Day 262: Hosea 11 - Joel 2

Bible in a year reading for day 262.

Hosea 11

6 A sword will flash through their cities; it will destroy the bars of their gates and consume them in their own plans.
7 My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call to the Most High, He will by no means exalt them.
8 How could I give you up, O Ephraim? How could I surrender you, O Israel? How could I make you like Admah? How could I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within Me; My compassion is stirred!
9 I will not execute the full fury of My anger; I will not turn back to destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man— the Holy One among you— and I will not come in wrath.
10 They will walk after the LORD; He will roar like a lion. When He roars, His children will come trembling from the west.
11 They will come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria. Then I will settle them in their homes, declares the LORD.
12 Ephraim surrounds Me with lies, the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One.

Hosea 12

1 Ephraim chases the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; he multiplies lies and violence; he makes a covenant with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.
2 The LORD also brings a charge against Judah. He will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.
3 In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel, and in his vigor he wrestled with God.
4 Yes, he struggled with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought His favor; he found Him at Bethel and spoke with Him there—
5 the LORD is the God of Hosts— the LORD is His name of renown.
6 But you must return to your God, maintaining love and justice, and always waiting on your God.
7 A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands.
8 And Ephraim boasts: “How rich I have become! I have found wealth for myself. In all my labors, they can find in me no iniquity that is sinful.”
9 But I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt. I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast.
10 I spoke through the prophets and multiplied their visions; I gave parables through the prophets.
11 Is there iniquity in Gilead? They will surely come to nothing. Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Indeed, their altars will be heaps of stones in the furrows of the field.
12 Jacob fled to the land of Aram and Israel worked for a wife— for a wife he tended sheep.
13 But by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.
14 Ephraim has provoked bitter anger, so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt upon him and repay him for his contempt.

Hosea 13

1 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel. But he incurred guilt through Baal, and he died.
2 Now they sin more and more and make for themselves cast images, idols skillfully made from their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. People say of them, “They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves!”
3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes, like chaff blown from a threshing floor, like smoke through an open window.
4 Yet I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but Me, for there is no Savior besides Me.
5 I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of drought.
6 When they had pasture, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, their hearts became proud, and as a result they forgot Me.
7 So like a lion I will pounce on them; like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
8 Like a bear robbed of her cubs I will attack them, and I will tear open their chests. There I will devour them like a lion, like a wild beast would tear them apart.
9 You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against Me— against your helper.
10 Where is your king now to save you in all your cities, and the rulers to whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”?
11 So in My anger I gave you a king, and in My wrath I took him away.
12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is stored up.
13 Labor pains come upon him, but he is an unwise son. When the time arrives, he fails to present himself at the opening of the womb.
14 I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from Death. Where, O Death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol, is your sting? Compassion is hidden from My eyes.
15 Although he flourishes among his brothers, an east wind will come— a wind from the LORD rising up from the desert. His fountain will fail, and his spring will run dry. The wind will plunder his treasury of every precious article.
16 Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.

Hosea 14

1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.
2 Bring your confessions and return to the LORD. Say to Him: “Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips.
3 Assyria will not save us, nor will we ride on horses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our own hands. For in You the fatherless find compassion.”
4 I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.
6 His shoots will sprout, and his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.
7 They will return and dwell in his shade; they will grow grain and blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 O Ephraim, what have I to do anymore with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing cypress; your fruit comes from Me.
9 Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right, and the righteous walk in them but the rebellious stumble in them.

Joel 1

1 This is the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel:
2 Hear this, O elders; and give ear, all who dwell in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your fathers?
3 Tell it to your children; let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.
4 What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.
5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.
6 For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness.
7 It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white.
8 Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth.
9 Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.
10 The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails.
11 Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.
12 The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple— all the trees of the orchard—are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up.
13 Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.
14 Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.
15 Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
16 Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes— joy and gladness from the house of our God?
17 The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away.
18 How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.
19 To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field.
20 Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures.

Joel 2

1 Blow the ram’s horn in Zion; sound the alarm on My holy mountain! Let all who dwell in the land tremble, for the Day of the LORD is coming; indeed, it is near—
2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come.
3 Before them a fire devours, and behind them a flame scorches. The land before them is like the Garden of Eden, but behind them, it is like a desert wasteland— surely nothing will escape them.
4 Their appearance is like that of horses, and they gallop like swift steeds.
5 With a sound like that of chariots they bound over the mountaintops, like the crackling of fire consuming stubble, like a mighty army deployed for battle.
6 Nations writhe in horror before them; every face turns pale.
7 They charge like mighty men; they scale the walls like men of war. Each one marches in formation, not swerving from the course.
8 They do not jostle one another; each proceeds in his path. They burst through the defenses, never breaking ranks.
9 They storm the city; they run along the wall; they climb into houses, entering through windows like thieves.
10 Before them the earth quakes; the heavens tremble. The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars lose their brightness.
11 The LORD raises His voice in the presence of His army. Indeed, His camp is very large, for mighty are those who obey His command. For the Day of the LORD is great and very dreadful. Who can endure it?
12 “Yet even now,” declares the LORD, “return to Me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping, and mourning.”
13 So rend your hearts and not your garments, and return to the LORD your God. For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion. And He relents from sending disaster.
14 Who knows? He may turn and relent and leave a blessing behind Him— grain and drink offerings for the LORD your God.
15 Blow the ram’s horn in Zion, consecrate a fast, proclaim a sacred assembly.
16 Gather the people, sanctify the congregation, assemble the aged, gather the children, even those nursing at the breast. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.
17 Let the priests who minister before the LORD weep between the portico and the altar, saying, “Spare Your people, O LORD, and do not make Your heritage a reproach, an object of scorn among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’”
18 Then the LORD became jealous for His land, and He spared His people.
19 And the LORD answered His people: “Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and by them you will be satisfied. I will never again make you a reproach among the nations.

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