Hosea 2-5

New Living Translation

2 ^[a]“In that day you will call your brothers Ammi—‘My people.’ And you will call your sisters Ruhamah—‘The ones I love.’

Charges against an Unfaithful Wife

²“But now bring charges against Israel—your mother—
    for she is no longer my wife,
    and I am no longer her husband.
Tell her to remove the prostitute’s makeup from her face
    and the clothing that exposes her breasts.
³Otherwise, I will strip her as naked
    as she was on the day she was born.
I will leave her to die of thirst,
    as in a dry and barren wilderness.
⁴And I will not love her children,
    for they were conceived in prostitution.
⁵Their mother is a shameless prostitute
    and became pregnant in a shameful way.
She said, ‘I’ll run after other lovers
    and sell myself to them for food and water,
for clothing of wool and linen,
    and for olive oil and drinks.’

⁶“For this reason I will fence her in with thornbushes.
    I will block her path with a wall
    to make her lose her way.
⁷When she runs after her lovers,
    she won’t be able to catch them.
She will search for them
    but not find them.
Then she will think,
‘I might as well return to my husband,
    for I was better off with him than I am now.’
⁸She doesn’t realize it was I who gave her everything she has—
    the grain, the new wine, the olive oil;
I even gave her silver and gold.
    But she gave all my gifts to Baal.

⁹“But now I will take back the ripened grain and new wine
    I generously provided each harvest season.
I will take away the wool and linen clothing
    I gave her to cover her nakedness.
¹⁰I will strip her naked in public,
    while all her lovers look on.
No one will be able
    to rescue her from my hands.
¹¹I will put an end to her annual festivals,
    her new moon celebrations, and her Sabbath days—
    all her appointed festivals.
¹²I will destroy her grapevines and fig trees,
    things she claims her lovers gave her.
I will let them grow into tangled thickets,
    where only wild animals will eat the fruit.
¹³I will punish her for all those times
    when she burned incense to her images of Baal,
when she put on her earrings and jewels
    and went out to look for her lovers
but forgot all about me,”
    says the Lord.

The Lord’s Love for Unfaithful Israel

¹⁴“But then I will win her back once again.
    I will lead her into the desert
    and speak tenderly to her there.
¹⁵I will return her vineyards to her
    and transform the Valley of Trouble^[b] into a gateway of hope.
She will give herself to me there,
    as she did long ago when she was young,
    when I freed her from her captivity in Egypt.
¹⁶When that day comes,” says the Lord,
    “you will call me ‘my husband’
    instead of ‘my master.’^[c]
¹⁷O Israel, I will wipe the many names of Baal from your lips,
    and you will never mention them again.
¹⁸On that day I will make a covenant
    with all the wild animals and the birds of the sky
and the animals that scurry along the ground
    so they will not harm you.
I will remove all weapons of war from the land,
    all swords and bows,
so you can live unafraid
    in peace and safety.
¹⁹I will make you my wife forever,
    showing you righteousness and justice,
    unfailing love and compassion.
²⁰I will be faithful to you and make you mine,
    and you will finally know me as the Lord.

²¹“In that day, I will answer,”
    says the Lord.
“I will answer the sky as it pleads for clouds.
    And the sky will answer the earth with rain.
²²Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries
    of the grain, the grapevines, and the olive trees.
And they in turn will answer,
    ‘Jezreel’—‘God plants!’
²³At that time I will plant a crop of Israelites
    and raise them for myself.
I will show love
    to those I called ‘Not loved.’^[d]
And to those I called ‘Not my people,’^[e]
    I will say, ‘Now you are my people.’
And they will reply, ‘You are our God!’”

Hosea’s Wife Is Redeemed

3 Then the Lord said to me, “Go and love your wife again, even though she^[f] commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the Lord still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.^[g]”

²So I bought her back for fifteen pieces of silver^[h] and five bushels of barley and a measure of wine.^[i] ³Then I said to her, “You must live in my house for many days and stop your prostitution. During this time, you will not have sexual relations with anyone, not even with me.^[j]”

⁴This shows that Israel will go a long time without a king or prince, and without sacrifices, sacred pillars, priests,^[k] or even idols! ⁵But afterward the people will return and devote themselves to the Lord their God and to David’s descendant, their king.^[l] In the last days, they will tremble in awe of the Lord and of his goodness.

