Hos 2 | LSB | STEP | Say to your brothers, “ Ammi,” and to your sisters, “ Ruhamah.”

Hosea 2

No Compassion for Children of Harlotry

1 ^{▼▼ Ch 2:3 in Heb}Say to your brothers, “ ^{▼▼Lit my people}Ammi,” and to your sisters, “ ^{▼▼Lit she has obtained compassion}Ruhamah.”

2 “Contend with your mother, contend,
For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband;
And let her remove her harlotry from her face
And her adultery from between her breasts,
3 Lest I strip her naked
And set her forth as on the day when she was born
And make her like a wilderness
And ^{▼▼Lit set}make her like dry land
And put her to death with thirst.
4 “Also, I will have no compassion on her children
Because they are children of harlotry.
5 “For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6 “Therefore, behold, I will hedge up ^{▼▼As in some ancient versions; Heb your}her way with thorns,
And I will build ^{▼▼Lit her wall so that}a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.
7 “So she will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;
And she will seek them, but will not find them.
Then she will say, ‘I will go, and I will return to my first husband,
For it was better for me then than now!’
8 “Now she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil,
And multiplied silver and gold for her,
Which they ^{▼▼Or made into the}used for Baal.
9 “Therefore, I will take back My grain at ^{▼▼Lit its time}harvest time
And My new wine in its season.
I will also deliver My wool and My flax from them
Given to cover her nakedness.
10 “So now I will uncover her lewdness
In the sight of her lovers,
And no one will deliver her out of My hand.
11 “I will also cease all her joy,
Her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths,
And all her appointed times.
12 “And I will make desolate her vines and fig trees,
Of which she said, ‘These are my wages
Which my lovers have given me.’
And I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field will devour them.
13 “So I will visit the days of the Baals upon her
When she used to ^{▼▼Or burn incense}offer offerings in smoke to them
And adorn herself with her ^{▼▼Or nose rings}earrings and jewelry
And go after her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares Yahweh.

Yahweh’s Faithful Betrothal

14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her
And bring her into the wilderness
And speak to her heart.
15 “Then I will give her her vineyards from there
And the valley of Achor as a door of hope.
And she will ^{▼▼Or give answer}sing there as in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
16 “And it will be in that day,” declares Yahweh,
“That you will call Me ^{▼▼Lit my husband}Ishi
And will no longer call Me ^{▼▼Lit my master, my Baal}Baali.
17 “So I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth
So that they will be remembered by their names no more.
18 “And in that day I will cut a covenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
The birds of the sky,
And the creeping things of the ground.
And I will break the bow, the sword, and war from the land,
And I will make them lie down in security.
19 “And I will betroth you to Me forever;
Indeed, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice,
In lovingkindness and in compassion,
20 And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.
Then you will know Yahweh.
21 “And it will be in that day, that I will answer,” declares Yahweh.
“I will answer the heavens, and they will answer the earth,
22 And the earth will answer the grain, the new wine, and the oil,
And they will answer ^{▼▼Lit God sows}Jezreel.
23 “And I will sow her for Myself in the land.
I will also have compassion on ^{▼▼Heb Lo-ruhamah}her who had not obtained compassion,
And I will say to ^{▼▼Heb Lo-ammi}those who were not My people,
‘You are My people!’
And ^{▼▼Lit he}they will say, ‘You are my God!’ ”