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6 Come on, let’s renew our loyalty to the Eternal One!
He tore us like a lion, but He’ll heal us;
He wounded us, but He’ll bandage us.
2 He’ll bring us back to life after two days;
He’ll raise us up on the third day, and we’ll live with Him.
While not clearly a reference to the Anointed One, this is a remarkable prefiguring of the time and consequence of His death and resurrection.
3 So let’s know Him; let’s strive to know the Eternal.
As surely as the sun rises, He’ll come out from His lair.
As surely as the rains come each year—
those spring rains that drench the earth—He’ll come back to us.
4 Eternal One: What am I supposed to do with you, Ephraim?
What am I supposed to do with you, Judah?
Your loyalty to Me is like fog in the morning,
like dew that evaporates at sunrise.
5 This is why I cut them with the words of the prophets
and destroyed them with the words of My mouth.
My judgment went forth like the light of the rising sun.
6 For I want not animal sacrifices, but mercy.[a]
I don’t want burnt offerings; I want people to know Me as God!
7 They broke their covenant with Me, treated it as just a common human affair;
they were unfaithful to Me there.
8 The city of Gilead is full of evil, murderous people.
Their footprints are bloody.
This may be a reference to Jephthah’s return from the slaughter of the Ephraimites (Judges 11).
9 As the priests travel together down the road,
they’re like a band of robbers setting an ambush.
They are like their ancestor Levi who committed murder at Shechem,[b]
deceiving the people by their treachery.
10 I’ve seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel:
Ephraim engages in prostitution there by worshiping at other shrines.
Israel pollutes itself through violence and idol worship.
11 But a harvest is set for you, too, Judah
when I restore my people’s fortunes and return them from captivity.
7 Eternal One: I will heal Israel of her exposed sins:
Ephraim’s wickedness will be laid open;
Also Samaria’s evil will be revealed:
dishonesty is tolerated, thieves break in and bandits rob in the open.
2 They don’t realize I’m aware of all of the evil they’re doing.
Even now their sins are all around them—I can see them clearly.
3 The king celebrates their evil deeds,
and princes enjoy their deceptions.
4 All of them are adulterers with unquenchable lust.
They are like an oven overheated by a baker,
An oven so hot it doesn’t need to be stoked for several hours
from the time the dough is kneaded until it finishes rising.
5 Eternal One: When the king was celebrating[c] and the princes were sick with drunkenness,
his conscience was dulled and he joined forces with rebels.
6 Their hearts are like a heated oven as they plot their schemes.
All night their anger smolders, but at dawn it blazes into a flaming fire.
7 All of them are as hot as an oven,
and they consume their own judges.
All of their kings have fallen; none of them calls on Me.
Two types of ovens are used in ancient Israel: tabuns and tannurs. Both are beehive-shaped structures molded of clay, broken potsherds, and chopped straw, and are commonly found in a house’s courtyard. At the top is a capped opening, which regulates the inside heat and allows the baker access to the oven’s interior. Tabuns are fueled with cakes of dried manure and straw (Ezekiel 4:12-15), while tannurs are fueled by wood fires. Once a tannur’s wood fire burns down to the embers, the oven is ready for baking.
Each day, women mix flour and water, knead the dough, and add a small amount of salt and fermented dough (from the previous day’s work) to the mixture. After balls of dough have risen, they are flattened and shaped into discs. These discs are then easily tossed inside the oven’s opening, where they stick to the walls and cook in just minutes.
8 Ephraim is mixed up with all the other nations.
Ephraim is like a cake that hasn’t been turned over.
9 Foreigners are devouring his strength, taking territory and tribute,
but he doesn’t realize how weak he’s grown.
Gray hair is sprouting on his head,
but he doesn’t see what others observe.
10 Israel’s stubborn pride will testify against him.
The people haven’t come back to Me, their True God;
they haven’t asked Me for help despite all their troubles.
11 Ephraim is like a dove caught in foreign intrigues, silly and without sense:
they call to Egypt; they go to Assyria.
12 But as they fly to others for help, I’ll throw My net over them.
I’ll bring them down like birds out of the sky and punish them,
as their congregation knows full well.
13 May they experience sorrow for wandering away from Me!
May they be destroyed for the way they’ve rebelled against Me!
I would like to buy them back from death,
but they would just keep lying to Me and against Me.
14 They’re not sincere when they cry out to Me for help.
They howl on their couches;
Hoping a god will send grain to gather and wine to enjoy.
They turn away from Me.
