Study Desk

^(F1)Say to your brothers, "^(F2)Ammi," and to your sisters, "^(F3)Ruhamah."

"Dispute with your mother, ^(C1)dispute, Because she is ^(C2)not my wife, and I am not her husband; But she must remove her ^(C3)infidelity from her face And her adultery from between her breasts,

Otherwise, I will strip her ^(C1)naked And expose her as on the ^(C2)day she was born. I will also ^(C3)make her like a wilderness, Make her like desert land, And put her to death with ^(C4)thirst.

-"Also, I will take no pity on her children, Because they are ^(C1)children of infidelity.

-"For their mother has ^(C1)committed prostitution; She who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, '^(C1)I will go after my lovers, Who ^(C2)give me my bread and my water, My wool and my flax, my ^(C3)oil and my drink.'

-"Therefore, behold, I will ^(C1)obstruct ^(F1)her way with ^(C2)thorns, And I will build ^(F2)a stone wall against her so that she cannot find her ^(C3)paths.

-"And she will ^(C1)pursue her lovers, but she will not reach them; And she will seek them, but will not find them. Then she will say, '^(C2)I will go back to my ^(C3)first husband, Because it was ^(C4)better for me then than now!'

"Yet she does ^(C1)not know that it was ^(C2)I myself who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, And lavished on her silver and gold, Which they ^(F1)used for Baal.

-"Therefore, I will ^(F1)(C1)take back My grain at ^(F2)harvest time And My new wine in its season. I will also take away My wool and My flax That I gave to cover her nakedness.

-"So now I will ^(C1)uncover her ^(F1)lewdness Before the eyes of her lovers, And no one will rescue her from My hand.

-"I will also ^(C1)put an end to all her joy, Her ^(C2)feasts, her ^(C3)new moons, her Sabbaths, And all her festivals.

-"And I will ^(C1)destroy her vines and fig trees, Of which she said, 'They are my wages for prostitution Which my lovers have given me.' And I will ^(C2)turn them into a forest, And the ^(C3)animals of the field will devour them.

-"I will punish her for the ^(C1)days of the Baals When she used to ^(F1)(C2)offer sacrifices to them And ^(C3)adorn herself with her nose ring and jewelry, And follow her lovers, so that she ^(C4)forgot Me," declares the LORD.