bhCited Rom. 9:25, 26
Hosea 2
Israel’s Unfaithfulness Punished
1 ▼▼Ch 2:3 in Hebrew
Say to your brothers, b“You are my people,” ▼▼Hebrew ammi, which means my people
and to your sisters, d“You have received mercy.” ▼▼Hebrew ruhama, which means she has received mercy
2“Plead with your mother, plead—for fshe is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put away gher whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts;
3lest hI strip her naked
and make her as iin the day she was born,
and jmake her like a wilderness,
and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
4 kUpon her children also I will have no mercy,
lbecause they are children of whoredom.
5For mtheir mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For nshe said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who ogive me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6Therefore pI will hedge up her ▼
▼Hebrew your
way with thorns,and rI will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
sThen she shall say,
‘I will go and return to tmy first husband,
ufor it was better for me then than now.’
8And vshe did not know
that it was wI who gave her
xthe grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on yher silver and gold,
zwhich they used for Baal.
9Therefore aaI will take back
my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season,
and abI will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
10Now acI will uncover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
11 adAnd I will put an end to all her mirth,
her feasts, her aenew moons, her afSabbaths,
and all her agappointed feasts.
12And ahI will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
aiof which she said,
‘These are ajmy wages,
which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
akand the beasts of the field shall devour them.
13And alI will punish her for amthe feast days of the Baals
when she burned offerings to them
and anadorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the Lord.
The Lord’s Mercy on Israel
14“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,and aobring her into the wilderness,
and apspeak tenderly to her.
15And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor ▼
▼ Achor means trouble; compare Joshua 7:26
a door of hope.And there she shall answer aras in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
16“And asin that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17For atI will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18And auI 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. And avI will abolish ▼
▼Hebrew break
the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in axsafety. 19And I will betroth you to me ayforever. azI will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 baI will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And bbyou shall know the Lord. 21“And bcin that day bdI will answer, declares the Lord,I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
22and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer beJezreel, ▼
▼ Jezreel means God will sow
23and bgI will sow her for myself in the land.
And bhI biwill have mercy on No Mercy, ▼
▼Hebrew Lo-ruhama
and bkI will say to Not My People, ▼
▼Hebrew Lo-ammi
bm‘You are my people’;and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”
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