Hosea 2

God’s Love Despite Israel’s Unfaithfulness

1 Say to your brothers, “My people,” and to your sisters, “Shown mercy.”

2 Call your mother out, call her out, because she is not acting like My wife, and I am not treating her like My woman. Tell her to quit the prostitution, quit throwing herself around, stop sleeping with lovers.

3 If she does not, I will strip her down, leave her exposed like the day she was born, turn her into dry land, make her die of thirst.

4 I will not even show love to her kids, because they are children born from cheating.

5 Their mother ran the streets, chasing her lovers, saying, “They give me my food, my water, my wool, my linen, my oil, my drinks.”

God’s Punishment and Mercy

6 So I am about to block her path with thorns, build a wall so she cannot find her way.

7 She will chase her lovers but will not catch them, look for them but will not find them. Then she will say, “Let me go back to my first husband, it was better with him than it is now.”

8 She did not realize it was Me who gave her the grain, the wine, the oil, who loaded her up with silver and gold, which she turned around and used on Baal.

9 So I am taking it back, My grain when it is time to harvest, My wine when it is time to drink. I am pulling back My wool and My linen that covered her nakedness.

10 I will expose her in front of her lovers, and nobody will be able to save her from My hands.

11 I am shutting down all her celebrations, her festivals, her new moons, her Sabbaths, all her so-called holy days.

12 I will destroy her vines and fig trees, the stuff she said her lovers paid her with, and I will turn it into a jungle where wild animals eat it up.

13 I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals, dressed herself up with rings and jewelry, chased after her lovers, and forgot all about Me, says the LORD.

God’s Promise of Restoration

14 But watch this, I am going to win her back, pull her into the wilderness, and talk to her heart.

15 I will give her back her vineyards, and I will turn the Valley of Trouble into a door of hope. She will respond like she did when she was young, like when she came up out of Egypt.

16 When that day comes, says the LORD, you will call Me “my husband,” not “my master.”

17 I will erase the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they will not even be remembered anymore.

18 On that day I will make a deal for them with the animals, birds, and everything crawling on the ground. I will break the bow and sword, wipe out war from the land, and let them lie down in peace.

19 I will marry you to Me forever, in righteousness, justice, faithful love, and mercy.

20 I will marry you to Me in faithfulness, and you will truly know the LORD.

21 On that day I will respond, says the LORD. I will answer the sky, the sky will answer the earth,

22 the earth will answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they will answer Jezreel.

23 I will plant her for Myself in the land. I will show mercy to the one called No Mercy. I will say to the one called Not My People, “You are My people,” and they will say, “You are my God.”