Hosea 6:1-9:17 1 “Come on! Let’s return to the
Lord! He himself has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us! He has injured
us, but he will bandage our wounds!
2 He will restore
us in a very short time;
he will heal us in a little while,
so that we may live in his presence.
3 So let us acknowledge him!
Let us seek
to acknowledge
the
Lord! He will come to our rescue as certainly as the appearance of the dawn, as certainly as the winter rain comes, as certainly as the spring rain that waters the land.”
4 What am I going to do with you, O Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, O Judah? For
your faithfulness is as fleeting as the morning mist;
it disappears as quickly as dawn’s dew!
5 Therefore, I will certainly cut
you into pieces at the hands of the prophets;
I will certainly kill you
in fulfillment of my oracles of judgment;
for
my judgment
will come forth like the light of the dawn.
6 For I delight in faithfulness, not simply in sacrifice; I delight
in acknowledging God, not simply in whole burnt offerings.
7 At Adam
they broke
the covenant; Oh how
they were unfaithful
to me!
8 Gilead is a city full of evildoers;
its streets are stained with bloody footprints!
9 The company of priests is like a gang of robbers, lying in ambush to pounce on a victim. They commit murder on the road to Shechem; they have done heinous crimes!
10 I have seen a disgusting thing in the temple of Israel: there Ephraim practices temple prostitution and Judah defiles itself.
11 I have appointed a time to reap judgment
for you also, O Judah!
Whenever I want to restore the fortunes of my people,
1 whenever I want to heal Israel, the sin of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed. For they do what is wrong; thieves break into houses, and gangs rob people out in the streets.
2 They do not realize
that I remember all of their wicked deeds. Their evil deeds have now surrounded them; their sinful deeds are always before me.
3 The royal advisers delight the king with their evil schemes, the princes make him glad with their lies.
4 They are all like bakers,
they
are like a smoldering oven; they are like a baker who does not stoke the fire until the kneaded dough is ready for baking.
5 At the celebration
of their king,
his princes become inflamed
with wine; they conspire
with evildoers.
6 They approach him, all the while plotting against him. Their hearts are like an oven; their anger smolders all night long, but in the morning it bursts into a flaming fire.
7 All of them are blazing like an oven; they devour their rulers. All of their kings fall – and none of them call on me!
8 Ephraim has mixed itself like flour
among the nations; Ephraim is like a ruined cake of bread that is scorched on one side.
9 Foreigners are consuming what his strenuous labor produced,
but he does not recognize it! His head is filled with gray hair, but he does not realize it!
10 The arrogance of Israel testifies against him, yet they refuse to return to the
Lord their God! In spite of all this they refuse to seek him!
11 Ephraim has been like a dove, easily deceived and lacking discernment. They called to Egypt for help; they turned to Assyria for protection.
12 I will throw my bird net over them while they are flying, I will bring them down like birds in the sky; I will discipline them when I hear them flocking together.
13 Woe to them! For they have fled from me! Destruction to them! For they have rebelled against me! I want to deliver
them, but they have lied to me.
14 They do not pray to me,
but howl in distress on their beds; They slash themselves
for grain and new wine, but turn away from me.
15 Although I trained and strengthened them,
they plot evil against me!
16 They turn to Baal;
they are like an unreliable bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because their prayers to Baal
have made me angry. So people will disdain them in the land of Egypt.
1 Sound the alarm!
An eagle
looms over the temple of the
Lord! For they have broken their covenant with me,
and have rebelled against my law.
2 Israel cries out to me, “My God, we acknowledge you!”
3 But Israel has rejected what is morally good; so an enemy will pursue him.
4 They enthroned kings without my consent!
They appointed princes without my approval!
They made idols out of their silver and gold, but they will be destroyed!
5 O Samaria, he has rejected your calf idol! My anger burns against them! They will not survive much longer without being punished,
even though they are Israelites!
6 That idol was made by a workman – it is not God! The calf idol of Samaria will be broken to bits.
7 They sow the wind, and so they will reap the whirlwind! The stalk does not have any standing grain; it will not produce any flour. Even if it were to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it all up.
8 Israel will be swallowed up among the nations; they will be like a worthless piece of pottery.
9 They have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey that wanders off. Ephraim has hired prostitutes as lovers.
10 Even though they have hired lovers among the nations,
I will soon gather them together for judgment.
Then
they will begin to waste away under the oppression of a mighty king.
11 Although Ephraim has built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning!
12 I spelled out my law for him in great detail, but they regard it as something totally unknown
to them!
13 They offer up sacrificial gifts to me, and eat the meat, but the
Lord does not accept their sacrifices.
