Hosea 2

New American Standard Bible

Israel’s Unfaithfulness Condemned

2 ^[a]Say to your brothers, “^[b]Ammi,” and to your sisters, “^[c]Ruhamah.”

²“Dispute with your mother, ^(A)dispute,
Because she is ^(B)not my wife, and I am not her husband;
But she must remove her ^(C)infidelity from her face
And her adultery from between her breasts,
³Otherwise, I will strip her ^(D)naked
And expose her as on the ^(E)day she was born.
I will also ^(F)make her like a wilderness,
Make her like desert land,
And put her to death with ^(G)thirst.
⁴Also, I will take no pity on her children,
Because they are ^(H)children of infidelity.
⁵For their mother has ^(I)committed prostitution;
She who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘^(J)I will go after my lovers,
Who ^(K)give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my flax, my ^(L)oil and my drink.’
⁶Therefore, behold, I will ^(M)obstruct ^[d]her way with ^(N)thorns,
And I will build ^[e]a stone wall against her so that she cannot find her ^(O)paths.
⁷And she will ^(P)pursue her lovers, but she will not reach them;
And she will seek them, but will not find them.
Then she will say, ‘^(Q)I will go back to my ^(R)first husband,
Because it was ^(S)better for me then than now!’

⁸“Yet she does ^(T)not know that it was ^(U)I myself who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil,
And lavished on her silver and gold,
Which they ^[f]used for Baal.
⁹Therefore, I will ^[g]^(V)take back My grain at ^[h]harvest time
And My new wine in its season.
I will also take away My wool and My flax
That I gave to cover her nakedness.
¹⁰So now I will ^(W)uncover her ^[i]lewdness
Before the eyes of her lovers,
And no one will rescue her from My hand.
¹¹I will also ^(X)put an end to all her joy,
Her ^(Y)feasts, her ^(Z)new moons, her Sabbaths,
And all her festivals.
¹²And I will ^(AA)destroy her vines and fig trees,
Of which she said, ‘They are my wages for prostitution
Which my lovers have given me.’
And I will ^(AB)turn them into a forest,
And the ^(AC)animals of the field will devour them.
¹³I will punish her for the ^(AD)days of the Baals
When she used to ^[j]^(AE)offer sacrifices to them
And ^(AF)adorn herself with her nose ring and jewelry,
And follow her lovers, so that she ^(AG)forgot Me,” declares the Lord.

Restoration of Israel

¹⁴“Therefore, behold, I am going to persuade her,
^(AH)Bring her into the wilderness,
And speak ^[k]kindly to her.
¹⁵Then I will give her her ^(AI)vineyards from there,
And ^(AJ)the ^[l]Valley of Achor as a door of hope.
And she will ^[m]^(AK)respond there as in the days of her youth,
As in the ^(AL)day when she went up from the land of Egypt.
¹⁶And it will come about on that day,” declares the Lord,
“That you will call Me ^[n]^(AM)my husband
And no longer call Me my ^[o]Baal.
¹⁷For ^(AN)I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth,
So that they will no longer be ^[p]mentioned by their names.
¹⁸On that day I will also make a covenant for them
With the ^(AO)animals of the field,
The birds of the sky,
And the crawling things of the ground.
And I will ^[q]^(AP)eliminate the bow, the sword, and war from the land,
And will let them ^(AQ)lie down in safety.
¹⁹I will ^(AR)betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me in ^(AS)righteousness and in justice,
In favor and in compassion,
²⁰And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.
Then you will ^(AT)know the Lord.

²¹“And it will come about on that day that ^(AU)I will respond,” declares the Lord.
“I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth,
²²And the ^(AV)earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine, and to the oil,
And they will respond to ^[r]Jezreel.
²³I will ^(AW)sow her for Myself in the land.
^(AX)I will also have compassion on ^[s]her who had not obtained compassion,
And ^(AY)I will say to ^[t]those who were ^(AZ)not My people,
‘You are My people!’
And ^[u]they will say, ‘You are my God!’”