1 Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’
And to your sisters, ‘Mercyisshown.’
God’s Unfaithful People
2 “Bring charges against your mother, bring charges;
# Forsheisnot My wife, noramI her Husband!
# Let her put away herharlotries from her sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts;
3 LestI strip her naked
# And expose her, as in the day she wasborn,
And make her like a wilderness,
And set her like a dry land,
# And slay her withthirst.
4 “I will not have mercy on her children,
# For theyarethechildren of harlotry.
5 For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
# Who givememy bread and my water,
My wool and my linen,
My oil and my drink.’
6 “Therefore, behold,
# I will hedge up your way with thorns,
And wall her in,
So that she cannot find her paths.
7 She will chase her lovers,
But not overtake them;
Yes, she will seek them, but not findthem.
Then she will say,
# ‘I will go and return to myfirst husband,
For thenitwasbetter for me than now.’
8 For she did notknow
That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,
And multiplied her silver and gold—
Whichthey prepared for Baal.
9 “Therefore I will return and take away
My grain in its time
And My new wine in its season,
And will take back My wool and My linen,
Givento cover her nakedness.
10 NowI will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,
And no one shall deliver her from My hand.
11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease,
Her feast days,
Her New Moons,
Her Sabbaths—
All her appointed feasts.
12 “And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,
Of which she has said,
‘Thesearemy wages that my lovers have given me.’
So I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field shall eat them.
13 I will punish her
For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense.
She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And went after her lovers;
But Me she forgot,” says theLord.
God’s Mercy on His People
14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak comfort to her.
15 I will give her her vineyards from there,
# Andthe Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
# As inthe days of her youth,
# As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
16 “And it shall be, in that day,”
Says theLord,
“Thatyou will call Me ‘My Husband,’
And no longer call Me ‘My Master,’
17 ForI will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,
And they shall be remembered by their name no more.
18 In that day I will make acovenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
With the birds of the air,
Andwiththe creeping things of the ground.
# Bow and sword of battleI will shatter from the earth,
# To make themlie down safely.
19 “I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In lovingkindness and mercy;
20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
# Andyou shall know theLord.
21 “It shall come to pass in that day
# ThatI will answer,” says theLord;
“I will answer the heavens,
And they shall answer the earth.
22 The earth shall answer
With grain,
With new wine,
And with oil;
They shall answer Jezreel.
23 ThenI will sow her for Myself in the earth,
# And I will have mercy onherwhohadnot obtained mercy;
# ThenI will say tothosewhowerenot My people,
‘YouareMy people!’
And they shall say,‘You aremy God!’ ”