The Daily Audio Bible
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1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri, in the days of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah and in the days of King Jeroboam son of Joash of Israel.
The Family of Hosea
2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and have children of prostitution, for the land commits great prostitution by forsaking the Lord.”(A) 3 So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 And the Lord said to him, “Name him Jezreel,[a] for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.(B) 5 On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”(C)
6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah,[b] for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them.(D) 7 But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God; I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”(E)
8 When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. 9 Then the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi,[c] for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”[d]
The Restoration of Israel
10 [e]Yet the number of the people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can be neither measured nor numbered, and in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.”(F) 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel shall be gathered together, and they shall appoint for themselves one head, and they shall rise up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.(G)
2 [f]Say to your brothers, “Ammi,”[g] and to your sisters, “Ruhamah.”[h]
Israel’s Infidelity, Punishment, and Redemption
2 Plead with your mother, plead—
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put away her prostitution from her face
and her adultery from between her breasts,(H)
3 or I will strip her naked
and expose her as in the day she was born
and make her like a wilderness
and turn her into a parched land
and kill her with thirst.(I)
4 Upon her children also I will have no pity,
because they are children of prostitution.(J)
5 For their mother has prostituted herself;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, “I will go after my lovers;
they give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.”(K)
6 Therefore I will hedge up her[i] way with thorns,
and I will build a wall against her
so that she cannot find her paths.(L)
7 She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
Then she shall say, “I will go
and return to my first husband,
for it was better with me then than now.”(M)
8 She did not know
that it was I who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil
and who lavished upon her silver
and gold that they used for Baal.(N)
9 Therefore I will take back
my grain in its time
and my wine in its season,
and I will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
10 Now I will uncover her shame
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.(O)
11 I will put an end to all her mirth,
her festivals, her new moons, her Sabbaths,
and all her appointed festivals.(P)
12 I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
of which she said,
“These are my pay,
which my lovers have given me.”
I will make them a forest,
and the wild animals shall devour them.(Q)
13 I will punish her for the festival days of the Baals,
to whom she offered incense
and decked herself with her rings and jewelry
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, says the Lord.(R)
14 Therefore, I will now allure her
and bring her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.(S)
15 From there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she shall respond as in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.(T)
16 On that day, says the Lord, you will call me “my husband,” and no longer will you call me “my Baal.”[j] 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more.(U) 18 I will make for you[k] a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground, and I will abolish[l] the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you[m] lie down in safety.(V) 19 And I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy.(W) 20 I will take you for my wife in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.(X)
21 On that day I will answer, says the Lord,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer Jezreel,[n](Y)
23 and I will sow him[o] for myself in the land.
And I will have pity on Lo-ruhamah,[p]
and I will say to Lo-ammi,[q] “You are my people,”
and he shall say, “You are my God.”(Z)
Further Assurances of God’s Redeeming Love
3 The Lord said to me again, “Go, love a woman who has a lover and is an adulteress, just as the Lord loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”(AA) 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer of barley and a measure of wine.[r](AB) 3 And I said to her, “You must remain as mine for many days; you shall not prostitute yourself; you shall not have intercourse with a man, nor I with you.” 4 For the Israelites shall remain many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim.(AC) 5 Afterward the Israelites shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; they shall come in awe to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.(AD)
Faith Conquers the World
5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ[a] has been born of God, and everyone who loves the parent loves the child.(A) 2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 3 For the love of God is this, that we obey his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome,(B) 4 for whatever is born of God conquers the world. And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith.(C) 5 Who is it who conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?(D)
Testimony concerning the Son of God
6 This is the one who came by water and blood, Jesus Christ, not with the water only but with the water and the blood. And the Spirit is the one that testifies, for the Spirit is the truth.(E) 7 There are three that testify:[b](F) 8 the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree. 9 If we receive human testimony, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God that he has testified to his Son.(G) 10 Those who believe in the Son of God have the testimony in their hearts. Those who do not believe in God[c] have made him a liar by not believing in the testimony that God has given concerning his Son.(H) 11 And this is the testimony: God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.(I)
Epilogue
13 I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.[d](J)
14 And this is the boldness we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made of him. 16 If you see your brother or sister committing what is not a deadly sin, you will ask, and God[e] will give life to such a one—to those whose sin is not deadly. There is sin that is deadly; I do not say that you should pray about that.(K) 17 All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly.
18 We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them.[f](L) 19 We know that we are God’s children and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one.(M) 20 And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true;[g] and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.(N)
21 Little children, keep yourselves from idols.[h]
Psalm 124
Thanksgiving for Israel’s Deliverance
A Song of Ascents. Of David.
1 If it had not been the Lord who was on our side
—let Israel now say—(A)
2 if it had not been the Lord who was on our side,
when our enemies attacked us,
3 then they would have swallowed us up alive,
when their anger was kindled against us;(B)
4 then the flood would have swept us away;
the torrent would have gone over us;(C)
5 then over us would have gone
the raging waters.
6 Blessed be the Lord,
who has not given us
as prey to their teeth.(D)
7 We have escaped like a bird
from the snare of the hunters;
the snare is broken,
and we have escaped.(E)
8 Our help is in the name of the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.(F)
5 Whoever flatters a neighbor
is spreading a net for the neighbor’s feet.
6 In the transgression of the evil there is a snare,
but the righteous sing and rejoice.
7 The righteous know the rights of the poor;
the wicked have no such understanding.(A)
8 Scoffers set a city aflame,
but the wise turn away wrath.(B)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.