2:1  [HOSEA], SAY to your brethren, Ammi [or You-are-my-people], and to your sisters, Ruhamah [or You-have-been-pitied-and-have-obtained-mercy].

2:2  Plead with your mother [your nation]; plead, for she is not My wife and I am not her Husband; [plead] that she put away her [marks of] harlotry from her face and her adulteries from between her breasts,

2:3  Lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her as a wilderness and set her like a parched land and slay her with thirst.

2:4  Yes, for her children I will have no love {nor} pity {nor} mercy, for they are the children of harlotry.

2:5  For their mother has played the harlot; she who conceived them has done shamefully, for she said, I will go after my lovers that give me my food and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my refreshing drinks.

2:6  Therefore, behold, I [the Lord God] will hedge up her way [even yours, O Israel] with thorns; and I will build a wall against her that she shall not find her paths.

2:7  And she shall follow after her lovers but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them [inquiring for and requiring them], but shall not find them. Then shall she say, Let me go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now.

2:8  For she has not noticed, understood, {or} realized that it was I [the Lord God] Who gave her the grain and the new wine and the fresh oil, and Who lavished upon her silver and gold which they used for Baal {and} made into his image.

2:9  Therefore will I return {and} take back My grain in the time for it and My new wine in the season for it, and will pluck away {and} recover My wool and My flax which were to cover her [Israel's] nakedness.

2:10  And now will I uncover her lewdness {and} her shame in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of My hand.

2:11  I will also cause to cease all her mirth, her feastmaking, her New Moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts {and} appointed festive assemblies.

2:12  And I will lay waste {and} destroy her vines and her fig trees of which she has said, These are my reward {or} loose woman's hire that my lovers have given me; and I will make [her plantations] an inaccessible forest, and the wild beasts of the open country shall eat them.

2:13  And I will visit [punishment] upon her for the feast days of the Baals, when she burned incense to them and decked herself with her earrings {and} nose rings and her jewelry and went after her lovers and forgot Me, says the Lord.

2:14  Therefore, behold, I will allure her [Israel] and bring her into the wilderness, and I will speak tenderly {and} to her heart.

2:15  There I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor [troubling] to be for her a door of hope {and} expectation. And she shall sing there {and} respond as in the days of her youth and as at the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

2:16  And it shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you will call Me Ishi [my Husband], and you shall no more call Me Baali [my Baal].

2:17  For I will take away the names of Baalim [the Baals] out of her mouth, and they shall no more be mentioned {or} seriously remembered by their name.

2:18  And in that day will I make a covenant for Israel with the living creatures of the open country and with the birds of the heavens and with the creeping things of the ground. And I will break the bow and the sword and [abolish battle equipment and] conflict out of the land and will make you lie down safely.

2:19  And I will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy.

2:20  I will even betroth you to Me in stability {and} in faithfulness, and you shall know (recognize, be acquainted with, appreciate, give heed to, and cherish) the Lord.

2:21  And in that day I will respond, says the Lord; I will respond to the heavens [which ask for rain to pour on the earth], and they shall respond to the earth [which begs for the rain it needs],

2:22  And the earth shall respond to the grain and the wine and the oil [which beseech it to bring them forth], and these shall respond to Jezreel [restored Israel, who prays for a supply of them].

2:23  And I will sow her for Myself anew in the land, and I will have love, pity, {and} mercy for her who had not obtained love, pity, {and} mercy; and I will say to those who were not My people, You are My people, and they shall say, You are my God!