Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I would ever forgive them.

“Contend with your mother, contend,
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,

Or I will strip her naked
And expose her as on the day when she was born.
I will also make her like a wilderness,
Make her like desert land
And slay her with thirst.

“Also, I will have no compassion on her children,
Because they are children of harlotry.

“Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns,
And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.

“She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;
And she will seek them, but will not find them.
Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband,
For it was better for me then than now!’

“For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil,
And lavished on her silver and gold,
Which they used for Baal.

“Therefore, I will take back My grain at harvest time
And My new wine in its season.
I will also take away My wool and My flax
Given to cover her nakedness.

“And then I will uncover her lewdness
In the sight of her lovers,
And no one will rescue her out of My hand.

“I will also put an end to all her gaiety,
Her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths
And all her festal assemblies.

“I will destroy her vines and fig trees,
Of which she said, ‘These are my wages
Which my lovers have given me.’
And I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field will devour them.

“I will punish her for the days of the Baals
When she used to offer sacrifices to them
And adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the Lord.

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Bring her into the wilderness
And speak kindly to her.

“Then I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the valley of Achor as a door of hope.
And she will sing there as in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

“For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth,
So that they will be mentioned by their names no more.

“I will sow her for Myself in the land.
I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion,
And I will say to those who were not My people,
‘You are My people!’
And they will say, ‘You are my God!’”

Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”

So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley.

Then I said to her, “You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so I will also be toward you.”

Hear this, O priests!
Give heed, O house of Israel!
Listen, O house of the king!
For the judgment applies to you,
For you have been a snare at Mizpah
And a net spread out on Tabor.

Even though they hire allies among the nations,
Now I will gather them up;
And they will begin to diminish
Because of the burden of the king of princes.

Samaria will be cut off with her king
Like a stick on the surface of the water.

Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh,
But I will come over her fair neck with a yoke;
I will harness Ephraim,
Judah will plow, Jacob will harrow for himself.

I will encounter them like a bear robbed of her cubs,
And I will tear open their chests;
There I will also devour them like a lioness,
As a wild beast would tear them.

Samaria will be held guilty,
For she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword,
Their little ones will be dashed in pieces,
And their pregnant women will be ripped open.

Hear this, O elders,
And listen, all inhabitants of the land.
Has anything like this happened in your days
Or in your fathers’ days?

Wail like a virgin girded with sackcloth
For the bridegroom of her youth.

Gather the people, sanctify the congregation,
Assemble the elders,
Gather the children and the nursing infants.
Let the bridegroom come out of his room
And the bride out of her bridal chamber.

“So I will send fire upon the wall of Gaza
And it will consume her citadels.

“So I will send fire upon the wall of Tyre
And it will consume her citadels.”

“So I will kindle a fire on the wall of Rabbah
And it will consume her citadels
Amid war cries on the day of battle,
And a storm on the day of tempest.

“I will also cut off the judge from her midst
And slay all her princes with him,” says the Lord.

Hear this word which the Lord has spoken against you, sons of Israel, against the entire family which He brought up from the land of Egypt:

Proclaim on the citadels in Ashdod and on the citadels in the land of Egypt and say, “Assemble yourselves on the mountains of Samaria and see the great tumults within her and the oppressions in her midst.

“Hear and testify against the house of Jacob,”
Declares the Lord God, the God of hosts.

Hear this word, you cows of Bashan who are on the mountain of Samaria,
Who oppress the poor, who crush the needy,
Who say to your husbands, “Bring now, that we may drink!”

“You will go out through breaches in the walls,
Each one straight before her,
And you will be cast to Harmon,” declares the Lord.

Hear this word which I take up for you as a dirge, O house of Israel:

She has fallen, she will not rise again—
The virgin Israel.
She lies neglected on her land;
There is none to raise her up.

Now hear the word of the Lord: you are saying, ‘You shall not prophesy against Israel nor shall you speak against the house of Isaac.’

Hear this, you who trample the needy, to do away with the humble of the land,

The vision of Obadiah.
Thus says the Lord God concerning Edom—
We have heard a report from the Lord,
And an envoy has been sent among the nations saying,
“Arise and let us go against her for battle”—

Hear, O peoples, all of you;
Listen, O earth and all it contains,
And let the Lord God be a witness against you,
The Lord from His holy temple.

For I will make Samaria a heap of ruins in the open country,
Planting places for a vineyard.
I will pour her stones down into the valley
And will lay bare her foundations.

All of her idols will be smashed,
All of her earnings will be burned with fire
And all of her images I will make desolate,
For she collected them from a harlot’s earnings,
And to the earnings of a harlot they will return.

For her wound is incurable,
For it has come to Judah;
It has reached the gate of my people,
Even to Jerusalem.

Make yourself bald and cut off your hair,
Because of the children of your delight;
Extend your baldness like the eagle,
For they will go from you into exile.

“The women of My people you evict,
Each one from her pleasant house.
From her children you take My splendor forever.

And I said,
“Hear now, heads of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel.
Is it not for you to know justice?

