English Standard Version ESV
The Message Bible MSG
1 And the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins."
1
hen God ordered me, "Start all over: Love your wife again, your wife who's in bed with her latest boyfriend, your cheating wife. Love her the way I, God, love the Israelite people, even as they flirt and party with every god that takes their fancy."
2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley.
2
I did it. I paid good money to get her back. It cost me the price of a slave.
3 And I said to her, "You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you."
3
Then I told her, "From now on you're living with me. No more whoring, no more sleeping around. You're living with me and I'm living with you."
4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods.
4
The people of Israel are going to live a long time stripped of security and protection, without religion and comfort, godless and prayerless.
5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.
5
But in time they'll come back, these Israelites, come back looking for their God and their David-King. They'll come back chastened to reverence before God and his good gifts, ready for the End of the story of his love.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.