Hosea 2
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Say to your brothers, x "You are my people," and to your sisters, y "You have received mercy."
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"Plead with your mother, plead -
for z she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband -
that she put away a her whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts;
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lest b I strip her naked
and make her as c in the day she was born,
and d make her like a wilderness,
and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
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e Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
f because they are children of whoredom.
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For g their mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For h she said, 'I will go after my lovers,
who i give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.'
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Therefore j I will hedge up her way with thorns,
and k I will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
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She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
l Then she shall say,
'I will go and return to m my first husband,
l for it was better for me then than now.'
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And n she did not know
that it was o I who gave her
p the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on q her silver and gold,
r which they used for Baal.
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Therefore s I will take back
my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season,
and s I will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
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Now t I will uncover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
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u And I will put an end to all her mirth,
her feasts, her v new moons, her v Sabbaths,
and all her w appointed feasts.
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And x I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
y of which she said,
'These are z my wages,
which my lovers have given me.'
I will make them a forest,
a and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
13
And b I will punish her for c the feast days of the Baals
when she burned offerings to them
and d adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the Lord.
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"Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and e bring her into the wilderness,
and f speak tenderly to her.
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And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
And there she shall answer g as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
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"And h in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal.'
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For i I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more.
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And j I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And k I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in l safety.
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And I will betroth you to me m forever. n I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.
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n I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And o you shall know the Lord.
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"And p in that day q I will answer, declares the Lord,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
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and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer r Jezreel,
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and s I will sow her for myself in the land.
And t I u will have mercy on No Mercy,
and v I will say to Not My People, w 'You are my people';
and he shall say, 'You are my God.'"
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Cross References
Hosea 1:9
And the Lord said, "Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
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Cross References
Hosea 1:6
She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, "Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all.
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Cross References
Isaiah 50:1
Thus says the Lord : "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce, with which I sent her away? Or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities you were sold, and for your transgressions your mother was sent away.
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Cross References
Hosea 4:12
My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.
Ezekiel 16:25
At the head of every street you built your lofty place and made your beauty an abomination, offering yourself to any passerby and multiplying your whoring.
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Cross References
Ezekiel 16:39
And I will give you into their hands, and they shall throw down your vaulted chamber and break down your lofty places. They shall strip you of your clothes and take your beautiful jewels and leave you naked and bare.
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Cross References
Ezekiel 16:4
And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths.
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Cross References
Hosea 2:9
Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness.
Ezekiel 19:13
Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.
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Cross References
Hosea 1:6
She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, "Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all.
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Cross References
Hosea 1:2
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.
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Cross References
Hosea 1:2
When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.
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Cross References
Hosea 2:12 - 13
And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, 'These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.' I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
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Cross References
Hosea 2:8 - 9
And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.
Jeremiah 44:17
But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster.
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Cross References
Job 3:23
Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?
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Cross References
Job 19:8
He has walled up my way, so that I cannot pass, and he has set darkness upon my paths.
Lamentations 3:7
He has walled me about so that I cannot escape; he has made my chains heavy.
Lamentations 3:9
He has blocked my ways with blocks of stones; he has made my paths crooked.
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Cross References
Luke 15:17 - 18
But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!
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Cross References
Luke 15:17 - 18
But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger!
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Cross References
Isaiah 54:5 - 6
For your Maker is your husband, the Lord of hosts is his name; and the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer, the God of the whole earth he is called.
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Cross References
Hosea 2:20
I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.
Isaiah 1:3
The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.
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Cross References
Ezekiel 16:19
Also my bread that I gave you - I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey - you set before them for a pleasing aroma; and so it was, declares the Lord God.
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Cross References
Deuteronomy 7:13
He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.
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Cross References
Hosea 13:2
And now they sin more and more, and make for themselves metal images, idols skillfully made of their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of them, "Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!
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Cross References
Ezekiel 16:17 - 18
You also took your beautiful jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the whore.
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Cross References
Hosea 2:3
Lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst.
Joel 1:10
The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes.
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Cross References
Hosea 2:3
Lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst.
Joel 1:10
The fields are destroyed, the ground mourns, because the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil languishes.
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Cross References
Lamentations 1:8
Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she became filthy; all who honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and turns her face away.
Ezekiel 16:37
Therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from every side and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.
Ezekiel 23:29
And they shall deal with you in hatred and take away all the fruit of your labor and leave you naked and bare, and the nakedness of your whoring shall be uncovered. Your lewdness and your whoring
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Cross References
Jeremiah 7:34
And I will silence in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, for the land shall become a waste.
