| English Standard Version | New Living Translation |
| 1Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.” | 1 “In that day you will call your brothers Ammi—‘My people.’ And you will call your sisters Ruhamah—‘The ones I love.’ |
| 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; | 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. |
| 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 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. |
| 4Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. | 4And I will not love her children, for they were conceived in prostitution. |
| 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.’ | 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 I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. | 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 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.’ | 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.’ |
| 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. | 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 wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were 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. |
| 10Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. | 10I will strip her naked in public, while all her lovers look on. No one will be able to rescue her from my hands. |
| 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 her annual festivals, her new moon celebrations, and her Sabbath days— 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 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. |
| 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. | 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 bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. | 14“But then I will win her back once again. I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there. |
| 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. | 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. |
| 16“And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ | 16When that day comes,” says the LORD, “you will call me ‘my husband’ instead of ‘my master.’ |
| 17For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. | 17O Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips, and you will never mention them again. |
| 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. | 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. |
| 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 make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion. |
| 20I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD. | 20I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as 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“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 shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer 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 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.’” | 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!’” |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved. |
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