Hosea 2

¹ But the Israelites wil become as numerous as the sands of the sea, which cannot be measured orcounted. In the very place where they were told, 'You are not my people,' they wil be told they are 'Children ofthe living God'.

² The Judaeans and Israelites will be reunited and wil choose themselves a single head, and will spreadfar beyond their country, for great will be the Day of Jezreel!

³ Then call your brothers, 'My people', and your sisters, 'You have been pitied'.

⁴ To court, take your mother to court! For she is no longer my wife nor am I her husband. She must eitherremove her whoring ways from her face and her adulteries from between her breasts,

⁵ or I shal strip her and expose her naked as the day she was born; I shall make her as bare as thedesert, I shall make her as dry as arid country, and let her die of thirst.

⁶ And I shal feel no pity for her children since they are the children of her whorings.

⁷ Yes, their mother has played the whore, she who conceived them has disgraced herself by saying, 'Ishall chase after my lovers; they will assure me my keep, my wool, my flax, my oil and my drinks.'

⁸ This is why I shal block her way with thorns, and wal her in to stop her in her tracks;

⁹ then if she chases her lovers she wil not catch them, if she looks for them she wil not find them, andthen she wil say, 'I shal go back to my first husband, I was better off then than I am now;'

¹⁰ she had never realised before that I was the one who was giving her the grain, new wine and oil,giving her more and more silver and gold which they have spent on Baal!

¹¹ This is why I shal take back my grain when it is due and my new wine, when the season for it comes. Ishall withdraw my wool and my flax which were to cover her naked body,

¹² and then display her infamy before her lovers' eyes- no one will take her from me then!

¹³ I shal put an end to al her merrymaking, her festivals, her New Moons and her Sabbaths and al hersolemn feasts.

¹⁴ I shal make her vines and fig trees derelict of which she used to say, 'These are the pay my loversgave me.' I shal turn them into a jungle: wild animals wil feed on them.

¹⁵ I mean to make her pay for the feast-days on which she burnt incense to the Baals, when she trickedherself out in her earrings and necklaces to chase after her lovers, and forget me! -declares Yahweh.

¹⁶ But look, I am going to seduce her and lead her into the desert and speak to her heart.

¹⁷ There I shall give her back her vineyards, and make the Vale of Achor a gateway of hope. There shewil respond as when she was young, as on the day when she came up from Egypt.

¹⁸ When that day comes- declares Yahweh- you wil cal me, 'My husband', no more wil you cal me, 'MyBaal'.

¹⁹ I shal banish the names of the Baals from her lips and their name wil be mentioned no more.

²⁰ When that day comes I shal make a treaty for them with the wild animals, with the birds of heavenand the creeping things of the earth; I shal break the bow and the sword and warfare, and banish them from thecountry, and I wil let them sleep secure.

²¹ I shal betroth you to myself for ever, I shall betroth you in uprightness and justice, and faithful loveand tenderness.

²² Yes, I shall betroth you to myself in loyalty and in the knowledge of Yahweh.

²³ When that day comes, I shal respond -declares Yahweh- I shal respond to the heavens and they willrespond to the earth

²⁴ and the earth wil respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, and they wil respond to Jezreel.

²⁵ I shal sow her in the country to be mine, I shall take pity on Lo-Ruhamah, I shal tell Lo-Ammi, 'Youare my people,' and he will say, 'You are my God.'