4  ^eUpon her children also I will have no mercy,

^fbecause they are children of whoredom.

5  For ^gtheir mother has played the whore;

she who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For ^hshe said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

who ⁱgive me my bread and my water,

my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

6  Therefore ^jI will hedge up her¹ way with thorns,

and ^kI 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.

^lThen she shall say,

‘I will go and return to ^mmy first husband,

^lfor it was better for me then than now.’

8  And ⁿshe did not know

that it was ^oI who gave her

^pthe grain, the wine, and the oil,

and who lavished on ^qher silver and gold,

^rwhich they used for Baal.

9  Therefore ^sI will take back

my grain in its time,

and my wine in its season,

and ^sI will take away my wool and my flax,

which were to cover her nakedness.

10  Now ^tI will uncover her lewdness

in the sight of her lovers,

and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

11  ^uAnd I will put an end to all her mirth,

her feasts, her ^vnew moons, her ^vSabbaths,

and all her ^wappointed feasts.

12  And ^xI will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,

^yof which she said,

‘These are ^zmy wages,

which my lovers have given me.’

I will make them a forest,

^aand the beasts of the field shall devour them.

13  And ^bI will punish her for ^cthe feast days of the Baals

when she burned offerings to them

and ^dadorned herself with her ring and jewelry,

and went after her lovers

and forgot me, declares the Lord.

4  ^cTheir deeds do not permit them

to return to their God.

For ^dthe spirit of whoredom is within them,

and they know not the Lord.

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

Israel and ^fEphraim shall stumble in his guilt;

^fJudah also shall stumble with them.

6  ^gWith their flocks and herds they shall go

to seek the Lord,

^gbut they will not find him;

^hhe has withdrawn from them.

7  ⁱThey have dealt faithlessly with the Lord;

for they have borne alien children.

Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.