“Plead with your mother, plead—
    for (A)she is not my wife,
    and I am not her husband—
that she put away (B)her whoring from her face,
    and her adultery from between her breasts;
lest (C)I strip her naked
    and make her as (D)in the day she was born,
and (E)make her like a wilderness,
    and make her like a parched land,
    and kill her with thirst.
(F)Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
    (G)because they are children of whoredom.
For (H)their mother has played the whore;
    she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For (I)she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
    who (J)give me my bread and my water,
    my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

Read full chapter

Level a charge against your mother; plead with her!
    She is not my wife,
        and I am not her husband.
    Let her remove prostitution from her presence,
        and adultery from between her breasts,
    or else I will strip her naked
        and expose her as on the day she was born.
    I will make her like a desert,
        and turn her into a dry land,
        and make her die of thirst.
I will also have no compassion on her children
        because they are children of prostitution.
Their mother has played the prostitute;
        she who conceived them has behaved shamefully.
    She said, “I will seek out my lovers;
        they give me my bread and my water,
        my wool and my linen cloth, my oil and my drink.”

Read full chapter