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."