\u201cPlead with your mother, plead\u201d\u201d
\n for she is not my wife,
\n and I am not her husband\u201d\u201d
\nthat she put away her harlotry from her face,
\n and her adultery from between her breasts;
\nlest I strip her naked
\n and make her as in the day she was born,
\nand make her like a wilderness,
\n and set her like a parched land,
\n and slay her with thirst.
\nUpon her children also I will have no pity,
\n because they are children of harlotry.
\nFor their mother has played the harlot;
\n she that conceived them has acted shamefully.
\nFor she said, \u201d\u02dcI will go after my lovers,
\n who give me my bread and my water,
\n my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.\u2019
\nTherefore I will hedge up her way with thorns;
\n and I will build a wall against her,
\n so that she cannot find her paths.
\nShe shall pursue her lovers,
\n but not overtake them;
\nand she shall seek them,
\n but shall not find them.
\nThen she shall say, \u201d\u02dcI will go
\n and return to my first husband,
\n for it was better with me then than now.\u2019
And she did not know
\n that it was I who gave her
\n the grain, the wine, and the oil,
\nand who lavished upon her silver
\n and gold which they used for Ba\u201d\u00b2al.
\nTherefore I will take back
\n my grain in its time,
\n and my wine in its season;
\nand I will take away my wool and my flax,
\n which were to cover her nakedness.
\nNow I will uncover her lewdness
\n in the sight of her lovers,
\n and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
\nAnd I will put an end to all her mirth,
\n her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths,
\n and all her appointed feasts.
\nAnd I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
\n of which she said,
\n\u201d\u02dcThese are my hire,
\n which my lovers have given me.\u2019
\nI will make them a forest,
\n and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
\nAnd I will punish her for the feast days of the Ba\u201d\u00b2als
\n when she burned incense to them
\nand decked herself with her ring and jewelry,
\n and went after her lovers,
\n and forgot me, says the Lord.<\/p>\n
\u201cTherefore, behold, I will allure her,
\n and bring her into the wilderness,
\n and speak tenderly to her.<\/p>\n
–Hosea 2:2-14<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u201cPlead with your mother, plead\u201d\u201d for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband\u201d\u201d that she put away her harlotry from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; lest I strip her naked and make…<\/span><\/p>\n