Bible in 90 Days

Daniel Prays for His People

9 Darius the Mede, who was the son of Xerxes, ruled over the kingdom of Babylonia. ^2 (A)In the first year of his reign I was studying the sacred books and thinking about the seventy years that Jerusalem would be in ruins, according to what the Lord had told the prophet Jeremiah. ³ And I prayed earnestly to the Lord God, pleading with him, fasting, wearing sackcloth, and sitting in ashes. ⁴ I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed the sins of my people.

I said, “Lord God, you are great, and we honor you. You are faithful to your covenant and show constant love to those who love you and do what you command.

⁵ “We have sinned, we have been evil, we have done wrong. We have rejected what you commanded us to do and have turned away from what you showed us was right. ⁶ We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our rulers, our ancestors, and our whole nation. ^7 (B)You, Lord, always do what is right, but we have always brought disgrace on ourselves. This is true of all of us who live in Judea and in Jerusalem and of all the Israelites whom you scattered in countries near and far because they were unfaithful to you. ⁸ Our kings, our rulers, and our ancestors have acted shamefully and sinned against you, Lord. ⁹ You are merciful and forgiving, although we have rebelled against you. ¹⁰ We did not listen to you, O Lord our God, when you told us to live according to the laws which you gave us through your servants the prophets. ^11 (C)All Israel broke your laws and refused to listen to what you said. We sinned against you, and so you brought on us the curses that are written in the Law of Moses, your servant. ¹² You did what you said you would do to us and our rulers. You punished Jerusalem more severely than any other city on earth, ¹³ giving us all the punishment described in the Law of Moses. But even now, O Lord our God, we have not tried to please you by turning from our sins or by following your truth. ¹⁴ You, O Lord our God, were prepared to punish us, and you did, because you always do what is right, and we did not listen to you.

^15 (D)“O Lord our God, you showed your power by bringing your people out of Egypt, and your power is still remembered. We have sinned; we have done wrong. ¹⁶ You have defended us in the past, so do not be angry with Jerusalem any longer. It is your city, your sacred hill.^[a] All the people in the neighboring countries look down on Jerusalem and on your people because of our sins and the evil our ancestors did. ^17 (E)O God, hear my prayer and pleading. Restore your Temple, which has been destroyed; restore it so that everyone will know that you are God. ^18 (F)Listen to us, O God; look at us and see the trouble we are in and the suffering of the city that bears your name. We are praying to you because you are merciful, not because we have done right. ¹⁹ Lord, hear us. Lord, forgive us. Lord, listen to us, and act! In order that everyone will know that you are God, do not delay! This city and these people are yours.”

Gabriel Explains the Prophecy

²⁰ I went on praying, confessing my sins and the sins of my people Israel and pleading with the Lord my God to restore his holy Temple. ^21 (G)While I was praying, Gabriel, whom I had seen in the earlier vision, came flying down to where I was. It was the time for the evening sacrifice to be offered. ²² He explained, “Daniel, I have come here to help you understand the prophecy. ²³ When you began to plead with God, he answered you. He loves you, and so I have come to tell you the answer. Now pay attention while I explain the vision.

²⁴ “Seven times seventy years is the length of time God has set for freeing your people and your holy city from sin and evil. Sin will be forgiven and eternal justice established, so that the vision and the prophecy will come true, and the holy Temple^[b] will be rededicated. ²⁵ Note this and understand it: From the time the command is given to rebuild Jerusalem until God's chosen leader comes, seven times seven years will pass. Jerusalem will be rebuilt with streets and strong defenses, and will stand for seven times sixty-two years, but this will be a time of troubles. ²⁶ And at the end of that time God's chosen leader will be killed unjustly.^[c] The city and the Temple will be destroyed by the invading army of a powerful ruler. The end will come like a flood, bringing the war and destruction which God has prepared. ^27 (H)That ruler will have a firm agreement with many people for seven years, and when half this time is past, he will put an end to sacrifices and offerings. The Awful Horror^[d] will be placed on the highest point of the Temple and will remain there until the one who put it there meets the end which God has prepared for him.”

Daniel's Vision by the Tigris River

10 In the third year that Cyrus was emperor of Persia, a message was revealed to Daniel, who is also called Belteshazzar. The message was true but extremely hard to understand.^[e] It was explained to him in a vision.

² At that time I was mourning for three weeks. ³ I did not eat any rich food or any meat, drink any wine, or comb my hair until the three weeks were past.

