Day 261: Hosea 5 - 11
Bible in a year reading for day 261.
Hosea 5
- 9 Ephraim will be laid waste on the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel I proclaim what is certain.
- 10 The princes of Judah are like those who move boundary stones; I will pour out My fury upon them like water.
- 11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, for he is determined to follow worthless idols.
- 12 So I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like decay to the house of Judah.
- 13 When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim turned to Assyria and sent to the great king. But he cannot cure you or heal your wound.
- 14 For I am like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them to pieces and then go away. I will carry them off where no one can rescue them.
- 15 Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
Hosea 6
- 1 Come, let us return to the LORD. For He has torn us to pieces, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bind up our wounds.
- 2 After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His presence.
- 3 So let us know— let us press on to know the LORD. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the rain, like the spring showers that water the earth.
- 4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes.
- 5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth, and My judgments go forth like lightning.
- 6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
- 7 But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there they were unfaithful to Me.
- 8 Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with footprints of blood.
- 9 Like raiders who lie in ambush, so does a band of priests; they murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed atrocities.
- 10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing: Ephraim practices prostitution there, and Israel is defiled.
- 11 Also for you, O Judah, a harvest is appointed, when I restore My people from captivity.
Hosea 7
- 1 When I heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim will be exposed, as well as the crimes of Samaria. For they practice deceit and thieves break in; bandits raid in the streets.
- 2 But they fail to consider in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face.
- 3 They delight the king with their evil, and the princes with their lies.
- 4 They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by a baker who needs not stoke the fire from the kneading to the rising of the dough.
- 5 The princes are inflamed with wine on the day of our king; so he joins hands with those who mock him.
- 6 For they prepare their heart like an oven while they lie in wait; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
- 7 All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings fall; not one of them calls upon Me.
- 8 Ephraim mixes with the nations; Ephraim is an unturned cake.
- 9 Foreigners consume his strength, but he does not notice. Even his hair is streaked with gray, but he does not know.
- 10 Israel’s arrogance testifies against them, yet they do not return to the LORD their God; despite all this, they do not seek Him.
- 11 So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove— calling out to Egypt, then turning to Assyria.
- 12 As they go, I will spread My net over them; I will bring them down like birds of the air. I will chastise them when I hear them flocking together.
- 13 Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against Me! Though I would redeem them, they speak lies against Me.
- 14 They do not cry out to Me from their hearts when they wail upon their beds. They slash themselves for grain and new wine, but turn away from Me.
- 15 Although I trained and strengthened their arms, they plot evil against Me.
- 16 They turn, but not to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword for the cursing of their tongue; for this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.
Hosea 8
- 1 Put the ram’s horn to your lips! An eagle looms over the house of the LORD, because the people have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My law.
- 2 Israel cries out to Me, “O our God, we know You!”
- 3 But Israel has rejected good; an enemy will pursue him.
- 4 They set up kings, but not by Me. They make princes, but without My approval. With their silver and gold they make themselves idols, to their own destruction.
- 5 He has rejected your calf, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
- 6 For this thing is from Israel— a craftsman made it, and it is not God. It will be broken to pieces, that calf of Samaria.
- 7 For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if it should produce, the foreigners would swallow it up.
- 8 Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like a worthless vessel.
- 9 For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey on its own. Ephraim has hired lovers.
- 10 Though they hire allies among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to diminish under the oppression of the king of princes.
- 11 Though Ephraim multiplied the altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning.
- 12 Though I wrote for them the great things of My law, they regarded them as something strange.
- 13 Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD does not accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.
- 14 Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has multiplied its fortified cities. But I will send fire upon their cities, and it will consume their citadels.
Hosea 9
- 1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations, for you have played the harlot against your God; you have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
- 2 The threshing floor and winepress will not feed them, and the new wine will fail them.
- 3 They will not remain in the land of the LORD; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.
- 4 They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, and their sacrifices will not please Him, but will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat will be defiled. For their bread will be for themselves; it will not enter the house of the LORD.
- 5 What will you do on the appointed day, on the day of the LORD’s feast?
- 6 For even if they flee destruction, Egypt will gather them and Memphis will bury them. Their precious silver will be taken over by thistles, and thorns will overrun their tents.
- 7 The days of punishment have come; the days of retribution have arrived— let Israel know it. The prophet is called a fool, and the inspired man insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and hostility.
- 8 The prophet is Ephraim’s watchman, along with my God, yet the snare of the fowler lies on all his paths. Hostility is in the house of his God!
- 9 They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt; He will punish their sins.
- 10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the firstfruits of the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to Shame; so they became as detestable as the thing they loved.
- 11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird, with no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.
- 12 Even if they raise their children, I will bereave them of each one. Yes, woe be to them when I turn away from them!
- 13 I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a meadow. But Ephraim will bring out his children for slaughter.
- 14 Give them, O LORD— what will You give? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that dry up!
- 15 All their evil appears at Gilgal, for there I hated them. I will drive them from My house for the wickedness of their deeds. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.
- 16 Ephraim is struck down; their root is withered; they cannot bear fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay the darlings of their wombs.
- 17 My God will reject them because they have not obeyed Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Hosea 10
- 1 Israel was a luxuriant vine, yielding fruit for himself. The more his fruit increased, the more he increased the altars. The better his land produced, the better he made the sacred pillars.
- 2 Their hearts are devious; now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and demolish their sacred pillars.
- 3 Surely now they will say, “We have no king, for we do not revere the LORD. What can a king do for us?”
- 4 They speak mere words; with false oaths they make covenants. So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a field.
- 5 The people of Samaria will fear for the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its people will mourn with its idolatrous priests— those who rejoiced in its glory— for it has been taken from them into exile.
- 6 Yes, it will be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king. Ephraim will be seized with shame; Israel will be ashamed of its wooden idols.
- 7 Samaria will be carried off with her king like a twig on the surface of the water.
- 8 The high places of Aven will be destroyed— it is the sin of Israel; thorns and thistles will overgrow their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
- 9 Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel, and there you have remained. Did not the battle in Gibeah overtake the sons of iniquity?
- 10 I will chasten them when I please; nations will be gathered against them to put them in bondage for their double transgression.
- 11 Ephraim is a well-trained heifer that loves to thresh; but I will place a yoke on her fair neck. I will harness Ephraim, Judah will plow, and Jacob will break the hard ground.
- 12 Sow for yourselves righteousness and reap the fruit of loving devotion; break up your unplowed ground. For it is time to seek the LORD until He comes and sends righteousness upon you like rain.
- 13 You have plowed wickedness and reaped injustice; you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your mighty men,
- 14 the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be demolished as Shalman devastated Beth-arbel in the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to pieces along with their children.
- 15 Thus it will be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great wickedness. When the day dawns, the king of Israel will be utterly cut off.
Hosea 11
- 1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.
- 2 But the more I called Israel, the farther they departed from Me. They sacrificed to the Baals and burned incense to carved images.
- 3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them in My arms, but they never realized that it was I who healed them.
- 4 I led them with cords of kindness, with ropes of love; I lifted the yoke from their necks and bent down to feed them.
- 5 Will they not return to the land of Egypt and be ruled by Assyria because they refused to repent?