Israel’s Adultery Rebuked 1 WBS Say ye to your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. BSB BSB: “Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’
2 WBS Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her prostitutions out of her sight, 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 WBS Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with 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 WBS And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they are the children of lewdness. BSB BSB: I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery.
5 WBS For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, 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 WBS Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. 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 WBS And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them : then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me 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 WBS Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will recover my wool and my flax given 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 WBS And now will I disclose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of 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 WBS I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. BSB BSB: I will put an end to all her exultation: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths—all her appointed feasts.
12 WBS And I will destroy her vines and her fig-trees, of which she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall 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 WBS And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, in which she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her ear-rings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith the LORD. 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 WBS And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came 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 WBS For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more 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 WBS And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping animals of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to 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 WBS I will even betroth thee to me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD. BSB BSB: And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.”
21 WBS And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear 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 WBS And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel. BSB BSB: And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.
23 WBS And I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them who were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art 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.’”