6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, j“Call her name No Mercy,1 for kI will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 7 But lI will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I mwill not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”
The Lord’s Mercy on Israel
14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and ebring her into the wilderness,
and fspeak tenderly to her.
15 And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor1 a door of hope.
And there she shall answer gas in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
16 “And hin that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For iI will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And jI will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And kI will abolish2 the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in lsafety. 19 And I will betroth you to me mforever. nI will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 nI will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And oyou shall know the Lord.
21 “And pin that day qI will answer, declares the Lord,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer rJezreel,3
23 and sI will sow her for myself in the land.
And tI uwill have mercy on No Mercy,4
and vI will say to Not My People,5 w‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”
6 gWith their flocks and herds they shall go
to seek the Lord,
gbut they will not find him;
hhe has withdrawn from them.
7 iThey have dealt faithlessly with the Lord;
for they have borne alien children.
Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.
the trumpet in lRamah.
Sound the alarm at mBeth-aven;
we follow you,1 O Benjamin!
9 Ephraim shall become a desolation
in the day of punishment;
among the tribes of Israel
I make known what is sure.
10 The princes of Judah have become
like nthose who move the landmark;
upon them I will pour out
my wrath like water.
11 Ephraim is ooppressed, crushed in judgment,
because he was determined to go after filth.2
12 But I am plike a moth to Ephraim,
and plike dry rot to the house of Judah.
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness,
and Judah qhis wound,
then Ephraim went rto Assyria,
and sent to the great king.3
sBut he is not able to cure you
or heal qyour wound.
14 For I will be tlike a lion to uEphraim,
and like a young lion to the house of uJudah.
vI, even I, will tear and go away;
I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.
15 wI will return again to my place,
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
and xin their distress earnestly seek me.
Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant
1 “Come, let us yreturn to the Lord;
for zhe has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and ahe will bind us up.
2 After two days bhe will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.
3 cLet us know; clet us press on to know the Lord;
dhis going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us eas the showers,
fas the spring rains that water the earth.”
8 How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
nHow can I make you olike Admah?
How can I treat you olike Zeboiim?
pMy heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
9 I will not execute my burning anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
qfor I am God and not a man,
rthe Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.1
10 sThey shall go after the Lord;
the will roar like a lion;
when he roars,
his children shall come trembling ufrom the west;
11 they shall come trembling like birds vfrom Egypt,
and wlike doves xfrom the land of Assyria,
and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord.
9 mI am the Lord your God
from the land of Egypt;
I will again make you ndwell in tents,
as in the days of the appointed feast.
