Bible Reading Plan

¹ Come, let us return to the Lord .^(a)
For He has torn us,^(b)
and He will heal us;^(c)
He has wounded us,
and He will bind up our wounds.^(d)
2 He will revive us after two days,^(e)
and on the third day He will raise us up
so we can live in His presence.^(f)
3 Let us strive to know the Lord .^(g)
His appearance is as sure as the dawn.^(h)
He will come to us like the rain,⁽ⁱ⁾
like the spring showers that water the land.

⁴ What am I going to do with you, Ephraim?^(j)
What am I going to do with you, Judah?
Your loyalty is like the morning mist^(k)
and like the early dew that vanishes.
⁵ This is why I have used the prophets
to cut them down;^[a](l)
I have killed them with the words of My mouth.
My judgment strikes like lightning.^[b]
6 For I desire loyalty and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God^(m) rather than burnt offerings.⁽ⁿ⁾

⁷ But they, like Adam,^[c] have violated the covenant;^(o)
there they have betrayed Me.^(p)
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers,^(q)
tracked with bloody footprints.^(r)
9 Like raiders who wait in ambush for someone,^(s)
a band of priests murders on the road to Shechem.^(t)
They commit atrocities.^(u)
10 I have seen something horrible^(v) in the house of Israel:
Ephraim's promiscuity is there;^(w) Israel is defiled.
¹¹ A harvest is also appointed for you, Judah.^(x)

When I^[d] return My people from captivity,^(y)

¹ when I heal Israel,^(a)
the sins of Ephraim^(b) and the crimes of Samaria^(c)
will be exposed.
For they practice fraud;^(d)
a thief breaks in;
a raiding party pillages outside.^(e)
2 But they never consider that I remember all their evil.^(f)
Now their sins are all around them;^(g)
they are right in front of My face.

³ They please the king with their evil,^(h)
the princes with their lies.^(i)
4 All of them commit adultery;^(j)
they are like an oven heated by a baker
who stops stirring the fire
from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened.
⁵ On the day of our king,
the princes are sick with the heat of wine^(k)—
there is a conspiracy with traitors.^[a]
6 For they—their hearts like an oven—
draw him into their oven.
Their anger smolders all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
⁷ All of them are as hot as an oven,^(l)
and they consume their rulers.^(m)
All their kings fall;
not one of them calls on Me.^[b]

⁸ Ephraim has allowed himself to get mixed up with the nations.
Ephraim is unturned bread baked on a griddle.
⁹ Foreigners consume his strength,⁽ⁿ⁾
but he does not notice.^(o)
Even his hair is streaked with gray,
but he does not notice.
¹⁰ Israel's arrogance testifies against them,^[c](p)
yet they do not return to Yahweh their God,^(q)
and for all this, they do not seek Him.

¹¹ So Ephraim has become like a silly, senseless dove;^(r)
they call to Egypt,^(s) and they go to Assyria.^(t)
12 As they are going, I will spread My net over them;^(u)
I will bring them down like birds of the sky.
I will discipline them in accordance
with the news that reaches^[d] their assembly.

¹³ Woe to them,^(v) for they fled from Me;^(w)
destruction to them, for they rebelled against Me!
Though I want to redeem them,^(x)
they speak lies against Me.
¹⁴ They do not cry to Me from their hearts;
rather, they wail on their beds.
They slash themselves^[e](y) for grain and new wine;^(z)
they turn away from Me.
¹⁵ I trained and strengthened their arms,^(aa)
but they plot evil against Me.^(ab)
16 They turn, but not to what is above;^[f]
they are like a faulty bow.^(ac)
Their leaders will fall by the sword
because of the cursing of their tongue.^(ad)
They will be ridiculed for this in the land of Egypt.^(ae)

¹ Put the horn to your mouth!^(a)
One like an eagle comes
against the house of the Lord ,^(b)
because they transgress My covenant^(c)
and rebel against My law.^(d)
2 Israel cries out to Me,^(e)
"My God, we know You!"
³ Israel has rejected what is good;^(f)
an enemy will pursue him.

⁴ They have installed kings,^(g)
but not through Me.
They have appointed leaders,
but without My approval.
They make their silver and gold^(h)
into idols for themselves
for their own destruction.^[a]
5 Your calf-idol^[b](i) is rejected, Samaria.^(j)
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?^(k)
6 For this thing is from Israel—
a craftsman made it,^(l) and it is not God.
The calf of Samaria will be smashed to bits!

⁷ Indeed, they sow the wind^(m)
and reap the whirlwind.⁽ⁿ⁾
There is no standing grain;
what sprouts fails to yield flour.^(o)
Even if they did,
foreigners would swallow it up.
⁸ Israel is swallowed up!^(p)
Now they are among the nations
like discarded pottery.^(q)
9 For they have gone up to Assyria^(r)
like a wild donkey going off on its own.
Ephraim has paid for love.^(s)
10 Even though they hire lovers among the nations,
I will now round them up,
and they will begin to decrease in number^(t)
under the burden of the king and leaders.^(u)

¹¹ When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin,^(v)
they became his altars for sinning.
¹² Though I were to write out for him
ten thousand points of My instruction,^(w)
they would be^[c] regarded as something strange.
¹³ Though they offer sacrificial gifts^[d](x)
and eat the flesh,^(y)
the Lord does not accept them.
Now He will remember their guilt^(z)
and punish their sins;^(aa)
they will return to Egypt.^(ab)
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker^(ac) and built palaces;^(ad)
Judah has also multiplied fortified cities.
I will send fire on their cities,^(ae)
and it will consume their citadels.