| English Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.” | 1Then you will call your brother, "My People" (Ammi)! You will call your sister, "Pity" (Ruhamah)! |
| 2“Plead with your mother, plead— for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband— that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; | 2Plead earnestly with your mother (for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband), so that she might put an end to her adulterous lifestyle, and turn away from her sexually immoral behavior. |
| 3lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. | 3Otherwise, I will strip her naked, and expose her like she was when she was born. I will turn her land into a wilderness and make her country a parched land, so that I might kill her with thirst. |
| 4Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. | 4I will have no pity on her children, because they are children conceived in adultery. |
| 5For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’ | 5For their mother has committed adultery; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, "I will seek out my lovers; they are the ones who give me my bread and my water, my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine. |
| 6Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. | 6Therefore, I will soon fence her in with thorns; I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. |
| 7She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’ | 7Then she will pursue her lovers, but she will not catch them; she will seek them, but she will not find them. Then she will say, "I will go back to my husband, because I was better off then than I am now." |
| 8And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. | 8Yet until now she has refused to acknowledge that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil; and that it was I who lavished on her the silver and gold--which they used in worshiping Baal! |
| 9Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. | 9Therefore, I will take back my grain during the harvest time and my new wine when it ripens; I will take away my wool and my flax which I had provided in order to clothe her. |
| 10Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. | 10Soon I will expose her lewd nakedness in front of her lovers, and no one will be able to rescue her from me! |
| 11And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. | 11I will put an end to all her celebration: her annual religious festivals, monthly new moon celebrations, and weekly Sabbath festivities--all her appointed festivals. |
| 12And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, ‘These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.’ I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them. | 12I will destroy her vines and fig trees, about which she said, "These are my wages for prostitution that my lovers gave to me!" I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees into an uncultivated thicket, so that wild animals will devour them. |
| 13And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the LORD. | 13"I will punish her for the festival days when she burned incense to the Baal idols; she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but she forgot me!" says the LORD. |
| 14“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. | 14However, in the future I will allure her; I will lead her back into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. |
| 15And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. | 15From there I will give back her vineyards to her, and turn the "Valley of Trouble" into an "Opportunity for Hope." There she will sing as she did when she was young, when she came up from the land of Egypt. |
| 16“And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ | 16"At that time," declares the LORD, "you will call, 'My husband'; you will never again call me, 'My master.' |
| 17For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. | 17For I will remove the names of the Baal idols from your lips, so that you will never again utter their names!" |
| 18And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. | 18"At that time I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. I will abolish the warrior's bow and sword--that is, every weapon of warfare--from the land, and I will allow them to live securely." |
| 19And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. | 19I will commit myself to you forever; I will commit myself to you in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and tender compassion. |
| 20I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD. | 20I will commit myself to you in faithfulness; then you will acknowledge the LORD." |
| 21“And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, | 21"At that time, I will willingly respond," declares the LORD. "I will respond to the sky, and the sky will respond to the ground; |
| 22and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, | 22then the ground will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil; and they will respond to 'God Plants' (Jezreel)! |
| 23and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’” | 23Then I will plant her as my own in the land. I will have pity on 'No Pity' (Lo-Ruhamah). I will say to 'Not My People' (Lo-Ammi), 'You are my people!' And he will say, 'You are my God!'" |
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