Soon he will remember their wrongdoing, he will punish their sins, and they will return to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker and built royal palaces, and Judah has built many fortified cities. But I will send fire on their cities; it will consume their royal citadels.
1 O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly
like the nations, for you are unfaithful
to your God. You love to receive a prostitute's wages
on all the floors where you thresh your grain.
2 Threshing floors and wine vats will not feed the people,
and new wine only deceives them.
3 They will not remain in the
Lord’s land. Ephraim will return to Egypt; they will eat ritually unclean food in Assyria.
4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the
Lord; they will not please him with their sacrifices. Their sacrifices will be like bread eaten while in mourning; all those who eat them will make themselves ritually unclean. For their bread will be only to satisfy their appetite; it will not come into the temple of the
Lord.
5 So what will you do on the festival day, on the festival days of the
Lord?
6 Look!
Even if
they flee from the destruction, Egypt will take hold
of them, and Memphis will bury them. The weeds will inherit the silver they treasure
– thorn bushes will occupy their homes.
7 The time of judgment
is about to arrive!
The time of retribution
is imminent!
Let Israel know!
The prophet is considered a fool
– the inspired man
is viewed as a madman
– because of the multitude of your sins and your intense
animosity.
8 The prophet
is a watchman
over Ephraim
on behalf of God,
yet traps
are laid for him along all of his paths;
animosity rages against him in the land
of his God.
9 They have sunk deep into corruption
as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their wrongdoing. He will repay them for their sins.
10 When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness. I viewed your ancestors
like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season. Then they came to Baal-Peor and they dedicated themselves to shame – they became as detestable as what they loved.
11 Ephraim will be like a bird; what they value
will fly away. They will not bear children – they will not enjoy pregnancy – they will not even conceive!
12 Even if they raise their children, I will take away every last one of them.
Woe to them! For I will turn away from them.
13 Just as lion cubs are born predators,
so Ephraim will bear his sons for slaughter.
14 Give them, O
Lord – what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry, and breasts that cannot nurse!
15 Because of all their evil in Gilgal, I hate them there. On account of their evil deeds, I will drive them out of my land.
I will no longer love them; all their rulers are rebels.
16 Ephraim will be struck down
– their root will be dried up; they will not yield any fruit. Even if they do bear children, I will kill their precious offspring.
17 My God will reject them, for they have not obeyed him; so they will be fugitives among the nations.
Context (NET) 3 John 1:1-14 1 From
the elder,
to Gaius
my dear brother, whom I love in truth.
2 Dear friend, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul.
3 For I rejoiced greatly when the brothers came and testified to your truth, just as you are living according to the truth.
4 I have no greater joy than this: to hear
that my children are living according to the truth.
5 Dear friend,
you demonstrate faithfulness
by whatever you do for the brothers (even though they are strangers).
6 They
have testified to your love before the church.
You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God.
7 For they have gone forth
on behalf of “The Name,”
accepting nothing from the pagans.
8 Therefore we
ought to support such people, so that we become coworkers in cooperation with the truth.
9 I wrote something to the church,
but Diotrephes,
who loves to be first among them, does not acknowledge us.
10 Therefore, if I come,
I will call attention to the deeds he is doing
– the bringing of unjustified charges against us with evil words! And not being content with that, he not only refuses to welcome the brothers himself, but hinders the people who want to do so and throws them out of the church!
11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is bad but what is good.
The one who does good is of God; the one who does what is bad has not seen God.
12 Demetrius
has been testified to by all, even by the truth itself. We also testify to him,
and you know that our testimony is true.
13 I have many things to write to you, but I do not wish to write to you with
pen and ink.
14 But I hope to see you right away, and we will speak face to face.
Peace be with you.
The friends here
greet you. Greet the friends
there
by name.
Context (NET) Psalm 126:1-6 1 A song of ascents.
When the
Lord restored the well-being of Zion,
we thought we were dreaming.
2 At that time we laughed loudly and shouted for joy.
At that time the nations said,
“The
Lord has accomplished great things for these people.”
3 The
Lord did indeed accomplish great things for us. We were happy.
4 O
Lord, restore our well-being, just as the streams in the arid south are replenished.
5 Those who shed tears as they plant will shout for joy when they reap the harvest.
6 The one who weeps as he walks along, carrying his bag
of seed, will certainly come in with a shout of joy, carrying his sheaves of grain.
Context (NET) Proverbs 29:12-14 12 If a ruler listens to
lies,
all his ministers
will be wicked.
13 The poor person and the oppressor
have this in common:
the
Lord gives light
to the eyes of them both.
14 If a king judges the poor in truth,
his throne
will be established forever.
Context (NET)
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