Hosea 10

• 1. How prosperous Israel is--a luxuriant vine loaded with fruit! But the more wealth the people got, the more they poured it on the altars of their foreign gods. The richer the harvests they brought in, the more beautiful the statues and idols they built.
• 2. The hearts of the people are fickle; they are guilty and must be punished. The LORD will break down their foreign altars and smash their many idols.
• 3. Then they will say, "We have no king because we didn't fear the LORD. But what's the difference? What could a king do for us anyway?"
• 4. They spout empty words and make promises they don't intend to keep. So perverted justice springs up among them like poisonous weeds in a farmer's field.
• 5. The people of Samaria tremble for their calf idol at Beth-aven. The people mourn over it, and the priests wail for it, because its glory will be stripped away.
• 6. This idol they love so much will be carted away with them when they go as captives to Assyria, a gift to the great king there. Israel will be laughed at and shamed because its people have trusted in this idol.
• 7. Samaria will be cut off, and its king will disappear like a chip of wood on an ocean wave.
• 8. And the pagan shrines of Aven, the place of Israel's sin, will crumble. Thorns and thistles will grow up around them. They will beg the mountains to bury them and the hills to fall on them.
• 9. The LORD says, "O Israel, ever since that awful night in Gibeah, there has been only sin and more sin! You have made no progress whatsoever. Was it not right that the wicked men of Gibeah were attacked?
• 10. Now I will attack you, too, for your rebellion and disobedience. I will call out the armies of the nations to punish you for your multiplied sins.
• 11. "Israel is like a trained heifer accustomed to treading out the grain--an easy job that she loves. Now I will put a heavy yoke on her tender neck. I will drive her in front of the plow. Israel and Judah must now break up the hard ground; their days of ease are gone.
• 12. I said, `Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of my love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.'
• 13. "But you have cultivated wickedness and raised a thriving crop of sins. You have eaten the fruit of lies--trusting in your military might, believing that great armies could make your nation safe!
• 14. Now the terrors of war will rise among your people. All your fortifications will fall, just as they did when Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel. Even mothers and children were dashed to death there.
• 15. You will share that fate, Bethel, because of your great wickedness. When the day of judgment dawns, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.

Hosea 11

• 1. "When Israel was a child, I loved him as a son, and I called my son out of Egypt.
• 2. But the more I called to him, the more he rebelled, offering sacrifices to the images of Baal and burning incense to idols.
• 3. It was I who taught Israel how to walk, leading him along by the hand. But he doesn't know or even care that it was I who took care of him.
• 4. I led Israel along with my ropes of kindness and love. I lifted the yoke from his neck, and I myself stooped to feed him.
• 5. "But since my people refuse to return to me, they will go back to Egypt and will be forced to serve Assyria.
• 6. War will swirl through their cities; their enemies will crash through their gates and destroy them, trapping them in their own evil plans.
• 7. For my people are determined to desert me. They call me the Most High, but they don't truly honor me.
• 8. "Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let you go? How can I destroy you like Admah and Zeboiim? My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows.
• 9. No, I will not punish you as much as my burning anger tells me to. I will not completely destroy Israel, for I am God and not a mere mortal. I am the Holy One living among you, and I will not come to destroy.
• 10. "For someday the people will follow the LORD. I will roar like a lion, and my people will return trembling from the west.
• 11. Like a flock of birds, they will come from Egypt. Flying like doves, they will return from Assyria. And I will bring them home again," says the LORD.
• 12. Israel surrounds me with lies and deceit, but Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One.

Hosea 12

• 1. The people of Israel feed on the wind; they chase after the east wind all day long. They multiply lies and violence; they make alliances with Assyria and cut deals with the Egyptians.
• 2. Now the LORD is bringing a lawsuit against Judah. He is about to punish Jacob for all his deceitful ways.
• 3. Before Jacob was born, he struggled with his brother; when he became a man, he even fought with God.
• 4. Yes, he wrestled with the angel and won. He wept and pleaded for a blessing from him. There at Bethel he met God face to face, and God spoke to him--
• 5. the LORD God Almighty, the LORD is his name!
• 6. So now, come back to your God! Act on the principles of love and justice, and always live in confident dependence on your God.
• 7. But no, the people are like crafty merchants selling from dishonest scales--they love to cheat.
• 8. Israel boasts, "I am rich, and I've gotten it all by myself! No one can say I got it by cheating! My record is spotless!"
• 9. "I am the LORD your God, who rescued you from your slavery in Egypt. And I will make you live in tents again, as you do each year when you celebrate the Festival of Shelters.
• 10. I sent my prophets to warn you with many visions and parables."
• 11. But Gilead is filled with sinners who worship idols. And in Gilgal, too, they sacrifice bulls; their altars are lined up like the heaps of stone along the edges of a plowed field.
• 12. Jacob fled to the land of Aram and earned a wife by tending sheep.
• 13. Then the LORD led Jacob's descendants, the Israelites, out of Egypt by a prophet, who guided and protected them.
• 14. But the people of Israel have bitterly provoked the LORD, so their Lord will now sentence them to death in payment for their sins.

New Living Translation: 302 of 324 days.