Hosea 2

1 “Say to your brothers, ‘My people!’ ¹ ‡ 1Pe 2:101Ti 1:13Ezk 37:27Hos 2:23Rom 11:30-312Co 4:1Exo 19:5-6Ezk 11:20 +5

and to your sisters, ‘My loved one!’ ²

2 Contend with your mother! ‡ Isa 50:1Ezk 16:25Ezk 23:45Jer 3:13Jer 3:1Hos 1:2Hos 2:5Jer 19:3 +9

Contend, for she is not my wife,

neither am I her husband;

and let her put away her prostitution from her face,

and her adulteries from between her breasts;

3 lest I strip her naked, ‡ Ezk 16:22Amo 8:11-13Ezk 19:13Isa 32:13-14Jer 13:22Exo 17:3Jer 22:6Ezk 16:37-39 +16

and make her bare as in the day that she was born,

and make her like a wilderness,

and set her like a dry land,

and kill her with thirst.

4 Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy, ‡ Ezk 8:18Ezk 9:10Hos 1:2Hos 1:6Jas 2:13Jer 13:14Jer 16:52Ki 9:22 +6

for they are children of unfaithfulness.

5 For their mother has played the prostitute. ‡ Jer 44:17-18Hos 2:8Hos 3:1Isa 1:21Hos 2:12-13Jer 3:1-9Dan 9:5-8Ezk 16:15-16 +18

She who conceived them has done shamefully;

for she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

who give me my bread and my water,

my wool and my flax,

my oil and my drink.’

6 Therefore behold, ³ I will hedge up your way with thorns, ‡ Job 19:8Lam 3:7-9Job 3:23Luk 19:43Luk 15:14-16

and I will build a wall against her,

that she can’t find her way.

7 She will follow after her lovers, ‡ Jer 2:2Hos 5:13Jer 14:22Luk 15:17-20Deu 8:17-18Ezk 23:22Ezk 23:4Hos 13:6 +25

but she won’t overtake them;

and she will seek them,

but won’t find them.

Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband,

for then it was better with me than now.’

8 For she didn’t know that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, ‡ Isa 1:3Ezk 16:16-19Hos 13:2Hos 4:11Hos 8:4Rom 1:28Act 17:23-25Dan 5:23 +13

and multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.

9 Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, ‡ Ezk 23:26Hag 1:6-11Hos 2:3Isa 17:10-11Mal 1:4Mal 3:18Dan 11:13Ezk 16:27 +7

and my new wine in its season,

and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.

10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, ‡ Ezk 23:29Luk 12:2-31Co 4:5Ezk 16:36-37Hos 13:7-8Hos 2:3Hos 5:13-14Isa 3:17 +5

and no one will deliver her out of my hand.

11 I will also cause all her celebrations to cease: ‡ Isa 1:13-14Amo 5:21Amo 8:5Jer 16:9Jer 7:34Rev 18:22-231Ki 12:32Amo 8:3 +7

her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.

12 I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, ‡ Isa 5:5Isa 7:23Hos 13:8Hos 2:5Hos 9:1Isa 29:17Isa 32:13-15Jer 26:18 +3

about which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me,’

and I will make them a forest,

and the animals of the field shall eat them.

13 I will visit on her the days of the Baals, ‡ Jdg 3:7Hos 13:6Hos 11:2Hos 13:1Jer 7:9Hos 4:6Hos 8:14Hos 9:7 +30

to which she burned incense

when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels,

and went after her lovers

and forgot me,” says the LORD.

14 “Therefore behold, I will allure her, ‡ Isa 40:1-2Ezk 20:35-36Rev 12:6Isa 30:18Gen 34:3Jhn 6:44Rev 12:14Rom 11:26-27 +24

and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her.

15 I will give her vineyards from there, ‡ Ezk 28:26Jer 2:2Hos 11:1Jos 7:26Act 14:27Amo 9:14Ezk 16:22Ezk 16:60 +16

and the valley of Achor for a door of hope;

and she will respond there

as in the days of her youth,

and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

16 It will be in that day,” says the LORD, ‡ Isa 54:5Hos 2:7Jer 3:14Rev 19:72Co 11:2Jhn 3:29Eph 5:25-27

“that you will call me ‘my husband,’

and no longer call me ‘my master.’

17 For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, ‡ Exo 23:13Jos 23:7Psa 16:4Zec 13:2Jer 10:11

and they will no longer be mentioned by name.

18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, ‡ Ezk 34:25Ezk 39:9-10Isa 11:6-9Psa 46:9Isa 65:25Jer 23:6Isa 2:4Job 5:23 +14

and with the birds of the sky,

and with the creeping things of the ground.

I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle out of the land,

and will make them lie down safely.

19 I will betroth you to me forever. ‡ 2Co 11:2Rev 21:2Isa 54:14Isa 54:8-10Ezk 37:25-28Jhn 3:29Psa 85:10Rev 19:7-9 +15

Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion.

20 I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; ‡ Jhn 17:31Jn 4:61Jn 5:20Jer 24:7Col 1:10Hos 2:19Ezk 38:23Jer 31:33-34 +10

and you shall know the LORD.

21 It will happen in that day, that I will respond,” says the LORD. ‡ Zec 8:12Isa 65:24Isa 55:10Mat 6:33Rom 8:321Co 3:21-23Zec 13:9

“I will respond to the heavens,

and they will respond to the earth;

22 and the earth will respond to the grain, and the new wine, and the oil; ‡ Jol 2:19Hos 1:11Hos 1:4Jer 31:12

and they will respond to Jezreel.

23 I will sow her to me in the earth; ‡ Rom 9:25-261Pe 2:9-10Zec 13:9Hos 1:9-10Rom 3:29Zec 2:11Rev 21:3-4Deu 26:17-19 +22

and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;

and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’

and they will say, ‘You are My God!’”