Reading for October  Hosea 6:1 — Luke 2:52

October 1
Hosea 6:1 — 9:17
 

6 “Come, YOU people, and do let us return to Jehovah, for he himself has torn in pieces but he will heal us. He kept striking, but he will bind us up. 2 He will make us alive after two days. On the third day he will make us get up, and we shall live before him. 3 And we will know, we will pursue to know Jehovah. Like dawn, his going forth is firmly established. And he will come in like a pouring rain to us; like a spring rain that saturates [the] earth.”

4 “What shall I do to you, O Ephraim? What shall I do to you, O Judah, when the loving-kindness of YOU people is like the morning clouds and like the dew that early goes away? 5 That is why I shall have to hew [them] by the prophets; I shall have to kill them by the sayings of my mouth. And the judgments upon you will be as the light that goes forth. 6 For in loving-kindness I have taken delight, and not in sacrifice; and in the knowledge of God rather than in whole burnt offerings. 7 But they themselves, like earthling man, have overstepped [the] covenant. There is where they have dealt treacherously with me. 8 Gilead is a town of practicers of what is harmful; their footprints are blood. 9 And as in the lying in wait for a man, the association of priests are marauding bands. By the wayside they commit murder at Shechem, because they have carried on nothing but loose conduct. 10 In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing. There there is fornication on the part of Ephraim. Israel has defiled itself. 11 Furthermore, O Judah, a harvest has been fixed for you, when I gather back the captive ones of my people.”

7 “At the time that I would bring healing to Israel, the error of Ephraim is also actually uncovered, and the bad things of Samaria; for they have practiced falsehood, and a thief himself comes in; a marauder band actually makes a dash on the outside. 2 And they do not say to their own heart that all their badness I will remember. Now their dealings have surrounded them. In front of my face they have come to be. 3 By their badness they make [the] king rejoice, and, by their deceptions, princes. 4 All of them are adulterers, like a furnace set burning by a baker, [who] ceases poking after kneading dough until it is leavened. 5 On the day of our king, princes have sickened themselves—there is a rage because of wine. He has drawn his hand along with deriders. 6 For they have brought their heart near as to a furnace; it is burning inside them. All night long their baker is sleeping; by morning [the furnace] is burning as with a flaming fire. 7 They get hot, all of them, like the furnace, and they actually devour their judges. Their own kings have all fallen; none among them is calling out to me.

8 “As for Ephraim, it is among the peoples that he personally mingles himself. Ephraim himself has become a round cake not turned on the other side. 9 Strangers have eaten up his power, and he himself has not come to know [it]. Also, gray hairs themselves have become white on him, but he himself has not come to know [it]. 10 And the pride of Israel has testified to his face, and they have not returned to Jehovah their God, nor have they looked for him because of all this. 11 And Ephraim proves to be like a simpleminded dove without heart. To Egypt they have called; to Assyria they have gone.

12 “Whichever way they go, I shall spread out over them my net. Like flying creatures of the heavens I shall bring them down. I shall discipline them in agreement with the report to their assembly. 13 Woe to them, for they have fled from me! Despoiling to them, for they have transgressed against me! And I myself proceeded to redeem them, but they themselves have spoken lies even against me. 14 And they did not call to me for aid with their heart, although they kept howling on their beds. On account of their grain and sweet wine they kept loafing about; they kept turning against me. 15 And I, for my part, did disciplining; I strengthened their arms, but against me they kept scheming what was bad. 16 And they proceeded to return, not to anything higher; they had become like a loose bow. By the sword their princes will fall because of the denunciation of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.”


8 “To your mouth—a horn! [One comes] like an eagle against the house of Jehovah, for the reason that they have overstepped my covenant, and against my law they have transgressed. 2 To me they keep crying, ‘O my God, we, Israel, have known you.’