⁴ On the twenty-fourth day of the first month of the year I was standing on the bank of the mighty Tigris River. ^5 (I)I looked up and saw someone who was wearing linen clothes and a belt of fine gold. ⁶ His body shone like a jewel. His face was as bright as a flash of lightning, and his eyes blazed like fire. His arms and legs shone like polished bronze, and his voice sounded like the roar of a great crowd.

⁷ I was the only one who saw the vision. Those who were with me did not see anything, but they were terrified and ran and hid. ⁸ I was left there alone, watching this amazing vision. I had no strength left, and my face was so changed that no one could have recognized me. ⁹ When I heard his voice, I fell to the ground unconscious and lay there face downward. ¹⁰ Then a hand took hold of me and raised me to my hands and knees; I was still trembling.

¹¹ The angel said to me, “Daniel, God loves you. Stand up and listen carefully to what I am going to say. I have been sent to you.” When he had said this, I stood up, still trembling.

¹² Then he said, “Daniel, don't be afraid. God has heard your prayers ever since the first day you decided to humble yourself in order to gain understanding. I have come in answer to your prayer. ^13 (J)The angel prince of the kingdom of Persia opposed me for twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief angels, came to help me, because I had been left there alone in Persia. ¹⁴ I have come to make you understand what will happen to your people in the future. This is a vision about the future.”

¹⁵ When he said this, I stared at the ground, speechless. ¹⁶ Then the angel, who looked like a human being, reached out and touched my lips. I said to him, “Sir, this vision makes me so weak that I can't stop trembling. ¹⁷ I am like a slave standing before his master. How can I talk to you? I have no strength or breath left in me.”

¹⁸ Once more he took hold of me, and I felt stronger. ¹⁹ He said, “God loves you, so don't let anything worry you or frighten you.”

When he had said this, I felt even stronger and said, “Sir, tell me what you have to say. You have made me feel better.”

^20-21 He said, “Do you know why I came to you? It is to reveal to you what is written in the Book of Truth. Now I have to go back and fight the guardian angel of Persia. After that the guardian angel of Greece will appear. There is no one to help me except Michael, Israel's guardian angel.^[f]

11 He is^[g] responsible for helping and defending me. ² And what I am now going to tell you is true.”

The Kingdoms of Egypt and Syria

The angel said, “Three more kings will rule over Persia, followed by a fourth, who will be richer than all the others. At the height of his power and wealth he will challenge the kingdom of Greece.

³ “Then a heroic king will appear. He will rule over a huge empire and do whatever he wants. ⁴ But at the height of his power his empire will break up and be divided into four parts. Kings not descended from him will rule in his place, but they will not have the power that he had.

⁵ “The king of Egypt will be strong. One of his generals, however, will be even stronger and rule a greater kingdom. ⁶ After a number of years the king of Egypt will make an alliance with the king of Syria and give him his daughter in marriage. But the alliance will not last, and she, her husband, her child,^[h] and the servants who went with her will all be killed. ⁷ Soon afterward one of her relatives will become king. He will attack the army of the king of Syria, enter their fortress, and defeat them. ⁸ He will carry back to Egypt the images of their gods and the articles of gold and silver dedicated to those gods. After several years of peace ⁹ the king of Syria will invade Egypt, but he will be forced to retreat.

¹⁰ “The sons of the king of Syria will prepare for war and gather a large army. One of them will sweep on like a flood and attack an enemy fortress. ¹¹ In his anger the king of Egypt will go to war against the king of Syria and capture his huge army. ¹² He will be proud of his victory and of the many soldiers he has killed, but he will not continue to be victorious.

¹³ “The king of Syria will go back and gather a larger army than he had before. When the proper time comes, he will return with a large, well-equipped army. ¹⁴ Then many people will rebel against the king of Egypt. And some violent people from your nation, Daniel, will rebel because of a vision they have seen, but they will be defeated. ¹⁵ So the king of Syria will lay siege to a fortified city and capture it. The soldiers of Egypt will not continue to fight; even the best of them will not have enough strength. ¹⁶ The Syrian invader will do with them as he pleases, without opposition. He will stand in the Promised Land and have it completely in his power.

¹⁷ “The king of Syria will plan an expedition, using his whole army. Then, in order to destroy his enemy's kingdom, he will make an alliance with him and offer him his daughter^[i] in marriage; but his plan will not succeed. ¹⁸ After that he will attack the nations by the sea and conquer many of them. But a foreign leader will defeat him and put an end to his arrogance; indeed he will turn the arrogance of Syria's king back on him.^{[j] 19} The king will return to the fortresses of his own land, but he will be defeated, and that will be the end of him.

²⁰ “He will be followed by another king, who will send an officer to oppress the people with taxes in order to increase the wealth of his kingdom. In a short time that king will be killed, but not publicly and not in battle.”

