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20 Long ago you broke your yoke,(A)
    you tore off your bonds.
    You said, “I will not serve.”
On every high hill, under every green tree,
    you sprawled and served as a prostitute.[a]

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Footnotes

  1. 2:20 Served as a prostitute: idolatry (because Israel is the “bride” of God); cf. vv. 2–3.

Raise your eyes to the heights, and look,
    where have men not lain with you?
Along the roadways you waited for them
    like an Arabian[a] in the wilderness.
You defiled the land
    by your wicked prostitution.(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 3:2 An Arabian: here depicted as a marauder lying in wait for caravans.

Why should I pardon you?
    Your children have forsaken me,
    they swear by gods that are no gods.
I fed them, but they commit adultery;
    to the prostitute’s house they throng.

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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,

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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.