CHAPTER 2

1 Say to your brother, My people, and to your sister, Pitied.

2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband: and I will remove her fornication out of My presence, and her adultery from between her breasts,

3 that I may strip her naked, and make her again as she was at the day of her birth; and I will make her desolate, and make her as a dry land, and I will kill her with thirst.

4 And I will not have mercy upon her children, for they are children of fornication.

5 And their mother went a-whoring; she that bore them disgraced them; for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my garments and my linen clothes, my oil and my necessaries.

6 Therefore behold, I shall hedge up her way with thorns, and I will stop her ways, and she shall not find her path.

7 And she shall follow after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them. And she shall say, I will go, and return to my former husband; for it was better with me than it is now.

8 And she knew not that I gave her her grain, wine, and oil, and multiplied silver to her; but she made silver and gold images for Baal.

9 Therefore I will return, and take away My grain in its season, and My wine in its time; and I will take away My wool and My linen clothes, so that she shall not cover her nakedness.

10 And now I will expose her uncleanness before her lovers, and no one shall by any means deliver her out of My hand.

11 And I will take away all her gladness, her feasts, and her festivals at the new moon, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.

12 And I will utterly destroy her vines, and her fig trees, all things of which she said, These are my hire which my lovers have given me; and I will make them a testimony, and the wild beasts of the field, and the birds of the sky, and the reptiles of the earth shall devour them.

13 And I will recompense on her the days of the Baals, in which she sacrificed to them, and put on her earrings, and her necklaces, and went after her lovers, and forgot Me, says the Lord.

14 Therefore behold, I will cause her to err, and will make her as desolate, and will speak comfortably to her.

15 And I will give her her possessions from there, and the Valley of Achor to open her understanding; and she shall be afflicted there according to the days of her infancy, and according to the days of her coming up out of the land of Egypt.

16 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, that she shall call Me, My husband, and shall no longer call me Baalim.

17 And I will take away the names of the Baals from out of her mouth, and their names shall be remembered no more.

18 And I will make for them in that day a covenant with the wild beasts of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the reptiles of the earth; and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle from off the earth, and will cause you to dwell safely.

19 And I will betroth you to Myself forever; yes, I will betroth you to Myself in righteousness, in judgment, in mercy, and in tender compassions;

20 and I will betroth you to Myself in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.

21 And it shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord, that I will hearken to the heavens, and they shall hearken to the earth;

22 and the earth shall hearken to the grain, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hearken to Jezreel.

23 And I will sow her to Me on the earth; and will love her that was not loved, and I will say to those who were not My people, You are My people; and they shall say, You are the Lord my God.