The Evil King of Syria

²¹ The angel went on to explain: “The next king of Syria will be an evil man who has no right to be king, but he will come unexpectedly and seize power by trickery. ²² Anyone who opposes him, even God's High Priest, will be swept away and wiped out. ²³ By making treaties, he will deceive other nations, and he will grow stronger and stronger, even though he rules only a small nation. ²⁴ He will invade a wealthy province without warning and will do things that none of his ancestors ever did. Then he will divide among his followers the goods and property he has captured in war. He will make plans to attack fortresses, but his time will soon run out.

²⁵ “He will boldly raise a large army to attack the king of Egypt, who will prepare to fight back with a huge and powerful army. But the king of Egypt will be deceived and will not be successful. ²⁶ His closest advisers will ruin him. Many of his soldiers will be killed, and his army will be wiped out. ²⁷ Then the two kings will sit down to eat at the same table, but their motives will be evil, and they will lie to each other. They will not get what they want, because the time for it has not yet come. ²⁸ The king of Syria will return home with all the loot he has captured, determined to destroy the religion of God's people. He will do as he pleases and then return to his own land.

²⁹ “Later on he will invade Egypt again, but this time things will turn out differently. ^30 (K)The Romans will come in ships and oppose him, and he will be frightened.

“Then he will turn back in a rage and try to destroy the religion of God's people. He will follow the advice of those who have abandoned that religion. ^31 (L)Some of his soldiers will make the Temple ritually unclean. They will stop the daily sacrifices and set up The Awful Horror.^{[k] 32} By deceit the king will win the support of those who have already abandoned their religion, but those who follow God will fight back. ³³ Wise leaders of the people will share their wisdom with many others. But for a while some of them will be killed in battle or be burned to death, and some will be robbed and made prisoners. ³⁴ While the killing is going on, God's people will receive a little help, even though many who join them will do so for selfish reasons. ³⁵ Some of those wise leaders will be killed, but as a result of this the people will be purified. This will continue until the end comes, the time that God has set.

^36 (M)“The king of Syria will do as he pleases. He will boast that he is greater than any god, superior even to the Supreme God. He will be able to do this until the time when God punishes him. God will do exactly what he has planned. ³⁷ The king will ignore the god his ancestors served, and also the god that women love. In fact, he will ignore every god, because he will think he is greater than any of them. ³⁸ Instead, he will honor the god who protects fortresses. He will offer gold, silver, jewels, and other rich gifts to a god his ancestors never worshiped. ³⁹ To defend his fortresses, he will use people who worship a foreign god. He will give great honor to those who accept him as ruler, put them into high offices, and give them land as a reward.

⁴⁰ “When the king of Syria's final hour has almost come, the king of Egypt will attack him, and the king of Syria will fight back with all his power, using chariots, horses, and many ships. He will invade many countries, like the waters of a flood. ⁴¹ He will even invade the Promised Land and kill tens of thousands, but the countries of Edom, Moab, and what is left of Ammon will escape. ⁴² When he invades all those countries, even Egypt will not be spared. ⁴³ He will take away Egypt's hidden treasures of gold and silver and its other prized possessions. He will conquer Libya and Ethiopia.^{[l] 44} Then news that comes from the east and the north will frighten him, and he will fight furiously, killing many people. ⁴⁵ He will even set up his huge royal tents between the sea and the mountain on which the Temple stands. But he will die, with no one there to help him.”

The Time of the End

12 ^(N)The angel wearing linen clothes said, “At that time the great angel Michael, who guards your people, will appear. Then there will be a time of troubles, the worst since nations first came into existence. When that time comes, all the people of your nation whose names are written in God's book will be saved. ^2 (O)Many of those who have already died will live again: some will enjoy eternal life, and some will suffer eternal disgrace. ^3 [m]The wise leaders will shine with all the brightness of the sky. And those who have taught many people to do what is right will shine like the stars forever.”

^4 (P)He said to me, “And now, Daniel, close the book and put a seal on it until the end of the world. Meanwhile, many people will waste their efforts trying to understand what is happening.”

⁵ Then I saw two men standing by a river, one on each bank. ⁶ One of them asked the angel who was standing further upstream, “How long will it be until these amazing events come to an end?”

^7 (Q)The angel raised both hands toward the sky and made a solemn promise in the name of the Eternal God. I heard him say, “It will be three and a half years. When the persecution of God's people ends, all these things will have happened.”

⁸ I heard what he said, but I did not understand it. So I asked, “But, sir, how will it all end?”

