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First Reading: Hosea Chapter 2 and 3 and 4Hosea 2
2:1 Say to your brethren,'My people,' And to your sisters,'Mercy is shown.'
2 God's Unfaithful People
"Bring charges against your mother, bring charges;For she is not My wife,
nor am I her Husband!Let her put away her harlotries from her sight,And her
adulteries from between her breasts; 3 Lest I strip her naked And expose her,
as in the day she was born,And make her like a wilderness,And set her like a
dry land,And slay her with thirst.
4 "I will not have mercy on her children,For they are the children of harlotry.
5 For their mother has played the harlot;She who conceived them has behaved
shamefully.For she said, 'I will go after my lovers,Who give me my bread and
my water,My wool and my linen,My oil and my drink.'
6 "Therefore, behold,I will hedge up your way with thorns,And wall her
in,So that she cannot find her paths. 7 She will chase her lovers,But not overtake
them;Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.Then she will say,'I will go
and return to my first husband,For then it was better for me than now.' 8 For
she did not know That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,And multiplied her
silver and gold — Which they prepared for Baal.
9 "Therefore I will return and take away My grain in its time And My new
wine in its season,And will take back My wool and My linen,Given to cover her
nakedness. 10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,And
no one shall deliver her from My hand. 11 I will also cause all her mirth to
cease,Her feast days,Her New Moons,Her Sabbaths — All her appointed feasts.
12 "And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,Of which she has said,'These
are my wages that my lovers have given me.'So I will make them a forest,And
the beasts of the field shall eat them. 13 I will punish her For the days of
the Baals to which she burned incense.She decked herself with her earrings and
jewelry,And went after her lovers;But Me she forgot," says the LORD.
14 God's Mercy on His People
'Therefore, behold, I will allure her,Will bring her into the wilderness,And
speak comfort to her. 15 I will give her her vineyards from there,And the Valley
of Achor as a door of hope;She shall sing there,As in the days of her youth,As
in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
16 "And it shall be, in that day,"Says the LORD,"That you will
call Me'My Husband,' And no longer call Me'My Master,' 17 For I will take from
her mouth the names of the Baals,And they shall be remembered by their name
no more. 18 In that day I will make a covenant for them With the beasts of the
field,With the birds of the air,And with the creeping things of the ground.Bow
and sword of battle I will shatter from the earth,To make them lie down safely.
19 "I will betroth you to Me forever;Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness
and justice,In lovingkindness and mercy; 20 I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,And
you shall know the LORD.
21 "It shall come to pass in that day That I will answer," says the
LORD;"I will answer the heavens,And they shall answer the earth. 22 The
earth shall answer With grain,With new wine,And with oil;They shall answer Jezreel.
23 Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth,And I will have mercy on her
who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people,
'You are My people!'And they shall say, 'You are my God!'"
Hosea 3
3:1 Israel Will Return to God
Then the LORD said to me, "Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover
and is committing adultery, just like the love of the LORD for the children
of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans."
2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half
homers of barley. 3 And I said to her, "You shall stay with me many days;
you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man — so, too, will
I be toward you."
4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without
sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim. 5 Afterward the children
of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They
shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days.
Hosea 4
4:1 God's Charge Against Israel
Hear the word of the LORD,You children of Israel,For the LORD brings a charge
against the inhabitants of the land:
"There is no truth or mercy Or knowledge of God in the land. 2 By swearing
and lying,Killing and stealing and committing adultery,They break all restraint,With
bloodshed upon bloodshed. 3 Therefore the land will mourn;And everyone who dwells
there will waste away With the beasts of the field And the birds of the air;Even
the fish of the sea will be taken away.
4 "Now let no man contend, or rebuke another;For your people are like those
who contend with the priest. 5 Therefore you shall stumble in the day;The prophet
also shall stumble with you in the night;And I will destroy your mother. 6 My
people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.Because you have rejected knowledge,I
also will reject you from being priest for Me;Because you have forgotten the
law of your God,I also will forget your children.
7 "The more they increased,The more they sinned against Me;I will change
their glory into shame. 8 They eat up the sin of My people;They set their heart
on their iniquity. 9 And it shall be: like people, like priest.So I will punish
them for their ways,And reward them for their deeds. 10 For they shall eat,
but not have enough;They shall commit harlotry, but not increase;Because they
have ceased obeying the LORD.
11 The Idolatry of Israel
'Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart. 12 My people ask counsel from
their wooden idols,And their staff informs them.For the spirit of harlotry has
caused them to stray,And they have played the harlot against their God. 13 They
offer sacrifices on the mountaintops,And burn incense on the hills,Under oaks,
poplars, and terebinths,Because their shade is good.Therefore your daughters
commit harlotry,And your brides commit adultery. 14'I will not punish your daughters
when they commit harlotry,Nor your brides when they commit adultery;For the
men themselves go apart with harlots,And offer sacrifices with a ritual harlot.
Therefore people who do not understand will be trampled.
15 "Though you, Israel, play the harlot,Let not Judah offend.Do not come
up to Gilgal,Nor go up to Beth Aven,Nor swear an oath, saying, 'As the LORD
lives' —
16 "For Israel is stubborn Like a stubborn calf;Now the LORD will let them
forage Like a lamb in open country.
17 "Ephraim is joined to idols,Let him alone. 18 Their drink is rebellion,They
commit harlotry continually.Her rulers dearly love dishonor. 19 The wind has
wrapped her up in its wings,And they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
2 Timothy 3
3:1 Perilous Times and Perilous Men
But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: 2 For men will
be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient
to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without
self-control, brutal, despisers of good, 4 traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers
of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having a form of godliness but denying
its power. And from such people turn away! 6 For of this sort are those who
creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins,
led away by various lusts, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge
of the truth. 8 Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist
the truth: men of corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith; 9 but they
will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs
also was.
10 The Man of God and the Word of God
But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith,
longsuffering, love, perseverance, 11 persecutions, afflictions, which happened
to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra — what persecutions I endured.
And out of them all the Lord delivered me. 12 Yes, and all who desire to live
godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 13 But evil men and impostors
will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But you must continue
in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom
you have learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures,
which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus.
16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man
of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE
HOSEA
Part 2 of 2
The book of Hosea can be divided into three main parts:
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