HOSEA 4-6

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The Lord Accuses Israel4:1

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. Punishment Coming for Israel and Judah5:1

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. Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant6:1

“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,

PSALM 58

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God Who Judges the EarthTo the choirmaster: according to Do Not Destroy. A Miktam of David.
58:1

Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?

Do you judge the children of man uprightly? 2

No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;

your hands deal out violence on earth.
3

The wicked are estranged from the womb;

they go astray from birth, speaking lies. 4

They have venom like the venom of a serpent,

like the deaf adder that stops its ear, 5

so that it does not hear the voice of charmers

or of the cunning enchanter.
6

O God, break the teeth in their mouths;

tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord! 7

Let them vanish like water that runs away;

when he aims his arrows, let them be blunted. 8

Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime,

like the stillborn child who never sees the sun. 9

Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,

whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!
10

The righteous will rejoice when he sees the vengeance;

he will bathe his feet in the blood of the wicked. 11

Mankind will say, “Surely there is a reward for the righteous;

surely there is a God who judges on earth.”

MATTHEW 17

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The Transfiguration  17:1 And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. 3 And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. 4 And Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good that we are here. If you wish, I will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.” 5 He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.” 6 When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” 8 And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.
    9 And as they were coming down the mountain, Jesus commanded them, “Tell no one the vision, until the Son of Man is raised from the dead.” 10 And the disciples asked him, “Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?” 11 He answered, “Elijah does come, and he will restore all things. 12 But I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased. So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist. Jesus Heals a Boy with a Demon14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15 said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17 And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly. 19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?” 20 He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.” Jesus Again Foretells Death, Resurrection22 As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, 23 and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed. The Temple Tax24 When they came to Capernaum, the collectors of the two-drachma tax went up to Peter and said, “Does your teacher not pay the tax?” 25 He said, “Yes.” And when he came into the house, Jesus spoke to him first, saying, “What do you think, Simon? From whom do kings of the earth take toll or tax? From their sons or from others?” 26 And when he said, “From others,” Jesus said to him, “Then the sons are free. 27 However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself.”