⁹ He answered, “You must go now, Daniel, because these words are to be kept secret and hidden until the end comes. ^10 (R)Many people will be purified. Those who are wicked will not understand but will go on being wicked; only those who are wise will understand.

^11 (S)“From the time the daily sacrifices are stopped, that is, from the time of The Awful Horror,^[n] 1,290 days will pass. ¹² Happy are those who remain faithful until 1,335 days are over!

¹³ “And you, Daniel, be faithful to the end. Then you will die, but you will rise to receive your reward at the end of time.”

1 ^(T)This is the message which the Lord gave Hosea son of Beeri during the time that Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah were kings of Judah, and Jeroboam son of Jehoash was king of Israel.

Hosea's Wife and Children

² When the Lord first spoke to Israel through Hosea, he said to Hosea, “Go and get married; your wife will be unfaithful, and your children will be just like her.^[o] In the same way my people have left me and become unfaithful.”

³ So Hosea married a woman named Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. After the birth of their first child, a son, ^4 (U)the Lord said to Hosea, “Name him ‘Jezreel,’ because it will not be long before I punish the king of Israel for the murders that his ancestor Jehu committed at Jezreel.^[p] I am going to put an end to Jehu's dynasty.^{[q] 5} And in Jezreel Valley I will at that time destroy Israel's military power.”

⁶ Gomer had a second child—this time it was a daughter. The Lord said to Hosea, “Name her ‘Unloved,’ because I will no longer show love to the people of Israel or forgive them. ⁷ But to the people of Judah I will show love. I, the Lord their God, will save them, but I will not do it by war—with swords or bows and arrows or with horses and horsemen.”

⁸ After Gomer had weaned her daughter, she became pregnant again and had another son. ⁹ The Lord said to Hosea, “Name him ‘Not-My-People,’ because the people of Israel are not my people, and I am not their God.”

Israel Is to Be Restored

^10 (V)The people of Israel will become like the sand of the sea, more than can be counted or measured. Now God says to them, “You are not my people,” but the day is coming when he will say to them, “You are the children of the living God!” ¹¹ The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited. They will choose for themselves a single leader, and once again they will grow and prosper in their land. Yes, the day of Jezreel^[r] will be a great day!

2 So call your fellow Israelites “God's People” and “Loved-by-the-Lord.”

Unfaithful Gomer—Unfaithful Israel

² My children, plead with your mother—though she is no longer a wife to me, and I am no longer her husband. Plead with her to stop her adultery and prostitution. ³ If she does not, I will strip her as naked as she was on the day she was born. I will make her like a dry and barren land, and she will die of thirst. ^4-5 I will not show mercy to her children; they are the children of a shameless prostitute.^[s] She herself said, “I will go to my lovers—they give me food and water, wool and linen, olive oil and wine.”

⁶ So I am going to fence her in with thorn bushes and build a wall to block her way. ⁷ She will run after her lovers but will not catch them. She will look for them but will not find them. Then she will say, “I am going back to my first husband—I was better off then than I am now.”

⁸ She would never acknowledge that I am the one who gave her the grain, the wine, the olive oil, and all the silver and gold that she used in the worship of Baal. ⁹ So at harvest time I will take back my gifts of grain and wine, and will take away the wool and the linen I gave her for clothing. ¹⁰ I will strip her naked in front of her lovers, and no one will be able to save her from my power. ¹¹ I will put an end to all her festivities—her annual and monthly festivals and her Sabbath celebrations—all her religious meetings. ¹² I will destroy her grapevines and her fig trees, which she said her lovers gave her for serving them. I will turn her vineyards and orchards into a wilderness; wild animals will destroy them. ¹³ I will punish her for the times that she forgot me, when she burned incense to Baal and put on her jewelry to go chasing after her lovers. The Lord has spoken.

The Lord's Love for His People

¹⁴ So I am going to take her into the desert again; there I will win her back with words of love. ^15 (W)I will give back to her the vineyards she had and make Trouble Valley a door of hope. She will respond to me there as she did when she was young, when she came from Egypt. ¹⁶ Then once again she will call me her husband—she will no longer call me her Baal.^{[t] 17} I will never let her speak the name of Baal again.

¹⁸ At that time I will make a covenant with all the wild animals and birds, so that they will not harm my people. I will also remove all weapons of war from the land, all swords and bows, and will let my people live in peace and safety.

