Israel’s Adultery Rebuked 1 ULT Say to your brothers,“Ammi,” and to your sisters,“Ruhamah.” BSB BSB: “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’
2 ULT Contend with your mother, contend, for she{ is} not my wife, and I{ am} not her husband. And let her remove her prostitutions from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts, 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 ULT lest I strip her naked, and place her as{ on} the day of her being born, and I make her like the wilderness, and set her like a land of dryness, and I kill her with the thirst. 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 ULT And I will not have compassion on her children, for they{ are} children of prostitutions. BSB BSB: I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery.
5 ULT For their mother has prostituted{ herself}; the one who conceived them has acted shamefully, for she said,“Let me go after my lovers, the givers of my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my 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 ULT Therefore, behold me blocking your way with the thorns, and I will wall up a wall against her, and her paths she will not find. 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 ULT And she will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them, and she will seek them, but she will not find{ them}. And she will say,“Let me go and return to my first husband, for{ it was} better for me then than 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 ULT Therefore I will return and take my grain in its time, and my new wine in its appointed time, and I will snatch away my wool and my linen{ meant} to cover her 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 ULT And now I will uncover her lewdness to the eyes of her lovers, and no man will deliver her from my hand. 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 ULT And I will cause all of her joy to cease, her feast, her new moon, and her Sabbath, and all of her appointed festivals. BSB BSB: I will put an end to all her exultation: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths—all her appointed feasts.
12 ULT And I will devastate her vine and her fig tree, of which she said,“A payment they{ are} to me, which my lovers gave to me.” And I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field will eat them. 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 ULT And I will visit on her the days of the Baals, in which she burned{ incense} to them, and she put on her ring and her jewelry, and she went after her lovers, but me she forgot.— the declaration of Yahweh. 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 ULT And I will give to her her vineyards from there, and the Valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she will answer there as{ in} the days of her youth, and as{ on} the day of her going up from the land 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 ULT And I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they will no longer be remembered by their name. BSB BSB: For I will remove from her lips the names of the Baals; no longer will their names be invoked.
18 ULT And I will cut a covenant for them on that day, with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And bow and sword and battle I will break from the land, and I will make them lie down in safety. 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 ULT And I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you will know Yahweh. BSB BSB: And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.”
21 ULT And it will be on that day, I will answer— the declaration of Yahweh— I will answer the heavens, and they, they will answer the earth. 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 ULT And the earth will answer the grain and the new wine and the oil, and they will answer Jezreel. BSB BSB: And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.
23 ULT And I will sow her for myself on the earth, and I will have compassion on Lo Ruhamah, and I will say to Lo Ammi,“You{ are} my people,” and he, he will say,“My 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.’”