Israel’s Adultery Rebuked 1 UDB Call your male fellow Israelites, 'You are Yahweh's people,' and call your female fellow Israelites, 'Yahweh has been kind to you.'" BSB BSB: “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’
2 UDB Yahweh said to me, "I want you to accuse Israel, who is like a mother to you, of being like an unfaithful wife to me. This nation is no longer like a wife to me, and I am no longer like a husband to her. Tell Israel that they must stop acting like a prostitute; she must stop worshiping idols. Israel must stop worshiping idols. She must stop acting like a woman who leaves her husband and goes to other men. BSB BSB: Rebuke 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.
3 UDB If she does not stop, I will take her clothes off her and make her naked like she was when she was born. I will make her like the barren wilderness—dry and lifeless; I will make her like a woman dying from thirst in the desert. BSB BSB: Otherwise, 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.
4 UDB I will have no pity on her people, the people of Israel, because their nation is like a prostitute. BSB BSB: I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery.
5 UDB Israel is like a prostitute; she is like a woman who has had these children from doing shameful things with other men. Israel decided to hurry after these idols whom she loved, to worship other gods. She thought that it was those gods who gave her bread and water. She thought that it was those gods who gave her wool, linen, and olive oil, and also wine to drink. BSB BSB: For 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.’
6 UDB So I will block Israel's road with thornbushes, and I will build a wall around her, so that she cannot find the path to take. BSB BSB: Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way.
7 UDB Israel will run after her idols but she will not find them. She will search for her false gods, but she will not find them. Then, like a prostitute who wants to return to her husband, she will say to me, 'I will go back to you, the one I loved at first, because my life was better with you than it is now.' BSB BSB: She 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.’
9 UDB Therefore I will take away from Israel all the grain I gave them. When the wheat is ready for harvest, I will keep them from getting it. The new wine that I gave them, I will take it away. I will take away from them all the wool and linen I gave them to make clothes for themselves, the clothes that covered their nakedness. BSB BSB: Therefore 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.
10 UDB I will treat Israel as a man treats his wife when he finds her with other men. I will strip her naked in front of her lovers. No one will be able rescue her from what I will do to her. BSB BSB: And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands.
11 UDB I will make the people in Israel stop holding their celebrations; they will stop holding their festivals every year. They will no longer celebrate the beginning of every month. They will no longer celebrate the Sabbath days. They will no longer be able to hold the festivals scheduled throughout the year. BSB BSB: I will put an end to all her exultation: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths—all her appointed feasts.
12 UDB I will destroy all of Israel's grapevines and fig trees. This is because Israel is like a woman who says, 'These were the things that my lovers gave me in payment.' I, Yahweh, will turn those places into a forest, a thicket in which no vines can grow, and where wild animals will devour any fruit that grows there.' BSB BSB: I 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.
13 UDB I will punish this woman named Israel for all the times that she burned incense to worship the Baal idols. She decorated herself with rings and jewelry, as a prostitute would adorn herself for her lovers. She used to follow her lovers—like Israel has gone after the Baals—those false gods that she worshiped. And she forgot about me." This is what Yahweh says. BSB BSB: I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, when she adorned herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers. But Me she forgot,” declares the LORD.
God’s Mercy to Israel 15 UDB I will give her vineyards back to her once more, and in the Valley of Achor I will cause her to hope once more. She will answer me with love and delight, as it was back in the first days when we first loved each other— when I set her free, and she came up out of Egypt. BSB BSB: There 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.
17 UDB I will not allow Israel to speak the names of the images of Baal that she used to worship. My people will forget the names of those Baals and their idols, and my people Israel will never worship them again. BSB BSB: For I will remove from her lips the names of the Baals; no longer will their names be invoked.
18 UDB At that time I will make a covenant for them: it will be with all the wild animals and birds, and even with the little animals that crawl along the ground. They will never harm my people again. I will promise to remove all the weapons that are used for fighting battles, the bows and arrows, and the swords, and every war, I will take them all away and destroy all of them. And I will let all of my people rest in peace; they will be not be afraid anymore. BSB BSB: On 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 battle in the land, and will make them lie down in safety.
20 UDB I will keep my promise to you, Israel. I will never lie to you; and you will come to know me—my name is Yahweh. BSB BSB: And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.”
21 UDB At that time, I will help you," says Yahweh. "I will give a command to the sky, and the sky will pour out rain onto the ground. BSB BSB: “On that day I will respond—” declares the LORD—“I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth.
22 UDB And the ground will provide grain, new wine and olive trees, and they will grow for the people of Israel. BSB BSB: And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.
23 UDB At that time, I will take care of the Israelite people as a farmer plants his own land and takes care of his crops. I will show my love to those people whom I called 'Not my People'. And those whom I called 'Not my People', I will now call by a new name: 'You are my People'. They will say to me, 'You are our God.'" BSB BSB: And 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.’”