| 2:1 | Then you will call* your* brother, “My People” (Ammi)! You will call your sister, “Pity” (Ruhamah)! |
| 2:2 | Plead earnestly* with your* mother (for* she is not my wife, and I am not her husband), so that* she might put an end to her adulterous lifestyle,* and turn away from her sexually immoral behavior.* |
| 2:3 | Otherwise, I will strip her naked, and expose her like she was when she was born. I will turn her land into a wilderness and make her country a parched land, so that I might kill* her with thirst. |
| 2:4 | I will have no pity on her children,* because they are children conceived in adultery.* |
| 2:5 | For their mother has committed adultery; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, “I will seek out* my lovers;* they are the ones who give me my bread and my water, my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine.* |
| 2:6 | Therefore, I will soon* fence her in* with thorns; I will wall her in* so that* she cannot find her way.* |
| 2:7 | Then she will pursue her lovers, but she will not catch* them; she will seek them, but she will not find them.* Then she will say, “I will go back* to my husband,* because I was better off then than I am now.”* |
| 2:8 | Yet* until now* she has refused to acknowledge* that I* was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil; and that it was I who* lavished on her the silver and gold – which they* used in worshiping Baal!* |
| 2:9 | Therefore, I will take back* my grain during the harvest time* and my new wine when it ripens;* I will take away my wool and my flax which I had provided* in order to clothe her.* |
| 2:10 | Soon* I will expose her lewd nakedness* in front of her lovers, and no one will be able to rescue her from me!* |
| 2:11 | I will put an end to all her celebration: her annual religious festivals, monthly new moon celebrations, and weekly Sabbath festivities – all her appointed festivals. |
| 2:12 | I will destroy her vines and fig trees, about which she said, “These are my wages for prostitution* that my lovers gave to me!” I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees* into an uncultivated thicket, so that wild animals* will devour them. |
| 2:13 | “I will punish her for the festival days when she burned incense to the Baal idols;* she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but* she forgot me!”* says the Lord. |
| 2:14 | However, in the future I will allure her;* I will lead* her back into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. |
| 2:15 | From there I will give back her vineyards to her, and turn the “Valley of Trouble”* into an “Opportunity* for Hope.” There she will sing as she did when she was young,* when* she came up from the land of Egypt. |
| 2:16 | “At that time,”* declares the Lord, “you will call,* ‘My husband’;* you will never again call me,* ‘My master.’* |
| 2:17 | For* I will remove the names of the Baal idols* from your lips,* so that you will never again utter their names!”* |
| 2:18 | “At that time* I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. I will abolish* the warrior’s bow and sword – that is, every weapon of warfare* – from the land, and I will allow them to live securely.”* |
| 2:19 | I will commit myself to you* forever; I will commit myself to you in* righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and tender compassion. |
| 2:20 | I will commit myself to you in faithfulness; then* you will acknowledge* the Lord.”* |
| 2:21 | “At that time,* I will willingly respond,”* declares the Lord. “I will respond to the sky, and the sky* will respond to the ground; |
| 2:22 | then the ground will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil; and they will respond to ‘God Plants’ (Jezreel)!* |
| 2:23 | Then I will plant her as my own* in the land. I will have pity on ‘No Pity’ (Lo-Ruhamah). I will say to ‘Not My People’ (Lo-Ammi), ‘You are my people!’ And he* will say, ‘You are* my God!’” |
Hosea 2 - NET Bible [draft]