Hosea and the Unfaithful Woman

3 The Lord said to me, “Go again^[v] and show your love for a woman who is committing adultery with a lover. You must love her just as I still love the people of Israel, even though they turn to other gods and like to take offerings of raisins to idols.”^[w]

² So I paid fifteen pieces of silver and seven bushels of barley to buy her. ³ I told her that for a long time she would have to wait for me without being a prostitute or committing adultery; and during this time I would wait for her. ⁴ In just this way the people of Israel will have to live for a long time without kings or leaders, without sacrifices or sacred stone pillars, without idols or images to use for divination. ⁵ But the time will come when the people of Israel will once again turn to the Lord their God and to a descendant of David their king. Then they will fear the Lord and will receive his good gifts.

The Lord's Accusation against Israel

4 The Lord has an accusation to bring against the people who live in this land. Listen, Israel, to what he says: “There is no faithfulness or love in the land, and the people do not acknowledge me as God. ² They make promises and break them; they lie, murder, steal, and commit adultery. Crimes increase, and there is one murder after another. ³ And so the land will dry up, and everything that lives on it will die. All the animals and birds, and even the fish, will die.”

The Lord Accuses the Priests

⁴ The Lord says, “Let no one accuse the people or reprimand them—my complaint is against you priests.^{[x] 5} Night and day you blunder on, and the prophets do no better than you. I am going to destroy Israel, your mother. ⁶ My people are doomed because they do not acknowledge me. You priests have refused to acknowledge me and have rejected my teaching, and so I reject you and will not acknowledge your sons as my priests.

⁷ “The more of you priests there are, the more you sin against me, and so I will turn your honor into disgrace. ⁸ You grow rich from the sins of my people, and so you want them to sin more and more. ⁹ You will suffer the same punishment as the people! I will punish you and make you pay for the evil you do. ¹⁰ You will eat your share of the sacrifices, but still be hungry. You will worship the fertility gods, but still have no children, because you have turned away from me to follow other gods.”

The Lord Condemns Pagan Worship

¹¹ The Lord says, “Wine, both old and new, is robbing my people of their senses! ¹² They ask for revelations from a piece of wood! A stick tells them what they want to know! They have left me. Like a woman who becomes a prostitute, they have given themselves to other gods. ¹³ At sacred places on the mountaintops they offer sacrifices, and on the hills they burn incense under tall, spreading trees, because the shade is so pleasant!

“As a result, your daughters serve as prostitutes, and your daughters-in-law commit adultery. ¹⁴ Yet I will not punish them for this, because you yourselves go off with temple prostitutes,^[y] and together with them you offer pagan sacrifices. As the proverb says, ‘A people without sense will be ruined.’

¹⁵ “Even though you people of Israel are unfaithful to me, may Judah not be guilty of the same thing. Don't worship at Gilgal or Bethaven,^[z] or make promises there in the name of the living Lord. ¹⁶ The people of Israel are as stubborn as mules. How can I feed them like lambs in a meadow? ¹⁷ The people of Israel are under the spell of idols. Let them go their own way. ¹⁸ After drinking much wine, they delight in their prostitution, preferring disgrace to honor. ¹⁹ They will be carried away as by the wind, and they will be ashamed of their pagan sacrifices.^[aa][ab]

5 “Listen to this, you priests! Pay attention, people of Israel! Listen, you that belong to the royal family! You are supposed to judge with justice—so judgment will fall on you! You have become a trap at Mizpah, a net spread on Mount Tabor, ² a deep pit at Acacia City,^[ac] and I will punish all of you. ³ I know what Israel is like—she cannot hide from me. She has been unfaithful, and her people are unfit to worship me.”

Hosea Warns against Idolatry

⁴ The evil that the people have done keeps them from returning to their God. Idolatry has a powerful hold on them, and they do not acknowledge the Lord. ⁵ The arrogance of the people of Israel cries out against them. Their sins make them stumble and fall, and the people of Judah fall with them. ⁶ They take their sheep and cattle to offer as sacrifices to the Lord, but it does them no good. They cannot find him, for he has left them. ⁷ They have been unfaithful to the Lord; their children do not belong to him. So now they and their lands will soon be destroyed.

War between Judah and Israel

⁸ Blow the war trumpets in Gibeah! Sound the alarm in Ramah! Raise the war cry at Bethaven!^[ad] Into battle, men of Benjamin! ⁹ The day of punishment is coming, and Israel will be ruined. People of Israel, this will surely happen!

¹⁰ The Lord says, “I am angry because the leaders of Judah have invaded Israel and stolen land from her. So I will pour out punishment on them like a flood. ¹¹ Israel is suffering oppression; she has lost land that was rightfully hers, because she insisted on going for help to those who had none to give.^{[ae] 12} I will bring destruction on Israel and ruin on the people of Judah.

