Hos 2, Hos 14 | ESV | STEP | Say to your brothers , You are my people , and to your sisters , You have received mercy .

1 ^{▼▼Ch 2:3 in Hebrew} Say to your brothers, ^b“You are my people,” ^{▼▼Hebrew ammi, which means my people} and to your sisters, ^d“You have received mercy.” ^{▼▼Hebrew ruhama, which means she has received mercy}

2 “Plead with your mother, plead—
for ^fshe is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put away ^gher whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts;
3 lest ^hI strip her naked
and make her as ⁱin the day she was born,
and ^jmake her like a wilderness,
and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
4 ^kUpon her children also I will have no mercy,
^lbecause they are children of whoredom.
5 For ^mtheir mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For ⁿshe said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who ^ogive me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore ^pI will hedge up her ^{▼▼Hebrew your} way with thorns,
and ^rI will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
^sThen she shall say,
‘I will go and return to ^tmy first husband,
^ufor it was better for me then than now.’
8 And ^vshe did not know
that it was ^wI who gave her
^xthe grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on ^yher silver and gold,
^zwhich they used for Baal.
9 Therefore ^aaI will take back
my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season,
and ^abI will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
10 Now ^acI will uncover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
11 ^adAnd I will put an end to all her mirth,
her feasts, her ^aenew moons, her ^afSabbaths,
and all her ^agappointed feasts.
12 And ^ahI will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
^aiof which she said,
‘These are ^ajmy wages,
which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
^akand the beasts of the field shall devour them.
13 And ^alI will punish her for ^amthe feast days of the Baals
when she burned offerings to them
and ^anadorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the Lord.

The Lord’s Mercy on Israel

14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and ^aobring her into the wilderness,
and ^apspeak tenderly to her.
15 And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor ^{▼▼ Achor means trouble; compare Joshua 7:26} a door of hope.
And there she shall answer ^aras in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
16 “And ^asin that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For ^atI will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And ^auI will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And ^avI will abolish ^{▼▼Hebrew break} the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in ^axsafety. 19 And I will betroth you to me ^ayforever. ^azI will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 ^baI will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And ^bbyou shall know the Lord.

21 “And ^bcin that day ^bdI will answer, declares the Lord,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer ^beJezreel, ^{▼▼ Jezreel means God will sow}
23 and ^bgI will sow her for myself in the land.
And ^bhI ^biwill have mercy on No Mercy, ^{▼▼Hebrew Lo-ruhama}
and ^bkI will say to Not My People, ^{▼▼Hebrew Lo-ammi} ^bm‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

Hosea 14

A Plea to Return to the Lord

1 ^bnReturn, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
for ^boyou have stumbled because of your iniquity.
2 Take with you words
and return to the Lord;
say to him,
“Take away all iniquity;
accept ^bpwhat is good,
and we will pay with bulls
^bqthe vows ^{▼▼Septuagint, Syriac pay the fruit} of our lips.
3 ^bsAssyria shall not save us;
^btwe will not ride on horses;
and ^buwe will say no more, ‘Our God,’
to the work of our hands.
^bvIn you the orphan finds mercy.”
4 I ^bwwill heal their apostasy;
^bxI will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them.
5 ^byI will be like the dew to Israel;
^bzhe shall blossom like the lily;
he shall take root like the trees ^caof Lebanon;
6 his shoots shall spread out;
his beauty shall be ^cblike the olive,
and his fragrance like Lebanon.
7 They shall return and ^ccdwell beneath my ^{▼▼Hebrew his} shadow;
they shall flourish like the grain;
they shall blossom like the vine;
their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 O ^ceEphraim, what have I to do with idols?
It is I who answer and look after you. ^{▼▼Hebrew him}
I am like an evergreen cypress;
^cgfrom me comes your fruit.
9 ^chWhoever is wise, let him understand these things;
whoever is discerning, let him know them;
for the ways of the Lord are right,
and ^cithe upright walk in them,
^cjbut transgressors stumble in them.