There I will give her vineyards back to her and make the Valley of Achor , into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came out of the land of Egypt.
‘Go and announce directly to Jerusalem that this is what the Lord says: I remember the loyalty of your youth, your love as a bride – how you followed me in the wilderness, in a land not sown.
‘I have loved you,’ says the Lord. Yet you ask, ‘How have you loved us? ’ ‘Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother? ’ This is the Lord’s declaration. ‘Even so, I loved Jacob,
‘ “I passed by you and saw you thrashing around in your blood, and I said to you as you lay in your blood, ‘Live! ’ Yes, I said to you as you lay in your blood, ‘Live! ’
In all your detestable practices and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were stark naked and thrashing around in your blood.