| New King James Version | New Living Translation |
| 1Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’ And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’ | 1 “In that day you will call your brothers Ammi—‘My people.’ And you will call your sisters Ruhamah—‘The ones I love.’ |
| 2“Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, And her adulteries from between her breasts; | 2“But now bring charges against Israel—your mother— for she is no longer my wife, and I am no longer her husband. Tell her to remove the prostitute’s makeup from her face and the clothing that exposes her breasts. |
| 3Lest I strip her naked And expose her, as in the day she was born, And make her like a wilderness, And set her like a dry land, And slay her with thirst. | 3Otherwise, I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born. I will leave her to die of thirst, as in a dry and barren wilderness. |
| 4“I will not have mercy on her children, For they are the children of harlotry. | 4And I will not love her children, for they were conceived in prostitution. |
| 5For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my water, My wool and my linen, My oil and my drink.’ | 5Their mother is a shameless prostitute and became pregnant in a shameful way. She said, ‘I’ll run after other lovers and sell myself to them for food and water, for clothing of wool and linen, and for olive oil and drinks.’ |
| 6“Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, And wall her in, So that she cannot find her paths. | 6“For this reason I will fence her in with thornbushes. I will block her path with a wall to make her lose her way. |
| 7She will chase her lovers, But not overtake them; Yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, For then it was better for me than now.’ | 7When she runs after her lovers, she won’t be able to catch them. She will search for them but not find them. Then she will think, ‘I might as well return to my husband, for I was better off with him than I am now.’ |
| 8For she did not know That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil, And multiplied her silver and gold— Which they prepared for Baal. | 8She doesn’t realize it was I who gave her everything she has— the grain, the new wine, the olive oil; I even gave her silver and gold. But she gave all my gifts to Baal. |
| 9“Therefore I will return and take away My grain in its time And My new wine in its season, And will take back My wool and My linen, Given to cover her nakedness. | 9“But now I will take back the ripened grain and new wine I generously provided each harvest season. I will take away the wool and linen clothing I gave her to cover her nakedness. |
| 10Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, And no one shall deliver her from My hand. | 10I will strip her naked in public, while all her lovers look on. No one will be able to rescue her from my hands. |
| 11I will also cause all her mirth to cease, Her feast days, Her New Moons, Her Sabbaths— All her appointed feasts. | 11I will put an end to her annual festivals, her new moon celebrations, and her Sabbath days— all her appointed festivals. |
| 12“And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, Of which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’ So I will make them a forest, And the beasts of the field shall eat them. | 12I will destroy her grapevines and fig trees, things she claims her lovers gave her. I will let them grow into tangled thickets, where only wild animals will eat the fruit. |
| 13I will punish her For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry, And went after her lovers; But Me she forgot,” says the LORD. | 13I will punish her for all those times when she burned incense to her images of Baal, when she put on her earrings and jewels and went out to look for her lovers but forgot all about me,” says the LORD. The LORD’s Love for Unfaithful Israel |
| 14“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Will bring her into the wilderness, And speak comfort to her. | 14“But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there. |
| 15I will give her her vineyards from there, And the Valley of Achor as a door of hope; She shall sing there, As in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. | 15I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt. |
| 16“And it shall be, in that day,” Says the LORD, “That you will call Me ‘My Husband,’ And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’ | 16When that day comes,” says the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’ instead of ‘my master.’ |
| 17For I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals, And they shall be remembered by their name no more. | 17O Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips, and you will never mention them again. |
| 18In that day I will make a covenant for them With the beasts of the field, With the birds of the air, And with the creeping things of the ground. Bow and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth, To make them lie down safely. | 18On that day I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and the birds of the sky and the animals that scurry along the ground so they will not harm you. I will remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, so you can live unafraid in peace and safety. |
| 19“I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy; | 19I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. |
| 20I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD. | 20I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the LORD. |
| 21“It shall come to pass in that day That I will answer,” says the LORD; “I will answer the heavens, And they shall answer the earth. | 21“In that day, I will answer,” says the LORD. “I will answer the sky as it pleads for clouds. And the sky will answer the earth with rain. |
| 22The earth shall answer With grain, With new wine, And with oil; They shall answer Jezreel. | 22Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries of the grain, the grapevines, and the olive trees. And they in turn will answer, ‘Jezreel’—‘God plants!’ |
| 23Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ” | 23At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself. I will show love to those I called ‘Not loved.’ And to those I called ‘Not my people,’ I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’ And they will reply, ‘You are our God!’” |
| The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Copyright © 1982 Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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