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Say to your brothers, “My People,”
    and to your sisters, “Pitied.”

The Lord and Israel His Spouse[a]

Accuse your mother, accuse!
    for she is not my wife,
    and I am not her husband.[b]
Let her remove her prostitution from her face.
    her adultery from between her breasts,

Or I will strip her naked,[c]
    leaving her as on the day of her birth;
I will make her like the wilderness,
    make her like an arid land,
    and let her die of thirst.

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Footnotes

  1. 2:4–25 The section contains three oracles of doom (vv. 4–6, 7–9, 10–15), a transition (vv. 16–17), and three oracles of salvation (vv. 18–19, 20–22, 23–25).
  2. 2:4 The Lord speaks of Israel, still using the example of Hosea’s wife.
  3. 2:5 I will strip her naked: it was the husband’s responsibility to provide food and clothing for his wife (Ex 21:10) and now, because of her adultery, he takes back his support.

Otherwise I will strip(A) her naked
    and make her as bare as on the day she was born;(B)
I will make her like a desert,(C)
    turn her into a parched land,
    and slay her with thirst.
I will not show my love to her children,(D)
    because they are the children of adultery.(E)
Their mother has been unfaithful
    and has conceived them in disgrace.
She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,(F)
    who give me my food and my water,
    my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’(G)

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