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Or I will strip her naked,[a]
    leaving her as on the day of her birth;
I will make her like the wilderness,
    make her like an arid land,
    and let her die of thirst.
I will have no pity on her children,
    for they are children of prostitution.
Yes, their mother has prostituted herself;
    she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, “I will go after my lovers,[b]
    who give me my bread and my water,
    my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.”(A)

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Footnotes

  1. 2:5 I will strip her naked: it was the husband’s responsibility to provide food and clothing for his wife (Ex 21:10) and now, because of her adultery, he takes back his support.
  2. 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.

Their mother has been unfaithful
    and has conceived them in disgrace.
She said, ‘I will go after my lovers,(A)
    who give me my food and my water,
    my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink.’(B)
Therefore I will block her path with thornbushes;
    I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.(C)
She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
    she will look for them but not find them.(D)
Then she will say,
    ‘I will go back to my husband(E) as at first,(F)
    for then I was better off(G) than now.’

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