7 She will chase after her lovers but not catch them;
she will look for them but not find them.
Then she will say,
'I will go back to my husband as at first,
for then I was better off than now.' |
8 She has not acknowledged that I was the one
who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil,
who lavished on her the silver and gold-
which they used for Baal. |
9 "Therefore I will take away my grain when it ripens,
and my new wine when it is ready.
I will take back my wool and my linen,
intended to cover her nakedness. |
10 So now I will expose her lewdness
before the eyes of her lovers;
no one will take her out of my hands. |
11 I will stop all her celebrations:
her yearly festivals, her New Moons,
her Sabbath days-all her appointed feasts. |
12 I will ruin her vines and her fig trees,
which she said were her pay from her lovers;
I will make them a thicket,
and wild animals will devour them. |
13 I will punish her for the days
she burned incense to the Baals;
she decked herself with rings and jewelry,
and went after her lovers,
but me she forgot,"
declares the LORD . |
14 "Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her. |
15 There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor1 2:15 Achor means trouble . a door of hope.
There she will sing2 2:15 Or respond as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt. |
