﻿Hosea.
Chapter 2.
Say to your brothers, “Ammi,” and to your sisters, “Ruhamah.” 
“Contend with your mother, contend, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove her prostitution from her face and her adultery from between her breasts, 
lest I strip her naked and leave her as on the day she was born, make her like a wilderness, turn her into a parched land, and kill her with thirst. 
I will have no compassion on her children, for they are children born of promiscuity. 
For their mother has prostituted herself; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. She said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and water, my wool and flax, my oil and drink.’ 
Therefore I will hedge up your way with thorns. I will wall her in, so that she cannot find her paths. 
She will pursue her lovers but not overtake them; she will seek them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband, for I was better off then than now.’ 
She did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, new wine, and oil, who lavished silver on her, and gold that they used for Baal. 
Therefore I will take back my grain in its time and my new wine in its season. I will reclaim my wool and flax that were to cover her nakedness. 
Now I will expose her shame before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will deliver her from my hand. 
I will put an end to all her rejoicing, her festivals, new moons, Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. 
I will lay waste her vines and fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’ I will make them a thicket, and the beasts of the field will devour them. 
I will punish her for the days of the Baals, when she burned incense to them, adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers, forgetting me, declares the LORD. 
Therefore I will allure her, lead her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart. 
From there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as on the day she came up from the land of Egypt. 
On that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My husband,’ and you will no longer call me ‘My Baal.’ 
I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they will no longer be remembered by name. 
On that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creatures that move along the ground. I will break bow and sword and end warfare in the land, and make them lie down in safety. 
I will betroth you to myself forever. I will betroth you to myself in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and compassion. 
I will betroth you to myself in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD. 
On that day I will answer, declares the LORD. I will answer the heavens, and they will answer the earth. 
The earth will answer the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and they will answer Jezreel. 
I will sow her for myself in the land. I will have compassion on Lo-ruhamah, and I will say to Lo-ammi, ‘You are my people,’ and he will say, ‘My God.’” 
