LEB HOS chapter 2

The Unfaithful Wife

2 Say to your brother,[fn] “Ammi,”[fn]
and to your sister,[fn] “Ruhamah.”[fn]
2 Plead with your mother, plead—
- because she is not my wife,
  - and I am not her husband.
Let her put away her whoring from before her ,[fn]
- and her adultery from between her breasts.
3 Lest I strip her naked
- and expose her like the day when she was born;
I will make her like the desert
- and turn her into parched land;
  - I will kill her with thirst.
4 And I will not have pity on her children,
- because they are children of whoredom.
  - 5 Because their mother was unfaithful;[fn]
she who conceived them has acted shamefully,
- for she said:
  - “I will go after my lovers,
the ones who give me my bread, my water,
- my wool, and my flax,
  - my oil, and my drink.”
6 Therefore, Look!
- I am going to hedge her path[fn] with thorns ,[fn]
  - and I will build a stone wall, a stone wall against her,
- and she will not find her paths.
7 Then she will pursue her lovers ,[fn]
- but she will not overtake them;
  - she will seek them and not find them;
and she will say, “I will go
- and return to my first husband
- because it was better for me then than now.”
8 But she did not know
- that it was I who gave her
  - grain, new wine, and oil,
and who gave her silver in abundance,
- and gold which they made into a Baal.
9 Therefore I will take again
- my grain in its time,
  - and my wine in its season;
and I will take away my wool and my flax,
- which were to cover her nakedness.
10 And now I will uncover her nakedness
- before the eyes of her lovers,
  - and no one will rescue her from my hand.
11 And I will put an end to all her mirth,
- her festivals,[fn] her new moons,[fn] and her Sabbaths,[fn]
  - and all her appointed festivals;[fn]
12 and I will lay waste to her vines[fn] and her fig trees,[fn]
- of which she said,
  - “They are my payment for prostitution,
- which my lovers gave to me.”
I will make them a forest,
- and the wild animals[fn] of the field will devour them.
13 I will punish her[fn] for the days of the Baals,
- to whom she burns incense,
and she decked herself with her ornamental ring and jewelry,
- and she went after her lovers, and forgot me
  - —a declaration of Yahweh.
14 Therefore, Look! I am going to allure her
- and bring her into the desert,
  - and I will speak tenderly to her .[fn]
15 From there I will give her
- her vineyards,
  - and the Valley of Achor as a doorway of hope.
And there she will respond,
- as in the days of her youth,
- just as in the day of her coming out of
  - the land of Egypt.
16 And on that day —[fn]
- a declaration of Yahweh—
  - you will call me, “My husband;”[fn]
  - you will no longer call me, “My Baal.”[fn]
17 I will remove the names
- of the Baals from her mouth,
  - and they will no longer be mentioned by their name.
18 I will make a covenant for them on that day,
- with the animals[fn] of the field,
- with the birds[fn] of the heaven, and
- with the creeping things[fn] of the ground;
  - the bow, the sword, and the war I will abolish from the land, and I will let them lie down in safety.
19 And I will take you as my wife forever;
- I will take you as a wife for myself in righteousness and in justice,
  - in steadfast love and in mercy.
20 I will take you as my wife[fn] in faithfulness,
- and you will know Yahweh.
21 On that day I will answer, declares Yahweh ,[fn]
- I will answer the heavens,
  - and they will answer the earth.
22 And the earth will answer
- the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they will answer Jezreel.[fn]
- 23 I will sow her for myself in the land;
  - I will have pity on Lo-ruhama;[fn]
- I will say to Lo-ammi,[fn]
  - “You are my people,”
- and he himself will say, “ you are my God.”

2:? Hebrew “brothers”

2:? Ammi means “My people”

2:? Hebrew “sisters”

2:? Ruhamah means “Pitied”

2:? Literally “from her face”

2:? Or “their mother played the whore”

2:? Hebrew “your path”

2:? Literally “with the thorns”

2:? Literally “the ones who love her”

2:? Hebrew “festival”

2:? Hebrew “new moon”

2:? Hebrew “Sabbath”

2:? Hebrew “festival”

2:? Hebrew “vine”

2:? Hebrew “fig tree”

2:? Hebrew “animal”

2:? Literally “To visit sins upon her;” see 1:4

2:? Literally “I will speak to her heart”

2:? Literally, “And it will happen on that day”

2:? Hebrew “Ishi”

2:? Hebrew “Baali”

2:? Hebrew “animal”

2:? Hebrew “bird”

2:? Hebrew “creeping thing”

2:? Literally “I will take you as a wife to me”

2:? Literally “a declaration of Yahweh

2:? Jezreel means “God sows”

2:? Lo-ruhama means “Not pitied”

2:? Lo-ammi means “Not my people”

LEB HOS Chapter 2