The Lord’s Case against Israel

4 Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel!
    The Lord has brought charges against you, saying:
“There is no faithfulness, no kindness,
    no knowledge of God in your land.
²You make vows and break them;
    you kill and steal and commit adultery.
There is violence everywhere—
    one murder after another.
³That is why your land is in mourning,
    and everyone is wasting away.
Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky,
    and the fish of the sea are disappearing.

⁴“Don’t point your finger at someone else
    and try to pass the blame!
My complaint, you priests,
    is with you.^[m]
⁵So you will stumble in broad daylight,
    and your false prophets will fall with you in the night.
    And I will destroy Israel, your mother.
⁶My people are being destroyed
    because they don’t know me.
Since you priests refuse to know me,
    I refuse to recognize you as my priests.
Since you have forgotten the laws of your God,
    I will forget to bless your children.
⁷The more priests there are,
    the more they sin against me.
They have exchanged the glory of God
    for the shame of idols.^[n]

⁸“When the people bring their sin offerings, the priests get fed.
    So the priests are glad when the people sin!
⁹‘And what the priests do, the people also do.’
    So now I will punish both priests and people
    for their wicked deeds.
¹⁰They will eat and still be hungry.
    They will play the prostitute and gain nothing from it,
for they have deserted the Lord
¹¹    to worship other gods.

“Wine has robbed my people
    of their understanding.
¹²They ask a piece of wood for advice!
    They think a stick can tell them the future!
Longing after idols
    has made them foolish.
They have played the prostitute,
    serving other gods and deserting their God.
¹³They offer sacrifices to idols on the mountaintops.
    They go up into the hills to burn incense
    in the pleasant shade of oaks, poplars, and terebinth trees.

“That is why your daughters turn to prostitution,
    and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
¹⁴But why should I punish them
    for their prostitution and adultery?
For your men are doing the same thing,
    sinning with whores and shrine prostitutes.
O foolish people! You refuse to understand,
    so you will be destroyed.

¹⁵“Though you, Israel, are a prostitute,
    may Judah not be guilty of such things.
Do not join the false worship at Gilgal or Beth-aven,^[o]
    and do not take oaths there in the Lord’s name.
¹⁶Israel is stubborn,
    like a stubborn heifer.
So should the Lord feed her
    like a lamb in a lush pasture?
¹⁷Leave Israel^[p] alone,
    because she is married to idolatry.
¹⁸When the rulers of Israel finish their drinking,
    off they go to find some prostitutes.
    They love shame more than honor.^[q]
¹⁹So a mighty wind will sweep them away.
    Their sacrifices to idols will bring them shame.

The Failure of Israel’s Leaders

5 “Hear this, you priests.
    Pay attention, you leaders of Israel.
Listen, you members of the royal family.
    Judgment has been handed down against you.
For you have led the people into a snare
    by worshiping the idols at Mizpah and Tabor.
²You have dug a deep pit to trap them at Acacia Grove.^[r]
    But I will settle with you for what you have done.
³I know what you are like, O Ephraim.
    You cannot hide yourself from me, O Israel.
You have left me as a prostitute leaves her husband;
    you are utterly defiled.
⁴Your deeds won’t let you return to your God.
    You are a prostitute through and through,
    and you do not know the Lord.

⁵“The arrogance of Israel testifies against her;
    Israel and Ephraim will stumble under their load of guilt.
    Judah, too, will fall with them.
⁶When they come with their flocks and herds
    to offer sacrifices to the Lord,
they will not find him,
    because he has withdrawn from them.
⁷They have betrayed the honor of the Lord,
    bearing children that are not his.
Now their false religion will devour them
    along with their wealth.^[s]

⁸“Sound the alarm in Gibeah!
    Blow the trumpet in Ramah!
Raise the battle cry in Beth-aven^[t]!
    Lead on into battle, O warriors of Benjamin!
⁹One thing is certain, Israel^[u]:
    On your day of punishment,
    you will become a heap of rubble.

