Hosea 2:6-23

New Living Translation

⁶ “For this reason I will fence her in with thornbushes.
    I will block her path with a wall
    to make her lose her way.
⁷ When she runs after her lovers,
    she won’t be able to catch them.
She will search for them
    but not find them.
Then she will think,
‘I might as well return to my husband,
    for I was better off with him than I am now.’
⁸ She doesn’t realize it was I who gave her everything she has—
    the grain, the new wine, the olive oil;
I even gave her silver and gold.
    But she gave all my gifts to Baal.

⁹ “But now I will take back the ripened grain and new wine
    I generously provided each harvest season.
I will take away the wool and linen clothing
    I gave her to cover her nakedness.
¹⁰ I will strip her naked in public,
    while all her lovers look on.
No one will be able
    to rescue her from my hands.
¹¹ I will put an end to her annual festivals,
    her new moon celebrations, and her Sabbath days—
    all her appointed festivals.
¹² I will destroy her grapevines and fig trees,
    things she claims her lovers gave her.
I will let them grow into tangled thickets,
    where only wild animals will eat the fruit.
¹³ I will punish her for all those times
    when she burned incense to her images of Baal,
when she put on her earrings and jewels
    and went out to look for her lovers
but forgot all about me,”
    says the Lord.

²¹ “In that day, I will answer,”
    says the Lord.
“I will answer the sky as it pleads for clouds.
    And the sky will answer the earth with rain.
²² Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries
    of the grain, the grapevines, and the olive trees.
And they in turn will answer,
    ‘Jezreel’—‘God plants!’
²³ At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites
    and raise them for myself.
I will show love
    to those I called ‘Not loved.’^[c]
And to those I called ‘Not my people,’^[d]
    I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’
And they will reply, ‘You are our God!’”