Horea

Salvation (Rom 9:26f) 1Yet, the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them: “You are not my people,” they shall be called “children of the living God.”

The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, they will appoint one leader to rule over them, and they will come up out of the land. For there will be a great victory in Jezreel.

You will call your brothers My-people, and your sisters My-loved-ones.

Good Love: Quarrel and Reconciliation (Jr 2–4; Ez 16) 4Denounce your mother, denounce—for she is not my wife,nor am I her husband.Let her remove her ornamentsfrom her face and the breasts of her lewd idols.

or I will strip her naked as on the day of her birth;I will turn her into dry land, making her a desert; I will let her die of thirst.

How could I love her children?They are children of adultery;

their mother has been unfaithfulthey are children of vice.She said, “I will go after my lovers,who give me my bread and water,my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.”

Therefore, I will hedge in her way with thorns and erect a wall against her,so that she cannot find her paths.

If she runs after her lovers,she will not overtake them;if she seeks them she will not find them.Then she will say,“I will go back to my first husband,for I was better off then than now.”

Yet she would not acknowledge that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil,and the silver and goldwith which the people made their Baals.

So I will reclaim my grain when it ripensand my new wine when it is ready;I will take back my wool and my flaxwhich I gave to cover her nudity.

Before her lovers, I will expose her shameand no one can rescue her from my power.

I will put an end to all her happiness, her monthly feasts, Sabbaths, and celebrations. I will destroy her vines and fig trees, for she says: “My lovers gave them to me.” I will turn them into thickets to be ravaged by wild animals.

I will punish her for the feast dayswhen she brought burnt offerings to the Baals, decorated herself with her flashy jewelry, chased after her lovers, and forgot me, says the Lord. Therefore, I will block her way with thorns, wall her in, and prevent her from finding her way out. As she pursues her lovers, she will not catch up to them; as she searches for her lovers, she will not find them. Then she will say: “I will go back to my husband because I was better off then than I am now.”

So I am going to allure her, lead her once more into the desert, where I can speak to her tenderly.

Then I will restore her vineyards and turn the Valley of Achor into a door of hope. There, she will answer me, as she did in her youth, just like when she came out of Egypt.

On that day, the Lord says,you will call me my husband,and never again: my Baal.

I will remove the names of Baals from her lipsand they will no longer be invoked.

That day, on her behalf, I will make a covenantwith the beasts of the field,the birds of the air,and the creatures crawling on the ground.I will eliminate the sword and war in the land;I will make people feel safe and secure.

You will be my spouse forever,betrothed in justice and integrity;we will be united in love and tenderness.

I will espouse you in faithfulness;you will come to know the Lord.

This is what the Lord says about those days,“I will be at peace with the heavens,and they will respond to the earth;

the earth will respond to the grain, wine, and oil,which will meet the needs of Jezreel.

I will sow them for myself in the land;I will show my love to ‘Not Pitied’;I will say to ‘Not My People,’ “You are my people;”and they will answer: You are my God.”