Hosea 2

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 Protest against your mother, protest! for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove her harlotry from before her, her adultery from between her breasts,	1 Say ye to your brethren: You are my people, and to your sister: Thou hast obtained mercy.
2 Or I will strip her naked, leaving her as on the day of her birth; I will make her like the desert, reduce her to an arid land, and slay her with thirst.	2 Judge your mother, judge her: because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her put away her fornications from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts.
3 I will have no pity on her children, for they are the children of harlotry.	3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born: and I will make her as a wilderness, and will set her as a land that none can pass through, and will kill her with drought.
4 Yes, their mother has played the harlot; she that conceived them has acted shamefully. "I will go after my lovers," she said, "who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink."	4 And I will not have mercy on her children: for they are the children of fornications.
5 Since she has not known that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, And her abundance of silver, and of gold, which they used for Baal,	5 For their mother hath committed fornication, she that conceived them is covered with shame: for she said: I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink.
6 Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season; I will snatch away my wool and my flax, with which she covers her nakedness.	6 Wherefore behold I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and I will stop it up with a wall, and she shall not find her paths.
7 So now I will lay bare her shame before the eyes of her lovers, and no one can deliver her out of my hand.	7 And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them: and she shall seek them, and shall not find, and she shall say: I will go, and return to my first husband, because it was better with me then, than now.
8 I will bring an end to all her joy, her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her solemnities.	8 And she did not know that I gave her corn and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver, and gold, which they have used in the service of Baal.
9 I will lay waste her vines and fig trees, of which she said, "These are the hire my lovers have given me"; I will turn them into rank growth and wild beasts shall devour them.	9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in its season, and my wine in its season, and I will set at liberty my wool, and my flax, which covered her disgrace.
10 I will punish her for the days of the Baals, for whom she burnt incense While she decked herself out with her rings and her jewels, and, in going after her lovers, forgot me, says the LORD.	10 And now I will lay open her folly in the eyes of her lovers: and no man shall deliver her out of my hand:
11 Therefore, I will hedge in her way with thorns and erect a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths.	11 And I will cause all her mirth to cease, her solemnities, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her festival times.
12 If she runs after her lovers, she shall not overtake them; if she looks for them she shall not find them. Then she shall say, "I will go back to my first husband, for it was better with me then than now."	12 And I will destroy her vines, and her fig trees, of which she said: These are my rewards, which my lovers have given me: and I will make her as a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour her.
13 So I will allure her; I will lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.	13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, to whom she burnt incense, and decked herself out with her earrings, and with her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the Lord.
14 From there I will give her the vineyards she had, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. She shall respond there as in the days of her youth, when she came up from the land of Egypt.	14 Therefore, behold I will allure her, and will lead her into the wilderness: and I will speak to her heart.
15 On that day, says the LORD, She shall call me "My husband," and never again "My baal."	15 And I will give her vinedressers out of the same place, and the valley of Achor for an opening of hope: and she shall sing there according to the days of her youth, and according to the days of her coming up out of the land of Egypt.
16 Then will I remove from her mouth the names of the Baals, so that they shall no longer be invoked.	16 And it shall be in that day, saith the Lord, That she shall call me : My husband, and she shall call me no more Baali.
17 I will make a covenant for them on that day, with the beasts of the field, With the birds of the air, and with the things that crawl on the ground. Bow and sword and war I will destroy from the land, and I will let them take their rest in security.	17 And I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and she shall no more remember their name.
18 I will espouse you to me forever: I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in mercy;	18 And in that day I will make a covenant with them, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of the air, and with the creeping things of the earth: and I will destroy the bow, and the sword, and war out of the land: and I will make them sleep secure.
19 I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the LORD.	19 And I will espouse thee to me for ever: and I will espouse thee to me in justice, and judgment, and in mercy, and in commiserations.
20 On that day I will respond, says the LORD; I will respond to the heavens, and they shall respond to the earth;	20 And I will espouse thee to me in faith: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.
21 The earth shall respond to the grain, and wine, and oil, and these shall respond to Jezreel.	21 And it shall come to pass in that day: I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth.
22 I will sow him for myself in the land, and I will have pity on Lo-ruhama. I will say to Lo-ammi, "You are my people," and he shall say, "My God!"	22 And the earth shall hear the core, and the wine, and the oil, and these shall hear Jezrahel.
	23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth, and I will have mercy on her that was without mercy.
	24 And I will say to that which was not my people: Thou art my people: and they shall say: Thou art my God.