The Lord’s word came to me: To wife that will have gallants a-courting her, shew thyself a lover yet. The Lord is yet Israel’s lover, that has no eyes but for alien gods, leaves grape for husk.✻

So buy her back to me I must, fifteen pieces of silver paying for her ransom, and a core and a half of barley.

A long time thou must wait for me, I told her, thy wantonness leaving, yet still unwed; and I will wait for thee as faithfully.

A long time the sons of Israel must wait, neither king nor prince to rule them, neither sacrifice nor shrine to worship at, neither sacred mantle nor their own images to consult.

Then they will come back, and to the Lord, their own God, betake them, and to David that is their true king; the Lord, and the Lord’s goodness, holds them spell-bound at last.