Hebrew-English Text
I. Summary
Yahweh testifies against Israel, promises to punish it, and vows to renew his marriage to it.
II. Photo
God testifies against his wife: “And she did not consider this: It was I who bestowed on her the new grain and wine and oil!” (v. 10a)
III. Important Verses
4-7: 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. 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. I will also disown her children; For they are now a harlot’s brood, 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.”
10-11: 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. 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.
14-15: 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. 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.
18-19: And in that day — declares the LORD — ¶ You will call [Me] Ishi, And no more will you call Me Baali. For I will remove the names of the Baalim from her mouth, And they shall nevermore be mentioned by name.
IV. Outline
1-3. Israel and Judah will one day call each other “my people” and “lovingly accepted”
4-7. Declaration: Israel was adulterous
8-15. God will ruin Israel’s agriculture because they turned to Baal
16-25. Israel will once again become God’s wife
V. Comment
No comment today. Stay tuned.
VI. Works Used
(see “Commentaries” page)
Collins, John J. “Introduction to the Hebrew Bible,” (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2004).
Photo taken from http://en.wikivisual.com/images/a/a6/US_long_grain_rice.jpg
