Hosea 2:5-7

Revised Standard Version

⁵ For their mother has played the harlot;
    she that conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
    who give me my bread and my water,
    my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
⁶ Therefore I will hedge up her^[a] way with thorns;
    and I will build a wall against her,
    so that she cannot find her paths.
⁷ She shall pursue her lovers,
    but not overtake them;
and she shall seek them,
    but shall not find them.
Then she shall say, ‘I will go
    and return to my first husband,
    for it was better with me then than now.’