Bemidbar
This translation was taken from the JPS Tanakh
Hosea 2:1-22
Chapter 2
1 The number of the people of Israel shall be like that of the sands of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted; and instead of being told, “You are Not-My-People,” they shall be called Children-of-the-Living-God. 2 The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall assemble together and appoint one head over them; and they shall rise from the ground — for marvelous shall be the day of Jezreel!
3 Oh, call your brothers “My People,”
And your sisters “Lovingly Accepted!”
4 Rebuke your mother, rebuke her —
For she is not My wife
And I am not her husband —
And let her put away her harlotry from her face
And her adultery from between her breasts.
5 Else will I strip her naked
And leave her as on the day she was born:
And I will make her like a wilderness,
Render her like desert land,
And let her die of thirst.
6 I will also disown her children;
For they are now a harlot’s brood,
7 In that their mother has played the harlot,
She that conceived them has acted shamelessly —
Because she thought,
“I will go after my lovers,
Who supply my bread and my water,
My wool and my linen,
My oil and my drink.”
8 Assuredly,
I will hedge up her roads with thorns
And raise walls against her,
And she shall not find her paths.
9 Pursue her lovers as she will,
She shall not overtake them;
And seek them as she may,
She shall never find them.
Then she will say,
“I will go and return
To my first husband,
For then I fared better than now.”
10 And she did not consider this:
It was I who bestowed on her
The new grain and wine and oil;
I who lavished silver on her
And gold — which they used for Baal.
11 Assuredly,
I will take back My new grain in its time
And My new wine in its season,
And I will snatch away My wool and My linen
That serve to cover her nakedness.
12 Now will I uncover her shame
In the very sight of her lovers,
And none shall save her from Me.
13 And I will end all her rejoicing:
Her festivals, new moons, and sabbaths —
All her festive seasons.
14 I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
Which she thinks are a fee
She received from her lovers;
I will turn them into brushwood,
And beasts of the field shall devour them.
15 Thus will I punish her
For the days of the Baalim,
On which she brought them offerings;
When, decked with earrings and jewels,
She would go after her lovers,
Forgetting Me
— declares the Lord —
16 Assuredly,
I will speak coaxingly to her
And lead her through the wilderness
And speak to her tenderly.
17 I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the Valley of Achor as a plowland of hope.
There she shall respond as in the days of her youth,
When she came up from the land of Egypt.
18 And in that day
— declares the Lord —
You will call [Me] Ishi,
And no more will you call Me Baali.
19 For I will remove the names of the Baalim from her mouth,
And they shall nevermore be mentioned by name.
20 In that day, I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; I will also banish bow, sword, and war from the land. Thus I will let them lie down in safety.
21 And I will espouse you forever:
I will espouse you with righteousness and justice,
And with goodness and mercy,
22 And I will espouse you with faithfulness;
Then you shall be devoted to the Lord.
Taken from Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures, (Philadelphia, Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society) 1985.
Used by permission of The Jewish Publication Society. Copyright © 1962, 1992
Third Edition by the Jewish Publication Society.
No part of this text can be reproduced or forwarded without written permission.
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