Sep 25 - Hosea 1-6
Hosea
1The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel2The beginning of the Lord’s conversation with Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea: "Go, take to yourself a wife of fornications, and make for yourself sons of fornications, because, by fornicating, the land will fornicate away from the Lord.3And he went out and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived and bore him a son4And the Lord said to him: "Call his name Jezreel because, after a little while, I will visit the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and I will put the kingdom of the house of Israel to rest5And in that day, I will crush the stronghold of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.6And after a while, she conceived and bore a daughter. And he said to him: "Call her name, Without Mercy, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly forget them7Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. And I will not save them by bow and sword and battle and horses and horsemen.8And she weaned her, who was called Without Mercy. And she conceived and bore a son9And he said: "Call his name, Not My People, for you are not my people, and I will not be yours10And the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which is without measure and cannot be numbered. And in the place where it will be said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ this will happen: it will be said to them, ‘You are the sons of the living God.11And the sons of Judah, and the sons of Israel, will be gathered together. And they will place over themselves one head, and they will rise up from the earth, for great is the day of Jezreel.
1"Say to your brothers, ‘You are my people,’ and to your sister, ‘You have obtained mercy.2Judge your mother, judge: for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove her fornications from before her face and her adulteries from between her breasts3Otherwise, I may expose her nakedness and set her as on the day of her birth, and I may establish her as a wilderness and set her as an impassable land, and I may execute her with thirst4And I will not have mercy on her sons, for they are the sons of fornications5For their mother has been fornicating; she who conceived them has been brought to ruin. 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.6Because of this, behold, I will fence in your way with thorns, and I will surround it with a wall, and she will not find her paths7And she will pursue her lovers, but she will not obtain them, and she will seek them, but she will not find them, and she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, because it was to some extent better for me then, than it is now.8And she did not know that I gave her grain and wine and oil, and that I increased her silver and gold, which they made into Baal9For this reason, I will turn back, and I will take away my grain in its time and my wine in its time, and I will set free my wool and my flax, which had covered her disgrace10And now, I will reveal her foolishness by the eyes of her lovers, and no man will rescue her from my hand11And I will cause all her joy to cease: her solemnities, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her feast dates12And I will corrupt her vines and her fig trees, about which she said, ‘These rewards, they are mine, my lovers have given them to me.’ And I will place her in a narrow forest, and the beasts of the field will devour her13And I will inflict on her the days of the Baals, for whom she burned incense, and ornamented herself with earrings and necklace, and went after her lovers, and forgot about me," says the Lord14"Because of this, behold, I will attract her, and I will lead her into the wilderness, and I will speak to her heart15And I will give to her, from the same place, her vinedressers, and the valley of Achor as a passage of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, and as in the days of her ascension from the land of Egypt16And it will be in that day," says the Lord, "that she will call me, ‘My Husband,’ and she will no longer call me, ‘My Baal.17And I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and she will no longer remember their name18And in that day, I will strike a deal with them, with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creatures of the earth. And I will crush the bow and the sword, and I will wipe away war from the earth. And I will let them sleep securely19And I will betroth you to me forever, and I will betroth you to me in justice and judgment, and in mercy and compassion20And I will wed you to me in faith, and you will know that I am the Lord21And this will happen in that day: I will listen closely," says the Lord. "I will hear the heavens, and they will hear the earth22And the land will pay attention to the grain, and the wine, and the oil; and these will hear Jezreel23And I will plant her for me in the land, and I will have mercy on her, though she had been called Without Mercy. And I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people,’ and they will say, ‘You are my God.’"
