Day 315 of 365

¹"Say to your brothers, 'My people!' and to your sisters, 'My loved one!'

²Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

³Lest I strip her naked, and make her bare as in the day that she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.

⁴Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy; for they are children of unfaithfulness;

⁵For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived them has done shamefully; for she said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.'

⁶Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she can't find her way.

⁷She will follow after her lovers, but she won't overtake them; and she will seek them, but won't find them. Then she will say, 'I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.'

⁸For she did not know that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.

⁹Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my new wine in its season, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.

¹⁰Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of my hand.

¹¹I will also cause all her celebrations to cease: her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.

¹²I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, about which she has said, 'These are my wages that my lovers have given me; and I will make them a forest,' and the animals of the field shall eat them.

¹³I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers, and forgot me," says the Lord.

¹⁴"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.

¹⁵I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will respond there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁶It will be in that day," says the Lord, "that you will call me 'my husband,' and no longer call me 'my master.'

¹⁷For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they will no longer be mentioned by name.

¹⁸In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground. I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle out of the land, and will make them lie down safely.

¹⁹I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion.

²⁰I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord.

²¹It will happen in that day, I will respond," says the Lord, "I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth;

²²and the earth will respond to the grain, and the new wine, and the oil; and they will respond to Jezreel.

²³I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, 'You are my people;' and they will say, 'My God!'"

¹The Lord said to me, "Go again, love a woman loved by another, and an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins."

²So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley.

³I said to her, "You shall stay with me many days. You shall not play the prostitute, and you shall not be with any other man. I will also be so toward you."

⁴For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols.

⁵Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.

¹Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel; for the Lord has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: "Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.

²There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed.

³Therefore the land will mourn, and everyone who dwells therein will waste away, all living things in her, even the animals of the field and the birds of the sky; yes, the fish of the sea also die.

⁴"Yet let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse; For your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.

⁵You will stumble in the day, and the prophet will also stumble with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother.

⁶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God's law, I will also forget your children.

⁷As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame.

⁸They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity.

⁹It will be, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and will repay them for their deeds.

¹⁰They will eat, and not have enough. They will play the prostitute, and will not increase; because they have abandoned giving to the Lord.

¹¹Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.

¹²My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God.

¹³They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because its shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute, and your brides commit adultery.

¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute, nor your brides when they commit adultery; because the men consort with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with the shrine prostitutes; so the people without understanding will come to ruin.

¹⁵"Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet do not let Judah offend; and do not come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth Aven, nor swear, 'As the Lord lives.'

¹⁶For Israel has behaved extremely stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer. Then how will the Lord feed them like a lamb in a meadow.

¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone!

¹⁸Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.

¹⁹The wind has wrapped her up in its wings; and they shall be disappointed because of their sacrifices.

¹Lord, who shall dwell in your sanctuary? Who shall live on your holy hill?

²He who walks blamelessly does what is right, and speaks truth in his heart;

³He who doesn't slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his friend, nor casts slurs against his fellow man;

⁴In whose eyes a vile man is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord; he who keeps an oath even when it hurts, and doesn't change;

⁵he who doesn't lend out his money for usury, nor take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be shaken.

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding:

²that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.

³For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,

⁴But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.

⁶She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn't know it.

⁷Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Do not depart from the words of my mouth.

⁸Remove your way far from her. Do not come near the door of her house,

⁹lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;

¹⁰lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man's house.

¹¹You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,

¹²and say, "How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

¹³neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!

¹⁴I have come to the brink of utter ruin, in the midst of the gathered assembly."

¹⁵Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?

¹⁷Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.

¹⁸Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹A loving doe and a graceful deer- let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.

²⁰For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?

²¹For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord. He examines all his paths.

²²The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.

²³He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.