CHAPTER 2. ¹

1 Say to your brethren, "My people;" And to your sisters, "Beloved." --

2 Contend with your mother, contend; For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband: Let her then remove her fornications from her face,And her adulteries from the midst of her breasts;

3 Lest I strip her naked, And place her as on the day of her nativity, And set her as the desert, and set her as a dry land, And make her to die with thirst.

4 And her children I will not pity; For they are spurious children:

5 For the wanton has their mother played; With lewdness is she defiled who hath conceived them; For she said, -- "I will go after my lovers, Who give me my bread and my waters, My wool, and my flax, and my oil, and lily drink."

6 Behold, therefore, I will close up her way with thorns, And surround her with a mound, And her path she shall not find;

7 And she will follow her lovers, and shall not overtake them, And will seek them, and shall not find them; Then she will say, -- "I will go and return to my former husband, For better was it. with me then than now."

8 And she knew not that I gave to her corn, and wine, and oil, And multiplied to her the silver and the gold, Which they applied to Baal.

9 I will therefore return, and take away the corn in its time, And my new wine in its season; And will snatch away my wool and flax, By which she covered her own nakedness;

10 And I will now uncover her baseness before the eyes of her lovers, And no one shall rescue her from my hand;

11 And I will cause to cease all her joy and her mirth, Her new Moon, her sabbath, and every festal-day;

12 And I will destroy her vine and her fig-tree, Of which she said, -- "These are my rewards, Which my lovers have given me;" And will set them as the forest, And eat them shall the beast of the field;

13 And I will visit on her the days of Baalim, To whom she offered incense, And adorned herself with her earring and her chain, And went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith Jehovah.

14 Behold, therefore, I will turn her, When I shall have led her to the desert, And will speak to her heart;

15 And will give her thence her vineyards, And the valley of Achor for a door of hope; And there she will sing as in the days of her youth, And as in the day she ascended from the land of Egypt.

16 And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, That thou shalt call me, -- "My Husband," And shalt no more call me, -- "My Baal:"

17 And I will take away the names of Baalim from her mouth, And she will no more remember their name:

18 I will also make for them a covenant, in that day, With the beast of the field, and the bird of heaven, and the reptile of the earth; And the bow, and the sword, and the battle, I will break from the land; And I will make them rest in security:

19 I will also espouse thee to me for ever, And espouse thee to me in righteousness, And in judgment, and in kindness, and in mercies; And I will espouse thee to me in faithfulness, And thou shalt know Jehovah.

20 And in that day I will hear, saith Jehovah, I will hear the heavens, and they will hear the earth, And the earth will hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil, And these will hear Jezreel: And I will sow her for me in the land, And show mercy to her who obtained not mercy, And will say to Lo-ammi, -- "Ye are my people" And they will say, -- "Thou art our God."