Hosea 2

I Will Lead Her into the Wilderness and Speak to Her Heart

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Like the Sand of the Sea

2:1The number of Israel’s sons was like the sand of the sea, which will not be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ there they will be called sons of the living God.

2:2Judah’s sons and Israel’s sons will gather together, appoint one authority for themselves and come up from the land, for great is Jezreel’s day.

2:3Say to your brother, ‘My People,’ and to your sister, ‘Shown Mercy.’

Enter into Judgment with Your Mother

2:4“Enter into judgment with your mother, enter into judgment! For she is not My wife and I am not her husband. I will remove her prostitution from My face and her adultery from between her breasts,

2:5so that I may strip her naked and restore her as on the day of her birth. I will make her like a wilderness, set her like a waterless land and kill her with thirst.

2:6I will certainly show no mercy to her children, for they are children of prostitution.

2:7For their mother prostituted herself; she who bore them brought shame. She said, ‘I will follow my lovers, who give me my loaves and water, my garments and linen cloths, my oil and everything due to me.’

I Block Her Way with Thorns

2:8Therefore look, I block her way with thorns and will build up her roads, and she will certainly not find her path.

2:9She will pursue her lovers but certainly not catch them; seek them but certainly not find them. She will say, ‘I will go and return to my former husband, for it was better for me then than now.’

2:10She did not know that it was I who gave her grain, wine and oil and multiplied silver for her; but she made silver and gold objects for Baal.

2:11Therefore I will return and recover My grain at its season and My wine at its time; I will take away My garments and linen cloths so that they do not cover her shame.

2:12Now I will uncover her uncleanness before her lovers, and no one will certainly deliver her from My hand.

2:13I will turn away all her rejoicings, her festivals, new moons and Sabbaths, and all her festal assemblies.

2:14I will obliterate her vine and fig trees, whatever she said were ‘my wages that my lovers gave me.’ I will make them a testimony, and the field’s beasts, heaven’s birds and the earth’s creeping things will devour them.

2:15“I will exact vengeance upon her for the days of the Baalim, when she sacrificed to them, put on her earrings and necklaces and went after her lovers, but forgot Me,” says the Lord.

I Will Lead Her into the Wilderness

2:16“Therefore look, I will lead her astray, place her in a wilderness and speak to her heart,

2:17and from there I will give her her possessions and the Valley of Achor to open her understanding. There she will be humbled as in the days of her infancy and the days of her ascent from Egypt’s land.

2:18On that day,” says the Lord, “she will call Me ‘My Husband’ and no longer call Me ‘Baalim.’

2:19I will remove the names of the Baalim from her mouth, and they will certainly no longer remember their names.

2:20On that day I will establish a covenant for them with the field’s beasts, heaven’s birds and the earth’s creeping things. I will shatter bow, sword and war from the land and settle you in hope.

I Will Betroth You to Myself Forever

2:21I will betroth you to Myself forever; I will betroth you to Myself in righteousness and judgment, in mercy and compassion,

2:22and I will betroth you to Myself in faithfulness, and you will know the Lord.

2:23On that day,” says the Lord, “I will listen to heaven, and heaven will listen to the earth,

2:24and the earth will listen to grain, wine and oil, and they will listen to Jezreel.

2:25I will sow her for Myself upon the land, show mercy to Not Shown Mercy and say to Not My People, ‘You are My people.’ He will say, ‘You are the Lord my God!’”

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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.