¹³ “When Israel saw how sick she was and when Judah saw her own wounds, then Israel went to Assyria to ask the great emperor for help, but he could not cure them or heal their wounds. ¹⁴ I will attack the people of Israel and Judah like a lion. I myself will tear them to pieces and then leave them. When I drag them off, no one will be able to save them.

¹⁵ “I will abandon my people until they have suffered enough for their sins and come looking for me. Perhaps in their suffering they will try to find me.”

The People's Insincere Repentance

6 The people say, “Let's return to the Lord! He has hurt us, but he will be sure to heal us; he has wounded us, but he will bandage our wounds, won't he? ² In two or three days he will revive us, and we will live in his presence. ³ Let us try to know the Lord. He will come to us as surely as the day dawns, as surely as the spring rains fall upon the earth.”

⁴ But the Lord says, “Israel and Judah, what am I going to do with you? Your love for me disappears as quickly as morning mist; it is like dew, that vanishes early in the day. ⁵ That is why I have sent my prophets to you with my message of judgment and destruction. What I want from you is plain and clear: ^6 (Y)I want your constant love, not your animal sacrifices. I would rather have my people know me than burn offerings to me.

⁷ “But as soon as they entered the land at Adam,^[af] they broke the covenant I had made with them. ⁸ Gilead is a city full of evil people and murderers. ⁹ The priests are like a gang of robbers who wait in ambush for someone. Even on the road to the holy place at Shechem they commit murder. And they do all this evil deliberately! ¹⁰ I have seen a horrible thing in Israel: my people have defiled themselves by worshiping idols.

¹¹ “And as for you, people of Judah, I have set a time to punish you also for what you are doing.

7 “Whenever I want to heal my people Israel and make them prosperous again, all I can see is their wickedness and the evil they do. They cheat one another; they break into houses and steal; they rob people in the streets. ² It never enters their heads that I will remember all this evil; but their sins surround them, and I cannot avoid seeing them.”

Conspiracy in the Palace

³ The Lord says, “People deceive the king and his officers by their evil plots. ⁴ They are all treacherous and disloyal. Their hatred smolders like the fire in an oven, which is not stirred by the baker until the dough is ready to bake. ⁵ On the day of the king's celebration they made the king and his officials drunk and foolish with wine. ⁶ Yes, they burned^[ag] like an oven with their plotting. All night their anger smoldered, and in the morning it burst into flames.

⁷ “In the heat of their anger they murdered their rulers. Their kings have been assassinated one after another, but no one prays to me for help.”

Israel and the Nations

⁸ The Lord says, “The people of Israel are like a half-baked loaf of bread. They rely on the nations around them ⁹ and do not realize that this reliance on foreigners has robbed them of their strength. Their days are numbered, but they don't even know it. ¹⁰ The arrogance of the people of Israel cries out against them. In spite of everything that has happened, they have not returned to me, the Lord their God. ¹¹ Israel flits around like a silly pigeon; first her people call on Egypt for help, and then they run to Assyria! ¹² But I will spread out a net and catch them like birds as they go by. I will punish them for the evil they have done.^[ah]

¹³ “They are doomed! They have left me and rebelled against me. They will be destroyed. I wanted to save them, but their worship of me was false. ¹⁴ They have not prayed to me sincerely, but instead they throw themselves down and wail as the heathen do. When they pray for grain and wine, they gash themselves like pagans. What rebels they are! ¹⁵ Even though I was the one who brought them up and made them strong, they plotted against me. ¹⁶ They keep on turning away from me to a god that is powerless.^[ai] They are as unreliable as a crooked bow. Because their leaders talk arrogantly, they will die a violent death, and the Egyptians will laugh.”

The Lord Condemns Israel for Idol Worship

8 The Lord says, “Sound the alarm! Enemies are swooping down on my land like eagles! My people have broken the covenant I made with them and have rebelled against my teaching. ² Even though they call me their God and claim that they are my people and that they know me, ³ they have rejected what is good. Because of this their enemies will pursue them.

⁴ “My people chose kings, but they did it on their own. They appointed leaders, but without my approval. They took their silver and gold and made idols—for their own destruction. ⁵ I hate the gold bull worshiped by the people of the city of Samaria. I am furious with them. How long will it be before they give up their idolatry? ⁶ An Israelite craftsman made the idol, and it is not a god at all! The gold bull worshiped in Samaria will be smashed to pieces! ⁷ When they sow the wind, they will reap a storm! A field of grain that doesn't ripen can never produce any bread. But even if it did, foreigners would eat it up. ⁸ Israel has become like any other nation and is as useless as a broken pot. ⁹ Stubborn as wild donkeys, the people of Israel go their own way. They have gone off to seek help from Assyria and have paid other nations to protect them. ¹⁰ But now I am going to gather them together and punish them. Soon they will writhe in pain when the emperor of Assyria oppresses them.

