Hosea
Chapter 2
1 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the
sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to
pass that, instead of that which was said unto them: 'Ye are not My people', it
shall be said unto them: 'Ye are the children of the living G-d.'
2 And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall
be gathered together, and they shall appoint themselves one head, and shall go
up out of the land; for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
3 Say ye unto your brethren: 'Ammi'; and to your sisters, 'Ruhamah.'
4 Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not My wife,
neither am I her husband; and let her put away her harlotries from her face, and
her adulteries from between her breasts;
5 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.
6 And I will not have compassion upon her children; for they
are children of harlotry.
7 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.'
8 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and
I will make a wall against her, that she shall not find her paths.
9 And she shall run 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.'
10 For she did not know that it was I that gave her the corn,
and the wine, and the oil, and multiplied unto her silver and gold, which they
used for Baal.
11 Therefore will I take back My corn in the time thereof,
and My wine in the season thereof, and will snatch away My wool and My flax
given to cover her nakedness.
12 And now will I uncover her shame in the sight of her
lovers, and none shall deliver her out of My hand.
13 I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feasts, her
new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her appointed seasons.
14 And I will lay waste her vines and her fig-trees, whereof
she hath said: 'These are my hire that my lovers have given me'; and I will make
them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
15 And I will visit upon her the days of the Baalim, wherein
she offered unto them, and decked herself with her ear-rings and her jewels, and
went after her lovers, and forgot Me, saith HaShem.
16 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into
the wilderness, and speak tenderly unto her.
17 And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the
valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall respond there, as in the days
of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
18 And it shall be at that day, saith HaShem, that thou shalt
call Me Ishi, and shalt call Me no more Baali.
19 For I will take away the names of the Baalim out of her
mouth, and they shall no more be mentioned by their name.
20 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
land, and will make them to lie down safely.
21 And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever; yea, I will
betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in justice, and in lovingkindness,
and in compassion.
22 And I will betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness; and thou
shalt know HaShem.
23 And it shall come to pass in that day, I will respond,
saith HaShem, I will respond to the heavens, and they shall respond to the
earth;
24 And the earth shall respond to the corn, and the wine, and
the oil; and they shall respond to Jezreel.
25 And I will sow her unto Me in the land; and I will have
compassion upon her that had not obtained compassion; and I will say to them
that were not My people: 'Thou art My people'; and they shall say: 'Thou art my
G-d.'
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