¹⁰“The leaders of Judah have become like thieves.^[v]
    So I will pour my anger on them like a waterfall.
¹¹The people of Israel will be crushed and broken by my judgment
    because they are determined to worship idols.^[w]
¹²I will destroy Israel as a moth consumes wool.
    I will make Judah as weak as rotten wood.

¹³“When Israel and Judah saw how sick they were,
    Israel turned to Assyria—
to the great king there—
    but he could neither help nor cure them.
¹⁴I will be like a lion to Israel,
    like a strong young lion to Judah.
    I will tear them to pieces!
I will carry them off,
    and no one will be left to rescue them.
¹⁵Then I will return to my place
    until they admit their guilt and turn to me.
For as soon as trouble comes,
    they will earnestly search for me.”

Footnotes

2:1 Verses 2:1-23 are numbered 2:3-25 in Hebrew text.
2:15 Hebrew valley of Achor.
2:16 Hebrew ‘my baal.’
2:23a Hebrew Lo-ruhamah; see 1:6.
2:23b Hebrew Lo-ammi; see 1:9.
3:1a Or Go and love a woman who.
3:1b Hebrew love their raisin cakes.
3:2a Hebrew 15 [shekels] of silver, about 6 ounces or 171 grams in weight.
3:2b As in Greek version, which reads a homer of barley and a wineskin full of wine; Hebrew reads a homer [5 bushels or 220 liters] of barley and a lethek [2.5 bushels or 110 liters] of barley.
3:3 Or and I will live with you.
3:4 Hebrew ephod, the vest worn by the priest.
3:5 Hebrew to David their king.
4:4 Hebrew Your people are like those with a complaint against the priests.
4:7 As in Syriac version and an ancient Hebrew tradition; Masoretic Text reads I will turn their glory into shame.
4:15 Beth-aven means “house of wickedness”; it is being used as another name for Bethel, which means “house of God.”
4:17 Hebrew Ephraim, referring to the northern kingdom of Israel.
4:18 As in Greek version; the meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
5:2 Hebrew at Shittim. The meaning of the Hebrew for this sentence is uncertain.
5:7 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.
5:8 Beth-aven means “house of wickedness”; it is being used as another name for Bethel, which means “house of God.”
5:9 Hebrew Ephraim, referring to the northern kingdom of Israel; also in 5:11, 12, 13, 14.
5:10 Hebrew like those who move a boundary marker.
5:11 Or determined to follow human commands. The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain.

Hebrews 2

New Living Translation

A Warning against Drifting Away

2 So we must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it. ²For the message God delivered through angels has always stood firm, and every violation of the law and every act of disobedience was punished. ³So what makes us think we can escape if we ignore this great salvation that was first announced by the Lord Jesus himself and then delivered to us by those who heard him speak? ⁴And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever he chose.

Jesus, the Man

⁵And furthermore, it is not angels who will control the future world we are talking about. ⁶For in one place the Scriptures say,

“What are mere mortals that you should think about them,
or a son of man^[a] that you should care for him?
⁷Yet for a little while you made them a little lower than the angels
and crowned them with glory and honor.^[b]
⁸You gave them authority over all things.”^[c]

Now when it says “all things,” it means nothing is left out. But we have not yet seen all things put under their authority. ⁹What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was given a position “a little lower than the angels”; and because he suffered death for us, he is now “crowned with glory and honor.” Yes, by God’s grace, Jesus tasted death for everyone. ¹⁰God, for whom and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through his suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation.

¹¹So now Jesus and the ones he makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters.^[d] ¹²For he said to God,

“I will proclaim your name to my brothers and sisters.
I will praise you among your assembled people.”^[e]

¹³He also said,

“I will put my trust in him,”
that is, “I and the children God has given me.”^[f]

¹⁴Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had^[g] the power of death. ¹⁵Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.

¹⁶We also know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to help the descendants of Abraham. ¹⁷Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters,^[h] so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God. Then he could offer a sacrifice that would take away the sins of the people. ¹⁸Since he himself has gone through suffering and testing, he is able to help us when we are being tested.