The Lord’s Love for His Unfaithful People

Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’ And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’

For their mother has played the harlot; She who conceived them has behaved shamefully. 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 drink.’

She will chase her lovers, But not overtake them; Yes, she will seek them, but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, For then it was better for me than now.’

Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, And no one shall deliver her from My hand.

“And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, Of which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’ So I will make them a forest, And the beasts of the field shall eat them.

I will punish her For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense. She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry, And went after her lovers; But Me she forgot,” says the Lord.

Israel Will Return to God

Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.”

Their drink is rebellion, They commit harlotry continually. Her rulers dearly love dishonor.

For they have gone up to Assyria, Like a wild donkey alone by itself; Ephraim has hired lovers.

Judgment of Israel’s Sin

Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples, For you have played the harlot against your God. You have made love for hire on every threshing floor.

“I found Israel Like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers As the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal Peor, And separated themselves to that shame; They became an abomination like the thing they loved.

“All their wickedness is in Gilgal, For there I hated them. Because of the evil of their deeds I will drive them from My house; I will love them no more. All their princes are rebellious.

Ephraim is a trained heifer That loves to thresh grain; But I harnessed her fair neck, I will make Ephraim pull a plow. Judah shall plow; Jacob shall break his clods.”

God’s Continuing Love for Israel

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.

I drew them with gentle cords, With bands of love, And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them.

“A cunning Canaanite! Deceitful scales are in his hand; He loves to oppress.

“I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, For My anger has turned away from him.