[1] Say to your brothers, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. [2] Take up
the cause against your mother, take it up, for she is not my wife, and I am
not her husband; let her put away her loose ways from her face, and her
false ways from between her breasts; [3] For fear that I may take away her
robe from her, making her uncovered as in the day of her birth; making her
like a waste place and a dry land, causing her death through need of water.
[4] And I will have no mercy on her children, for they are the children of
her loose ways. [5] For their mother has been untrue; she who gave them
birth has done things of shame, for she said, I will go after my lovers,
who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my
wine. [6] For this cause I will put thorns in her road, building up a wall
round her so that she may not go on her way. [7] And if she goes after her
lovers she will not overtake them; if she makes search for them she will
not see them; then will she say, I will go back to my first husband, for
then it was better for me than now. [8] For she had no knowledge that it
was I who gave her the grain and the wine and the oil, increasing her
silver and gold which they gave to the Baal. [9] So I will take away again
my grain in its time and my wine, and I will take away my wool and my linen
with which her body might have been covered. [10] And now I will make her
shame clear before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will take her out of
my hand. [11] And I will put an end to all her joy, her feasts, her new
moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her regular meetings. [12] And I will make
waste her vines and her fig-trees, of which she has said, These are the
payments which my lovers have made to me; and I will make them a waste of
trees, and the beasts of the field will take them for food. [13] And I will
give her punishment for the days of the Baals, to whom she has been burning
perfumes, when she made herself fair with her nose-rings and her jewels,
and went after her lovers, giving no thought to me, says the Lord. [14] For
this cause I will make her come into the waste land and will say words of
comfort to her. [15] And I will give her vine-gardens from there, and the
valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will give her answer there as
in the days when she was young, and as in the time when she came up out of
the land of Egypt. [16] And in that day, says the Lord, you will say to me,
Ishi; and you will never again give me the name of Baali; [17] For I will
take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and never again will she
say their names. [18] And in that day I will make an agreement for them
with the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven and the things which
go low on the earth; I will put an end to the bow and the sword and war in
all the land, and will make them take their rest in peace. [19] And I will
take you as my bride for ever; truly, I will take you as my bride in
righteousness and in right judging, in love and in mercies. [20] I will
take you as my bride in good faith, and you will have knowledge of the
Lord. [21] And it will be, in that day, says the Lord, that I will give an
answer to the heavens, and the heavens to the earth; [22] And the earth
will give its answer to the grain and the wine and the oil, and they will
give an answer to Jezreel; [23] And I will put her as seed in the earth,
and I will have mercy on her to whom no mercy was given; and I will say to
those who were not my people, You are my people, and they will say, My God.
