Hosea 9-11

English Standard Version

The Lord Will Punish Israel

9 Rejoice not, O Israel!
    Exult not like the peoples;
^(A)for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.
    ^(B)You have loved a prostitute's wages
    on all threshing floors.
²^(C)Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
    and ^(D)the new wine shall fail them.
³They shall not remain in ^(E)the land of the Lord,
    but ^(F)Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
    and ^(G)they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

⁴^(H)They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,
    ^(I)and their sacrifices shall not please him.
It shall be like ^(J)mourners' bread to them;
    all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
    ^(K)it shall not come to the house of the Lord.

⁵^(L)What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,
    and on the day of the feast of the Lord?
⁶For behold, they are going away from destruction;
    but ^(M)Egypt shall gather them;
    Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess ^(N)their precious things of silver;
    ^(O)thorns shall be in their tents.

⁷^(P)The days of punishment have come;
    the days of recompense have come;
    Israel shall know it.
^(Q)The prophet is a fool;
    the man of the spirit is mad,
because of your great iniquity
    and great hatred.
⁸The prophet is ^(R)the watchman of Ephraim with my God;
yet ^(S)a fowler's snare is on all his ways,
    and hatred in the house of his God.
⁹^(T)They have deeply corrupted themselves
    as ^(U)in the days of Gibeah:
^(V)he will remember their iniquity;
    he will punish their sins.

¹⁰Like grapes in the wilderness,
    ^(W)I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree
    in its first season,
    I saw your fathers.
But ^(X)they came to Baal-peor
    and ^(Y)consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,
    and ^(Z)became detestable like the thing they loved.
¹¹Ephraim's ^(AA)glory shall fly away like a bird—
    ^(AB)no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
¹²^(AC)Even if they bring up children,
    I will bereave them till none is left.
^(AD)Woe to them
    when ^(AE)I depart from them!
¹³Ephraim, ^(AF)as I have seen, was like a young palm^[a] planted in a meadow;
    but ^(AG)Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.^[b]
¹⁴Give them, O Lord—
    what will you give?
Give them ^(AH)a miscarrying womb
    and dry breasts.

¹⁵Every evil of theirs is in ^(AI)Gilgal;
    there I began to hate them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
    I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no more;
    all ^(AJ)their princes are ^(AK)rebels.

¹⁶Ephraim is stricken;
    ^(AL)their root is dried up;
    they shall bear no fruit.
Even ^(AM)though they give birth,
    ^(AN)I will put their beloved children to death.
¹⁷^(AO)My God will reject them
    because they have not listened to him;
    ^(AP)they shall be wanderers among the nations.

10 ^(AQ)Israel is a luxuriant vine
    that yields its fruit.
The more his fruit increased,
    ^(AR)the more altars he built;
as his country improved,
    he improved his pillars.
²Their heart is false;
    now they must bear their guilt.
The Lord^[c] will break down their altars
    and destroy their pillars.

³For now they will say:
    ^(AS)“We have no king,
for we do not fear the Lord;
    and a king—what could he do for us?”
⁴They utter ^(AT)mere words;
    with empty^[d] oaths they make covenants;
so ^(AU)judgment springs up like poisonous weeds
    ^(AV)in the furrows of the field.
⁵The inhabitants of Samaria tremble
    for ^(AW)the calf^[e] of ^(AX)Beth-aven.
Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests—
    those who rejoiced over it and ^(AY)over its glory—
    for it has departed^[f] from them.
⁶^(AZ)The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria
    as tribute to ^(BA)the great king.^[g]
Ephraim shall be put to shame,
    and Israel shall be ashamed ^(BB)of his idol.^[h]

⁷^(BC)Samaria's king shall perish
    like a twig on the face of the waters.
⁸The high places of ^(BD)Aven, ^(BE)the sin of Israel,
    shall be destroyed.
^(BF)Thorn and thistle shall grow up
    on their altars,
and ^(BG)they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,”
    and to the hills, “Fall on us.”

⁹From ^(BH)the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel;
    there they have continued.
    Shall not the war against the unjust^[i] overtake them in Gibeah?
¹⁰^(BI)When I please, ^(BJ)I will discipline them,
    and nations shall be gathered against them
    when they are bound up for ^(BK)their double iniquity.

¹¹Ephraim was a trained calf
    that ^(BL)loved to thresh,
    and I spared her fair neck;
but I will put ^(BM)Ephraim to the yoke;
    ^(BN)Judah must plow;
    Jacob must harrow for himself.
¹²^(BO)Sow for yourselves righteousness;
    reap steadfast love;
    ^(BP)break up your fallow ground,
for it is the time to seek the Lord,
    that he may come and ^(BQ)rain righteousness upon you.

