1 Say to your brothers, “My people {ammi: covenant community},” and to your sisters, “She has received mercy {ruhamah: shown compassion}.”
2 Contend with your mother, contend; for she is not my wife and I am not her husband. Let her remove her harlotries {zenuneyha: unfaithfulness} from her face and her adulteries {naapupheha: marital betrayals} from between her breasts.
3 Lest I {YHWH, Sovereign Judge} strip her naked and expose her as on the day of her birth {hivaldah: when she was brought forth}, and make her like a wilderness, set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.
4 I will not have mercy {arachem: show compassion} upon her children, for they are children of whoredoms {zenunim: licentious acts}.
5 For their mother has acted as a prostitute {zantah: covenant infidelity}; she who conceived them has brought shame {hovishah: public disgrace}. For she said, “I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread, my water, my wool, my flax, my oil, and my drink.”
6 Therefore, behold {hineni: emphatic opening}, I will hedge up her way with thorns and build her fence, and she will not find her paths {netivoteyha: habitual routes}.
7 She will pursue her lovers {meahaveha: illicit partners}, but she will not overtake them; she will seek them but will not find them. Then she will say, "I will go and return to my first husband {ishi harishon: original marriage partner}, for it was better for me then than now."
8 And she did not know that I {YHWH, Provider Of Blessings} gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil, and that I increased for her silver and gold, which they made for Baal {baal: Canaanite fertility god}.
9 Therefore I {YHWH, Faithful Discipliner} will return and take my grain {degani: claimed harvest} in its time and my new wine in its season, and I will snatch away my wool and my flax, intended to cover her nakedness.
10 And now I will uncover her lewdness {navlutah: moral disgrace} in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from My {YHWH, Sovereign Judge} hand.
11 I {YHWH, Judge Upholder} will cause to cease the joy {simchatah: celebratory delight} of her—her feast days, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her appointed festivals.
12 And I will make her vine and her fig tree desolate, which she said were my wages {etnah: payment for idolatry} that my lovers {meahavay: unfaithful companions} gave me. Then I will turn them into a forest, and the beast of the field will eat them.
13 And I will punish her for the days of the Baals, when she burned incense to them and adorned herself with her nose ring {nizmah: bridal ornament} and her jewelry; and she went after her lovers, but forgot Me, declares the LORD {YHWH, Righteous Judge}.
14 Therefore, behold, I {YHWH, Restoration Initiator} will allure her, lead her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart {libbah: inner self}.
15 And I {YHWH, Faithful Restorer} will give her her vineyards {kerem: renewed fruitfulness} 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 in the day of her coming up from the land of Egypt.
16 “And it shall be in that day,” declares the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Restorer}, “you will call Me my husband, and you will no longer call Me my master {baali: possessive lordship}.”
17 And I will remove the names of the Baals {baalim: Canaanite idols} from her mouth {pi: source of speech}, and they will not be remembered again by their name.
18 And I {YHWH, Covenant Initiator} will make for them a covenant {berit: binding agreement} on that day with the wild animal of the field, the bird of the heavens, and the creeping thing of the ground, and I will break the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will cause them to lie down in safety {labetach: secure protection}.
19 And I {YHWH, Restoring Husband} will betroth you to Me forever; yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness {tsedek: right dealing} and in justice, and in covenant loyalty, and in compassions.
20 And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness {emunah: Steady Loyalty}, and you will know the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Bridegroom}.
21 And it will come to pass in that day I will answer {e‘eneh: respond favorably}, declares the LORD {YHWH, Covenant Restorer}. I will answer the heavens and they will answer the earth.
22 And the earth {erets: receptive land} will answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they will answer Jezreel {Yizre'el: El Who Sows}.
23 And I will sow her for Myself in the land, and I will have compassion on No-mercy {lo-ruchamah: not shown mercy}; and I will say to Not-my-people, “You are My people,” and he will say, “My God {Elohai, Relational Redeemer}.”