Hosea 1-3

New King James Version

Hosea’s Unfaithful Wife

1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of ^(A)Uzziah, ^(B)Jotham, ^(C)Ahaz, and ^(D)Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of ^(E)Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

The Family of Hosea

²When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:

^(F)“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For ^(G)the land has committed great ^[a]harlotry
By departing from the Lord.”

³So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. ⁴Then the Lord said to him:

“Call his name Jezreel,
For in a little while
^(H)I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu,
^(I)And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
⁵^(J)It shall come to pass in that day
That I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”

⁶And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him:

“Call her name ^[b]Lo-Ruhamah,
^(K)For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel,
^[c]But I will utterly take them away.
⁷^(L)Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah,
Will save them by the Lord their God,
And ^(M)will not save them by bow,
Nor by sword or battle,
By horses or horsemen.”

⁸Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. ⁹Then God said:

“Call his name ^[d]Lo-Ammi,
For you are not My people,
And I will not be your God.

The Restoration of Israel

¹⁰“Yet ^(N)the number of the children of Israel
Shall be as the sand of the sea,
Which cannot be measured or numbered.
^(O)And it shall come to pass
In the place where it was said to them,
‘You are ^[e]not My ^(P)people,’
There it shall be said to them,
‘You are ^(Q)sons of the living God.’
¹¹^(R)Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel
Shall be gathered together,
And appoint for themselves one head;
And they shall come up out of the land,
For great will be the day of Jezreel!

The Lord’s Love for His Unfaithful People

2 Say to your brethren, ^[f]‘My people,’
And to your sisters, ^[g]‘Mercy is shown.’

God’s Unfaithful People

²“Bring^[h] charges against your mother, ^[i]bring charges;
For ^(S)she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!
Let her put away her ^(T)harlotries from her sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts;
³Lest ^(U)I strip her naked
And expose her, as in the day she was ^(V)born,
And make her like a wilderness,
And set her like a dry land,
And slay her with ^(W)thirst.

⁴“I will not have mercy on her children,
For they are the ^(X)children of harlotry.
⁵For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
^(Y)Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my linen,
My oil and my drink.’

⁶“Therefore, behold,
^(Z)I will hedge up your way with thorns,
And ^[j]wall her in,
So that she cannot find her paths.
⁷She will ^[k]chase her lovers,
But not overtake them;
Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.
Then she will say,
^(AA)‘I will go and return to my ^(AB)first husband,
For then it was better for me than now.’
⁸For she did not ^(AC)know
That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,
And multiplied her silver and gold—
Which they prepared for Baal.

⁹“Therefore I will return and take away
My grain in its time
And My new wine in its season,
And will take back My wool and My linen,
Given to cover her nakedness.
¹⁰Now ^(AD)I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,
And no one shall deliver her from My hand.
¹¹^(AE)I will also cause all her mirth to cease,
Her feast days,
Her New Moons,
Her Sabbaths—
All her appointed feasts.

¹²“And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,
Of which she has said,
‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’
So I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field shall eat them.
¹³I will punish her
For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense.
She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And went after her lovers;
But Me she forgot,” says the Lord.

God’s Mercy on His People

¹⁴“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Will bring her into the wilderness,
And speak ^[l]comfort to her.
¹⁵I will give her her vineyards from there,
And ^(AF)the Valley of Achor as a door of hope;
She shall sing there,
As in ^(AG)the days of her youth,
^(AH)As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.

¹⁶“And it shall be, in that day,”
Says the Lord,
“That you will call Me ^[m]‘My Husband,’
And no longer call Me ^[n]‘My Master,’
¹⁷For ^(AI)I will take from her mouth the names of the Baals,
And they shall be remembered by their name no more.
¹⁸In that day I will make a ^(AJ)covenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
With the birds of the air,
And with the creeping things of the ground.
Bow and sword of battle ^(AK)I will shatter from the earth,
To make them ^(AL)lie down safely.

¹⁹“I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me
In righteousness and justice,
In lovingkindness and mercy;
²⁰I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness,
And ^(AM)you shall know the Lord.

²¹“It shall come to pass in that day
That ^(AN)I will answer,” says the Lord;
“I will answer the heavens,
And they shall answer the earth.
²²The earth shall answer
With grain,
With new wine,
And with oil;
They shall answer ^[o]Jezreel.
²³Then ^(AO)I will sow her for Myself in the earth,
^(AP)And I will have mercy on her who had ^[p]not obtained mercy;
Then ^(AQ)I will say to those who were ^[q]not My people,
‘You are ^[r]My people!’
And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ”

Israel Will Return to God

3 Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a ^(AR)lover^[s] and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.”

