| 2:1 | Say to your brothers, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. |
| 2:2 | Take up the cause against your mother, take it up, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; let her put away her loose ways from her face, and her false ways from between her breasts; |
| 2:3 | For fear that I may take away her robe from her, making her uncovered as in the day of her birth; making her like a waste place and a dry land, causing her death through need of water. |
| 2:4 | And I will have no mercy on her children, for they are the children of her loose ways. |
| 2:5 | For their mother has been untrue; she who gave them birth has done things of shame, for she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my wine. |
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| 2:6 | For this cause I will put thorns in her road, building up a wall round her so that she may not go on her way. |
| 2:7 | And if she goes after her lovers she will not overtake them; if she makes search for them she will not see them; then will she say, I will go back to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now. |
| 2:8 | For she had no knowledge that it was I who gave her the grain and the wine and the oil, increasing her silver and gold which they gave to the Baal. |
| 2:9 | So I will take away again my grain in its time and my wine, and I will take away my wool and my linen with which her body might have been covered. |
| 2:10 | And now I will make her shame clear before the eyes of her lovers, and no one will take her out of my hand. |
| 2:11 | And I will put an end to all her joy, her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her regular meetings. |
| 2:12 | And I will make waste her vines and her fig-trees, of which she has said, These are the payments which my lovers have made to me; and I will make them a waste of trees, and the beasts of the field will take them for food. |
| 2:13 | And I will give her punishment for the days of the Baals, to whom she has been burning perfumes, when she made herself fair with her nose-rings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, giving no thought to me, says the Lord. |
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| 2:14 | For this cause I will make her come into the waste land and will say words of comfort to her. |
| 2:15 | And I will give her vine-gardens from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will give her answer there as in the days when she was young, and as in the time when she came up out of the land of Egypt. |
| 2:16 | And in that day, says the Lord, you will say to me, Ishi; and you will never again give me the name of Baali; |
| 2:17 | For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and never again will she say their names. |
| 2:18 | And in that day I will make an agreement for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of heaven and the things which go low on the earth; I will put an end to the bow and the sword and war in all the land, and will make them take their rest in peace. |
| 2:19 | And I will take you as my bride for ever; truly, I will take you as my bride in righteousness and in right judging, in love and in mercies. |
| 2:20 | I will take you as my bride in good faith, and you will have knowledge of the Lord. |
| 2:21 | And it will be, in that day, says the Lord, that I will give an answer to the heavens, and the heavens to the earth; |
| 2:22 | And the earth will give its answer to the grain and the wine and the oil, and they will give an answer to Jezreel; |
| 2:23 | And I will put her as seed in the earth, and I will have mercy on her to whom no mercy was given; and I will say to those who were not my people, You are my people, and they will say, My God. |
Hosea 2 - Bible in Basic English
