The Daily Audio Bible
Today's audio is from the NLT. Switch to the NLT to read along with the audio.
Hosea’s Wife and Children
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Be’eri,[a] in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, the king of Israel.
2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go. Take for yourself an immoral wife and children produced by sexual immorality,[b] because the land has been committing flagrant immorality, turning away from the Lord.”
3 So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim. She conceived and gave birth to a son for him.
4 The Lord said to him, “Name him Jezre’el,[c] because in a little while I will inflict punishment on the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezre’el. I will destroy the ruling power of the house of Israel. 5 In that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezre’el.”
6 She conceived again and gave birth to a daughter.
The Lord said to him, “Name her Lo Ruhamah,[d] because I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel. Indeed, I will certainly not forgive them. 7 But I will have compassion on the house of Judah. I will save them by the Lord their God. I will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.”[e]
8 Gomer weaned Lo Ruhamah. Then she conceived and gave birth to a son.
9 The Lord said, “Name him Lo Ammi,[f] because you are not my people, and I will not be the Lord for you.”[g]
A Promise of Future Blessing
10 Nevertheless, the number of the people of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or counted. Then, in the place where they were told, “You are not my people,” they will be told, “You are children of the living God.” 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be gathered together. They will appoint one head for themselves, and they will go up from the land, for the day of Jezre’el will be great.[h]
Israel Rebuked, Punished, and Restored
2 Plead with[k] your mother!
Plead with her, because she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband.
Let her put away her sexual immorality from her presence
and her acts of adultery from between her breasts.
3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked
and expose her as she was on the day she was born.
I will make her like a wilderness.
I will cause her to be like a dry land.
I will cause her to die of thirst.
4 I will have no compassion on her children,
because they are children of promiscuity,
5 because their mother has been promiscuous.[l]
She who conceived them has acted shamefully.
She said, “I will chase after my lovers,
the ones who give me my food and my water,
my wool and my flax, my olive oil and my drinks.”
6 Therefore, this is what I will do:
I will block your[m] way with thorns.
I will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She will chase after her lovers,
but she will not reach them.
She will seek them,
but she will not find them.
She will say, “I will go back to my first husband,
because then it was better for me than it is now.”
8 But she would not acknowledge that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil.
I gave her large amounts of silver and gold—her people used it for Baal!
9 That is why I will take back my grain during harvest time,
and my new wine in its season.
I will also take away my wool and my flax that were given to cover her nakedness.
10 Then I will expose her shameful nakedness in the sight of her lovers.
No one will deliver her from my hand.
11 I will put an end to all her celebration:
her pilgrimage festivals,[n] her monthly new moons, and her weekly Sabbaths—
all her appointed festivals.
12 I will devastate her vines and her fig trees,
about which she said, “These are the payment[o] that my lovers gave me.”
I will make them into a scrub forest,
and the wild animals will eat the crops.
13 I will punish her for the days with the Baals, on which she repeatedly offered incense to them.
She adorned herself with her rings[p] and her jewelry,
and then she chased after her lovers,
and she forgot me, declares the Lord.
14 But watch! I am going to court her.
I will bring her into the wilderness.
I will speak tenderly to her.
15 There I will give her vineyards back to her.
The Valley of Achor[q] will be a door of hope.
She will respond there as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up from the land of Egypt.
16 In that day, declares the Lord, this is what will take place:
You will call me “my husband.”
You will no longer call me “my master.”[r]
17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth.
She will no longer call them by their names.[s]
18 In that day I will make a covenant for the Israelites with the wild animals, with the birds of the sky and the things that creep on the ground.
I will break the bow and the sword.
I will abolish war from the land.
I will allow the people to lie down safely.[t]
19 I will pledge you to myself in marriage forever.
I will pledge you to myself in marriage—
with righteousness, justice, mercy, and compassion.
20 In faithfulness I will pledge you to myself in marriage,
and you will know the Lord.
21 In that day this is what will happen:
I will respond, declares the Lord.
I will respond to the heavens,
and they will respond to the earth.
22 The earth will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil.
They will respond to Jezre’el.
23 I will sow her for myself in the land.
I will have compassion for Lo Ruhamah,[u]
and I will tell Lo Ammi,[v] “You are my people,”
and he will say, “You are my God!”
The Prophet’s Reconciliation With His Wife:
A Picture of the Lord’s Love
3 The Lord said to me, “Go again. Show love to a woman who is loved by another man, a woman who keeps committing adultery. Show love just as the Lord loves the people of Israel, even though they keep turning to other gods and loving the raisin cakes.”[w]
2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and nine bushels[x] of barley. 3 I said to her, “You will stay with me for many days. You must not be promiscuous.[y] You must not be with any other man, and I will also be for you.”
4 So the people of Israel will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred memorial stones, and without the special vest[z] or family idols.[aa] 5 Afterward the people of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.
Faith, Love, and Obedience
5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the God who has given birth[a] also loves one who has been born of him. 2 This is how we know that we love the children of God: when we love God and keep his commands. 3 In fact, this is love for God: that we keep his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, 4 because everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith. 5 Who is the one who overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.
6 This is the one who came by water and blood: Jesus Christ. He did not come by the water alone but by the water and by the blood. The Spirit is the one who testifies, because the Spirit is the truth. 7 In fact, there are three that testify:[b] 8 the Spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three are one.
9 If we accept the testimony of people, God’s testimony is even greater, because it is the testimony that God gave about his Son. 10 The one who believes in the Son of God has this testimony in him, but the one who does not believe has made God out to be a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony that God gave about his Son. 11 This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 The one who has the Son has life. The one who does not have the Son of God does not have life. 13 I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.
14 This is the confidence that we have before him: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we also know that we receive the things we have asked from him.
16 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin that does not result in death, he will ask, and God will give life—to those who commit sin that does not result in death. There is sin that results in death; I am not saying that he should ask about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, but there is sin that does not result in death.
18 We know that anyone who has been born of God does not go on sinning. But the one who was born of God protects him,[c] and the Evil One cannot take hold of him. 19 We know that we are from God and that the whole world lies in the grip of the Evil One. 20 We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true, in his Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
21 Dear children, guard yourselves from idols.
Psalm 124
The Lord Is on Our Side
Heading
A song of the ascents. By David.
The Lord Is on Our Side
1 Unless it was the Lord who was for us—
let Israel say—
2 unless it was the Lord who was for us
when people[a] rose against us,
3 they would have swallowed us alive
when their anger burned against us.
4 Then the waters would have submerged us.
The torrent would have swept our lives away.
5 Then the wild waters would have swept us away.
6 Blessed be the Lord,
who has not let us be prey for their teeth.
7 We have escaped with our lives
like a bird out of the fowlers’ snare.
The snare has been broken, and we have escaped.
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
5 A man who flatters his neighbor
is spreading a net for his steps.[a]
6 An evil man sets a trap with his sin,
but a righteous person sings and rejoices.
7 A righteous person acknowledges the rights of the poor,
but a wicked person does not understand such knowledge.
8 Scoffers stir up a city,
but wise people turn away anger.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.