1 “Come, let’s return to the Lord.
For He has torn us, but He will heal us;
He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.
2 He will revive us after two days;
He will raise us up on the third day,
That we may live before Him.
3 So let’s learn, let’s press on to know the Lord.
His appearance is as sure as the dawn;
And He will come to us like the rain,
As the spring rain waters the earth.”
4 What shall I do with you, Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, Judah?
For your loyalty is like a morning cloud,
And like the dew which goes away early.
5 Therefore I have cut them in pieces by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of My mouth;
And the judgments on you are like the light that shines.
6 For I desire loyalty rather than sacrifice,
And the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
7 But like Adam they have violated the covenant;
There they have dealt treacherously with Me.
8 Gilead is a city of wrongdoers,
Tracked with bloody footprints.
9 And as a band of robbers lie in wait for a person,
So a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem;
Certainly they have committed an act of infamy.
10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;
Ephraim’s infidelity is there, Israel has defiled itself.
11 Also, Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you,
When I restore the fortunes of My people.
1 When I would heal Israel,
The wrongdoing of Ephraim is uncovered,
And the evil deeds of Samaria,
For they practice deception;
The thief enters,
A band of robbers attack outside,
2 And they do not consider in their hearts
That I remember all their wickedness.
Now their deeds surround them;
They are before My face.
3 With their wickedness they make the king happy,
And the officials with their lies.
4 They are all adulterers,
Like an oven heated by the baker,
Who stops stoking the fire
From the time the dough is kneaded until it is leavened.
5 On the day of our king, the officials became sick with the heat of wine;
He stretched out his hand with scoffers,
6 For their hearts are like an oven
As they approach their plotting;
Their anger smolders all night,
In the morning it burns like flaming fire.
7 All of them are hot like an oven,
And they consume their rulers;
All their kings have fallen.
None of them calls on Me.
8 Ephraim is himself thrown about with the nations;
Ephraim has become a round loaf not turned over.
9 Strangers devour his strength,
Yet he does not know it;
Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him,
Yet he does not know it.
10 Though the pride of Israel testifies against him,
Yet they have not returned to the Lord their God,
Nor have they sought Him, despite all this.
11 So Ephraim has become like a gullible dove, without sense;
They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
12 When they go, I will spread My net over them;
I will bring them down like the birds of the sky.
I will discipline them in accordance with the proclamation to their assembly.
13 Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me!
Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me!
I would redeem them, but they have spoken lies against Me.
14 And they do not cry to Me from their heart
When they wail on their beds;
For the sake of grain and new wine they assemble themselves,
They turn against Me.
15 Although I trained and strengthened their arms,
Yet they devise evil against Me.
16 They turn, but not upward,
They are like a loose bow;
Their officials will fall by the sword
Because of the insolence of their tongue.
This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.
1 Put the trumpet to your lips!
Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the Lord,
Because they have violated My covenant
And rebelled against My Law.
2 They cry out to Me,
“My God, we of Israel know You!”
3 Israel has rejected the good;
The enemy will pursue him.
4 They have set up kings, but not by Me;
They have appointed officials, but I did not know it.
With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves,
So that they will be eliminated.
5 He has rejected your calf, Samaria, saying,
“My anger burns against them!”
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6 For from Israel comes even this!
A craftsman made it, so it is not God;
Assuredly, the calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces.
7 For they sow wind
And they harvest a storm.
The standing grain has no kernels;
It yields no grain.
If it were to yield, strangers would swallow it.
8 Israel has been swallowed up;
They are now among the nations
Like a vessel in which no one delights.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria,
Like a wild donkey all alone;
Ephraim has paid fees for lovers.
10 Even though they pay for allies among the nations,
I will gather them up now;
And they will begin to diminish
Because of the burden of the king of officials.
11 Since Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin,
They have become altars of sinning for him.
12 Though I wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My Law,
They are regarded as a strange thing.
13 As for My sacrificial gifts,
They sacrifice the flesh and eat it,
But the Lord has taken no delight in them.
Now He will remember their guilt,
And punish them for their sins;
They will return to Egypt.
14 For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;
And Judah has multiplied fortified cities,
But I will send a fire on its cities, and it will consume its palatial buildings.
1 Do not rejoice, Israel, with jubilation like the nations!
For you have been unfaithful, abandoning your God.
You have loved the earnings of unfaithfulness on every threshing floor.
2 Threshing floor and wine press will not feed them,
And the new wine will fail them.
3 They will not remain in the Lord’s land,
But Ephraim will return to Egypt,
And in Assyria they will eat unclean food.
4 They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord,
Nor will their sacrifices please Him.
Their bread will be to them like mourners’ bread;
All who eat it will be defiled,
Because their bread will be for themselves alone;
It will not enter 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 will be gone because of destruction;
Egypt will gather them together, Memphis will bury them.
Weeds will take possession of their treasures of silver;
Thorns will be in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come,
The days of retribution have come;
Let Israel know this!
The prophet is a fool,
The inspired person is insane,
Because of the grossness of your wrongdoing,
And because your hostility is so great.
8 Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;
Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,
And there is only hostility in the house of his God.
9 They are deeply depraved
As in the days of Gibeah;
He will remember their guilt,
He will punish their sins.
10 I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness;
I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.
But they came to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to shame,
And they became as detestable as that which they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird—
No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
12 Though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them of their children until not a person is left.
Yes, woe to them indeed when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I have seen,
Is planted in a pasture like Tyre;
But Ephraim is going to bring out his children for slaughter.
14 Give to them, Lord—what will You give?
Give them a miscarrying womb and dried-up breasts.
15 All their evil is at Gilgal;
Indeed, I came to hate them there!
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of My house!
I will no longer love them;
All their leaders are rebels.
16 Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up,
They will produce no fruit.
Even though they give birth to children,
I will put to death the precious ones of their womb.
17 My God will reject them
Because they have not listened to Him;
And they will be wanderers among the nations.
1 The elder to the beloved Gaius, whom I love in truth.
2 Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers. 3 For I was overjoyed when brothers came and testified to your truth, that is, how you are walking in truth. 4 I have no greater joy than this, to hear of my children walking in the truth.
5 Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brothers and sisters, and especially when they are strangers; 6 and they have testified to your love before the church. You will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. 7 For they went out for the sake of the Name, accepting nothing from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to support such people, so that we may prove to be fellow workers with the truth.
9 I wrote something to the church; but Diotrephes, who loves to be first among them, does not accept what we say. 10 For this reason, if I come, I will call attention to his deeds which he does, unjustly accusing us with malicious words; and not satisfied with this, he himself does not receive the brothers either, and he forbids those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.
11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. The one who does what is good is of God; the one who does what is evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself; and we testify too, and you know that our testimony is true.
13 I had many things to write to you, but I do not want to write to you with pen and ink; 14 but I hope to see you shortly, and we will speak face to face.
15 Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.
1 When the Lord brought back the captives of Zion,
We were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter
And our tongue with joyful shouting;
Then they said among the nations,
“The Lord has done great things for them.”
3 The Lord has done great things for us;
We are joyful.
4 Restore our fortunes, Lord,
As the streams in the South.
5 Those who sow in tears shall harvest with joyful shouting.
6 One who goes here and there weeping, carrying his bag of seed,
Shall indeed come again with a shout of joy, bringing his sheaves with him.
12 If a ruler pays attention to falsehood,
All his ministers become wicked.
13 The poor person and the oppressor have this in common:
The Lord gives light to the eyes of both.
14 If a king judges the poor with truth,
His throne will be established forever.
