| 1 | Say to your brother, "My people," and to your sister, "She has obtained pity." |
| 2 | "Plead with your mother, plead -- for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband -- that she put away her harlotry from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; |
| 3 | lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a parched land, and slay her with thirst. |
| 4 | Upon her children also I will have no pity, because they are children of harlotry. |
| 5 | For their mother has played the harlot; she that 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 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 shall pursue her lovers, but not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then she shall say, `I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better with me then than now.' |
| 8 | And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished upon her silver and gold which they used for Ba'al. |
| 9 | Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season; and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. |
| 10 | Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. |
| 11 | And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. |
| 12 | And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, `These are my hire, which my lovers have given me.' I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them. |
| 13 | And I will punish her for the feast days of the Ba'als when she burned incense to them and decked herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, says the LORD. |
| 14 | "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. |
| 15 | And there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. |
| 16 | "And in that day, says the LORD, you will call me, `My husband,' and no longer will you call me, `My Ba'al.' |
| 17 | For I will remove the names of the Ba'als from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. |
| 18 | And I will make for you a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety. |
| 19 | And I will betroth you to me for ever; I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. |
| 20 | I will betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD. |
| 21 | "And in that day, says the LORD, I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth; |
| 22 | and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel; |
| 23 | and I will sow him for myself in the land. And I will have pity on Not pitied, and I will say to Not my people, `You are my people'; and he shall say `Thou art my God.'" |
| 1 | Hear the word of the LORD, O people of Israel; for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or kindness, and no knowledge of God in the land; |
| 2 | there is swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds and murder follows murder. |
| 3 | Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air; and even the fish of the sea are taken away. |
| 4 | Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. |
| 5 | You shall stumble by day, the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother. |
| 6 | My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. |
| 7 | The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame. |
| 8 | They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity. |
| 9 | And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways, and requite them for their deeds. |
| 10 | They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the harlot, but not multiply; because they have forsaken the LORD to cherish harlotry. |
| 11 | Wine and new wine take away the understanding. |
| 12 | My people inquire of a thing of wood, and their staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of harlotry has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the harlot. |
| 13 | They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and make offerings upon the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the harlot, and your brides commit adultery. |
| 14 | I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with harlots, and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin. |
| 15 | Though you play the harlot, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-a'ven, and swear not, "As the LORD lives." |
| 16 | Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the LORD now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture? |
| 17 | E'phraim is joined to idols, let him alone. |
| 18 | A band of drunkards, they give themselves to harlotry; they love shame more than their glory. |
| 19 | A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their altars. |
| 1 | Hear this, O priests! Give heed, O house of Israel! Hearken, O house of the king! For the judgment pertains to you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. |
| 2 | And they have made deep the pit of Shittim; but I will chastise all of them. |
| 3 | I know E'phraim, and Israel is not hid from me; for now, O E'phraim, you have played the harlot, Israel is defiled. |
| 4 | Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of harlotry is within them, and they know not the LORD. |
| 5 | The pride of Israel testifies to his face; E'phraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with them. |
| 6 | With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the LORD, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them. |
| 7 | They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD; for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields. |
| 8 | Blow the horn in Gib'e-ah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth-a'ven; tremble, O Benjamin! |
| 9 | E'phraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment; among the tribes of Israel I declare what is sure. |
| 10 | The princes of Judah have become like those who remove the landmark; upon them I will pour out my wrath like water. |
| 11 | E'phraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after vanity. |
| 12 | Therefore I am like a moth to E'phraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah. |
| 13 | When E'phraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then E'phraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound. |
| 14 | For I will be like a lion to E'phraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will rend and go away, I will carry off, and none shall rescue. |
| 15 | I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress they seek me, saying, |
