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A Call to Repentance
6 Come, let us return to the Lord,
for He has torn,
and He will heal us.
He has struck,
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 appearance is as sure as the dawn.
He will come to us like the rain;
like the spring rains He will water the earth.
Impenitence of Israel and Judah
4 What shall I do to you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do to you, O Judah?
Your faithfulness is like a morning cloud,
and like the early dew it goes away.
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets.
I have killed them by the words of My mouth,
and My[a] judgments go forth like light.
6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice,
and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 But like men[b] they have transgressed the covenant.
There they dealt faithlessly with Me.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,
polluted with blood.
9 As robbers lie in wait for someone,
so a company of priests
murder on the way to Shechem.
They commit a shameful deed.
10 I have seen a horrible thing
in the house of Israel.
The harlotry of Ephraim is there;
Israel is defiled.
11 Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you,
when I restore the fortunes of My people.
7 When I would heal Israel,
the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,
and the wickedness of Samaria.
For they deal deceitfully;
the thief breaks in;
the robbers raid outside,
2 but they did not consider in their hearts
that I remember all their wickedness.
Now their own deeds surround them;
they are before My face.
Corrupt and Disloyal Politics
3 They make the king glad with their wickedness,
and the princes with their lies.
4 They are all adulterers,
like an oven heated by a baker,
who ceases stirring the fire
after kneading the dough until it is leavened.
5 On the day of our king the princes made him sick
from the heat of wine.
He stretched out his hand with scorners.
6 For they are kindled[c] like an oven.
Their heart burns within them;[d]
their anger smolders[e] all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7 They are all hot as an oven,
and they devour their judges.
All their kings have fallen,
and none of them calls to Me.
8 Ephraim mixes himself with the people.
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
9 Foreigners devour his strength,
but he does not know it.
Gray hairs are here and there upon him,
but he does not know it.
10 The pride of Israel testifies against him,
but they do not return to the Lord their God,
nor seek Him for all this.
11 Ephraim is like a dove,
silly and without sense;
they call to Egypt,
they go to Assyria.
12 Wherever they go, I will spread My net over them;
I will bring them down like the birds of the sky;
I will discipline them according to
the report to their congregation.
13 Woe to them,
for they have fled from Me!
Destruction to them,
for they have rebelled against Me!
Though I would redeem them,
yet they speak lies against Me.
14 They do not cry to Me with their heart
when they howl on their beds.
They gather together for grain and wine,
they rebel against Me.
15 Though I trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they devise mischief against Me.
16 They return, but not to the Most High.
They are like a loose bow.
Their princes will fall by the sword
for the rage of their tongue.
This will be their derision
in the land of Egypt.
The Apostasy of Israel
8 Set the trumpet to your mouth!
One like an eagle is on the house of the Lord,
because they have transgressed My covenant
and rebelled against My law.
2 Israel cries to Me,
“My God, we know You.”
3 Israel has cast off the good;
the enemy will pursue him.
4 They set up kings, but not through Me;
they made princes, but I did not know it.
With their silver and gold,
they made idols,
so that they will be cut off.
5 Your calf, O Samaria, is rejected!
My anger is kindled against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6 For it is from Israel;
a craftsman made it,
and it is not God!
The calf of Samaria
will be broken to pieces.
7 For they sow the wind,
and they will reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no head
and will yield no flour.
If it were to yield,
foreigners would swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up.
Now they are among the nations
as a vessel in which there is no pleasure.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria
like a wild donkey alone by itself;
Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Though they hire among the nations,
I will now gather them.
They will begin to diminish due to the burden
of the king of princes.
11 Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin,
they have become to him altars for sinning.
12 I have written for him the great things of My law,
but they were regarded as a strange thing.
13 For the sacrifices of My offerings,
they sacrifice flesh and eat it;
but the Lord does not accept them.
Now He will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.
They will return to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker
and built temples,
and Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
so I will send a fire upon his cities,
and it will devour his palaces.
