Hosea 2

1Say to your brothers, "My people," and to your sisters, "Mercy."

2Plead with your mother, plead—
for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband—
that she put away her harlotry from her face
and her adultery from between her breasts, 3lest I strip her naked
and set her as in the day of her birth,
and make her like a wilderness,
and set her like a dry land,
and kill her with thirst. 4Upon her children I will have no mercy,
for they are children of harlotry. 5For their mother has played the harlot;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, "I will go after my lovers,
who provide my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax,
my oil and my drink."

6Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns,
and I will build a wall against her,
so she cannot find her paths. 7She will pursue her lovers but not overtake them;
she will seek them but not find them.
Then she will say, "I will go and return to my first husband,
for it was better for me then than now."

8And she did not know
that it was I who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished upon her
silver and gold that they used for Baal. 9Therefore, I will take back my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season,
and will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness. 10Now I will uncover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one will deliver her out of my hand. 11I will put an end to all her mirth,
her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths,
and all her appointed festivals. 12I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
of which she has 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. 13I will punish her for the days of the Baals,
to whom she burned incense
and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the LORD.

14Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness,
and speak to her heart. 15From there I will give her vineyards,
and the Valley of Achor, as a door of hope.
She will respond there as in the days of her youth,
as in the time she came out of the land of Egypt.

16On that day, declares the LORD,
you will call me "My husband,"
and no longer will you call me "My Baal." 17For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth,
and they will be remembered by name no more. 18I will make a covenant for them on that day
with the beasts of the field,
the birds of the heavens,
and the creeping things of the ground.
And I will abolish the bow, the sword,
and war from the land;
I will make you lie down in safety.

19I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice,
in steadfast love and in mercy. 20I will betroth you to me in faithfulness,
and you will know the LORD.

21On that day I will answer, declares the LORD,
I will answer the heavens,
and they will answer the earth. 22The earth will answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they will answer Jezreel. 23I will sow her for myself in the land,
and I will have mercy on "Not Pitied."
I will say to "Not My People," "You are my people,"
and he will say, "You are my God."