4. I won’t love her children,because they are children of a prostitute.
5. Their mother acted like a prostitute.The woman who became pregnant with them did shameful things.She said, ‘I’ll chase after my lovers.They will give me food and water,wool and linen, olive oil and wine.’
6. “That is why I will block her way with thornbushesand build a wall so that she can’t get through.
7. She will run after her lovers, but she won’t catch them.She will search for them, but she won’t find them.Then she will say, ‘I’ll go back to my first husband.Things were better for me than they are now.’
8. “She doesn’t believe that I gave her grain, new wine, and olive oil.I gave her plenty of silver and gold,but she used it to make statues of Baal.
9. That is why I will take back my grain when it has ripenedand my new wine when it’s in season.I will take away the wool and the linenthat I gave her to cover her naked body.
10. I will show her naked body to her lovers,and no one will rescue her from my power.
11. I will put an end to all her celebrations:her annual festivals, her New Moon Festivals,her weekly worship days—all her appointed festivals.
12. I will destroy her grapevines and fig trees.She said that they were gifts from her lovers.I will turn her vineyards into a forest, and wild animals will devour them.
13. I will punish her for all the times she burned incenseas an offering to other gods—the Baals.She put on her rings and jewelry,and she chased after her lovers.She forgot me,” declares the Lord.
14. “That is why I’m going to win her back.I will lead her into the desert.I will speak tenderly to her.
15. I will give her vineyards there.I will make the valley of Achor [Disaster] a door of hope.Then she will respond as she did when she was young,as she did when she came out of Egypt.