September 23

Today’s Reading is from Hosea Chapters 1 to 6.

Hosea 1

1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

4 And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”

8 When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. 9 And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”

10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” 11 And the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

Hosea 2

1 Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.”

2 “Plead with your mother, plead—

for she is not my wife,

and I am not her husband—

that she put away her whoring from her face,

and her adultery from between her breasts;

3 lest I strip her naked

and make her as in the day she was born,

and make her like a wilderness,

and make her like a parched land,

and kill her with thirst.

4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy,

because they are children of whoredom.

5 For their mother has played the whore;

she who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,

who give me my bread and my water,

my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns,

and I will build a wall against her,

so that she cannot find her paths.

7 She shall pursue her lovers

but not overtake them,

and she shall seek them

but shall not find them.

Then she shall say,

‘I will go and return to my first husband,

for it was better for me then than now.’

8 And she did not know

that it was I who gave her

the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and who lavished on her silver and gold,

which they used for Baal.

9 Therefore I will take back

my grain in its time,

and my wine in its season,

and I will take away my wool and my flax,

which were to cover her nakedness.

10 Now I will uncover her lewdness

in the sight of her lovers,

and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.

11 And I will put an end to all her mirth,

her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths,

and all her appointed feasts.

12 And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,

of which she said,

‘These are my wages,

which my lovers have given me.’

I will make them a forest,

and the beasts of the field shall devour them.

13 And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals

when she burned offerings to them

and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry,

and went after her lovers

and forgot me, declares the Lord.

14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

and bring her into the wilderness,

and speak tenderly to her.

15 And there I will give her her vineyards

and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.

And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,

as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

16 “And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

21 “And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord,

I will answer the heavens,

and they shall answer the earth,

22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,

and they shall answer Jezreel,

23 and I will sow her for myself in the land.

And I will have mercy on No Mercy,

and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’;

and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

Hosea 3

1 And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” 4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

Hosea 4

1 Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,

for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.

There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,

and no knowledge of God in the land;

2 there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;

they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

3 Therefore the land mourns,

and all who dwell in it languish,

and also the beasts of the field

and the birds of the heavens,

and even the fish of the sea are taken away.

4 Yet let no one contend,

and let none accuse,

for with you is my contention, O priest.

5 You shall stumble by day;

the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;

and I will destroy your mother.

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;

because you have rejected knowledge,

I reject you from being a priest to me.

And since 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 feed on the sin of my people;

they are greedy for their iniquity.

9 And it shall be like people, like priest;

I will punish them for their ways

and repay them for their deeds.

10 They shall eat, but not be satisfied;

they shall play the whore, but not multiply,

because they have forsaken the Lord

to cherish 11 whoredom, wine, and new wine,

which take away the understanding.

12 My people inquire of a piece of wood,

and their walking staff gives them oracles.

For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray,

and they have left their God to play the whore.

13 They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains

and burn offerings on the hills,

under oak, poplar, and terebinth,

because their shade is good.

Therefore your daughters play the whore,

and your brides commit adultery.

14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,

nor your brides when they commit adultery;

for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes

and sacrifice with cult prostitutes,

and a people without understanding shall come to ruin.

15 Though you play the whore, O Israel,

let not Judah become guilty.

Enter not into Gilgal,

nor go up to Beth-aven,

and swear not, “As the Lord lives.”

16 Like a stubborn heifer,

Israel is stubborn;

can the Lord now feed them

like a lamb in a broad pasture?

17 Ephraim is joined to idols;

leave him alone.

18 When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring;

their rulers dearly love shame.

19 A wind has wrapped them in its wings,

and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Hosea 5

1 Hear this, O priests!

Pay attention, O house of Israel!

Give ear, O house of the king!

For the judgment is for you;

for you have been a snare at Mizpah

and a net spread upon Tabor.

2 And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter,

but I will discipline all of them.

3 I know Ephraim,

and Israel is not hidden from me;

for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore;

Israel is defiled.

4 Their deeds do not permit them

to return to their God.

For the spirit of whoredom is within them,

and they know not the Lord.

5 The pride of Israel testifies to his face;

Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt;

Judah also shall stumble with them.

6 With their flocks and herds they shall go

to seek the Lord,

but they will not find him;

he has withdrawn from them.

7 They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord;

for they have borne alien children.

Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

8 Blow the horn in Gibeah,

the trumpet in Ramah.

Sound the alarm at Beth-aven;

we follow you, O Benjamin!

9 Ephraim shall become a desolation

in the day of punishment;

among the tribes of Israel

I make known what is sure.

10 The princes of Judah have become

like those who move the landmark;

upon them I will pour out

my wrath like water.

11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment,

because he was determined to go after filth.

12 But I am like a moth to Ephraim,

and like dry rot to the house of Judah.

13 When Ephraim saw his sickness,

and Judah his wound,

then Ephraim went to Assyria,

and sent to the great king.

But he is not able to cure you

or heal your wound.

14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,

and like a young lion to the house of Judah.

I, even I, will tear and go away;

I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.

15 I will return again to my place,

until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,

and in their distress earnestly seek me.

Hosea 6

1 “Come, let us return to the Lord;

for he has torn us, that he may heal us;

he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.

2 After two days he will revive us;

on the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

3 Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;

his going out is sure as the dawn;

he will come to us as the showers,

as the spring rains that water the earth.”

4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?

What shall I do with you, O Judah?

Your love is like a morning cloud,

like the dew that goes early away.

5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;

I have slain them by the words of my mouth,

and my judgment goes forth as the light.

6 For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,

the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

7 But like Adam they transgressed the covenant;

there they dealt faithlessly with me.

8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,

tracked with blood.

9 As robbers lie in wait for a man,

so the priests band together;

they murder on the way to Shechem;

they commit villainy.

10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;

Ephraim’s whoredom is there; Israel is defiled.

11 For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed.

When I restore the fortunes of my people,