4Accuse your mother, accuse!

for she is not my wife,

and I am not her husband.*

Let her remove her prostitution from her face.

her adultery from between her breasts,

5Or I will strip her naked,*

leaving her as on the day of her birth;

I will make her like the wilderness,

make her like an arid land,

and let her die of thirst.

6I will have no pity on her children,

for they are children of prostitution.

7Yes, their mother has prostituted herself;

she who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For she said, “I will go after my lovers,*

who give me my bread and my water,

my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.”c

8* Therefore, I will hedge in her way with thorns

and erect a wall against her,

so that she cannot find her paths.

9If she runs after her lovers, she will not overtake them;

if she seeks them she will not find them.

Then she will say,

“I will go back to my first husband,

for I was better off then than now.”d

10She did not know

that it was I who gave her

the grain, the wine, and the oil,

I who lavished upon her silver,

and gold, which they used for Baal,*

11Therefore I will take back my grain in its time,

and my wine in its season;

I will snatch away my wool and my flax,

which were to cover her nakedness.

12Now I will lay bare her shame

in full view of her lovers,e

and no one can deliver her out of my hand.f

13I will put an end to all her joy,

her festivals, her new moons, her sabbaths—

all her seasonal feasts.

14I will lay waste her vines and fig trees,

of which she said, “These are the fees

my lovers have given me”;

I will turn them into rank growth

and wild animals shall devour them.

15I will punish her for the days of the Baals,*

for whom she burnt incense,

When she decked herself out with her rings and her jewelry,

and went after her lovers—

but me she forgot—oracle of the Lord.g

16Therefore,* I will allure her now;

I will lead her into the wildernessh

and speak persuasively to her.

17Then I will give her the vineyards she had,

and the valley of Achor* as a door of hope.i

There she will respond as in the days of her youth,

as on the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

18On that day—oracle of the Lord—

You shall call me “My husband,”

and you shall never again call me “My baal.”*

19I will remove from her mouth the names of the Baals;

they shall no longer be mentioned by their name.

20I will make a covenant for them on that day,j

with the wild animals,

With the birds of the air,

and with the things that crawl on the ground.

Bow and sword and warfare

I will destroy from the land,

and I will give them rest in safety.

21I will betroth you to me forever:

I will betroth you to me with* justice and with judgment,

with loyalty and with compassion;

22I will betroth you to me with fidelity,

and you shall know the Lord.

23On that day I will respond—oracle of the Lord—

I will respond to the heavens,

and they will respond to the earth;

24The earth will respond to the grain, and wine, and oil,

and these will respond to Jezreel.

25I will sow her for myself in the land,

and I will have pity on Not-Pitied.

I will say to Not-My-People, “You are my people,”k

and he will say, “My God!”