Hosea 2 — Legacy Standard Bible

No Compassion for Children of Harlotry

2¹Say to your brothers, “²Ammi,” and to your sisters, “³Ruhamah.”

²“Contend with your mother, ^acontend,For she is ^bnot my wife, and I am not her husband;And let her remove her ^charlotry from her faceAnd her adultery from between her breasts,³Lest I strip her ^anakedAnd set her forth as on the ^bday when she was bornAnd ^cmake her like a wildernessAnd ¹make her like dry landAnd put her to death with ^dthirst.⁴“Also, I will have no compassion on her childrenBecause they are ^achildren of harlotry.⁵“For their mother has ^aplayed the harlot;She who conceived them has acted shamefully.For she said, ‘^bI will go after my lovers,Who ^cgive me my bread and my water,My wool and my flax, my ^doil and my drink.’⁶“Therefore, behold, I will ^ahedge up ¹her way with ^bthorns,And I will build ²a wall against her so that she cannot find her ^cpaths.⁷“So she will ^apursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;And she will seek them, but will not find them.Then she will say, ‘^bI will go, and I will return to my ^cfirst husband,For it was ^dbetter for me then than now!’⁸“Now she does ^anot know that it was ^bI who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil,And multiplied silver and gold for her,Which they ¹used for Baal.⁹“Therefore, I will ^atake back My grain at ¹harvest timeAnd My new wine in its season.I will also deliver My wool and My flax from themGiven to cover her nakedness.¹⁰“So now I will ^auncover her lewdnessIn the sight of her lovers,And no one will deliver her out of My hand.¹¹“I will also ^acease all her joy,Her ^bfeasts, her ^cnew moons, her sabbaths,And all her appointed times.¹²“And I will ^amake desolate her vines and fig trees,Of which she said, ‘These are my wagesWhich my lovers have given me.’And I will ^bmake them a forest,And the ^cbeasts of the field will devour them.¹³“So I will visit the ^adays of the Baals upon herWhen she used to ¹^,^boffer offerings in smoke to themAnd ^cadorn herself with her ²earrings and jewelryAnd go after her lovers, so that she ^dforgot Me,” declares Yahweh.

Yahweh’s Faithful Betrothal

¹⁴“Therefore, behold, I will allure her^aAnd bring her into the wildernessAnd speak to her heart.¹⁵“Then I will give her her ^avineyards from thereAnd ^bthe valley of Achor as a door of hope.And she will ¹^,^csing there as in the days of her youth,As in the ^dday when she came up from the land of Egypt.¹⁶“And it will be in that day,” declares Yahweh,“That you will call Me ¹^,^aIshiAnd will no longer call Me ²Baali.¹⁷“So ^aI will remove the names of the Baals from her mouthSo that they will be remembered by their names no more.¹⁸“And in that day I will cut a covenant for themWith the ^abeasts of the field,The birds of the sky,And the creeping things of the ground.And I will ^bbreak the bow, the sword, and war from the land,And I will make them ^clie down in security.¹⁹“And I will ^abetroth you to Me forever;Indeed, I will betroth you to Me in ^brighteousness and in justice,In lovingkindness and in compassion,²⁰And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.Then you will ^aknow Yahweh.²¹“And it will be in that day, that ^aI will answer,” declares Yahweh.“I will answer the heavens, and they will answer the earth,²²And the ^aearth will answer the grain, the new wine, and the oil,And they will answer ¹Jezreel.²³“And I will ^asow her for Myself in the land.^bI will also have compassion on ¹her who had not obtained compassion,And ^cI will say to ²those who were ^dnot My people,‘You are My people!’And ³they will say, ‘You are my God!’”