ²⁰ I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and you will know your Father.

²¹ On that day I will respond, declares our Father—I will respond to the heavens and they will respond to the earth ²² and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and the oil and they will respond to Jezreel. ²³ I will plant her for myself in the land. I will show mercy to "No Mercy," and I will say to "Not My People," "You are my children" and they will say, "You are my Father."