| Berean Study Bible | New Living Translation |
| 1“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’ | 1 “In that day you will call your brothers Ammi—‘My people.’ And you will call your sisters Ruhamah—‘The ones I love.’ |
| 2Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. | 2“But now bring charges against Israel—your mother— for she is no longer my wife, and I am no longer her husband. Tell her to remove the prostitute’s makeup from her face and the clothing that exposes her breasts. |
| 3Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst. | 3Otherwise, I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born. I will leave her to die of thirst, as in a dry and barren wilderness. |
| 4I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery. | 4And I will not love her children, for they were conceived in prostitution. |
| 5For their mother has played the harlot and has conceived them in disgrace. For she thought, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water, wool and linen, oil and drink.’ | 5Their mother is a shameless prostitute and became pregnant in a shameful way. She said, ‘I’ll run after other lovers and sell myself to them for food and water, for clothing of wool and linen, and for olive oil and drinks.’ |
| 6Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way. | 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. |
| 7She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will seek them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will return to my first husband, for then I was better off than now.’ | 7When 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.’ |
| 8For she does not acknowledge that it was I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, who lavished on her silver and gold—which they crafted for Baal. | 8She 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. |
| 9Therefore I will take back My grain in its time and My new wine in its season; I will take away My wool and linen, which were given to cover her nakedness. | 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. |
| 10And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands. | 10I will strip her naked in public, while all her lovers look on. No one will be able to rescue her from my hands. |
| 11I will put an end to all her exultation: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths—all her appointed feasts. | 11I will put an end to her annual festivals, her new moon celebrations, and her Sabbath days— all her appointed festivals. |
| 12I will destroy her vines and fig trees, which she thinks are the wages paid by her lovers. So I will make them into a thicket, and the beasts of the field will devour them. | 12I 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. |
| 13I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, when she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers. But Me she forgot,” declares the LORD. | 13I 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. The LORD’s Love for Unfaithful Israel |
| 14“Therefore, behold, I will allure her and lead her to the wilderness, and speak to her tenderly. | 14“But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there. |
| 15There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. | 15I will return her vineyards to her and transform the Valley of Trouble into a gateway of hope. She will give herself to me there, as she did long ago when she was young, when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt. |
| 16In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call Me ‘my Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘my Master.’ | 16When that day comes,” says the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’ instead of ‘my master.’ |
| 17For I will remove from her lips the names of the Baals; no longer will their names be invoked. | 17O Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips, and you will never mention them again. |
| 18On that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that crawl on the ground. And I will abolish bow and sword and weapons of war in the land, and will make them lie down in safety. | 18On that day I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and the birds of the sky and the animals that scurry along the ground so they will not harm you. I will remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, so you can live unafraid in peace and safety. |
| 19So I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in loving devotion and compassion. | 19I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. |
| 20And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.” | 20I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as the LORD. |
| 21“On that day I will respond—” declares the LORD—“I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth. | 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. |
| 22And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. | 22Then 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!’ |
| 23And I will sow her as My own in the land, and I will have compassion on ‘No Compassion.’ I will say to those called ‘Not My People,’ ‘You are My people,’ and they will say, ‘You are my God.’ ” | 23At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself. I will show love to those I called ‘Not loved.’ And to those I called ‘Not my people,’ I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’ And they will reply, ‘You are our God!’” |
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