Hosea 12-14; Joel 1

1Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long; he multiplies lies and violence; he makes a covenant with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.

2The LORD has a charge to bring against Judah. He will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.

3In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel, and in his vigor he wrestled with God.

4Yes, he struggled with the angel and prevailed; he wept and sought His favor; he found Him at Bethel and spoke with Him there —

5the LORD God of Hosts, the LORD is His name of renown.

6But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and always wait on your God.

7A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands.

8And Ephraim boasts: “How rich I have become! I have found wealth for myself. In all my labors, they can find in me no iniquity that is sinful.”

9But I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt. I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast.

10I spoke through the prophets and multiplied their visions; I gave parables through the prophets.

11Is there iniquity in Gilead? They will surely come to nothing. Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Indeed, their altars will be heaps of stones in the furrows of the field.

12Jacob fled to the land of Aram and Israel worked for a wife— for a wife he tended sheep.

13But by a prophet the LORD brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved.

14Ephraim has provoked bitter anger, so his Lord will leave his bloodguilt upon him and repay him for his contempt.

1When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel. But he incurred guilt through Baal, and he died.

2Now they sin more and more and make for themselves cast images, idols skillfully made from their silver, all of them the work of craftsmen. People say of them, “They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves!”

3Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that vanishes, like chaff blown from a threshing floor, like smoke through an open window.

4Yet I am the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but Me, for there is no Savior besides Me.

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

6When they had pasture, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, their hearts became proud, and as a result they forgot Me.

7So like a lion I will pounce on them; like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

8Like a bear robbed of her cubs I will attack them, and I will tear open their chests. There I will devour them like a lion, like a wild beast tearing them apart.

9You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against Me— against your helper.

10Where is your king now to save you in all your cities, and the rulers to whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”?

11So in My anger I gave you a king, and in My wrath I took him away.

12The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is stored up.

13Labor pains come upon him, but he is an unwise son. When the time arrives, he fails to present himself at the opening of the womb.

14I will ransom them from the power of Sheol; I will redeem them from Death. Where, O Death, are your plagues? Where, O Sheol, is your sting? Compassion is hidden from My eyes.

15Although he flourishes among his brothers, an east wind will come— a wind from the LORD rising up from the desert. His fountain will fail, and his spring will run dry. The wind will plunder his treasury of every precious article.

16Samaria will bear her guilt because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.

1Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled by your iniquity.

2Bring your confessions and return to the LORD. Say to Him: “Take away all our iniquity and receive us graciously, that we may present the fruit of our lips.

3Assyria will not save us, nor will we ride on horses. We will never again say, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our own hands. For in You the fatherless find compassion.”

4I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for My anger has turned away from them.

5I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

6His shoots will sprout, and his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.

7They will return and dwell in his shade; they will grow grain and blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.

8O Ephraim, what have I to do anymore with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing cypress; your fruit comes from Me.

9Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right, and the righteous walk in them but the rebellious stumble in them.

1This is the word of the LORD that came to Joel son of Pethuel:

2Hear this, O elders; and give ear, all who dwell in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your fathers?

3Tell it to your children; let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.

4What the devouring locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; what the swarming locust has left, the young locust has eaten; and what the young locust has left, the destroying locust has eaten.

5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.

6For a nation has invaded My land, powerful and without number; its teeth are the teeth of a lion, and its fangs are the fangs of a lioness.

7It has laid waste My grapevine and splintered My fig tree. It has stripped off the bark and thrown it away; the branches have turned white.

8Wail like a virgin dressed in sackcloth, grieving for the husband of her youth.

9Grain and drink offerings have been cut off from the house of the LORD; the priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.

10The field is ruined; the land mourns. For the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, and the oil fails.

11Be dismayed, O farmers, wail, O vinedressers, over the wheat and barley, because the harvest of the field has perished.

12The grapevine is dried up, and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, palm, and apple— all the trees of the orchard—are withered. Surely the joy of mankind has dried up.

13Put on sackcloth and lament, O priests; wail, O ministers of the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, O ministers of my God, because the grain and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.

14Consecrate a fast; proclaim a solemn assembly! Gather the elders and all the residents of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

15Alas for the day! For the Day of the LORD is near, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

16Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes— joy and gladness from the house of our God?

17The seeds lie shriveled beneath the clods; the storehouses are in ruins; the granaries are broken down, for the grain has withered away.

18How the cattle groan! The herds wander in confusion because they have no pasture. Even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

19To You, O LORD, I call, for fire has consumed the open pastures and flames have scorched all the trees of the field.

20Even the beasts of the field pant for You, for the streams of water have dried up, and fire has consumed the open pastures.