Day 348 of 365

Hos 9:1–12:14

9:1 Do not rejoice, Israel, to jubilation like the nations; for you were unfaithful to your God. You love the wages of a prostitute at every grain threshing floor.

9:2 The threshing floor and the winepress won't feed them, and the new wine will fail her.

9:3 They won't dwell in the Lord's land; but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and they will eat unclean food in Assyria.

9:4 They won't pour out wine offerings to the Lord, neither will they be pleasing to him. Their sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat of it will be polluted; for their bread will be for their appetite. It will not come into the house of the Lord.

9:5 What will you do in the day of solemn assembly, and in the day of the feast of the Lord?

9:6 For, behold, they have gone away from destruction. Egypt will gather them up. Memphis will bury them. Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver. Thorns will be in their tents.

9:7 The days of visitation have come. The days of reckoning have come. Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool, and the man who is inspired to be insane, because of the abundance of your sins, and because your hostility is great.

9:8 A prophet watches over Ephraim with my God. A fowler's snare is on all of his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.

9:9 They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity. He will punish them for their sins.

9:10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at its first season; but they came to Baal Peor, and consecrated themselves to the shameful thing, and became abominable like that which they loved.

9:11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird. There will be no birth, none with child, and no conception.

9:12 Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them, so that not a man shall be left. Indeed, woe also to them when I depart from them!

9:13 I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place; but Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.

9:14 Give them-Lord what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

9:15 "All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house! I will love them no more. All their princes are rebels.

9:16 Ephraim is struck. Their root has dried up. They will bear no fruit. Even though they bring forth, yet I will kill the beloved ones of their womb."

9:17 My God will cast them away, because they did not listen to him; and they will be wanderers among the nations.

10:1 Israel is a luxuriant vine that puts forth his fruit. According to the abundance of his fruit he has multiplied his altars. As their land has prospered, they have adorned their sacred stones.

10:2 Their heart is divided. Now they will be found guilty. He will demolish their altars. He will destroy their sacred stones.

10:3 Surely now they will say, "We have no king; for we do not fear the Lord; and the king, what can he do for us?"

10:4 They make promises, swearing falsely in making covenants. Therefore judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

10:5 The inhabitants of Samaria will be in terror for the calves of Beth Aven; for its people will mourn over it, Along with its priests who rejoiced over it, for its glory, because it has departed from it.

10:6 It also will be carried to Assyria for a present to a great king. Ephraim will receive shame, and Israel will be ashamed of his own counsel.

10:7 Samaria and her king float away, like a twig on the water.

10:8 The high places also of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The thorn and the thistle will come up on their altars. They will tell the mountains, "Cover us!" and the hills, "Fall on us!"

10:9 "Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they remained. The battle against the children of iniquity doesn't overtake them in Gibeah.

10:10 When it is my desire, I will chastise them; and the nations will be gathered against them, when they are bound to their two transgressions.

10:11 Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh; so I will put a yoke on her beautiful neck. I will set a rider on Ephraim. Judah will plow. Jacob will break his clods.

10:12 Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap according to kindness. Break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and rains righteousness on you.

10:13 You have plowed wickedness. You have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, for you trusted in your way, in the multitude of your mighty men.

10:14 Therefore a battle roar will arise among your people, and all your fortresses will be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth Arbel in the day of battle. The mother was dashed in pieces with her children.

10:15 So Bethel will do to you because of your great wickedness. At daybreak the king of Israel will be destroyed.

11:1 "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

11:2 They called to them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to engraved images.

11:3 Yet I taught Ephraim to walk. I took them by his arms; but they did not know that I healed them.

11:4 I drew them with cords of a man, with ties of love; and I was to them like those who lift up the yoke on their necks; and I bent down to him and I fed him.

11:5 "They won't return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian will be their king, because they refused to repent.

11:6 The sword will fall on their cities, and will destroy the bars of their gates, and will put an end to their plans.

11:7 My people are determined to turn from me. Though they call to the Most High, he certainly won't exalt them.

11:8 "How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused.

11:9 I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of you; and I will not come in wrath.

11:10 They will walk after the Lord, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west.

11:11 They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses," says the Lord.

11:12 Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from God, and is unfaithful to the Holy One.

12:1 Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.

12:2 The Lord also has a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his deeds he will repay him.

12:3 In the womb he took his brother by the heel; and in his manhood he contended with God.

12:4 Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us,

12:5 even the Lord, the God of Hosts; The Lord is his name of renown!

12:6 Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God.

12:7 A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to defraud.

12:8 Ephraim said, "Surely I have become rich, I have found myself wealth. In all my wealth they won't find in me any iniquity that is sin."

12:9 "But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt. I will yet again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast.

12:10 I have also spoken to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets I have used parables.

12:11 If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field.

12:12 Jacob fled into the country of Aram, and Israel served to get a wife, and for a wife he tended flocks and herds.

12:13 By a prophet the Lord brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.

12:14 Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger. Therefore his blood will be left on him, and his Lord will repay his contempt.

Rev 6:1–17

1 I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seven seals, and I heard one of the four living creatures saying, as with a voice of thunder, "Come!"

2 And I saw, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it had a bow. A crown was given to him, and he came forth conquering, and to conquer.

3 When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature saying, "Come!"

4 Another came forth, a fiery red horse. To him who sat on it was given power to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another. There was given to him a great sword.

5 When he opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature saying, "Come!" And I saw, and behold, a black horse, and he who sat on it had a balance in his hand.

6 I heard something like a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, "A choenix of wheat for a denarius, and three choenixes of barley for a denarius! Do not damage the oil and the wine!"

7 When he opened the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living creature saying, "Come!"

8 And behold, a pale horse, and he who sat on it, his name was Death. Hell followed with him. Authority over one fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword, with famine, with death, and by the wild animals of the earth was given to him.

9 When he opened the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been killed for the Word of God, and for the testimony which they had.

10 They called out with a loud voice, saying, "How long, Master, the holy and true, until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?"

11 A long white robe was given to each of them. They were told that they should rest yet for a little longer, until their fellow servants and their brothers, who would also be killed even as they were, should complete their course.

12 I saw when he opened the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became as blood.

13 The stars of the sky fell to the earth, like a fig tree dropping its unripe figs when it is shaken by a great wind.

14 The sky was removed like a scroll when it is rolled up. Every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

15 The kings of the earth, the princes, the commanding officers, the rich, the strong, and every slave and free person, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains.

16 They told the mountains and the rocks, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,

17 for the great day of their wrath has come; and who is able to stand?"

Job 38:29–41

29 Out of whose womb came the ice? The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it?

30 The waters become hard like stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen.

31 "Can you bind the cluster of the Pleiades, or loosen the cords of Orion?

32 Can you lead forth the constellations in their season? Or can you guide the Bear with her cubs?

33 Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you establish its dominion over the earth?

34 "Can you lift up your voice to the clouds, That abundance of waters may cover you?

35 Can you send forth lightnings, that they may go? Do they report to you, 'Here we are?'

36 Who has put wisdom in the inward parts? Or who has given understanding to the mind?

37 Who can number the clouds by wisdom? Or who can pour out the bottles of the sky,

38 when the dust runs into a mass, and the clods of earth stick together?

39 "Can you hunt the prey for the lioness, or satisfy the appetite of the young lions,

40 when they crouch in their dens, and lie in wait in the thicket?

41 Who provides for the raven his prey, when his young ones cry to God, and wander for lack of food?