1 Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’
2 “Bring charges against your mother, bring charges;For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!Let her put away her harlotries from her sight,And her adulteries from between her breasts;
3 Lest I strip her nakedAnd expose her, as in the day she was born,And make her like a wilderness,And set her like a dry land,And slay her with thirst.
4 “I will not have mercy on her children,For they are the children of harlotry.
5 For their mother has played the harlot;She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,Who give me my bread and my water,My wool and my linen,My oil and my drink.’
6 “Therefore, behold,I will hedge up your way with thorns,And wall her in,So that she cannot find her paths.
7 She will chase her lovers,But not overtake them;Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.Then she will say,‘I will go and return to my first husband,For then it was better for me than now.’