Hosea 2

1 Call  * 2:1 Lit Say to your brothers: My People

and your sisters: Compassion.

Israel’s Adultery Rebuked

2 Rebuke your mother; rebuke her.  * 2:2 Ezk 23:45

For she is not my wife and I am not her husband.  * 2:2 Is 50:1

Let her remove the promiscuous look from her face  * 2:2 Jr 3:1,9,13

and her adultery from between her breasts.

3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked  * 2:3 Ezk 16:7,22,39

and expose her as she was on the day of her birth.

I will make her like a desert  * 2:3 Is 32:13–14; Hs 13:15

and like a parched land,

and I will let her die of thirst.  * 2:3 Jr 14:3; Am 8:11–13

4 I will have no compassion on her children  * 2:4 Jr 13:14

because they are the children of promiscuity.

5 Yes, their mother is promiscuous;

she conceived them and acted shamefully.  * 2:5 Is 1:21; Hs 3:1

For she thought, "I will follow my lovers,  * 2:5 Jr 2:25

the men who give me my food and water,

my wool and flax, my oil and drink."  * 2:5 Jr 44:17–18

6 Therefore, this is what I will do:

I will block her  * 2:6 LXX, Syr; MT reads your way  * 2:6 Jb 19:8 with thorns;  * 2:6 Hs 9:6; 10:8

I will enclose her with a wall,

so that she cannot find her paths.  * 2:6 Jr 18:15

7 She will pursue her lovers but not catch them;  * 2:7 Hs 5:13

she will look for them but not find them.

Then she will think,

"I will go back to my former husband,  * 2:7 Jr 2:2; 3:1; Ezk 16:8; 23:4

for then it was better for me than now."  * 2:7 Jr 14:22; Hs 13:6

8 She does not recognize  * 2:8 Is 1:3

that it is I who gave her the grain,  * 2:8 Ezk 16:19

the new wine, and the fresh oil.

I lavished silver and gold on her,

which they used for Baal.

9 Therefore, I will take back my grain in its time  * 2:9 Hs 8:7; 9:2

and my new wine in its season;

I will take away my wool and linen,

which were to cover her nakedness.

10 Now I will expose her shame  * 2:10 Ezk 16:37

in the sight of her lovers,

and no one will rescue her from my power.

11 I will put an end to all her celebrations:  * 2:11 Jr 7:34; 16:9

her feasts,  * 2:11 Hs 3:4; Am 5:21; 8:10 New Moons,  * 2:11 Is 1:13–14 and Sabbaths —

all her festivals.

12 I will devastate her vines and fig trees.  * 2:12 Jr 5:17; 8:13

She thinks that these are her wages

that her lovers have given her.

I will turn them into a thicket,  * 2:12 Ps 80:12; Is 5:5; 7:23

and the wild animals will eat them.  * 2:12 Is 32:13–15

13 And I will punish her for the days of the Baals,  * 2:13 Hs 4:13; 11:2

to which she burned incense.  * 2:13 Jr 7:9

She put on her rings and her jewelry  * 2:13 Ezk 16:12,17; 23:40

and followed her lovers,

but she forgot me.  * 2:13 Hs 4:6; 8:14; 13:6

This is the  Lord’s declaration.

Israel’s Adultery Forgiven

14 Therefore, I am going to persuade her,

lead her to the wilderness,  * 2:14 Ezk 20:33–38

and speak tenderly to her.  * 2:14 Lit speak to her heart

15 There I will give her vineyards back to her  * 2:15 Ezk 28:25–26

and make the Valley of Achor  * 2:15 = Trouble,* 2:15 Jos 7:26

into a gateway of hope.

There she will respond as she did

in the days of her youth,  * 2:15 Jr 2:1–3

as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt.

16 In that day —

this is the  Lord’s declaration —

you will call me "my husband"  * 2:16 Is 54:5

and no longer call me "my Baal."  * 2:16 Or my master

17 For I will remove the names of the Baals

from her mouth;

they will no longer be remembered by their names.

18 On that day I will make a covenant for them

with the wild animals, the birds of the sky,

and the creatures that crawl on the ground.  * 2:18 Jb 5:23; Is 11:6–9; Ezk 34:25

I will shatter bow, sword,

and weapons of war in the land  * 2:18 Or war on the earth,* 2:18 Ezk 39:1–10

and will enable the people to rest securely.  * 2:18 Ezk 34:25

19 I will take you to be my wife forever.  * 2:19 Is 62:4–5

I will take you to be my wife in righteousness,

justice, love, and compassion.  * 2:19 Is 1:27; 54:6–8

20 I will take you to be my wife in faithfulness,

and you will know the Lord.  * 2:20 Hs 6:6; 13:4

21 On that day I will respond  * 2:21 Is 55:10; Zch 8:12; Mal 3:10–11  —

this is the  Lord’s declaration.

I will respond to the sky,

and it will respond to the earth.

22 The earth will respond to the grain,  * 2:22 Jr 31:12; Jl 2:19

the new wine, and the fresh oil,

and they will respond to Jezreel.

23 I will sow her  * 2:23 = Israel in the land for myself,  * 2:23 Jr 31:37

and I will have compassion  * 2:23 Hs 1:6

on Lo-ruhamah;

I will say to Lo-ammi:  * 2:23 Hs 1:9

You are my people,  * 2:23 Hs 2:1; Rm 9:25

and he will say, "You are my God."