Read the Bible

Israel's Unfaithfulness Condemned

^1 (F1)Say to your brothers, "^(F2)Ammi," and to your sisters, "^(F3)Ruhamah."

² "Dispute with your mother, ^(C1)dispute,
Because she is ^(C2)not my wife, and I am not her husband;
But she must remove her ^(C3)infidelity from her face
And her adultery from between her breasts,

³ Otherwise, I will strip her ^(C1)naked
And expose her as on the ^(C2)day she was born.
I will also ^(C3)make her like a wilderness,
Make her like desert land,
And put her to death with ^(C4)thirst.

⁴ "Also, I will take no pity on her children,
Because they are ^(C1)children of infidelity.

⁵ "For their mother has ^(C1)committed prostitution;
She who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, '^(C1)I will go after my lovers,
Who ^(C2)give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my flax, my ^(C3)oil and my drink.'

⁶ "Therefore, behold, I will ^(C1)obstruct ^(F1)her way with ^(C2)thorns,
And I will build ^(F2)a stone wall against her so that she cannot find her ^(C3)paths.

⁷ "And she will ^(C1)pursue her lovers, but she will not reach them;
And she will seek them, but will not find them.
Then she will say, '^(C2)I will go back to my ^(C3)first husband,
Because it was ^(C4)better for me then than now!'

⁸ "Yet she does ^(C1)not know that it was ^(C2)I myself who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil,
And lavished on her silver and gold,
Which they ^(F1)used for Baal.

⁹ "Therefore, I will ^(F1)(C1)take back My grain at ^(F2)harvest time
And My new wine in its season.
I will also take away My wool and My flax
That I gave to cover her nakedness.

¹⁰ "So now I will ^(C1)uncover her ^(F1)lewdness
Before the eyes of her lovers,
And no one will rescue her from My hand.

¹¹ "I will also ^(C1)put an end to all her joy,
Her ^(C2)feasts, her ^(C3)new moons, her Sabbaths,
And all her festivals.

¹² "And I will ^(C1)destroy her vines and fig trees,
Of which she said, 'They are my wages for prostitution
Which my lovers have given me.'
And I will ^(C2)turn them into a forest,
And the ^(C3)animals of the field will devour them.

¹³ "I will punish her for the ^(C1)days of the Baals
When she used to ^(F1)(C2)offer sacrifices to them
And ^(C3)adorn herself with her nose ring and jewelry,
And follow her lovers, so that she ^(C4)forgot Me," declares the LORD.

Restoration of Israel

¹⁴ "Therefore, behold, I am going to persuade her,
^(C1)Bring her into the wilderness,
And speak ^(F1)kindly to her.

¹⁵ "Then I will give her her ^(C1)vineyards from there,
And ^(C2)the ^(F1)Valley of Achor as a door of hope.
And she will ^(F2)(C3)respond there as in the days of her youth,
As in the ^(C4)day when she went up from the land of Egypt.

¹⁶ "And it will come about on that day," declares the LORD,
"That you will call Me ^(F1)(C1)my husband
And no longer call Me my ^(F2)Baal.

¹⁷ "For ^(C1)I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth,
So that they will no longer be ^(F1)mentioned by their names.

¹⁸ "On that day I will also make a covenant for them
With the ^(C1)animals of the field,
The birds of the sky,
And the crawling things of the ground.
And I will ^(F1)(C2)eliminate the bow, the sword, and war from the land,
And will let them ^(C3)lie down in safety.

¹⁹ "I will ^(C1)betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me in ^(C2)righteousness and in justice,
In favor and in compassion,

²⁰ And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.
Then you will ^(C1)know the LORD.

²¹ "And it will come about on that day that ^(C1)I will respond," declares the LORD.
"I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth,

²² And the ^(C1)earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine, and to the oil,
And they will respond to ^(F1)Jezreel.

²³ "I will ^(C1)sow her for Myself in the land.
^(C2)I will also have compassion on ^(F1)her who had not obtained compassion,
And ^(C3)I will say to ^(F2)those who were ^(C4)not My people,
'You are My people!'
And ^(F3)they will say, 'You are my God!'"