3 “Israel has cast off good. Let one who is an enemy pursue him. 4 They themselves have set up kings, but not because of me. They have set up princes, but I did not know [it]. With their silver and their gold they have made for themselves idols, to the end that they may be cut off. 5 Your calf has been cast off, O Samaria. My anger has grown hot against them. How long will they be incapable of innocency? 6 For from Israel was even this. A mere craftsman made it, and it is not God; because the calf of Samaria will become mere splinters.

7 “For it is wind that they keep sowing, and a storm wind is what they will reap. Nothing has standing grain. No sprout produces flour. Should any perhaps produce [it], strangers themselves will swallow it down.

8 “Israel must be swallowed down. Now they must come to be among the nations, like a vessel in which there is no delight. 9 For they themselves have gone up to Assyria, as a zebra isolated to itself. In Ephraim’s case, they have hired lovers. 10 Also, although they keep hiring [them] among the nations, I shall now collect them together; and they will be a little while in severe pains because of the burden of king [and] princes.

11 “For Ephraim has multiplied altars in order to sin. He has come to have altars in order to sin. 12 I proceeded to write for him many things of my law; just like something strange they have been accounted. 13 As my gift sacrifices they kept sacrificing flesh, and they kept eating what Jehovah himself took no pleasure in. Now he will remember their error and hold an accounting for their sins. To Egypt they themselves proceeded to return. 14 And Israel began forgetting his Maker and building temples; and Judah, for his part, multiplied fortified cities. And I shall certainly send fire into his cities and it must devour the dwelling towers of [each] one.”

9 “Do not rejoice, O Israel. Do not act joyful like the peoples. For by fornication you have gone from alongside your God. You have loved gifts of hire on all the threshing floors of grain. 2 Threshing floor and winepress do not feed them, and sweet wine itself proves disappointing to her. 3 They will not continue dwelling in the land of Jehovah, and Ephraim must return to Egypt, and in Assyria they will eat what is unclean. 4 They will not continue pouring out wine to Jehovah. And their sacrifices will not be gratifying to him; they are like the bread of times of mourning to them; all those eating it will defile themselves. For their bread is for their own soul; it will not come into the house of Jehovah. 5 What will YOU people do in the day of meeting and in the day of the festival of Jehovah? 6 For, look! they will have to go because of despoiling. Egypt itself will collect them together; Memphis, for its part, will bury them. As for their desirable things of silver, nettles themselves will take possession of them; thorny bushes will be in their tents.

7 “The days of being given attention must come; the days of the due payment must come. Those of Israel will know [it]. The prophet will be foolish, the man of inspired expression will be maddened on account of the abundance of your error, even animosity being abundant.”

8 The watchman of Ephraim was with my God. As regards a prophet, there is the trap of a birdcatcher on all his ways; there is an animosity in the house of his God. 9 They have gone down deep in bringing ruin, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their error; he will give attention to their sins.

10 “Like grapes in the wilderness I found Israel. Like the early fig on a fig tree in its beginning I saw the forefathers of YOU people. They themselves went in to Baal of Peor, and they proceeded to dedicate themselves to the shameful thing, and they came to be disgusting like [the thing of] their love. 11 As regards Ephraim, like a flying creature their glory flies away, so that there is no giving birth, and no [pregnant] belly and no conception. 12 For although they bring up their sons, I will also bereave them of children so that there will be no man; because—woe also to them when I turn away from them! 13 Ephraim, whom I have seen like Tyre planted in a pasture ground, even Ephraim is destined to a bringing out of his sons even to a killer.”

14 Give to them, O Jehovah, what you should give. Give them a miscarrying womb and breasts shriveling up.

15 “All their badness was in Gilgal, for there I had to hate them. On account of the evil of their dealings I shall drive them away from my own house. I will not continue on loving them. All their princes are acting stubborn. 16 Ephraim must be struck down. Their very root must dry up. There will be no fruit that they produce. Also, in case they bring to birth, I will even put to death the desirable things of their belly.”

17 My God will reject them, for they have not listened to him, and they will become fugitives among the nations.