¹ Say unto your brethren Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

² Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: and let her put away her whoredoms from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

³ lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her as a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

⁴ And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they are the children of whoredoms.

⁵ For their mother hath played the harlot; she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give [me] my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.

⁶ Therefore behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns; and I will fence [her] in with a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

⁷ And she shall pursue after her lovers, and shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, and shall not find them: and she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then was it better with me than now.

⁸ And she did not know that I had given her the corn and the new wine and the oil, and had multiplied to her the silver and gold, which they employed for Baal.

⁹ Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my new wine in its season, and will withdraw my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.

¹⁰ And now will I discover her impiety in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand.

¹¹ And I will cause all her mirth to cease: her feasts, her new moons, and her sabbaths! and all her solemnities.

¹² And I will make desolate her vine and her fig-tree, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards which my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

¹³ And I will visit upon her the days of the Baals, wherein she burned incense to them, and decked herself with her rings and jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me, saith Jehovah.

¹⁴ Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak to her heart.

¹⁵ And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶ And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah, [that] thou shalt call me, My husband, and shalt call me no more, Baali;

¹⁷ for I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.

¹⁸ And I will make a covenant for them in that day with the beasts of the field, and with the fowl of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will break bow and sword and battle out of the land; and I will make them to lie down safely.

¹⁹ And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; and I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies;

²⁰ and I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know Jehovah.

²¹ And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith Jehovah, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;

²² and the earth shall hear the corn, and the new wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jizreel.

²³ And I will sow her unto me in the land; and I will have mercy upon Lo-ruhamah; and I will say to Lo-ammi, Thou art my people; and they shall say, My God.

¹ "Keep silent before me, islands, and let the peoples renew their strength. Let them come near, then let them speak. Let's meet together for judgment.

² Who has raised up one from the east? Who called him to his foot in righteousness? He hands over nations to him, and makes him rule over kings. He gives them like the dust to his sword, like the driven stubble to his bow.

³ He pursues them, and passes by safely, Even by a way that he had not gone with his feet.

⁴ Who has worked and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, Yahweh, the first, and with the last, I am he."

⁵ The islands have seen, and fear. The ends of the earth tremble. They approach, and come.

⁶ Everyone helps his neighbor. They say to their brothers, "Be strong!"

⁷ So the carpenter encourages the goldsmith. He who smoothes with the hammer encourages him who strikes the anvil, saying of the soldering, "It is good;" and he fastens it with nails, that it might not totter.

⁸ "But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend,

⁹ You whom I have taken hold of from the ends of the earth, and called from its corners, and said to you, 'You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you away;'

¹⁰ Don't you be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. Yes, I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness.

¹¹ Behold, all those who are incensed against you will be disappointed and confounded. Those who strive with you will be like nothing, and shall perish.

¹² You will seek them, and won't find them, even those who contend with you. Those who war against you will be as nothing, as a non-existent thing.

¹³ For I, Yahweh your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, 'Don't be afraid. I will help you.'

¹⁴ Don't be afraid, you worm Jacob, and you men of Israel. I will help you," says Yahweh, "and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁵ Behold, I have made you into a new sharp threshing instrument with teeth. You will thresh the mountains, and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff.

¹⁶ You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the whirlwind will scatter them. You will rejoice in Yahweh. You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.

¹⁷ The poor and needy seek water, and there is none. Their tongue fails for thirst. I, Yahweh, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

¹⁸ I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water.

¹⁹ I will put cedar, acacia, myrtle, and oil trees in the wilderness. I will set fir trees, pine, and box trees together in the desert;

²⁰ that they may see, know, consider, and understand together, that the hand of Yahweh has done this, and the Holy One of Israel has created it.

²¹ Produce your cause," says Yahweh. "Bring forth your strong reasons," says the King of Jacob.

²² "Let them announce, and declare to us what shall happen. declare the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, and know the latter end of them; or show us things to come.

²³ Declare the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods. Yes, do good, or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and see it together.

²⁴ Behold, you are of nothing, and your work is of nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination.

²⁵ "I have raised up one from the north, and he has come; from the rising of the sun, one who calls on my name; and he shall come on rulers as on mortar, and as the potter treads clay.

²⁶ Who has declared it from the beginning, that we may know? And before, that we may say, 'He is right?' Surely, there is no one who declares. Surely, there is no one who shows. Surely, there is no one who hears your words.

²⁷ I am the first to say to Zion, 'Behold, look at them;' and I will give one who brings good news to Jerusalem.

²⁸ When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counselor who, when I ask of them, can answer a word.

²⁹ Behold, all of them, their works are vanity and nothing. Their molten images are wind and confusion.