For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived them has done shamefully; for she said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.'

In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground. I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle out of the land, and will make them lie down safely.

"Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet don't let Judah offend; and don't come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth Aven, nor swear, 'As Yahweh lives.'

Their deeds won't allow them to turn to their God; for the spirit of prostitution is within them, and they don't know Yahweh.

They don't consider in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their own deeds have engulfed them. They are before my face.

When they go, I will spread my net on them. I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will chastise them, as their congregation has heard.

Don't rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor.

Surely now they will say, "We have no king; for we don't fear Yahweh; and the king, what can he do for us?"

I drew them with cords of a man, with ties of love; and I was to them like those who lift up the yoke on their necks; and I bent down to him and I fed him.

I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily, and send down his roots like Lebanon.