Amos 8:10
I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation; I will bring sackcloth on every waist and baldness on every head; I will make it like the mourning for an only son and the end of it like a bitter day.
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Cross References
Amos 8:5
Saying, "When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances.
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Cross References
Amos 8:5
Saying, "When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances.
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Cross References
Hosea 9:5
What will you do on the day of the appointed festival, and on the day of the feast of the Lord ?
Isaiah 1:13 - 14
Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations - I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
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Cross References
Isaiah 5:5
And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
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Cross References
Hosea 2:5
For their mother has played the whore; she who 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.
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Cross References
Micah 1:7
All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute they shall return.
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Hosea 13:8
I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rip them open.
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Hosea 4:9
And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.
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Cross References
Hosea 11:2
The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.
Hosea 13:1 - 2
When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel, but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.
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Cross References
Ezekiel 23:40
They even sent for men to come from afar, to whom a messenger was sent; and behold, they came. For them you bathed yourself, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with ornaments.
Isaiah 61:10
I will greatly rejoice in the Lord ; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself like a priest with a beautiful headdress, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
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Cross References
Ezekiel 20:35
And I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face.
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Cross References
Isaiah 40:2
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord 's hand double for all her sins.
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Cross References
Hosea 9:10
Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers. But they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved.
Hosea 11:1
When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
Jeremiah 2:2
Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord, "I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
Ezekiel 16:22
And in all your abominations and your whorings you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your blood.
Ezekiel 16:60
Yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish for you an everlasting covenant.
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Cross References
Hosea 2:18
And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.
Hosea 2:21
And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth.
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Cross References
Zephaniah 1:4
I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests.
Zechariah 13:2
And on that day, declares the Lord of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be remembered no more. And also I will remove from the land the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness.
Exodus 23:13
Pay attention to all that I have said to you, and make no mention of the names of other gods, nor let it be heard on your lips.
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Cross References
Ezekiel 34:25
I will make with them a covenant of peace and banish wild beasts from the land, so that they may dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods.
Job 5:23
For you shall be in league with the stones of the field, and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with you.
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Cross References
Psalms 46:9
He makes wars cease to the end of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the chariots with fire.
Isaiah 2:4
He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.
Isaiah 9:5
For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire.
Ezekiel 39:9 - 10
Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires of the weapons and burn them, shields and bucklers, bow and arrows, clubs and spears; and they will make fires of them for seven years.
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Cross References
Leviticus 26:5
Your threshing shall last to the time of the grape harvest, and the grape harvest shall last to the time for sowing. And you shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in your land securely.
Jeremiah 23:6
In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The Lord is our righteousness.
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Cross References
Ezekiel 43:7
And he said to me, "Son of man, this is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever. And the house of Israel shall no more defile my holy name, neither they, nor their kings, by their whoring and by the dead bodies of their kings at their high places.
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Cross References
Hosea 2:7
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 for me then than now.
Hosea 2:16
"And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal.'
Jeremiah 3:14 - 15
Return, O faithless children, declares the Lord ; for I am your master; I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.
2 Corinthians 11:2
For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
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Cross References
Hosea 2:19
And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.
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Cross References
Jeremiah 31:34
And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.
John 17:3
And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
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Cross References
Hosea 2:16
"And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal.'
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Cross References
Zechariah 8:12
For there shall be a sowing of peace. The vine shall give its fruit, and the ground shall give its produce, and the heavens shall give their dew. And I will cause the remnant of this people to possess all these things.
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Cross References
Hosea 1:4
And the Lord said to him, "Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
Hosea 1:11
And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
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Cross References
Hosea 1:10
Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, "You are not my people," it shall be said to them, "Children of the living God.
Ezekiel 36:9 - 11
For behold, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown.
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Cross References
Romans 9:25 - 26
As indeed he says in Hosea, "Those who were not my people I will call 'my people,' and her who was not beloved I will call 'beloved.'
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Cross References
Hosea 1:6
She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, "Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all.
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Cross References
Hosea 1:9
And the Lord said, "Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
1 Peter 2:10
Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
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Cross References
Hosea 2:1
Say to your brothers, "You are my people," and to your sisters, "You have received mercy.
Zechariah 13:9
And I will put this third into the fire, and refine them as one refines silver, and test them as gold is tested. They will call upon my name, and I will answer them. I will say, 'They are my people'; and they will say, 'The Lord is my God.'
Leviticus 26:12
And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.
Jeremiah 31:33
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord : I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.