The Punishment of Israel
9 Do not rejoice, O Israel!
Do not exult[f] like the peoples,
for you have played the whore departing from your God.
You have loved a prostitute’s wages
on every threshing floor.
2 The threshing floor and the winepress will not feed them,
and the new wine will fail in her.
3 They will not dwell in the land of the Lord;
but Ephraim will return to Egypt,
and they will eat unclean things in Assyria.
4 They will not offer wine offerings to the Lord,
and their sacrifices will not please Him.
Their sacrifices will be like the bread of mourners;
all who eat of it will be defiled.
For their bread will be only to satisfy their own hunger;
it will not come into the house of the Lord.
5 What will you do on the appointed day,
and on the day of the festival of the Lord?
6 For indeed they are gone because of destruction.
Egypt will gather them,
and Memphis will bury them.
Nettles will possess their pleasant things of silver,
and thorns will be in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come;
the days of recompense have come.
Israel knows!
The prophet is a fool;
the man of the spirit is insane,
because of your great iniquity and great hatred.
8 The watchman of Ephraim is a prophet
for my God;
yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
and hatred in the house of his God.
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves
as in the days of Gibeah.
He will remember their iniquity,
He will punish their sins.
10 Like grapes in the wilderness,
I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season,
I saw your fathers.
But they went to Baal Peor
and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame,
and they became an abomination like the thing they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird:
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12 Though they bring up their children,
I will bereave them until none are left.
Woe to them indeed,
when I depart from them!
13 Just as I saw Ephraim like Tyre,
planted in a pleasant place,
so now Ephraim will bring out
his children for slaughter.
14 Give them, O Lord—
what will You give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
and dry breasts.
15 All their wickedness is in Gilgal,
for there I hated them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds,
I will drive them out of My house.
I will love them no more.
All their princes are rebels.
16 Ephraim is stricken,
their root is dried up,
they shall bear no fruit.
Even though they give birth,
I will slay the beloved offspring of their womb.
17 My God will reject them
because they did not listen to Him,
and they will be wanderers among the nations.
Salutation
The elder,
To the beloved Gaius, whom I love in the truth:
2 Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, even as your soul is well. 3 For I greatly rejoiced when brothers came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. 4 I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth.
Working Together
5 Beloved, you are faithful in all you do for the brothers and for strangers, 6 who have testified of your love before the church. You will do well to send them along on their journey in a manner worthy of God. 7 For His name’s sake they went out, receiving no help from the Gentiles. 8 Therefore we ought to receive such men, that we might be fellow workers for the truth.
9 I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to put himself first among them, did not accept us. 10 Because of this, if I come, I will bring up what kinds of works he does: ranting against us with malicious words. Not content with that, he does not accept the brothers, and stops those who want to, and throws them out of the church.
11 Beloved, do not imitate that which is evil, but that which is good. Whoever does good is from God, but whoever does evil has not seen God. 12 Demetrius receives good reports from everyone and from the truth itself. Yes, and we also testify, and you know that our testimony is true.
Final Greetings
13 I had many things to write, but I would rather not write to you with pen and ink. 14 Instead, I hope to see you soon, and we shall speak face to face.
Peace be to you. The friends greet you. Greet the friends by name.
Psalm 126
A Song of Ascents.
1 When the Lord restored the captives of Zion,
we were like those who dream.
2 Then our mouth was filled with laughter,
and our tongue with singing.
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 glad.
4 Restore our captives, O Lord,
as the streams in the Negev.
5 Those who sow in tears
shall reap in joy.
6 He who goes forth and weeps,
bearing precious seed to sow,
shall come home again with rejoicing,
bringing his grain sheaves with him.
12 If a ruler listens to lies,
all his servants are wicked.
13 The poor and the deceitful man have this in common:
The Lord gives light to the eyes of both.
14 The king who faithfully judges the poor,
his throne will be established forever.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.