Israel’s Unfaithfulness Condemned

      1Say to your brothers, “Ammi,” and to your sisters, “Ruhamah.”

2“Contend with your mother, contend,
         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,

3Or I will strip her naked
         And expose her as on the day when she was born.
         I will also make her like a wilderness,
         Make her like desert land
         And slay her with thirst.

4“Also, I will have no compassion on her children,
         Because they are children of harlotry.

5“For their mother has played the harlot;
         She who conceived them has acted 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.’

6“Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns,
         And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.

7“She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;
         And she will seek them, but will not find them.
         Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband,
         For it was better for me then than now!’

8“For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil,
         And lavished on her silver and gold,
         Which they used for Baal.

9“Therefore, I will take back My grain at harvest time
         And My new wine in its season.
         I will also take away My wool and My flax
         Given to cover her nakedness.

10“And then I will uncover her lewdness
         In the sight of her lovers,
         And no one will rescue her out of My hand.

11“I will also put an end to all her gaiety,
         Her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths
         And all her festal assemblies.

12“I will destroy her vines and fig trees,
         Of which she said, ‘These are my wages
         Which my lovers have given me.’
         And I will make them a forest,
         And the beasts of the field will devour them.

13“I will punish her for the days of the Baals
         When she used to offer sacrifices to them
         And adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry,
         And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the LORD.

Restoration of Israel

14“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
         Bring her into the wilderness
         And speak kindly to her.

15“Then I will give her her vineyards from there,
         And the valley of Achor as a door of hope.
         And she will sing there as in the days of her youth,
         As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

16“It will come about in that day,” declares the LORD,
         “That you will call Me Ishi
         And will no longer call Me Baali.

17“For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth,
         So that they will be mentioned by their names no more.

18“In that day I will also make a covenant for them
         With the beasts of the field,
         The birds of the sky
         And the creeping things of the ground.
         And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land,
         And will make them lie down in safety.

19“I will betroth you to Me forever;
         Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice,
         In lovingkindness and in compassion,

20And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.
         Then you will know the LORD.

21“It will come about in that day that I will respond,” declares the LORD.
         “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth,

22And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and to the oil,
         And they will respond to Jezreel.

23“I will sow her for Myself in the land.
         I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion,
         And I will say to those who were not My people,
         ‘You are My people!’
         And they will say, ‘You are my God!’”

NASB ©1995

American Standard Version
Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Say ye to your brethren: You are my people, and to your sister: Thou hast obtained mercy.

Darby Bible Translation
Say unto your brethren Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

English Revised Version
Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

Webster's Bible Translation
Say ye to your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

World English Bible
"Say to your brothers, 'My people!' and to your sisters, 'My loved one!'

Young's Literal Translation
'Say ye to your brethren -- Ammi, And to your sisters -- Ruhamah.The Valley of Achor
'I will give her ... the valley of Achor for a door of hope.'--HOSEA II. 15. The Prophet Hosea is remarkable for the frequent use which he makes of events in the former history of his people. Their past seems to him a mirror in which they may read their future. He believes that 'which is to be hath already been,' the great principles of the divine government living on through all the ages, and issuing in similar acts when the circumstances are similar. So he foretells that there will yet be once …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Unknown Giver and the Misused Gifts
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Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 38: 1892

27TH DAY. Everlasting Espousals.
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John Ross Macduff—The Faithful Promiser

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"I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there." -- Hosea 2:14,15. "I know, O Lord, that Thy judgments are right, and that Thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me." -- Psalm 119:75. I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength -- Thee shall my rescued heart embrace; Thy love, in all its breadth and length, Shall be my peaceful dwelling place. Whom have …
Miss A. L. Waring—Hymns and Meditations

The Secret of his Pavilion
Gerhard Ter Steegen Hos. ii. 14 Allured into the desert, with God alone, apart, There spirit meeteth spirit, there speaketh heart to heart. Far, far on that untrodden shore, God's secret place I find, Alone I pass the golden door, the dearest left behind. There God and I--none other; oh far from men to be! Nay, midst the crowd and tumult, still, Lord, alone with Thee. Still folded close upon Thy breast, in field, and mart, and street, Untroubled in that perfect rest, that isolation sweet. O God, …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen, Suso, and Others

And After. (xxx, xxxi, xxxix-Xliv. )
There are two separated accounts of what befel Jeremiah when the city was taken. Ch. XXXIX. 3, 14 tells us that he was fetched from the guard-court by Babylonian officers,(609) and given to Gedaliah, the son of his old befriender Ahikam, to be taken home.(610) At last!--but for only a brief interval in the life of this homeless and harried man. When a few months later Nebusaradan arrived on his mission to burn the city and deport the inhabitants Jeremiah is said by Ch. XL to have been carried off …
George Adam Smith—Jeremiah

And that this Race was to Become an Holy People was Declared in the Twelve...
And that this race was to become an holy people was declared in the Twelve Prophets [283] by Hosea, thus: I will call that which was not (my) people, my people; and her that was not beloved, beloved. It shall come to pass that in the place where it was called not my people, there shall they be called sons of the Living God. (Hos. ii. 23, i. 10) This also is that which was said by John the Baptist: That God is able of these stones to raise up sons to Abraham. For our hearts being withdrawn and taken …
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching

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The Major Prophets are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. The twelve prophetic books in the Old Testament following the book of Daniel are called the Minor Prophets. In the writings of both classes we find many allusions and predictions as to the entire sanctification of believers in the gospel dispensation and under the reign of Messiah or Christ. The sixth chapter of Isaiah is usually regarded as his call to the prophetic office. Whether this be so or not, it records a very wonderful experience …
Dougan Clark—The Theology of Holiness

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We need not enter into details regarding the question as to the time when the prophet wrote. By a thorough argumentation, Caspari has proved, that he occupies his right position in the Canon, and hence belongs to the earliest age of written prophecy, i.e., to the time of Jeroboam II. and Uzziah. As bearing conclusively against those who would assign to him a far later date, viz., the time of the exile, there is not only the indirect testimony borne by the place which this prophecy occupies in …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

The Controversy Concerning Fasting
"And John's disciples and the Pharisees were fasting: and they come and say unto Him, Why do John's disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but Thy disciples fast not?" MARK 2:18 (R.V.) THE Pharisees had just complained to the disciples that Jesus ate and drank in questionable company. Now they join with the followers of the ascetic Baptist in complaining to Jesus that His disciples eat and drink at improper seasons, when others fast. And as Jesus had then replied, that being a Physician, …
G. A. Chadwick—The Gospel of St. Mark

'Fruit which is Death'
'Israel is an empty vine, he bringeth forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he hath increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images. 2. Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: He shall break down their altars, He shall spoil their images. 3. For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the Lord; what then should a king do to us? 4. They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

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