Now hear this, heads of the house of Jacob
And rulers of the house of Israel,
Who abhor justice
And twist everything that is straight,

Her leaders pronounce judgment for a bribe,
Her priests instruct for a price
And her prophets divine for money.
Yet they lean on the Lord saying,
“Is not the Lord in our midst?
Calamity will not come upon us.”

“And now many nations have been assembled against you
Who say, ‘Let her be polluted,
And let our eyes gloat over Zion.’

Hear now what the Lord is saying,
“Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
And let the hills hear your voice.

The voice of the Lord will call to the city—
And it is sound wisdom to fear Your name:
“Hear, O tribe. Who has appointed its time?

“For the rich men of the city are full of violence,
Her residents speak lies,
And their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

Do not trust in a neighbor;
Do not have confidence in a friend.
From her who lies in your bosom
Guard your lips.

For son treats father contemptuously,
Daughter rises up against her mother,
Daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
A man’s enemies are the men of his own household.

But as for me, I will watch expectantly for the Lord;
I will wait for the God of my salvation.
My God will hear me.

Then my enemy will see,
And shame will cover her who said to me,
“Where is the Lord your God?”
My eyes will look on her;
At that time she will be trampled down
Like mire of the streets.

And the earth will become desolate because of her inhabitants,
On account of the fruit of their deeds.

He remembers his nobles;
They stumble in their march,
They hurry to her wall,
And the mantelet is set up.

It is fixed:
She is stripped, she is carried away,
And her handmaids are moaning like the sound of doves,
Beating on their breasts.

Though Nineveh was like a pool of water throughout her days,
Now they are fleeing;
“Stop, stop,”
But no one turns back.

“Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of hosts. “I will burn up her chariots in smoke, a sword will devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey from the land, and no longer will the voice of your messengers be heard.”

Woe to the bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage;
Her prey never departs.

All because of the many harlotries of the harlot,
The charming one, the mistress of sorceries,
Who sells nations by her harlotries
And families by her sorceries.

“And it will come about that all who see you
Will shrink from you and say,
‘Nineveh is devastated!
Who will grieve for her?’
Where will I seek comforters for you?”

Are you better than No-amon,
Which was situated by the waters of the Nile,
With water surrounding her,
Whose rampart was the sea,
Whose wall consisted of the sea?

Ethiopia was her might,
And Egypt too, without limits.
Put and Lubim were among her helpers.

Yet she became an exile,
She went into captivity;
Also her small children were dashed to pieces
At the head of every street;
They cast lots for her honorable men,
And all her great men were bound with fetters.

There is no relief for your breakdown,
Your wound is incurable.
All who hear about you
Will clap their hands over you,
For on whom has not your evil passed continually?

How long, O Lord, will I call for help,
And You will not hear?
I cry out to You, “Violence!”
Yet You do not save.

Flocks will lie down in her midst,
All beasts which range in herds;
Both the pelican and the hedgehog
Will lodge in the tops of her pillars;
Birds will sing in the window,
Desolation will be on the threshold;
For He has laid bare the cedar work.

This is the exultant city
Which dwells securely,
Who says in her heart,
“I am, and there is no one besides me.”
How she has become a desolation,
A resting place for beasts!
Everyone who passes by her will hiss
And wave his hand in contempt.

Woe to her who is rebellious and defiled,
The tyrannical city!

She heeded no voice,
She accepted no instruction.
She did not trust in the Lord,
She did not draw near to her God.

Her princes within her are roaring lions,
Her judges are wolves at evening;
They leave nothing for the morning.

Her prophets are reckless, treacherous men;
Her priests have profaned the sanctuary.
They have done violence to the law.

The Lord is righteous within her;
He will do no injustice.
Every morning He brings His justice to light;
He does not fail.
But the unjust knows no shame.

“I said, ‘Surely you will revere Me,
Accept instruction.’
So her dwelling will not be cut off
According to all that I have appointed concerning her.
But they were eager to corrupt all their deeds.

For I,’ declares the Lord, ‘will be a wall of fire around her, and I will be the glory in her midst.’”

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘If you will walk in My ways and if you will perform My service, then you will also govern My house and also have charge of My courts, and I will grant you free access among these who are standing here.

Then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening.

Then he said to me, “To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.”

They made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘I am exceedingly jealous for Zion, yes, with great wrath I am jealous for her.’

Behold, the Lord will dispossess her
And cast her wealth into the sea;
And she will be consumed with fire.

Ashkelon will see it and be afraid.
Gaza too will writhe in great pain;
Also Ekron, for her expectation has been confounded.
Moreover, the king will perish from Gaza,
And Ashkelon will not be inhabited.

And Joseph her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly.

But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for the Child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called His name Jesus.

“A voice was heard in Ramah,
Weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children;
And she refused to be comforted,
Because they were no more.”

Now John himself had a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist; and his food was locusts and wild honey.

but I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

“It was said, ‘Whoever sends his wife away, let him give her a certificate of divorce’;

but I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for the reason of unchastity, makes her commit adultery; and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

Nor shall you make an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair white or black.

And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?

He touched her hand, and the fever left her; and she got up and waited on Him.

And they cried out, saying, “What business do we have with each other, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”