²So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley. ³And I said to her, “You shall ^(AS)stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man—so, too, will I be toward you.”

⁴For the children of Israel shall abide many days ^(AT)without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ^(AU)ephod or ^(AV)teraphim. ⁵Afterward the children of Israel shall return and ^(AW)seek the Lord their God and ^(AX)David their king. They shall fear the Lord and His goodness in the ^(AY)latter days.

Footnotes

Hosea 1:2 Spiritual adultery
Hosea 1:6 Lit. No-Mercy
Hosea 1:6 Or That I may forgive them at all
Hosea 1:9 Lit. Not-My-People
Hosea 1:10 Heb. lo-ammi, v. 9
Hosea 2:1 Heb. Ammi, Hos. 1:9, 10
Hosea 2:1 Heb. Ruhamah, Hos. 1:6
Hosea 2:2 Or Contend with
Hosea 2:2 Or contend
Hosea 2:6 Lit. wall up her wall
Hosea 2:7 Or pursue
Hosea 2:14 Lit. to her heart
Hosea 2:16 Heb. Ishi
Hosea 2:16 Heb. Baali
Hosea 2:22 Lit. God Will Sow
Hosea 2:23 Heb. lo-ruhamah
Hosea 2:23 Heb. lo-ammi
Hosea 2:23 Heb. ammi
Hosea 3:1 Lit. friend or husband

1 John 5

New King James Version

Obedience by Faith

5 Whoever believes that ^(A)Jesus is the Christ is ^(B)born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him. ²By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and ^(C)keep His commandments. ³^(D)For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And ^(E)His commandments are not burdensome. ⁴For ^(F)whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that ^(G)has overcome the world—^[a]our faith. ⁵Who is he who overcomes the world, but ^(H)he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

The Certainty of God’s Witness

⁶This is He who came ^(I)by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not only by water, but by water and blood. ^(J)And it is the Spirit who bears witness, because the Spirit is truth. ⁷For there are three that bear witness ^[b]in heaven: the Father, ^(K)the Word, and the Holy Spirit; ^(L)and these three are one. ⁸And there are three that bear witness on earth: ^(M)the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree as one.

⁹If we receive ^(N)the witness of men, the witness of God is greater; ^(O)for this is the witness of ^[c]God which He has testified of His Son. ¹⁰He who believes in the Son of God ^(P)has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God ^(Q)has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. ¹¹And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. ¹²^(R)He who has the Son has ^[d]life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. ¹³These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, ^[e]and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God.

Confidence and Compassion in Prayer

¹⁴Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that ^(S)if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

¹⁶If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and ^(T)He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. ^(U)There is sin leading to death. ^(V)I do not say that he should pray about that. ¹⁷^(W)All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death.

Knowing the True—Rejecting the False

¹⁸We know that ^(X)whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God ^(Y)keeps^[f] ^[g]himself, and the wicked one does not touch him.

¹⁹We know that we are of God, and ^(Z)the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.

²⁰And we know that the ^(AA)Son of God has come and ^(AB)has given us an understanding, ^(AC)that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. ^(AD)This is the true God ^(AE)and eternal life.

²¹Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

1 John 5:4 M your
1 John 5:7 NU, M omit the words from in heaven (v. 7) through on earth (v. 8). Only 4 or 5 very late mss. contain these words in Greek.
1 John 5:9 NU God, that
1 John 5:12 Or the life
1 John 5:13 NU omits the rest of v. 13.
1 John 5:18 guards
1 John 5:18 NU him

Psalm 124

New King James Version

The Lord the Defense of His People

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

124 “If it had not been the Lord who was on our ^(A)side,”
^(B)Let Israel now say—
²“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
When men rose up against us,
³Then they would have ^(C)swallowed us alive,
When their wrath was kindled against us;
⁴Then the waters would have overwhelmed us,
The stream would have ^[a]gone over our soul;
⁵Then the swollen waters
Would have ^[b]gone over our soul.”

⁶Blessed be the Lord,
Who has not given us as prey to their teeth.
⁷^(D)Our soul has escaped ^(E)as a bird from the snare of the ^[c]fowlers;
The snare is broken, and we have escaped.
⁸^(F)Our help is in the name of the Lord,
^(G)Who made heaven and earth.