Hosea

Hosea, chapter 2, New English Translation and King James Version

Chapter 2 New English Translation

   1 Then you will call your brother, "My People" (Ammi)! You will call your sister, "Pity" (Ruhamah)!

Idolatrous Israel Will Be Punished Like a Prostitute

   2 Plead earnestly with your mother (for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband), so that she might put an end to her adulterous lifestyle, and turn away from her sexually immoral behavior.
   3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked, and expose her like she was when she was born. I will turn her land into a wilderness and make her country a parched land, so that I might kill her with thirst.
   4 I will have no pity on her children, because they are children conceived in adultery.
   5 For their mother has committed adultery; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, "I will seek out my lovers; they are the ones who give me my bread and my water, my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine.

The LORD's Discipline Will Bring Israel Back

   6 Therefore, I will soon fence her in with thorns; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.
   7 Then she will pursue her lovers, but she will not catch them; she will seek them, but she will not find them. Then she will say, "I will go back to my husband, because I was better off then than I am now."

Agricultural Fertility Withdrawn from Israel

   8 Yet until now she has refused to acknowledge that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil; and that it was I who lavished on her the silver and gold - which they used in worshiping Baal!
   9 Therefore, I will take back my grain during the harvest time and my new wine when it ripens; I will take away my wool and my flax which I had provided in order to clothe her.
   10 Soon I will expose her lewd nakedness in front of her lovers, and no one will be able to rescue her from me!
   11 I will put an end to all her celebration: her annual religious festivals, monthly new moon celebrations, and weekly Sabbath festivities - all her appointed festivals.
   12 I will destroy her vines and fig trees, about which she said, "These are my wages for prostitution that my lovers gave to me!" I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees into an uncultivated thicket, so that wild animals will devour them.
   13 "I will punish her for the festival days when she burned incense to the Baal idols; she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but she forgot me!" says the LORD.

Future Repentance and Restoration of Israel

   14 However, in the future I will allure her; I will lead her back into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.
   15 From there I will give back her vineyards to her, and turn the "Valley of Trouble" into an "Opportunity for Hope." There she will sing as she did when she was young, when she came up from the land of Egypt.
   16 "At that time, " declares the LORD, "you will call, 'My husband'; you will never again call me, 'My master.'
   17 For I will remove the names of the Baal idols from your lips, so that you will never again utter their names!"

New Covenant Relationship with Repentant Israel

   18 "At that time I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. I will abolish the warrior's bow and sword - that is, every weapon of warfare - from the land, and I will allow them to live securely."
   19 I will commit myself to you forever; I will commit myself to you in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and tender compassion.
   20 I will commit myself to you in faithfulness; then you will acknowledge the LORD."

Agricultural Fertility Restored to the Repentant Nation

   21 "At that time, I will willingly respond, " declares the LORD. "I will respond to the sky, and the sky will respond to the ground;
   22 then the ground will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil; and they will respond to 'God Plants' (Jezreel)!
   23 Then I will plant her as my own in the land. I will have pity on 'No Pity' (Lo-Ruhamah). I will say to 'Not My People' (Lo-Ammi), 'You are my people!' And he will say, 'You are my God!'"

King James Version

   1 Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
   2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
   3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
   4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.
   5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
   6 ¶ Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
   7 And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
   8 For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
   9 Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.
   10 And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.
   11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
   12 And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
   13 And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.
   14 ¶ Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
   15 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
   16 And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.
   17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
   18 And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
   19 And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
   20 I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.
   21 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;
   22 And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.
   23 And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.