¹¹ “The more altars the people of Israel build for removing sin, the more places they have for sinning! ¹² I write down countless teachings for the people, but they reject them as strange and foreign. ¹³ They offer sacrifices to me and eat the meat of the sacrifices.^[aj] But I, the Lord, am not pleased with them, and now I will remember their sin and punish them for it; I will send them back to Egypt!

¹⁴ “The people of Israel have built palaces, but they have forgotten their own Maker. The people of Judah have built fortified cities. But I will send fire that will burn down their palaces and their cities.”

Hosea Announces Punishment for Israel

9 People of Israel, stop celebrating your festivals like pagans. You have turned away from your God and have been unfaithful to him. All over the land you have sold yourselves like prostitutes to the god Baal and have loved the grain you thought he paid you with! ² But soon you will not have enough grain and olive oil, and there will be no wine. ³ The people of Israel will not remain in the Lord's land, but will have to go back to Egypt and will have to eat forbidden food^[ak] in Assyria. ⁴ In those foreign lands they will not be able to make wine offerings to the Lord or bring their sacrifices to him. Their food will defile everyone who eats it, like food eaten at funerals. It will be used only to satisfy their hunger; none of it will be taken as an offering to the Lord's Temple. ⁵ And when the time comes for the appointed festivals in honor of the Lord, what will they do then? ⁶ When the disaster comes and the people are scattered, the Egyptians will gather them up—gather them for burial there at Memphis! Their treasures of silver and the places where their homes once stood will be overgrown with weeds and thorn bushes.

^7 (Z)The time for punishment has come, the time when people will get what they deserve. When that happens, Israel will know it! “This prophet,” you say, “is a fool. This inspired man is insane.” You people hate me so much because your sin is so great. ⁸ God has sent me as a prophet to warn his people Israel. Yet wherever I go, you try to trap me like a bird. Even in God's Temple the people are the prophet's enemies. ^9 (AA)They are hopelessly evil in what they do, just as they were at Gibeah.^[al] God will remember their sin and punish them for it.

Israel's Sin and Its Consequences

^10 (AB)The Lord says, “When I first found Israel, it was like finding grapes growing in the desert. When I first saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season. But when they came to Mount Peor, they began to worship Baal and soon became as disgusting as the gods they loved. ¹¹ Israel's greatness will fly away like a bird, and there will be no more children born to them, no more women pregnant, no more children conceived. ¹² But even if they did bring up children, I would take them away and not leave one alive. When I abandon these people, terrible things will happen to them.”

¹³ Lord, I can see their children being hunted down^[am] and killed. ¹⁴ What shall I ask you to do to these people? Make their women barren! Make them unable to nurse their babies!

The Lord's Judgment on Israel

¹⁵ The Lord says, “All their evildoing began in Gilgal. It was there that I began to hate them. And because of the evil they have done, I will drive them out of my land. I will not love them any more; all their leaders have rebelled against me. ¹⁶ The people of Israel are like a plant whose roots have dried up and which bears no fruit. They will have no children, but even if they did, I would kill the children so dear to them.”

The Prophet Speaks about Israel

¹⁷ The God I serve will reject his people, because they have not listened to him. They will become wanderers among the nations.

10 The people of Israel were like a grapevine that was full of grapes. The more prosperous they were, the more altars they built. The more productive their land was, the more beautiful they made the sacred stone pillars they worship. ² The people whose hearts are deceitful must now suffer for their sins. God will break down their altars and destroy their sacred pillars.

³ These people will soon be saying, “We have no king because we did not fear the Lord. But what could a king do for us anyway?” ⁴ They utter empty words and make false promises and useless treaties. Justice has become injustice, growing like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

⁵ The people who live in the city of Samaria will be afraid and will mourn the loss of the gold bull^[an] at Bethaven.^[ao] They and the priests who serve the idol will weep over it. They will wail when it is stripped of its golden splendor. ⁶ The idol will be carried off to Assyria as tribute to the great emperor. The people of Israel will be disgraced and put to shame because of the advice they followed. ⁷ Their king will be carried off, like a chip of wood on water. ^8 (AC)The hilltop shrines of Aven,^[ap] where the people of Israel worship idols, will be destroyed. Thorns and weeds will grow up over their altars. The people will call out to the mountains, “Hide us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”

The Lord Pronounces Judgment on Israel

^9 (AD)The Lord says, “The people of Israel have not stopped sinning against me since the time of their sin at Gibeah.^[aq] So at Gibeah war will catch up with them. ¹⁰ I will attack^[ar] this sinful people and punish them. Nations will join together against them, and they will be punished for their many sins.

