The Bible in Basic English BBE
Good News Translation GNT
1 Say to your brothers, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
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So call your fellow Israelites "God's People" and "Loved-by-the-Lord."
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;
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My children, plead with your mother - though she is no longer a wife to me, and I am no longer her husband. Plead with her to stop her adultery and prostitution.
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.
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If she does not, I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born. I will make her like a dry and barren land, and she will die of thirst.
4 And I will have no mercy on her children, for they are the children of her loose ways.
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I will not show mercy to her children; they are the children of a shameless prostitute. She herself said, "I will go to my lovers - they give me food and water, wool and linen, olive oil and wine."
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.
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.
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So I am going to fence her in with thorn bushes and build a wall to block her way.
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.
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She will run after her lovers but will not catch them. She will look for them but will not find them. Then she will say, "I am going back to my first husband - I was better off then than I am now."
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.
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She would never acknowledge that I am the one who gave her the grain, the wine, the olive oil, and all the silver and gold that she used in the worship of Baal.
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.
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So at harvest time I will take back my gifts of grain and wine, and will take away the wool and the linen I gave her for clothing.
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.
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I will strip her naked in front of her lovers, and no one will be able to save her from my power.
11 And I will put an end to all her joy, her feasts, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her regular meetings.
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I will put an end to all her festivities - her annual and monthly festivals and her Sabbath celebrations - all her religious meetings.
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.
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I will destroy her grapevines and her fig trees, which she said her lovers gave her for serving them. I will turn her vineyards and orchards into a wilderness; wild animals will destroy them.
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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I will punish her for the times that she forgot me, when she burned incense to Baal and put on her jewelry to go chasing after her lovers. The Lord has spoken.
14 For this cause I will make her come into the waste land and will say words of comfort to her.
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So I am going to take her into the desert again; there I will win her back with words of love.
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.
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I will give back to her the vineyards she had and make Trouble Valley a door of hope. She will respond to me there as she did when she was young, when she came from Egypt.
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;
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Then once again she will call me her husband - she will no longer call me her Baal.
17 For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and never again will she say their names.
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I will never let her speak the name of Baal again.
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.
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At that time I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and birds, so that they will not harm my people. I will also remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, and will let my people live in peace and safety.
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.
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Israel, I will make you my wife; I will be true and faithful; I will show you constant love and mercy and make you mine forever.
20 I will take you as my bride in good faith, and you will have knowledge of the Lord.
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I will keep my promise and make you mine, and you will acknowledge me as Lord.
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;
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At that time I will answer the prayers of my people Israel. I will make rain fall on the earth, and the earth will produce grain and grapes and olives.
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;
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.
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I will establish my people in the land and make them prosper. I will show love to those who were called "Unloved," and to those who were called "Not-My-People" I will say, "You are my people," and they will answer, "You are our God."
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.