live many years without a ruler or official, without offering or heathen pillars, without the sacred lot or household gods.
166. JEHOVAH'S UNDYING LOVE FOR GUILTY ISRAEL
'Plead with your mother, plead,
For Israel is not my wife,
And I am not her husband.
Let her put away immorality,
And unfaithfulness from her breast,
That I need not strip her naked,
Bare as the day she was born,
And make her like a wilderness,
Or like a waterless land,
And leave her to die of thirst.
For even now she is saying,
"I will go out after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and water,
My wool and flax, my oil, and drink.”
I will hedge her ways, therefore, with thorns,
And will build a wall about her,
That she cannot find her paths.
Though she go in pursuit of her lovers,
She shall not overtake them,
She shall seek but shall not find them.
But she herself does not know
That I it was who provided for her
The corn, the new wine, and the oil.
I will therefore take back my grain in its time,
And my new wine in its season,
I will take back my wool and my flax,
With which she covers her nakedness;
And so will reveal her shame
Before the eyes of her lovers;
None shall snatch her from my hand.
I will cause all her mirth to cease,
Her feasts, her new moons and her sabbaths.
And thus punish her for the days
When she made to the baals her offerings,
Decked herself with earrings and jewels,
And went in pursuit of her lovers,
But forgot me,' Jehovah declares.
"Therefore see, I will allure her,
And bring her back to the wilderness,
And speak to her tenderly.
I will give her back her vineyards,
And make the Valley of Sorrows
Again a door of hope.
She shall go up there as in her youth,
As when she came up from Egypt.'
'On that day,' Jehovah declares,
'Israel shall call me "husband,"
She shall no more call me, "master."
I will take the baals' names from her mouth,
That they may no more be remembered,
I will then betroth you forever;
Betroth you to me in righteousness,
In justice, in love, and in mercy;
Betroth you to me in faithfulness,
And you shall know Jehovah.'
'On that day,' Jehovah declares,
'I will call out to the heavens,
And they shall call to the earth,
And the earth to the new wine and oil,
And they shall call to Jezreel;
As my seed I will sow him in the land.
I will have pity on the Unpitied,
Say to Not-my-people, "You are my people," And they shall say, “Thou art my God.”
167. THE FATAL LACK OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION AND TRUE REPENTANCE
Hear Jehovah's message, O men of Israel,
For he has a charge against its inhabitants;
For there is no love nor fidelity,
No knowledge of God in the land;
Only perjury, lying and murder,
Stealing, adultery, violence—
One bloody deed after another!
Therefore the land is in mourning,
All its inhabitants are withering,
Along with the wild beasts and birds,
And the fish of the sea are perishing.
Let no one complain nor find fault,
For my people are like their priestlings.
O priest, you shall stumble by day,
The prophet fall with you by night;
My people are destroyed through ignorance.
Because you rejected knowledge,
I reject you from being my priest.
Because you have forgotten God's law,
I will also forget your children!
As they increased they sinned against me,
Their honor they turned into shame.
They feed on the sin of my people,
Gloating over their guilt!
With priest it shall be as with people,
I will punish him for his acts,
And repay him for his deeds.
They eat but never are satisfied,
Commit adultery but do not increase,
For they have ceased to obey Jehovah.
Wine and adultery rob men of reason:
My people seek oracles from their trees,
And a mere divining rod gives them guidance!
The spirit of adultery leads them astray,
And they are faithless to their God.
I will go and leave them alone,
Till they seek me, admitting their guilt,
And in distress eagerly seek me,
Saying, 'Come, let us turn to Jehovah,
He has torn but he will heal us,
Afflicted us, but he will bind us up,
In a day or two he will revive us,
On the third day restore us to health,
That we may live in his presence.
Let us eagerly strive to know him;
We shall find him when we seek him;
He will come to us like the rain,
Like the spring rain that waters the land.'
O Ephraim, what shall I do to you!
O Judah, what shall I do to you!
Like a morning cloud is your love,
Like the dew which soon melts away.
I have hewn them, therefore, by the prophets,
I have flayed them by the words of my mouth,
And my justice goes forth like light.
Love I desire, not sacrifice,
A knowledge of God, not burnt-offerings.
168. SOWING THE WIND AND REAPING THE WHIRLWIND
Ephraim mingles with the nations;
Ephraim is like a cake unturned.
Strangers devour his strength, but he knows it not. His hair is sprinkled with gray, but he knows it not.
Like a silly, stupid dove is Ephraim;
To Egypt they call, to Assyria they go.
Each time they go, I will spread my net for them, And like wild birds I will catch and bind them.
Woe unto them, for they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them; for they are untrue to me!
Though I wished to save them, they lied against me!
They have never whole-heartedly cried to me!
They have set up their rulers, but without my consent,
They have chosen their leaders, but without my knowl-
edge,
They have fashioned their silver and gold into idols,
But only to court destruction.
For they sow the wind and shall reap the whirlwind!
They are stalk with no shoot and they bear no fruit.
Should they bear fruit, strangers would swallow it.
Even now is Israel swallowed up by the nations!
Behold, as they go to escape destruction,
Egypt shall gather them, Memphis shall bury them,
Nettles possess their treasures of silver,
And thorns grow up in all their tents.
169. THE TENDERNESS AND STRENGTH OF GOD'S LOVE
When Israel was a child I loved him,
And from Egypt I called his sons.
But the more I called to them
The more they ran from me.
They kept sacrificing to baals,
And offering incense to images...
Yet it was I who taught them to walk,
Taking them firmly by the arms;
But they did not know it was I who healed them.
I sought to draw them with leading strings,
With bands of love;
I was as one who relieved them of the yoke,
And bending toward them, I gave them food.
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