web Hosea:2:2-23 SEEK
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Contend with your mother !
Contend ,
for she is not my wife ,
neither am I her husband ;
and let her put away her prostitution from her face ,
and her adulteries from between her breasts ;
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Lest I strip her naked ,
and make her bare as in the day that she was born ,
and make her like a wilderness ,
and set her like a dry land ,
and kill her with thirst .
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Indeed ,
on her children I will have no mercy ;
for they are children of unfaithfulness ;
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For their mother has played the prostitute .
She who conceived them has done shamefully ;
for she said , '
I will go after my lovers ,
who give me my bread and my water ,
my wool and my flax ,
my oil and my drink .'
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Therefore behold ,
I will hedge up your way with thorns ,
and I will build a wall against her ,
that she can '
t find her way .
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She will follow after her lovers ,
but she won '
t overtake them ;
and she will seek them ,
but won '
t find them .
Then she will say , '
I will go and return to my first husband ;
for then was it better with me than now .'
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For she did not know that I gave her the grain ,
the new wine ,
and the oil ,
and multiplied to her silver and gold ,
which they used for Baal .
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Therefore I will take back my grain in its time ,
and my new wine in its season ,
and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness .
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Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers ,
and no one will deliver her out of my hand .
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I will also cause all her celebrations to cease :
her feasts ,
her new moons ,
her Sabbaths ,
and all her solemn assemblies .
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I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees ,
about which she has said , '
These are my wages that my lovers have given me ;
and I will make them a forest ,'
and the animals of the field shall eat them .
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I will visit on her the days of the Baals ,
to which she burned incense ,
when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels ,
and went after her lovers ,
and forgot me ,"
says Yahweh .
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Therefore behold ,
I will allure her ,
and bring her into the wilderness ,
and speak tenderly to her .
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I will give her vineyards from there ,
and the valley of Achor for a door of hope ;
and she will respond there ,
as in the days of her youth ,
and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt .
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It will be in that day ,"
says Yahweh , "
that you will call me '
my husband ,'
and no longer call me '
my master .'
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For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth ,
and they will no longer be mentioned by name .
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In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field ,
and with the birds of the sky ,
and with the creeping things of the ground .
I will break the bow ,
the sword ,
and the battle out of the land ,
and will make them lie down safely .
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I will betroth you to me forever .
Yes ,
I will betroth you to me in righteousness ,
in justice ,
in loving kindness ,
and in compassion .
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I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness ;
and you shall know Yahweh .
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It will happen in that day ,
I will respond ,"
says Yahweh , "
I will respond to the heavens ,
and they will respond to the earth ;
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and the earth will respond to the grain ,
and the new wine ,
and the oil ;
and they will respond to Jezreel .
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I will sow her to me in the earth ;
and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy ;
and I will tell those who were not my people , '
You are my people ;'
and they will say , '
My God !'"