2:1 “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’
2:2 “Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
2:3 Otherwise I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst.
2:4 I will not show my love to her children, because they are the children of adultery.
2:5 Their mother has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink.’
2:6 Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.
2:7 She will chase after 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 husband as at first, for then I was better off than now.’
2:8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold–which they used for Baal.
2:9 “Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, intended to cover her nakedness.
2:10 So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; no one will take her out of my hands.
2:11 I will stop all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moons, her Sabbath days–all her appointed feasts.
2:12 I will ruin her vines and her fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers; I will make them a thicket, and wild animals will devour them.
2:13 I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals; she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the LORD.
2:14 “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her.
2:15 There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
2:16 “In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.’
2:17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked.
2:18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety.
2:19 I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.
2:20 I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD.
2:21 “In that day I will respond,” declares the LORD–“I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth;
2:22 and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.
2:23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”
2:1 Say to your brothers, Ammi, / And to your sisters, Ruhamah.
2:2 Contend with your mother; contend. / For she is not my wife, / And I am not her husband. / And let her turn away her harlotries from her face, / And her adulteries from between her breasts,
2:3 Lest I strip her naked / And set her out as in the day she was born / And make her a wilderness / And make her a dry land / And slay her with thirst.
2:4 And on her children I will not have compassion, / For they are the children of harlotries.
2:5 For their mother has gone about as a harlot; / She who conceived them has acted shamefully; / For she has said, / I will go after my lovers, / Who give me my bread and my water, / My wool and my flax, / My oil and my drink.
2:6 Therefore I will now hedge up / Her way with thorns; / And I will build up a wall against her, / So that she will not find her paths.
2:7 And she will pursue her lovers / But will not overtake them; / And she will seek them but not find them; / And she will say, I will go / And return to my first husband, / For it was better for me then than now.
2:8 For she did not know / That it was I who gave her / The grain and the new wine and the fresh oil, / And who multiplied to her silver / And gold, which they used for Baal.
2:9 Therefore I will take back / My grain in its time / And My new wine in its appointed season, / And I will snatch away My wool and My flax, / Which were to cover her nakedness.
2:10 And now I will uncover her lewdness / In the sight of her lovers, / And no one will deliver her from My hand.
2:11 And I will bring all her mirth to an end, / Her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, / And all her appointed assemblies.
2:12 And I will desolate her vine and her fig tree, / Of which she said, / These are my payments / That my lovers have given me; / And I will make them a forest, / And the beasts of the field will devour them.
2:13 And I will visit the days of the Baals upon her, / In which she burned incense to them / And adorned herself with her nose rings and her jewels / And went after her lovers / And forgot Me, / Declares Jehovah.
2:14 Therefore I am now luring her, / And I will bring her into the wilderness / And will speak to her heart.
2:15 And I will give her her vineyards from there / And the valley of Achor as 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.
2:16 And in that day, declares Jehovah, / You will call Me My Husband / And will no longer call Me Baali.
2:17 For I will take away the names of the Baals from her mouth, / And they will no longer be remembered by their name.
2:18 And I will make a covenant for them / In that day / With the beasts of the field / And with the birds of heaven / And the creeping things of the earth; / And bow and sword and battle / I will break from the land, / And I will cause them to lie down in safety.
2:19 And I will betroth you to Myself forever; / Indeed I will betroth you to Myself / In righteousness and justice / And in lovingkindness and compassions;
2:20 Indeed I will betroth you to Myself in faithfulness, / And you will know Jehovah.
2:21 And in that day / I will answer, declares Jehovah; / I will answer the heavens, / And they will answer the earth,
2:22 And the earth will answer the grain / And the new wine and the fresh oil, / And they will answer Jezreel.
2:23 And I will sow her for Myself in the land; / And I will have compassion on Lo-ruhamah, / And I will say to Lo-ammi, You are My people; / And they will say, My God.