¹¹ “Israel was once like a well-trained young cow, ready and willing to thresh grain. But I decided to put a yoke^[as] on her beautiful neck and to harness her for harder work. I made Judah pull the plow and Israel pull the harrow. ^12 (AE)I said, ‘Plow new ground for yourselves, plant righteousness, and reap the blessings that your devotion to me will produce. It is time for you to turn to me, your Lord, and I will come and pour out blessings upon you.’ ¹³ But instead you planted evil and reaped its harvest. You have eaten the fruit produced by your lies.

“Because you trusted in your chariots^[at] and in the large number of your soldiers, ¹⁴ war will come to your people, and all your fortresses will be destroyed. It will be like the day when King Shalman destroyed the city of Betharbel in battle, and mothers and their children were crushed to death. ¹⁵ That is what will happen to you, people of Bethel, because of the terrible evil that you have done. As soon as the battle begins, the king of Israel will die.”

God's Love for His Rebellious People

11 ^(AF)The Lord says,

⁵ “They refuse to return to me, and so they must return to Egypt, and Assyria will rule them. ⁶ War will sweep through their cities and break down the city gates. It will destroy my people because they do what they themselves think best. ⁷ They insist on turning away from me. They will cry out because of the yoke that is on them, but no one will lift it from them.^[az]

¹⁰ “My people will follow me when I roar like a lion at their enemies. They will hurry to me from the west. ¹¹ They will come from Egypt, as swiftly as birds, and from Assyria, like doves. I will bring them to their homes again. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Israel and Judah Are Condemned

¹² The Lord says, “The people of Israel have surrounded me with lies and deceit, and the people of Judah are still rebelling against me, the faithful and holy God.

12 Everything that the people of Israel do from morning to night is useless and destructive. Treachery and acts of violence increase among them. They make treaties with Assyria and do business with Egypt.”

² The Lord has an accusation to bring against the people of Judah; he is also going to punish Israel for the way her people act. He will pay them back for what they have done. ^3 (AH)Their ancestor Jacob struggled with his twin brother Esau while the two of them were still in their mother's womb; when Jacob grew up, he fought against God— ^4 (AI)he fought against an angel and won. He wept and asked for a blessing. And at Bethel God came to our ancestor Jacob and spoke with him.^{[ba] 5} This was the Lord God Almighty—the Lord is the name by which he is to be worshiped. ⁶ So now, descendants of Jacob, trust in your God and return to him. Be loyal and just, and wait patiently for your God to act.

Further Words of Judgment

⁷ The Lord says, “The people of Israel are as dishonest as the Canaanites; they love to cheat their customers with false scales. ⁸ ‘We are rich,’ they say. ‘We've made a fortune. And no one can accuse us of getting rich dishonestly.’ ^9 (AJ)But I, the Lord your God who led you out of Egypt, I will make you live in tents again, as you did when I came to you in the desert.

¹⁰ “I spoke to the prophets and gave them many visions, and through the prophets I gave my people warnings. ¹¹ Yet idols are worshiped in Gilead, and those who worship them will die. Bulls are sacrificed in Gilgal, and the altars there will become piles of stone in the open fields.”

^12 (AK)Our ancestor Jacob had to flee to Mesopotamia, where, in order to get a wife, he worked for another man and took care of his sheep. ^13 (AL)The Lord sent a prophet to rescue the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and to take care of them. ¹⁴ The people of Israel have made the Lord bitterly angry; they deserve death for their crimes. Their Lord will punish them for the disgrace they have brought on him.

Final Judgment on Israel

13 In the past, when the tribe of Ephraim spoke, the other tribes of Israel were afraid; they looked up to Ephraim. But the people sinned by worshiping Baal, and for this they will die. ² They still keep on sinning by making metal images to worship—idols of silver, designed by human minds, made by human hands. And then they say, “Offer sacrifices to them!” How can anyone kiss those idols—idols in the shape of bulls!^{[bb] 3} And so these people will disappear like morning mist, like the dew that vanishes early in the day. They will be like chaff which the wind blows from the threshing place, like smoke from a chimney.

⁴ The Lord says, “I am the Lord your God, who led you out of Egypt. You have no God but me. I alone am your savior. ^5 (AM)I took care of you in a dry, desert land. ⁶ But when you entered the good land, you became full and satisfied, and then you grew proud and forgot me.