Hosea 2

1 “The number of the children of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called children of the living God.

2 The children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together. They will appoint one leader for themselves and come up from the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.

3 Say to your brother, ‘My People,’ and to your sister, ‘Pitied.’

4 Contend with your mother—contend with her— because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. I will remove her whoring from before me and her adultery from between her breasts,

5 so that I may strip her naked and make her as she was on the day she was born. I will make her like a wilderness, make her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.

6 I will not have mercy on her children, because they are children of whoring.

7 Their mother went whoring; the woman who bore them put them to shame. She said,

“I will follow my lovers, who give me my bread and water, my clothes and linen, my olive oil and everything I need.”

8 Therefore I will block her road with thorns and wall up her ways, so that she will not find her path.

9 She will chase her lovers but not catch them; she will seek them but not find them. Then she will say,

“I will go back to my first husband, because I was better off then than I am now.”

10 She did not know that I gave her grain, wine, and olive oil and multiplied silver for her, but she made silver and gold objects for Baal.

11 Therefore I will return and take away my grain in its season and my wine at its proper time. I will take away my clothing and linen so they no longer cover her nakedness.

12 Now I will uncover her uncleanness before her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my hand.

13 I will put an end to all her gladness— her feasts, new moons, Sabbaths, and all her festive assemblies.

14 I will wipe out her vines and fig trees, the things she called the pay her lovers gave her. I will make them a witness, and the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the crawling creatures of the earth will devour them.

15 I will punish her for the days of the Baals, when she sacrificed to them, put on her earrings and necklaces, followed her lovers, and forgot me,” says the Lord.

16 “Therefore I will lead her astray, make her like a wilderness, and speak to her heart.

17 From there I will give her possessions and the Valley of Achor to open her understanding. She will be brought low there as in the days of her youth, as in the days when she came up from Egypt.

18 On that day,” says the Lord, “she will call me ‘My husband’ and will no longer call me ‘Baalim.’

19 I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and their names will never be remembered again.

20 On that day I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds of the sky, and the crawling creatures of the earth. I will break bow, sword, and war from the land and settle you in hope.

21 I will betroth you to myself forever. I will betroth you to myself in righteousness, judgment, mercy, and pity.

22 I will betroth you to myself in faithfulness, and you will know the Lord.

23 On that day,” says the Lord, “I will answer the sky, and the sky will answer the earth.

24 The earth will answer the grain, wine, and olive oil, and they will answer Jezreel.

25 I will sow her for myself in the land. I will have mercy on Not Pitied, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people,’ and he will say,”

“You are the Lord my God.”