Hosea 2:5-16

Their mother has acted like a prostitute; the one who became pregnant with them has acted disgracefully. She said, ‘I will chase after my lovers, who give me my food and water, wool and flax, wine and olive oil.’ So I will block her road with thornbushes; I will build a wall around her so she cannot find her way. She will run after her lovers, but she won’t catch them. She will look for them, but she won’t find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband, because life was better then for me than it is now.’ But she does not know that I was the one who gave her grain, new wine, and oil. I gave her much silver and gold, but she used it for Baal. “So I will come back and take away my grain at harvest time and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and linen that covered her nakedness. So I will show her nakedness to her lovers, and no one will save her from me. I will put an end to all her celebrations: her yearly festivals, her New Moon festivals, and her Sabbaths. I will stop all of her special feasts. I will destroy her vines and fig trees, which she said were her pay from her lovers. I will turn them into a forest, and wild animals will eat them. I will punish her for all the times she burned incense to the Baals. She put on her rings and jewelry and went chasing after her lovers, but she forgot me!” says the LORD. “So I am going to attract her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and I will make the Valley of Trouble a door of hope. There she will respond as when she was young, as when she came out of Egypt.” The LORD says, “In the future she will call me ‘my husband;’ no longer will she call me ‘my baal.’