15 I trained them, I made their arms strong, I could have protected them,
but they devised evil schemes against Me.
16 They turn for help, but not to the Most High;
they’ve become as weak and ineffective as a loosely-strung bow.
Because of their defiant words, their leaders will be killed in battle,
and they’ll be the laughingstock of everyone in Egypt.
8 Eternal One: Blow the ram’s horn to sound the alarm!
The eagle of Assyria is hovering above My house,[d]
Waiting for My instruction to snatch its prey,
because they’ve broken My covenant and rebelled against My law.
2 Still Israel calls out to Me, “Our God, we know you!”
But even with your words of worship, you abandon our agreement.
3 Israel has rejected what is good; that is why an enemy will pursue him.
4 They’ve overstepped their rights by changing leadership, but not by My authority;
they’ve anointed kings and appointed princes without consulting Me.
They’ve made idols out of their silver and gold,
so Israel will be destroyed.
5 I reject your calf, Samaria! My anger is kindled against them.
How long will they be unable to do what’s right?
6 This idol is from Israel.
A craftsman made it; it’s not God!
Samaria’s calf will be smashed to pieces.
Israel’s harlotry is practiced not only by diplomatic accords with other nations but also by worship of their gods who serve as witnesses to these alliances. Here an idol is fabricated and worshiped by God’s own people. As their ancestors did in the wilderness while Moses was on the mountain with God, they make an image of a calf. They turn from the True God to worship their own creation, a crude imitation of God’s creation. The anger of the Lord is again aroused as it was in the wilderness, and He will crush both the idol and the idol worshipers.
7 Eternal One: Then these proverbs will come true:
“Because they sow the wind, they’ll reap the whirlwind.”
“A shoot without a grain head doesn’t make any flour.”
“If the shoot does produce, foreigners will devour it!”
8 Israel has been devoured by that eagle and strewn among the nations.
Now it’s like a discarded pot, valuable to no one.
9 All alone like a wild donkey, Ephraim went up to Assyria
and had to hire her own lovers!
10 But because they paid tribute money to other nations instead of depending on Me,
I’m going to gather them up and send them into exile,
And they will struggle for a time
beneath the burden imposed by the great king of princes.[e]
11 Even though Ephraim built many altars to cover sin,
they’ve all become places where he commits sin!
12 It wouldn’t matter how many copies of My law I wrote for him;
he’d treat them all as something strange and foreign.
13 No matter how many sacrifices they offer,
no matter how many sacred meals they eat,
I am not pleased with them.
I’ll remember their guilt and punish their sins:
they’ll return to slavery in Egypt!
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;
Judah has built many walled cities.
But I’ll send fire on those cities,
and My righteous wrath will burn up those citadels.
9 Don’t rejoice, Israel! Don’t shriek in ecstatic joy like the other nations!
You’ve prostituted yourself and been unfaithful to your God.
You eagerly expect that you’ll get your prostitute’s pay at the threshing floors with a rich harvest.
2 Neither the threshing floor nor the oil or winepresses will feed you;
you won’t have any new wine this year.
3 You won’t remain in the Eternal’s land,
and you can count on this:
Ephraim will go back to slavery in Egypt,
but this unclean food he’ll eat in Assyria.
4 Separated from Jerusalem, they won’t be pouring out any libations of wine to the Eternal,
and the sacrifices they make will not please Him.
Whatever they offer will be like mourner’s bread:
whoever eats it will be impure.
Hebrew law prohibits any contact with the dead. In this case the bread is polluted by its proximity to death.
Besides, they’ll need all the bread they’ve got just to stay alive;
they won’t have anything worthy to bring to the Eternal’s temple.
5 What will you do on the appointed day
when you’re supposed to celebrate a feast in honor of the Eternal One?
In Israel’s final years before conquest, the political atmosphere is in turmoil. Kings Zechariah, Shallum, and Pekahiah have been assassinated in political coups, and ambitious men are making alliances with foreign enemies hoping to gain international support for their own factions and solidify their own powers. These attempts at ascension and stability with the help of international alliances voids the one thing that can bring peace to Israel—the people’s covenant with God.
Instead of relying on God, all of Israel’s leaders allow themselves to be consumed in the regional politics. In the early eighth century b.c., Egypt’s power is waning and Assyria is gaining momentum. Israel is the battleground between the empires, so Israel’s kings think they can leverage the nation’s geographical position and gain protection from one empire or the other by paying tributes. Instead, the cities are trampled in successive wars, and Israel’s borders continue to shrink until Samaria is finally overrun by the Assyrians in 722 b.c.
