Hosea 2:1-9 ▼

1 Say to your brothers, |Ammi,| and to your sisters, |Ruhamah.|

2 |Contend with your mother, contend, For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; And let her put away her harlotry from her face And her adultery from between her breasts,

3 Or I will strip her naked And expose her as on the day when she was born. I will also make her like a wilderness, Make her like desert land And slay her with thirst.

4 |Also, I will have no compassion on her children, Because they are children of harlotry.

5 |For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers, Who give [me] my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.'

6 |Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.

7 |She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them; And she will seek them, but will not find [them]. Then she will say, I will go back to my first husband, For it was better for me then than now!'

8 |For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil, And lavished on her silver and gold, [Which] they used for Baal.

9 |Therefore, I will take back My grain at harvest time And My new wine in its season. I will also take away My wool and My flax [Given] to cover her nakedness.