Hosea 2:7-15

7She will run after her lovers, but she will not catch them. She will look for them, but she will not find them. Then she will say, ‘Now I will return to my husband, as before. Life was better for me then than it is now.’

8She did not realize that I was the one who gave her everything that she needed. I gave her grain, wine and olive oil. I even gave her lots of silver and gold. But she used my gifts to worship Baal instead of me.

9So now I will take back the grain and the new wine that I gave her at harvest time. I will take away the wool and the linen. She will have no clothes to cover her bare body.

10I will remove her clothes for all her lovers to see her as she really is. Nobody will be able to rescue her from my power.

11I will stop the festivals that she enjoys each year. I will stop her feasts at the times of a new moon and on Sabbath days. I will stop all her parties.

12I will destroy her vines and her fig trees. She said that those were the things that her lovers paid to her. But I will make her gardens become like a forest. Only wild animals will eat the fruit from those trees.

13I will punish her because she burned incense to the idols of Baal. I will punish her because she made herself beautiful with jewels when she went to sleep with her lovers. I will punish her because she did those things but she forgot about me. That is what the Lord says.

14But listen! One day, I will speak kind words to her. I will lead her into the wilderness. I will tell her that I love her.

15There, I will give her the vineyards that she had before. I will change Trouble Valley into a place where there is hope. She will be happy with me there, as she was when she was young. That was the time when she came out of Egypt.