1 Say to your brothers,x[ch. 1:9] “You are my people, ” and to your sisters,y[ch. 1:6] “You have received mercy. ”
2 “Plead with your mother, plead—
forz[Isa. 50:1] she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put awaya[ch. 4:12; Ezek. 16:25] her whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts;
3 lestb[Ezek. 16:39] I strip her naked
and make her asc[Ezek. 16:4] in the day she was born,
andd[ver. 9; Ezek. 19:13] make her like a wilderness,
and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
4 ech. 1:6 Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
fch. 1:2 because they are children of whoredom.
5 Forg[ch. 1:2] their mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
Forh[ver. 12, 13] she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
whoi[ver. 8, 9; Jer. 44:17] give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. ’
6 ThereforejJob 3:23 I will hedge up her way with thorns,
andk[Job 19:8; Lam. 3:7, 9] 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.
l[Luke 15:17, 18] Then she shall say,
‘I will go and return tom[Isa. 54:5, 6] my first husband,
l[Luke 15:17, 18] for it was better for me then than now. ’
8 Andn[ver. 20; Isa. 1:3] she did not know
that it waso[Ezek. 16:19] I who gave her
pDeut. 7:13 the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished onqch. 13:2 her silver and gold,
r[Ezek. 16:17, 18] which they used for Baal.
9 Therefores[ver. 3; Joel 1:10] I will take back
my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season,
ands[ver. 3; Joel 1:10] I will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
10 NowtLam. 1:8; Ezek. 16:37; 23:29 I will uncover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
11 u[Jer. 7:34; Amos 8:10] And I will put an end to all her mirth,
her feasts, herv[Amos 8:5] new moons, herv[Amos 8:5] Sabbaths,
and all herw[ch. 9:5; Isa. 1:13, 14] appointed feasts.
12 Andx[Isa. 5:5] I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
y[ver. 5] of which she said,
‘These arez[Mic. 1:7] my wages,
which my lovers have given me. ’
I will make them a forest,
a[ch. 13:8] and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
13 Andb[ch. 4:9] I will punish her forc[ch. 11:2; 13:1, 2] the feast days of the Baals
when she burned offerings to them
anddEzek. 23:40; [Isa. 61:10] adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the Lord.
14
Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
ande[Ezek. 20:35] bring her into the wilderness,
andfIsa. 40:2 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 answerg[ch. 9:10; 11:1; Jer. 2:2; Ezek. 16:22, 60] as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
16 Andhver. 18, 21 in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband, ’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal. ’ 17 ForiZeph. 1:4; Zech. 13:2; [Ex. 23:13] I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 AndjEzek. 34:25; [Job 5:23] I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. AndkPs. 46:9; Isa. 2:4; 9:5; Ezek. 39:9, 10 I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down inlLev. 26:5; Jer. 23:6 safety. 19 And I will betroth you to mem[Ezek. 43:7] forever.n[ver. 7, 16; Jer. 3:14, 15; 2 Cor. 11:2] I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 n[See ver. 19 above] I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. AndoJer. 31:34; John 17:3 you shall know the Lord.
21 Andpver. 16 in that dayq[Zech. 8:12] I will answer, declares 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 answerr[ch. 1:4, 11] Jezreel,
23 ands[ch. 1:10]; See Ezek. 36:9-11 I will sow her for myself in the land.
AndtCited Rom. 9:25, 26 Iuch. 1:6 will have mercy on No Mercy,
andvch. 1:9; 1 Pet. 2:10 I will say to Not My People,wver. 1; Zech. 13:9; See Lev. 26:12; Jer. 31:33 ‘You are my people ’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God. ’ ”