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Hosea 1-4 (Listen)

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.

Hosea's Wife and Children

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.” So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

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. And on that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, “Call her name No Mercy, [1] for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 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.”

When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. And the Lord said, “Call his name Not My People, [2] for you are not my people, and I am not your God.” [3]

[4] 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 [5] of the living God.” 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.

Israel's Unfaithfulness Punished

2:1 [6] Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” [7] and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.” [8]

“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;
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.
Upon her children also I will have no mercy,
  because they are children of whoredom.
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.’
Therefore I will hedge up her [9] way with thorns,
  and I will build a wall against her,
  so that she cannot find her paths.
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.’
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.
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.
Now I will uncover her lewdness
  in the sight of her lovers,
  and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
And I will put an end to all her mirth,
  her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths,
  and all her appointed feasts.
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.
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.

The Lord's Mercy on Israel

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
  and bring her into the wilderness,
  and speak tenderly to her.
And there I will give her her vineyards
  and make the Valley of Achor [10] 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.

“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 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 [11] the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 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. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.

“And in that day I will answer, declares the Lord,
  I will answer the heavens,
  and they shall answer the earth,
and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
  and they shall answer Jezreel, [12]
  and I will sow her for myself in the land.
And I will have mercy on No Mercy, [13]
  and I will say to Not My People, [14] ‘You are my people’;
  and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

Hosea Redeems His Wife

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.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech [15] of barley. 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.” For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 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.

The Lord Accuses Israel

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;
there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;
  they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
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.

Yet let no one contend,
  and let none accuse,
  for with you is my contention, O priest. [16]
You shall stumble by day;
  the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;
  and I will destroy your mother.
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.

The more they increased,
  the more they sinned against me;
  I will change their glory into shame.
They feed on the sin [17] of my people;
  they are greedy for their iniquity.
And it shall be like people, like priest;
  I will punish them for their ways
  and repay them for their deeds.
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.
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.
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.
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.

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.”
Like a stubborn heifer,
  Israel is stubborn;
can the Lord now feed them
  like a lamb in a broad pasture?

Ephraim is joined to idols;
  leave him alone.
When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring;
  their rulers [18] dearly love shame.
A wind has wrapped them [19] in its wings,
  and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Jude 1 (Listen)

Greeting

1:1 Jude, a servant [20] of Jesus Christ and brother of James,

To those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for [21] Jesus Christ:

May mercy, peace, and love be multiplied to you.

Judgment on False Teachers

Beloved, although I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I found it necessary to write appealing to you to contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints. For certain people have crept in unnoticed who long ago were designated for this condemnation, ungodly people, who pervert the grace of our God into sensuality and deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved [22] a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, [23] serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

Yet in like manner these people also, relying on their dreams, defile the flesh, reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion. These are hidden reefs [24] at your love feasts, as they feast with you without fear, shepherds feeding themselves; waterless clouds, swept along by winds; fruitless trees in late autumn, twice dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up the foam of their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved forever.

It was also about these that Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute judgment on all and to convict all the ungodly of all their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things that ungodly sinners have spoken against him.” These are grumblers, malcontents, following their own sinful desires; they are loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage.

A Call to Persevere

But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. They [25] said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, following their own ungodly passions.” It is these who cause divisions, worldly people, devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment [26] stained by the flesh.

Doxology

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

Footnotes

[1] 1:6 Hebrew Lo-ruhama, which means she has not received mercy
[2] 1:9 Hebrew Lo-ammi, which means not my people
[3] 1:9 Hebrew I am not yours
[4] 1:10 Ch 2:1 in Hebrew
[5] 1:10 Or Sons
[6] 2:1 Ch 2:3 in Hebrew
[7] 2:1 Hebrew ammi, which means my people
[8] 2:1 Hebrew ruhama, which means she has received mercy
[9] 2:6 Hebrew your
[10] 2:15 Achor means trouble; compare Joshua 7:26
[11] 2:18 Hebrew break
[12] 2:22 Jezreel means God will sow
[13] 2:23 Hebrew Lo-ruhama
[14] 2:23 Hebrew Lo-ammi
[15] 3:2 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams; a homer was about 6 bushels or 220 liters; a lethech was about 3 bushels or 110 liters
[16] 4:4 Or for your people are like those who contend with the priest
[17] 4:8 Or sin offering
[18] 4:18 Hebrew shields
[19] 4:19 Hebrew her
[20] 1:1 Or slave; Greek bondservant
[21] 1:1 Or by
[22] 1:5 Some manuscripts although you fully knew it, that the Lord who once saved
[23] 1:7 Greek other flesh
[24] 1:12 Or are blemishes
[25] 1:18 Or Christ, because they
[26] 1:23 Greek chiton, a long garment worn under the cloak next to the skin