2  “Plead with ^qyour mother, plead—

for she is not my wife,

and I am not her husband—

that she put away her ^rwhoring from her face,

and her adultery from between her breasts;

3  lest 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.

4  Upon her children also I will have ^sno mercy,

because they are children of whoredom.

5  For 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.’

6  Therefore ^tI will hedge up her⁴ way with thorns,

and ^uI will build a wall against her,

so that she cannot find her paths.

7  She 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 ^vreturn to my first ^whusband,

for it was better for me then than now.’

8  And 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,

^xwhich they used for Baal.

9  Therefore 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.

10  Now I will ^yuncover her lewdness

in the sight of her lovers,

and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

11  And ^zI will put an end to all her mirth,

her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths,

and all her appointed feasts.

12  And I will lay waste her ^avines 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.

13  And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals

when she ^bburned offerings to them

and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,

and went after her lovers

and ^cforgot me, declares the Lord.

14  “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her.

15  And there I will give her her vineyards

and make the ^dValley of Achor⁵ 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.

21  “And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord,

I will answer the heavens,

and they shall answer the earth,

22  and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and they shall answer ^jJezreel,⁷

23  and I will sow her for myself in the land.

^kAnd ^lI will have mercy on ^mNo Mercy,⁸

and I will say to ⁿNot My People,^{9 o}‘You are my people’;

and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

4  Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,

for ^wthe Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.

There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,

and no ^xknowledge of God in the land;

2  there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;

they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

3  Therefore the land mourns,

and all who dwell in it languish,

and also the beasts of the field

and the birds of the heavens,

and even the ^yfish of the sea are taken away.

4  Yet let no one contend,

and let none accuse,

for with you is my contention, O ^zpriest.¹

5  You shall stumble by day;

the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;

and I will destroy ^ayour mother.

6  My people are destroyed ^bfor lack of knowledge;

because you have rejected knowledge,

I reject you from being a priest to me.

And since you have forgotten the law of your God,

I also will forget your children.

7  ^cThe more they increased,

the more they sinned against me;

I will change their glory into ^dshame.

8  They feed on the sin² of my people;

they are greedy for their iniquity.

9  ^eAnd it shall be like people, like priest;

I will punish them for their ways

and repay them for their deeds.

10  ^fThey shall eat, but not be satisfied;

they shall play the whore, but not multiply,

because they have forsaken the Lord

to cherish 11 whoredom, wine, and new wine,

which take away the understanding.

12  My people inquire of a piece of wood,

and their walking staff gives them oracles.

For a ^gspirit of whoredom has led them astray,

and they have left their God to play the whore.

13  They sacrifice ^hon the tops of the mountains

and burn offerings on the hills,

under oak, poplar, and terebinth,

because their shade is good.

Therefore your daughters play the whore,

and your brides commit adultery.

14  I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,

nor your brides when they commit adultery;

for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes

and sacrifice with cult prostitutes,

and a people ⁱwithout understanding shall come to ruin.

15  Though you play the whore, O Israel,

let not Judah become guilty.

Enter not into ^jGilgal,

nor go up to ^kBeth-aven,

and swear not, “As the Lord lives.”

16  Like a stubborn heifer,

Israel is stubborn;

can the Lord now feed them

like a lamb in a broad pasture?

17  Ephraim is joined to idols;

leave him alone.

18  When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring;

their rulers³ dearly love shame.

19  A wind has wrapped them⁴ in its wings,

and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

5  Hear this, O ^lpriests!

Pay attention, O house of Israel!

Give ear, O house of the king!

For the judgment is for you;

for you have been a snare at Mizpah

and a net spread upon Tabor.

2  And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter,

but I will discipline all of them.

3  I know Ephraim,

and Israel is not hidden from me;

for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore;

Israel is defiled.

4  Their deeds do not permit them

to return to their God.

For the ^mspirit of whoredom is within them,

and ⁿthey know not the Lord.

5  ^oThe pride of Israel testifies to his face;¹

Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt;

Judah also shall stumble with them.

6  With their flocks and herds they shall go

to seek the Lord,

^pbut they will not find him;

he has withdrawn from them.

7  They have ^qdealt faithlessly with the Lord;

for they have borne alien children.

Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

8  ^rBlow the horn in Gibeah,

the trumpet in Ramah.

Sound the alarm at Beth-aven;

we follow you,² O Benjamin!

9  Ephraim shall become a desolation

in the day of punishment;

among the tribes of Israel

I make known what is sure.

10  The princes of Judah have become

like those who ^smove the landmark;

upon them I will pour out

my wrath like water.

11  Ephraim is ^toppressed, crushed in judgment,

because he was determined to go after filth.³

12  But I am like a moth to Ephraim,

and like dry rot to the house of Judah.

13  When Ephraim saw his sickness,

and Judah his wound,

then Ephraim went to Assyria,

and sent to the ^ugreat king.⁴

But he is not able to cure you

or heal your wound.

14  For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,

and like a young lion to the house of Judah.

I, even I, will tear and go away;

I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.

15  I will return again to my place,

until they acknowledge their guilt and ^vseek my face,

and in their distress ^wearnestly seek me.

6  “Come, ^xlet us return to the Lord;

for he has ^ytorn us, that he may heal us;

he has struck us down, and he will ^zbind us up.

2  After two days he will revive us;

^aon the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

3  Let us know; let us press on to ^bknow the Lord;

his going out is sure as the dawn;

he will come to us as the showers,

as the spring rains that water the earth.”

4  ^cWhat shall I do with you, O Ephraim?

What shall I do with you, O Judah?

Your love is ^dlike a morning cloud,

like the dew that goes early away.

5  Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;

I have slain them by the words of my mouth,

and my judgment goes forth as the light.

6  For ^eI desire steadfast love¹ and not sacrifice,

the knowledge of God ^frather than burnt offerings.

7  But ^glike Adam they transgressed the covenant;

there they ^hdealt faithlessly with me.

8  ⁱGilead is a city of evildoers,

tracked with blood.

9  As robbers lie in wait for a man,

so the ^jpriests band together;

they murder on the way to Shechem;

they commit villainy.

10  In the house of Israel I have seen a ^khorrible thing;

^lEphraim’s whoredom is there; Israel is defiled.

11  For you also, O Judah, a ^mharvest is appointed.

When I ⁿrestore the fortunes of my people,