1And the Lord said to me: "Go yet again, and love a woman, beloved by a friend, yet an adulteress, for so does the Lord love the sons of Israel, yet they look to strange gods, and love the seeds of grapes.2And I contracted her to me for fifteen silver coins, and for a basket of barley, and half a basket of barley3And I said to her, "You will wait for me for many days. You will not commit fornication, and you will not be with a man. But I also will wait for you.4For the sons of Israel will sit for many days without a king, and without a leader, and without sacrifice, and without altar, and without priestly vestments, and without religious symbols5And after this, the sons of Israel will return, and they will seek the Lord their God and David their king, and they will be terrified by the Lord and by his goodness, in the last days
1Listen to the word of the Lord, sons of Israel, for the Lord is judge of the inhabitants of the land. Yet there is no truth, and there is no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God, in the land2Slander, and lying, and killing, and theft, and adultery have overflowed, and bloodshed has brought more bloodshed3Because of this, the land will mourn, and all who dwell in it will languish, with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. And the fishes of the sea also will be gathered together4So, truly, let each and every one not judge, and let no man be accused, for your people are just like those who speak against the priesthood5And you will be ruined on this day, and now the prophet will be ruined with you. In the night, I have made your mother to be silent6My people have become silent because they had no knowledge. Since you have rejected knowledge, I will drive you away; you do not perform the duties of the priesthood for me, and you have forgotten the law of your God, and so I will forget your sons7According to the multitude of them, so have they sinned against me. I will change their glory into disgrace8They will devour the sins of my people, and they will lift up their souls towards their iniquity9And, just as it is with the people, so will it be with the priest; and I will visit their ways upon them, and I will repay them for their intentions10And they will eat and not be satisfied. They have been committing fornication, and they did not cease. Since they have abandoned the Lord, they will not be safeguarded11Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness, have taken away their heart12My people have inquired of their stave, and their staff has announced to them. For the spirit of fornication has deceived them, and they have been fornicating before their God13They have offered sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burnt incense on the hills, under the oak, and the poplar, and the terebinth tree, because its shadow was good; therefore, your daughters will commit fornication and your spouses will be adulteresses14I will not send afflictions on your daughters, when they will commit fornication, nor on your spouses, when they will commit adultery, because you yourselves have associated with harlots and have offered sacrifice with the effeminate, and because the people who do not understand will be defeated15If you commit fornication, Israel, at least let Judah not commit offenses; and do not be willing to enter into Gilgal, nor to ascend to Bethaven, and neither should you swear, "As the Lord lives.16For Israel has gone astray like a wanton heifer; so now the Lord will pasture them like a young lamb in a wide expanse17Ephraim participates in idolatry, so send him away18Their feasting has been set aside; they have committed fornication after fornication. They love to bring disgrace to their protectors19The wind has fastened them to its wings, and they will be confounded because of their sacrifices
1Hear this, priests, and pay attention, house of Israel, and listen closely, house of the king. For there is a judgment against you, because you have become a trap for those you watched over, and a net stretched out over Tabor2And you have led astray victims into the depths, though I am the teacher of them all3I know Ephraim, and Israel has not been hidden from me, yet now Ephraim has committed fornication, and Israel has been contaminated4They will not set their thoughts to return to their God, for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord5And the arrogance of Israel will answer to his face. And Israel and Ephraim will fall in their iniquity, and even Judah will fall with them6With their flocks and their herds, they will go to seek the Lord, and they will not find him. He has taken himself away from them7They have sinned against the Lord. For they have conceived sons that are strangers. Now one month will devour them with all their own8Sound the bugle in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Shout in Bethaven, behind your back, O Benjamin9Ephraim will be in desolation on the day of correction, for within the tribes of Israel, I have revealed faith10The leaders of Judah have become like those who assume the end. I will pour my wrath over them like water11Ephraim has been enduring malicious slander and broken judgment, because he began to go after filth12And I will be like a moth to Ephraim, and like decay to the house of Judah13And Ephraim saw his own weakness, and Judah his chains. And Ephraim went to Assur, and he sent to the Avenging king. But he will not be able to heal you, nor is he able to release you from your chains14For I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, and like a lion’s offspring to the house of Judah. I myself will seize and go forth. I will take away, and there is no one who can rescue15I will go and return to my place, until you shall grow faint and seek my face
1In their tribulation, they will arise early to me. Come, let us return to the Lord2For he has seized us, and he will heal us. He will strike, and he will cure us3He will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, and we will live in his sight. We will understand, and we will continue on, so that we may know the Lord. His landing place has been prepared like the first light of morning, and he will come to us like the early and the late rains of the land4What am I to do with you, Ephraim? What am I to do with you, Judah? Your mercy is like the morning mist, and like the dew passing away in the morning5Because of this, I have cut them with the prophets, I have slain them with the words of my mouth; and your opinions will depart like the light6For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and knowledge of God more than holocausts7But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; in this, they have been dishonest with me8Gilead is a city that manufactures idols; it has been tripped up by family relations9And, like those who rob with skillful words, they, by conspiring with the priests, bring a death sentence to travelers on a pilgrimage from Shechem; for they have been performing evil deeds10I have seen horrible things in the house of Israel; the fornications of Ephraim are there. Israel has been contaminated11But you, Judah, set a harvest for yourself, while I reverse the captivity of my people