6 Even if they escape destruction, Egypt will be ready to gather them up,
and Memphis will be set to bury them in the city’s massive cemeteries.
All their valuables will be choked out by weeds,
and thornbushes will live in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come!
The time of retribution is here! Israel will know this!
But because you are so hostile and sinful, you say about me,
“The prophet is a fool! The man of the Spirit is raving mad!”
8 The prophet stands watch over Ephraim along with God,[f]
but birds’ traps are set all along his paths;
Even in the temple of his God they show their hostility.
9 They’ve become deeply depraved, as in the days of Gibeah.
God won’t overlook their wickedness; He’ll punish them for their sins.
10 Eternal One: When I discovered Israel, he was a rare find,
like grapes in the wilderness, like early figs on a young fig tree.
I met your ancestors;
when they came to Baal-peor,
They dedicated themselves through their worship to an object of shame,
and they became as detestable as the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird:
no offspring, no gestation, no conception!
12 And even if they do have children,
I’ll take every single one of them away.
It will be sorrowful for them when I abandon them!
13 There was a time when I saw Ephraim like Tyre,
a pleasant palm planted in a lovely meadow,
But now Ephraim must bring out her children to be slaughtered.[g]
14 Give them, Eternal One—what should I ask You to give them?
Give them a miscarrying womb and dried-up breasts!
15 Eternal One: In Gilgal My hatred grew for them
because of all their evil that was there.
I will force them out of My temple because of the depths of their wickedness.
I won’t love them anymore; all of their leaders have rebelled against Me!
16 Ephraim has been cut down; their root has dried up,
and they won’t bear any fruit.
And even if they do bear children,
I’ll kill those precious ones they carried.
17 My God will reject them because they haven’t listened to Him.
They’ll be drifters and fugitives among the nations.
1 I, the elder, to Gaius, who is much loved by all and loved in truth by me.
2 My beloved friend, I pray that everything is going well for you and that your body is as healthy as your soul is prosperous. 3 I was thrilled when the brothers and sisters came and told me stories of your faithfulness as you continue to walk in the truth. 4 The greatest joy in my life is hearing how my children are walking in the truth.
5 My friend, you demonstrate your faithfulness in all the things you do for the brothers and sisters; even when they are strangers to you, you treat them as family. 6 These friends tell the entire church how you have extended your hand to them in love. You will do well to send them on in a way that is in keeping with God. 7 They have gone out to serve under the banner of the Name, and they do not accept gifts from those outside our faith community. 8 We should give people like this our full support so that we can share in this work for the truth.
9 I wrote some things specifically to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be the one up front, rejects us. 10 If I come, you can be sure that I will call him out and draw attention to his actions. He assails us with lies and deceit. As if that were not enough, he does not welcome the traveling missionaries into his home. Instead, he hinders any who do so and expels them from the church.
11 Dear friend, don’t follow his evil ways. Instead, imitate the good and righteous life. The one doing what is good belongs to God, but those who pursue evil have never even laid eyes on God.
12 Demetrius has a good reputation with everyone we know. The truth stands on his side, and we add our unreserved recommendation to the long list of accounts on his behalf. You can rest assured that we are telling the truth.
13 There is so much I would like to say to you, but I do not want to say it with ink and pen. 14 I expect us to be together soon and talk about these things face-to-face.
15 May you experience true peace. I send you greetings from the fellow believers here. Greet all our friends there personally.
Psalm 126
A song for those journeying to worship.
1 Remember when the Eternal brought back the exiles to Zion?
It was as if we were dreaming—
2 Our mouths were filled with laughter;
our tongues were spilling over into song.
The word went out across the prairies and deserts,
across the hills, over the oceans wide, from nation to nation:
“The Eternal has done remarkable things for them.”
3 We shook our heads. All of us were stunned—the Eternal has done remarkable things for us.
We were beyond happy, beyond joyful.
4 And now, Eternal One, some are held captive and poor.
Release them, and restore our fortunes
as the dry riverbeds of the South spring to life when the rains come at last.
5 Those who walk the fields to sow, casting their seed in tears,
will one day tread those same long rows, amazed by what’s appeared.
6 Those who weep as they walk
and plant with sighs
Will return singing with joy,
when they bring home the harvest.
12 When it is known that a ruler listens to the words of liars,
soon he will have only scoundrels for advisors.
13 A poor man and his oppressor have this in common:
the Eternal created them and provides both with light and life.
14 The king who is fair in his treatment of the poor
will see his dynasty continue forever.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.