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Yes, their mother has prostituted herself;
    she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, “I will go after my lovers,[a]
    who give me my bread and my water,
    my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.”(A)
[b]Therefore, I will hedge in her way with thorns
    and erect a wall against her,
    so that she cannot find her paths.
If she runs after her lovers, she will not overtake them;
    if she seeks them she will not find them.
Then she will say,
    “I will go back to my first husband,
    for I was better off then than now.”(B)

10 She did not know
    that it was I who gave her
    the grain, the wine, and the oil,
I who lavished upon her silver,
    and gold, which they used for Baal,[c]

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Footnotes

  1. 2:7 My lovers: even though Israel had experienced the Lord as the God of the desert, covenant and conquest, the people were inclined to turn to the local fertility deities, the Baals, who were believed to be responsible for agricultural success. They easily forgot that the Lord provides them with everything (v. 10; cf. Dt 7:13), and thus prostituted themselves by worshiping other gods.
  2. 2:8 The crop failures sent by the Lord are meant to make Israel see the folly of its ways.
  3. 2:10 For Baal: as an offering to Baal or to make statues of Baal.

She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
    she will look for them but not find them.(A)
Then she will say,
    ‘I will go back to my husband(B) as at first,(C)
    for then I was better off(D) than now.’
She has not acknowledged(E) that I was the one
    who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,(F)
who lavished on her the silver and gold(G)
    which they used for Baal.(H)

“Therefore I will take away my grain(I) when it ripens,
    and my new wine(J) when it is ready.
I will take back my wool and my linen,
    intended to cover her naked body.
10 So now I will expose(K) her lewdness
    before the eyes of her lovers;(L)
    no one will take her out of my hands.(M)

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