The Book of the Prophet Hosea

Say to your brothers, A people; and to your sisters, Mercy.

Strive! Strive with your mother, for she [is] not My wife, and I [am] not her husband. Therefore, let her put away her harlotries from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts,

that I not strip her naked and set her out as in the day that she was born, and make her as the wilderness, and place her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.

And I will not have pity for her sons, for they [are] the sons of harlotries.

For their mother has prostituted herself; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers who give my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.

Therefore, behold, I will hedge your way with thorns, and I will wall up her wall, that she shall not find her paths.

And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them. And she shall look for them, but she shall not find [them]. Then she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then [it was] better with me than now.

For she did not know that I gave her grain and wine and oil, and I multiplied her silver and the gold they prepared for Baal.

So I will return and take My grain in its time, and My wine in its season. And I will take back My wool and My flax [she uses] to cover her nakedness.

And now I will uncover her shamefulness to the eyes of her lovers, and a man shall not deliver her out of My hand.

I will also cause all her joy to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.

And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, of which she has said, They [are] my rewards that my lovers have given me. And I will set them for a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

And I will visit on her the days of the Baals in which she burned incense to them. Yea, she adorned herself with her nose rings, and her jewels, and she went after her lovers and forgot Me, says Jehovah.

Therefore, behold, I will lure her and bring her to the wilderness, and speak to her heart.

And from there I will give her vineyards to her, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope. And she shall answer there as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

And at that day, says Jehovah, you shall call Me, My husband; and you shall no more call me, My Baal.

For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth; and they shall no more be remembered by their name.

And in that day I will cut a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will break the bow and the sword, and the battle out of the earth, and I will make them to lie down safely.

And I will betroth you to Me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in mercy, and in compassions.

I will even betroth you to Me in faithfulness. And you shall know Jehovah.

And the earth shall hear the grain, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.

And I will sow her to Me in the earth. And I will have mercy on No Mercy. And I will say to Not My People, You are My people! And they shall say, My God!