Hosea 2 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Confront your mother — confront her! She is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Tell her to wipe the look of a prostitute from her face and remove the signs of adultery from between her breasts.

Otherwise I will strip her naked, lay her bare as the day she was born, make her like a desert, turn her into a parched wasteland, and let her die of thirst.

I will show no compassion to her children, because they are children born from unfaithfulness.

Their mother has been unfaithful. The one who conceived them has acted shamefully. She said, 'I'll chase after my lovers — the ones who give me my bread and water, my wool and linen, my oil and drink.'

So watch — I'm going to block her path with thornbushes and wall her in so she can't find her way.

She will chase her lovers but never catch them, search for them but never find them. Then she'll say, 'I'm going back to my first husband — things were better for me then than they are now.'

She never acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, the olive oil — who lavished silver and gold on her, which they used to make images of Baal.

So now I'm going to take back my grain at harvest and my new wine when it ripens. I'll reclaim my wool and linen that were meant to cover her nakedness.

Now I will expose her shame in full view of her lovers, and no one will be able to rescue her from my hand.

I will put an end to all her celebrations — her festivals, her new moon gatherings, her Sabbath days, all her appointed feasts.

I will devastate her vineyards and fig trees — the ones she said, 'These are my payment from my lovers.' I'll turn them into wild thickets, and animals will devour them.

I will hold her accountable for all the days she burned offerings to the Baals, when she decked herself with rings and jewelry and chased after her lovers but forgot me completely. — this is Yahweh's declaration.

But look — I am going to win her back. I'll lead her out into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her heart.

Right there I will give her back her vineyards and turn the Valley of Trouble into a doorway of hope. She will respond there like she did when she was young, like the day she came up out of Egypt.

On that day — this is Yahweh's declaration — you will call me 'my husband' and never again call me 'my master.'

I will scrub the names of the Baals from her lips; their names will never be spoken again.

On that day I will make a binding agreement for them with the wild animals, the birds, and the creatures that crawl on the ground. I will shatter every bow, sword, and weapon of war in the land and let them lie down in safety.

I will make you mine forever. I will make you mine through justice and through what is right, through loyal love and through deep compassion.

I will make you mine through faithfulness, and you will truly know Yahweh.

On that day I will respond — this is Yahweh's declaration — I will respond to the sky, and the sky will respond to the earth.

The earth will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.

I will plant her for myself in the land. I will show compassion to the one I called 'No Compassion.' I will say to the ones I called 'Not My People': 'You are my people.' And they will say, 'You are my God.'

On that day I will respond — this is Yahweh's declaration. I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth.