Years ago a child was born, no one bothered to cut her navel cord, nor cleanse the blood and wrap her in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied her, to do any of these things for her, to have compassion on her, but she was thrown out into an open field to die. The child was loathed on the day she was born! Someone passing by saw her lying in filth and said to her, Live! Spreading their wing over the child; nurturing, washing, and covering its nakedness. The man swore an oath to the child and entered into a covenant with her and she became his, an adopted child. The father adorned the girl in jewelry of silver and fine clothes of costly fabric and embroidered cloth. She became very beautiful and rose to be a queen. Her fame spread among the people on account of her beauty and her beauty was made perfect by the splendor the father had given her.She was for a time, a light unto the world, proclaiming the glory of the father. But she trusted in her beauty and used her fame so that others would love her and not the father. She lavished her favors on anyone who passed by and her beauty became theirs. Everything the father had given her she set before them for sweet savor so that they would love her. She took other children of the father and sacrificed them to her own devotion, a devotion so insatiable she sought elsewhere to fill it. She was like a harlot, spreading her legs to anyone, but unlike a harlot she scorned payment. She was like an adulterous wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband. Therefore, the father stretched out his hand against her, diminishing her allotment, and giving her up to the will of those who hated her.
The father said to her, How degenerate is your heart, seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.1 Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but agitated me with all these things, surely I will repay you with your own deeds. And you shall not commit lewdness in addition to all your abominations. They will say of you, ‘Like mother, like daughter!’ You are your mother’s daughter, loathing husband and children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children. Your elder sister is Samaria and your younger sister Sodom, and you, in all your ways, have become more corrupt than they. Neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you. Your sister Sodom and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abominations before me, therefore I took them away as I saw fit...2
The father went to Hosea, seeking someone to understand how he felt of the child leaving his love. Hosea, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry. So Hosea went and did so, he painfully loved his wife and she was unfaithful. And it came to pass that he had children of a harlot; a son was born and the meaning of his name was, I will bring an end to your kingdom. Then a daughter was born, and her name given, I will no longer have mercy. And another son was born and his name given, for you are not My people, and I will not be your father. Hosea's wife continued in her adultery, until she was despised and rejected by all, no one wanted her. But Hosea did, he picked her up in her filth and loved her.
And the father loved the girl he had adopted. And he said to her, when I said, ‘You are not My people,’ I will replace this with, ‘You are children of the living God.’ I will remember My covenant with you and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. I will adopt you as my children, I will seal you with my spirit. Then you shall know who I am, that you may remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth anymore because of your shame, when I provide you an atonement for all you have done.3 You who have judged Sodom and her sisters, bear your own shame also, because the sins which you committed were more abominable than theirs; they are more righteous than you. Yes, be disgraced also, and bear your own shame, because you justified their sin.4
How Can It Be