¹³^(BR)You have plowed iniquity;
    you have reaped injustice;
    you have eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you have trusted in your own way
    and in the multitude of your warriors,
¹⁴therefore ^(BS)the tumult of war shall arise among your people,
    and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,
as ^(BT)Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle;
    ^(BU)mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.
¹⁵Thus it shall be done to you, O ^(BV)Bethel,
    because of your great evil.
At dawn ^(BW)the king of Israel
    shall be utterly cut off.

The Lord's Love for Israel

11 ^(BX)When Israel was a child, ^(BY)I loved him,
    and out of Egypt I ^(BZ)called ^(CA)my son.
²^(CB)The more they were called,
    the more they went away;
^(CC)they kept sacrificing to the Baals
    and burning offerings to idols.

³Yet it was ^(CD)I who taught Ephraim to walk;
    I took them up by their arms,
    but they did not know that ^(CE)I healed them.
⁴^(CF)I led them with cords of kindness,^[j]
    with the bands of love,
and ^(CG)I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,
    and ^(CH)I bent down to them and fed them.

⁵^(CI)They shall not^[k] return to the land of Egypt,
    but ^(CJ)Assyria shall be their king,
    ^(CK)because ^(CL)they have refused to return to me.
⁶^(CM)The sword shall rage against their cities,
    consume the bars of their gates,
    and devour them ^(CN)because of their own counsels.
⁷My people are bent ^(CO)on turning away from me,
    and though ^(CP)they call out to the Most High,
    he shall not raise them up at all.

⁸How can I give you up, O Ephraim?
    How can I hand you over, O Israel?
^(CQ)How can I make you ^(CR)like Admah?
    How can I treat you ^(CS)like Zeboiim?
^(CT)My heart recoils within me;
    my compassion grows warm and tender.
⁹I will not execute my burning anger;
    I will not again destroy Ephraim;
^(CU)for I am God and not a man,
    ^(CV)the Holy One in your midst,
    and I will not come in wrath.^[l]

¹⁰^(CW)They shall go after the Lord;
    ^(CX)he will roar like a lion;
when he roars,
    his children shall come trembling ^(CY)from the west;
¹¹they shall come trembling like birds ^(CZ)from Egypt,
    and ^(DA)like doves ^(DB)from the land of Assyria,
    and I will return them to their homes, declares the Lord.
¹²^[m] Ephraim ^(DC)has surrounded me with lies,
    and the house of Israel with deceit,
but Judah still walks with God
    and is faithful to the Holy One.

Footnotes

Hosea 9:13 Or like Tyre
Hosea 9:13 Hebrew to him who slaughters
Hosea 10:2 Hebrew He
Hosea 10:4 Or vain (see Exodus 20:7)
Hosea 10:5 Or calves
Hosea 10:5 Or has gone into exile
Hosea 10:6 Or to King Jareb
Hosea 10:6 Or counsel
Hosea 10:9 Hebrew the children of injustice
Hosea 11:4 Or humaneness; Hebrew man
Hosea 11:5 Or surely
Hosea 11:9 Or into the city
Hosea 11:12 Ch 12:1 in Hebrew

Romans 15:14-33

English Standard Version

Paul the Minister to the Gentiles

¹⁴^(A)I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers,^[a] that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with ^(B)all knowledge and able to instruct one another. ¹⁵But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder, ^(C)because of the grace given me by God ¹⁶to be ^(D)a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles ^(E)in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that ^(F)the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. ¹⁷In Christ Jesus, then, I have ^(G)reason to be proud of ^(H)my work for God. ¹⁸For I will not venture to speak of anything except ^(I)what Christ has accomplished through me ^(J)to bring the Gentiles to obedience—by word and deed, ¹⁹^(K)by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God—so that ^(L)from Jerusalem and all the way around ^(M)to Illyricum I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ; ²⁰and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where Christ has already been named, ^(N)lest I build on someone else's foundation, ²¹but as it is written,

^(O)“Those who have never been told of him will see,
and those who have never heard will understand.”

Paul's Plan to Visit Rome

²²This is the reason why ^(P)I have so often been hindered from coming to you. ²³But now, since I no longer have any room for work in these regions, and ^(Q)since I have longed for many years to come to you, ²⁴I hope to see you in passing as I go ^(R)to Spain, and ^(S)to be helped on my journey there by you, once I have enjoyed your company for a while. ²⁵At present, however, ^(T)I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. ²⁶For ^(U)Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. ²⁷For they were pleased to do it, and indeed ^(V)they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. ²⁸When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected,^[b] I will leave ^(W)for Spain by way of you. ²⁹I know that when I come to you I will come in the fullness of the blessing^[c] of Christ.

³⁰I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by ^(X)the love of the Spirit, ^(Y)to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, ³¹^(Z)that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that ^(AA)my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, ³²so that by God's will I may come to you with joy and ^(AB)be refreshed in your company. ³³May ^(AC)the God of peace be with you all. Amen.