Day 150 of 365

¹Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt.

²The Lord also has a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his deeds he will repay him.

³In the womb he took his brother by the heel; and in his manhood he contended with God.

⁴Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us,

⁵even the Lord, the God of Hosts; The Lord is his name of renown!

⁶Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God.

⁷A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to defraud.

⁸Ephraim said, "Surely I have become rich, I have found myself wealth. In all my wealth they won't find in me any iniquity that is sin."

⁹"But I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt. I will yet again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast.

¹⁰I have also spoken to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets I have used parables.

¹¹If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field.

¹²Jacob fled into the country of Aram, and Israel served to get a wife, and for a wife he tended flocks and herds.

¹³By a prophet the Lord brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.

¹⁴Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger. Therefore his blood will be left on him, and his Lord will repay his contempt.

¹When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. He exalted himself in Israel, but when he became guilty in Baal, he died.

²Now they sin more and more, and have made themselves molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, 'They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves.'

³Therefore they will be like the morning mist, and like the dew that passes away early, like the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and like the smoke out of the chimney.

⁴"Yet I am the Lord your God [that establishes the heaven, and creates the earth, whose hands have framed the whole host of heaven. But I did not show them to you that you should go after them, but I brought you up] from the land of Egypt; and you shall acknowledge no god but me, and besides me there is no savior.

⁵I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.

⁶According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore they have forgotten me.

⁷Therefore I am like a lion to them. Like a leopard, I will lurk by the path.

⁸I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs, and will tear the covering of their heart. There I will devour them like a lioness. The wild animal will tear them.

⁹You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your help.

¹⁰Where is your king now, that he may save you in all your cities? And your judges, of whom you said, 'Give me a king and princes?'

¹¹I have given you a king in my anger, and have taken him away in my wrath.

¹²The guilt of Ephraim is stored up. His sin is stored up.

¹³The sorrows of a travailing woman will come on him. He is an unwise son; for when it is time, he doesn't come to the opening of the womb.

¹⁴I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your sting? "Compassion will be hidden from my eyes.

¹⁵Though he is fruitful among his brothers, an east wind will come, the breath of the Lord coming up from the wilderness; and his spring will become dry, and his fountain will be dried up. He will plunder the storehouse of treasure.

¹⁶Samaria will bear her guilt; for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open."

¹Israel, return to the Lord your God; for you have fallen because of your sin.

²Take words with you, and return to the Lord. Tell him, "Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like bulls.

³Assyria can't save us. We won't ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, 'Our gods!' for in you the fatherless finds mercy."

⁴"I will heal their waywardness. I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from him.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily, and send down his roots like Lebanon.

⁶His branches will spread, and his beauty will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon.

⁷Men will dwell in his shade. They will revive like the grain, and blossom like the vine. Their fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon.

⁸Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? I answer, and will take care of him. I am like a green fir tree; from me your fruit is found."

⁹Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Who is prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous walk in them; But the rebellious stumble in them.

¹The word of the Lord that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, which he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

²Hear, you peoples, all of you. Listen, O earth, and all that is therein: and let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple.

³For, behold, the Lord comes forth out of his place, and will come down and tread on the high places of the earth.

⁴The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place.

⁵"All this is for the disobedience of Jacob, and for the sins of the house of Israel. What is the disobedience of Jacob? Isn't it Samaria? And what are the high places of Judah? Aren't they Jerusalem?

⁶Therefore I will make Samaria like a rubble heap of the field, like places for planting vineyards; and I will pour down its stones into the valley, and I will uncover its foundations.

⁷All her idols will be beaten to pieces, and all her temple gifts will be burned with fire, and all her images I will destroy; for of the hire of a prostitute has she gathered them, and to the hire of a prostitute shall they return."

⁸For this I will lament and wail; I will go stripped and naked; I will howl like the jackals, and moan like the daughters of owls.

⁹For her wounds are incurable; for it has come even to Judah. It reaches to the gate of my people, even to Jerusalem.

¹⁰Do not tell it in Gath. Do not weep at all. At Beth Ophrah I have rolled myself in the dust.

¹¹Pass on, inhabitant of Shaphir, in nakedness and shame. The inhabitant of Zaanan won't come out. The wailing of Beth Ezel will take from you his protection.

¹²For the inhabitant of Maroth waits anxiously for good, because evil has come down from the Lord to the gate of Jerusalem.

¹³Harness the chariot to the swift steed, inhabitant of Lachish. She was the beginning of sin to the daughter of Zion; For the transgressions of Israel were found in you.

¹⁴Therefore you will give a parting gift to Moresheth Gath. The houses of Achzib will be a deceitful thing to the kings of Israel.

¹⁵I will yet bring to you, inhabitant of Mareshah. He who is the glory of Israel will come to Adullam.

¹⁶Shave your heads, and cut off your hair for the children of your delight. Enlarge your baldness like the vulture; for they have gone into captivity from you!