Parallel Bible results for "hosea 2"

Hosea 2

English Standard Version ESV

1 Say to your brothers, "You are my people," and to your sisters, "You have received mercy."

2 "Plead with your mother, plead-- for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband-- that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts;

3 lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst.

4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom.

5 For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.'

6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths.

7 She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, 'I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.'

8 And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.

9 Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness.

10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

11 And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts.

12 And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, 'These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.' I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them.

13 And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the LORD.

14 "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.

15 And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

16 "And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal.'

17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.

18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.

19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.

20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.

21 "And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth,

22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel,

23 and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People,'You are my people'; and he shall say, 'You are my God.'"

The Message Bible MSG

1 Rename your brothers 'God's Somebody.' Rename your sisters 'All Mercy.' Wild Weekends and Unholy Holidays

2 "Haul your mother into court. Accuse her! She's no longer my wife. I'm no longer her husband. Tell her to quit dressing like a whore, displaying her breasts for sale.

3 If she refuses, I'll rip off her clothes and expose her, naked as a newborn. I'll turn her skin into dried-out leather, her body into a badlands landscape, a rack of bones in the desert.

4 I'll have nothing to do with her children, born one and all in a whorehouse.

5 Face it: Your mother's been a whore, bringing bastard children into the world. She said, 'I'm off to see my lovers! They'll wine and dine me, Dress and caress me, perfume and adorn me!'

6 But I'll fix her: I'll dump her in a field of thistles, then lose her in a dead-end alley.

7 She'll go on the hunt for her lovers but not bring down a single one. She'll look high and low but won't find a one. Then she'll say, 'I'm going back to my husband, the one I started out with. That was a better life by far than this one.'

8 She didn't know that it was I all along who wined and dined and adorned her, That I was the one who dressed her up in the big-city fashions and jewelry that she wasted on wild Baal-orgies.

9 I'm about to bring her up short: No more wining and dining! Silk lingerie and gowns are a thing of the past.

10 I'll expose her genitals to the public. All her fly-by-night lovers will be helpless to help her.

11 Party time is over. I'm calling a halt to the whole business, her wild weekends and unholy holidays.

12 I'll wreck her sumptuous gardens and ornamental fountains, of which she bragged, 'Whoring paid for all this!' They will soon be dumping grounds for garbage, feeding grounds for stray dogs and cats.

13 I'll make her pay for her indulgence in promiscuous religion - all that sensuous Baal worship And all the promiscuous sex that went with it, stalking her lovers, dressed to kill, And not a thought for me." God's Message! To Start All Over Again

14 "And now, here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to start all over again. I'm taking her back out into the wilderness where we had our first date, and I'll court her.

15 I'll give her bouquets of roses. I'll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope. She'll respond like she did as a young girl, those days when she was fresh out of Egypt.

16 "At that time" - this is God's Message still - "you'll address me, 'Dear husband!' Never again will you address me, 'My slave-master!'

17 I'll wash your mouth out with soap, get rid of all the dirty false-god names, not so much as a whisper of those names again.

18 At the same time I'll make a peace treaty between you and wild animals and birds and reptiles, And get rid of all weapons of war. Think of it! Safe from beasts and bullies!

19 And then I'll marry you for good - forever! I'll marry you true and proper, in love and tenderness.

20 Yes, I'll marry you and neither leave you nor let you go. You'll know me, God, for who I really am.

21 "On the very same day, I'll answer" - this is God's Message - "I'll answer the sky, sky will answer earth,

22 Earth will answer grain and wine and olive oil, and they'll all answer Jezreel.

23 I'll plant her in the good earth. I'll have mercy on No-Mercy. I'll say to Nobody, 'You're my dear Somebody,' and he'll say 'You're my God!'"