A Dangerous Metaphor - Parshat Bamidbar

(1) On the first day of the second month, in the second year following the exodus from the land of Egypt, the Eternal spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai, in the Tent of Meeting, saying: (2) Take a census of the whole Israelite community by the clans of its ancestral houses, listing the names, every male, head by head. (3) You and Aaron shall record them by their groups, from the age of twenty years up, all those in Israel who are able to bear arms.

(1) The number of the people of Israel shall be like that of the sands of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted; and instead of being told, “You are Not-My-People,” they shall be called Children-of-the-Living-God. (2) The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall assemble together and appoint one head over them; and they shall rise from the ground—for marvelous shall be the day of Jezreel! (3) Oh, call your brothers “My People,” And your sisters “Lovingly Accepted!”

(4) Rebuke your mother, rebuke her—

For she is not My woman [or, 'wife']

And I am not her man [or 'husband']—

And let her put away her harlotry from her face

And her adultery from between her breasts.

(5) Else will I strip her naked

And leave her as on the day she was born: And I will make her like a wilderness, Render her like desert land,

And let her die of thirst.

(6) I will also disown her children;

For they are now a harlot’s brood,

(7) For their mother has played the harlot,

She that conceived them has acted shamelessly—

Because she thought, “I will go after my lovers,

Who supply my bread and my water,

My wool and my linen,

My oil and my drink.”

(8) And so, I will hedge up her roads with thorns

And raise walls against her,

And she shall not find her paths.

(9) Pursue her lovers as she will,

She shall not reach them;

And seek them as she may,

She shall never find them.

Then she will say, “I will go and return

To my first husband,

For then I fared better than now.”

(10) And she did not consider this:

It was I who bestowed on her

The new grain and wine and oil;

I who lavished silver on her

And gold—which they used for Baal.

(11) Therefore, I will take back My new grain in its time

And My new wine in its season,

And I will snatch away My wool and My linen

That serve to cover her nakedness.

(12) Now will I uncover her shame

In the very sight of her lovers,

And none shall save her from Me.

(13) And I will end all her rejoicing:

Her festivals, new moons, and sabbaths— All her festive seasons.

(14) I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,

Which she thinks are a fee

She received from her lovers;

I will turn them into brushwood,

And beasts of the field shall devour them.

(15) Thus will I punish her For the days of the Baalim,

On which she brought them offerings; When, decked with earrings and jewels,

She would go after her lovers,

Forgetting Me —declares the Eternal.

(16) So I will lure her back

And lead her through the wilderness

And speak to her heart.

(17) I will give her her vineyards from there, And the Valley of Achor as a plowland of hope.

There she shall respond as in the days of her youth,

When she came up from the land of Egypt.

(18) And in that day —declares the Eternal— You will call [Me] Ishi [my man], And no more will you call Me Baali [my husband].

(19) For I will remove the names of the Baalim from her mouth,

And they shall nevermore be mentioned by name.

(20) In that day, I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; I will also banish bow, sword, and war from the land. Thus I will let them lie down in safety.

(21) And I will betroth you to me forever:

I will betroth you to me with righteousness and justice,

And with goodness and mercy,

(22) And I will betroth you to me with faith;

And then you shall know the Eternal.

(1) The word of the Eternal that came to Hosea son of Beeri, in the reigns of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, and in the reign of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel. (2) When the Eternal first spoke to Hosea, the Eternal said to Hosea, “Go, get yourself a wife of whoredom and children of whoredom; for the land will stray from following the Eternal.” (3) So he went and married Gomer daughter of Diblaim. She conceived and bore him a son.

(3) You shall have no other gods besides Me. (4) You shall not make for yourself a sculptured image, or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. (5) You shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I the Eternal your God am a jealous God, visiting the guilt of the parents upon the children, upon the third and upon the fourth generations of those who reject Me, (6) but showing kindness to the thousandth generation of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

(12) Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: If any man’s wife has gone astray and broken faith with him (13) in that a man has had carnal relations with her unbeknown to her husband, and she keeps secret the fact that she has defiled herself without being forced, and there is no witness against her— (14) but a fit of jealousy comes over him and he is wrought up about the wife who has defiled herself; or if a fit of jealousy comes over one and he is wrought up about his wife although she has not defiled herself— (15) the man shall bring his wife to the priest. And he shall bring as an offering for her one-tenth of an ephah of barley flour. No oil shall be poured upon it and no frankincense shall be laid on it, for it is a meal offering of jealousy, a meal offering of remembrance which recalls wrongdoing.

(1) While Israel was staying at Shittim, the people profaned themselves by whoring with the Moabite women, (2) who invited the people to the sacrifices for their god. The people partook of them and worshiped that god. (3) Thus Israel attached itself to Baal-peor, and the Eternal was enraged with Israel.

you shall call Me Ishi - You shall worship Me out of love and not out of fear.

Ishi is the language of marriage and the love of one’s youth.

Baali - is the language of mastership and fear.