HOSEA 8

« Hosea 7 | Hosea 8 | Hosea 9 »

Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind8:1

Set the trumpet to your lips!

One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord,

because they have transgressed my covenant

and rebelled against my law. 2

To me they cry,

“My God, we—Israel—know you.” 3

Israel has spurned the good;

the enemy shall pursue him.
4

They made kings, but not through me.

They set up princes, but I knew it not.

With their silver and gold they made idols

for their own destruction. 5

I have spurned your calf, O Samaria.

My anger burns against them.

How long will they be incapable of innocence? 6

For it is from Israel;

a craftsman made it;

it is not God.

The calf of Samaria

shall be broken to pieces.
7

For they sow the wind,

and they shall reap the whirlwind.

The standing grain has no heads;

it shall yield no flour;

if it were to yield,

strangers would devour it. 8

Israel is swallowed up;

already they are among the nations

as a useless vessel. 9

For they have gone up to Assyria,

a wild donkey wandering alone;

Ephraim has hired lovers. 10

Though they hire allies among the nations,

I will soon gather them up.

And the king and princes shall soon writhe

because of the tribute.
11

Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning,

they have become to him altars for sinning. 12

Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,

they would be regarded as a strange thing. 13

As for my sacrificial offerings,

they sacrifice meat and eat it,

but the Lord does not accept them.

Now he will remember their iniquity

and punish their sins;

they shall return to Egypt. 14

For Israel has forgotten his Maker

and built palaces,

and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;

so I will send a fire upon his cities,

and it shall devour her strongholds.

HOSEA 9

« Hosea 8 | Hosea 9 | Hosea 10 »

The Lord Will Punish Israel9:1

Rejoice not, O Israel!

Exult not like the peoples;

for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.

You have loved a prostitute’s wages

on all threshing floors. 2

Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,

and the new wine shall fail them. 3

They shall not remain in the land of the Lord,

but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,

and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.
4

They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,

and their sacrifices shall not please him.

It shall be like mourners’ bread to them;

all who eat of it shall be defiled;

for their bread shall be for their hunger only;

it shall not come to the house of the Lord.
5

What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,

and on the day of the feast of the Lord? 6

For behold, they are going away from destruction;

but Egypt shall gather them;

Memphis shall bury them.

Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;

thorns shall be in their tents.
7

The days of punishment have come;

the days of recompense have come;

Israel shall know it.

The prophet is a fool;

the man of the spirit is mad,

because of your great iniquity

and great hatred. 8

The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;

yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,

and hatred in the house of his God. 9

They have deeply corrupted themselves

as in the days of Gibeah:

he will remember their iniquity;

he will punish their sins.
10

Like grapes in the wilderness,

I found Israel.

Like the first fruit on the fig tree

in its first season,

I saw your fathers.

But they came to Baal-peor

and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,

and became detestable like the thing they loved. 11

Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—

no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! 12

Even if they bring up children,

I will bereave them till none is left.

Woe to them

when I depart from them! 13

Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow;

but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter. 14

Give them, O Lord—

what will you give?

Give them a miscarrying womb

and dry breasts.
15

Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;

there I began to hate 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.
16

Ephraim is stricken;

their root is dried up;

they shall bear no fruit.

Even though they give birth,

I will put their beloved children to death. 17

My God will reject them

because they have not listened to him;

they shall be wanderers among the nations.

PROVERBS 30

« Proverbs 29 | Proverbs 30 | Proverbs 31 »

The Words of Agur  30:1 The words of Agur son of Jakeh. The oracle.

The man declares, I am weary, O God;

I am weary, O God, and worn out. 2

Surely I am too stupid to be a man.

I have not the understanding of a man. 3

I have not learned wisdom,

nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. 4

Who has ascended to heaven and come down?

Who has gathered the wind in his fists?

Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?

Who has established all the ends of the earth?

What is his name, and what is his son’s name?

Surely you know!
5

Every word of God proves true;

he is a shield to those who take refuge in him. 6

Do not add to his words,

lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.
7

Two things I ask of you;

deny them not to me before I die: 8

Remove far from me falsehood and lying;

give me neither poverty nor riches;

feed me with the food that is needful for me, 9

lest I be full and deny you

and say, “Who is the Lord?”

or lest I be poor and steal

and profane the name of my God.
10

Do not slander a servant to his master,

lest he curse you, and you be held guilty.
11

There are those who curse their fathers

and do not bless their mothers. 12

There are those who are clean in their own eyes

but are not washed of their filth. 13

There are those—how lofty are their eyes,

how high their eyelids lift! 14

There are those whose teeth are swords,

whose fangs are knives,

to devour the poor from off the earth,

the needy from among mankind.
15

The leech has two daughters:

Give and Give.

Three things are never satisfied;

four never say, “Enough”: 16

Sheol, the barren womb,

the land never satisfied with water,

and the fire that never says, “Enough.”
17

The eye that mocks a father

and scorns to obey a mother

will be picked out by the ravens of the valley

and eaten by the vultures.
18

Three things are too wonderful for me;

four I do not understand: 19

the way of an eagle in the sky,

the way of a serpent on a rock,

the way of a ship on the high seas,

and the way of a man with a virgin.
20

This is the way of an adulteress:

she eats and wipes her mouth

and says, “I have done no wrong.”
21

Under three things the earth trembles;

under four it cannot bear up: 22

a slave when he becomes king,

and a fool when he is filled with food; 23

an unloved woman when she gets a husband,

and a maidservant when she displaces her mistress.
24

Four things on earth are small,

but they are exceedingly wise: 25

the ants are a people not strong,

yet they provide their food in the summer; 26

the rock badgers are a people not mighty,

yet they make their homes in the cliffs; 27

the locusts have no king,

yet all of them march in rank; 28

the lizard you can take in your hands,

yet it is in kings’ palaces.
29

Three things are stately in their tread;

four are stately in their stride: 30

the lion, which is mightiest among beasts

and does not turn back before any; 31

the strutting rooster, the he-goat,

and a king whose army is with him.
32

If you have been foolish, exalting yourself,

or if you have been devising evil,

put your hand on your mouth. 33

For pressing milk produces curds,

pressing the nose produces blood,

and pressing anger produces strife.

REVELATION 4

« Revelation 3 | Revelation 4 | Revelation 5 »

The Throne in Heaven  4:1 After this I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven! And the first voice, which I had heard speaking to me like a trumpet, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” 2 At once I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne stood in heaven, with one seated on the throne. 3 And he who sat there had the appearance of jasper and carnelian, and around the throne was a rainbow that had the appearance of an emerald. 4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and seated on the thrones were twenty-four elders, clothed in white garments, with golden crowns on their heads. 5 From the throne came flashes of lightning, and rumblings and peals of thunder, and before the throne were burning seven torches of fire, which are the seven spirits of God, 6 and before the throne there was as it were a sea of glass, like crystal.
    And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: 7 the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. 8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say,

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty,

who was and is and is to come!” 9 And whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to him who is seated on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
11

“Worthy are you, our Lord and God,

to receive glory and honor and power,

for you created all things,

and by your will they existed and were created.”