Hosea 2
The LORD's Love for His Unfaithful People |
1 |
Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; 3 and to
your sisters, Ruha'mah. 4
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2 |
Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her
therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her
adulteries from between her breasts;
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3 |
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 slay her with thirst.
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4 |
And I will not have mercy upon her
children; for they be the children of whoredoms.
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5 |
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, mine oil and my drink.
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6 |
Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy
ways with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her
paths.
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7 |
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.
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8 |
For she did not know that I gave her
corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Ba'al.
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9 |
Therefore will I return, and take away my
corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and
will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her
nakedness.
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10 |
And now will I discover her lewdness in
the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine
hand.
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11 |
I will also cause all her mirth to cease,
her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn
feasts.
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12 |
And I will destroy her vines and her fig
trees, whereof 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.
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13 |
And I will visit upon her the days of
Ba'alim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself
with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and
forgat me, saith the LORD.
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14 |
Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto
her.
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15 |
And I will give her her vineyards from
thence, and the valley of Achor Josh. 7.24-26 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 up out of the land of
Egypt.
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16 |
And it shall be at that day, saith the
LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; 5 and
shalt call me no more Ba'ali. 6
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17 |
For I will take away the names of Ba'alim
out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their
name.
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18 |
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 things 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 safely.
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19 |
And I will betroth thee unto me for ever;
yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment,
and in loving-kindness, and in mercies.
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20 |
I will even betroth thee unto me in
faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.
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21 |
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;
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22 |
and the earth shall hear the corn, and
the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.
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23 |
And I will sow her unto me in the earth;
and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I
will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my
people; Rom. 9.25 · 1 Pet. 2.10 and they shall say, Thou art my
God.
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