Hosea 2:4-15

4I will have no compassion on her children because they are the children of promiscuity.

5Yes, their mother is promiscuous; she conceived them and acted shamefully. For she thought, “I will follow my lovers, the men who give me my food and water, my wool and flax, my oil and drink.”

6Therefore, this is what I will do: I will block her way with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so that she cannot find her paths.

7She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will think, “I will go back to my former husband, for then it was better for me than now.”

8She does not recognize that it is I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil. I lavished silver and gold on her, which they used for Baal.

9Therefore, 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 to cover her nakedness.

10Now I will expose her shame in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my power.

11I will put an end to all her celebrations: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths — all her festivals.

12I will devastate her vines and fig trees. She thinks that these are her wages that her lovers have given her. I will turn them into a thicket, and the wild animals will eat them.

13And I will punish her for the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense. She put on her rings and her jewelry and followed her lovers, but she forgot me. This is the Lord’s declaration.

14Therefore, I am going to persuade her, lead her to the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.

15There I will give her vineyards back to her 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 out of the land of Egypt.