Hosea 5; Hosea 6; Hosea 7; Hosea 8; Revelation 2

Hosea 5

1 Hear ye this, O priests, and hearken, O ye house of Israel, and give ear, O house of the king: for there is a judgment against you, because you have been a snare to them whom you should have watched over and a net spread upon Thabor.

2 And you have turned aside victims into the depth and I am the teacher of them all.

3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me for now Ephraim hath committed fornication, Israel is defiled.

4 They will not set their thoughts to return to their God: for the spirit of fornication is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord.

5 And the pride of Israel shall answer in his face: and Israel, and Ephraim shall fall in their iniquity, Juda also shall fall with them.

6 With their flocks and with their herds, they shall go to seek the Lord, and shall not find him: he is withdrawn from them.

7 They have transgressed against the Lord: for they have begotten children that are strangers: now shall a month devour them with their portions.

8 Blow ye the cornet in Gabaa, the trumpet in Rama: howl ye in Bethaven, behind thy back, O Benjamin.

9 Ephraim shall be in desolation in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel I have shewn that which shall surely be.

10 The princes of Juda are become as they that take up the bound: I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

11 Ephraim is under oppression, and broken in judgment: because he began to go after filthiness.

12 And I will be like a moth to Ephraim: and like rottenness to the house of Juda.

13 And Ephraim saw his sickness, and Juda his band: and Ephraim went to the Assyrian, and sent to the avenging king: and he shall not be able to heal you, neither shall he be able to take off the band from you.

14 For I will be like a lioness to Ephraim, and like a lion’s whelp to the house of Juda: I, I will catch, and go: I will take away, and there is none that can rescue.

15 I will go and return to my place: until you are consumed, and seek my face.

Hosea 6

1 In their affliction they will rise early to me: Come, and let us return to the Lord.

2 For he hath taken us, and he will heal us: he will strike, and he will cure us.

3 He will revive us after two days: on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. We shall know, and we shall follow on, that we may know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning light, and he will come to us as the early and the latter rain to the earth.

4 What shall I do to thee, O Ephraim? what shall I do to thee, O Juda? your mercy is as a morning cloud, and as the dew that goeth away in the morning.

5 For this reason have I hewed them by the prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments shall go forth as the light.

6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice: and the knowledge of God more than holocausts.

7 But they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant, there have they dealt treacherously against me.

8 Galaad is a city of workers of idols, supplanted with blood.

9 And like the jaws of highway robbers, they conspire with the priests who murder in the way those that pass out of Sichem: for they have wrought wickedness.

10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: the fornications of Ephraim there: Israel is defiled.

11 And thou also, O Juda, set thee a harvest, when I shall bring back the captivity of my people.

Hosea 7

1 When I would have healed Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria, for they have committed falsehood, and the thief is come in to steal, the robber is without.

2 And lest they may say in their hearts, that I remember all their wickedness: their own devices now have beset them about, they have been done before my face.

3 They have made the king glad with their wickedness: and the princes with their lies.

4 They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by the baker: the city rested a little from the mingling of the leaven, till the whole was leavened.

5 The day of our king, the princes began to be mad with wine: he stretched out his hand with scorners.

6 Because they have applied their heart like an oven, when he laid snares for them: he slept all the night baking them, in the morning he himself was heated as a flaming fire.

7 They were all heated like an oven, and have devoured their judges: all their kings have fallen: there is none amongst them that calleth unto me.

8 Ephraim himself is mixed among the nations: Ephraim is become as bread baked under the ashes, that is not turned.

9 Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knew it not: yea, grey hairs also are spread about upon him, and he is ignorant of it.

10 And the pride of Israel shall be humbled before his face: and they have not returned to the Lord their God, nor have they sought him in all these.

11 And Ephraim is become as a dove that is decoyed, not having a heart: they called upon Egypt, they went to the Assyrians.

12 And when they shall go, I will spread my net upon them: I will bring them down as the fowl of the air, I will strike them as their congregation hath heard.

13 Woe to them, for they have departed from me: they shall be wasted because they have transgressed against me: and I redeemed them: and they have spoken lies against me.

14 And they have not cried to me with their heart, but they howled in their beds: they have thought upon wheat and wine, they are departed from me.

15 And I have chastised them, and strengthened their arms: and they have imagined evil against me.

16 They returned, that they might be without yoke: they became like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword, for the rage of their tongue. This is their derision in the land of Egypt.

Hosea 8

1 Let there be a trumpet in thy throat like an eagle upon the house of the Lord: because they have transgressed my covenant, and have violated my law.

2 They shall call upon me: O my God, we, Israel, know thee.

3 Israel hath cast off the thing that is good, the enemy shall pursue him.

4 They have reigned, but not by me: they have been princes, and I knew not: of their silver and their gold they have made idols to themselves, that they might perish.

5 Thy calf, O Samaria, is cast off, my wrath is kindled against them. How long will they be incapable of being cleansed?

6 For itself also is the invention of Israel: a workman made it, and it is no god: for the calf of Samaria shall be turned to spiders’ webs.

7 For they shall sow wind, and reap a whirlwind, there is no standing stalk in it, the bud shall yield no meal; and if it should yield, strangers shall eat it.

8 Israel is swallowed up: now is he become among the nations like an unclean vessel.

9 For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath given gifts to his lovers.

10 But even though they shall have hired the nations, now will I gather them together: and they shall rest a while from the burden of the king, and the princes.

11 Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin: altars are become to him unto sin.

12 I shall write to him my manifold laws, which have been accounted as foreign.

13 They shall offer victims, they shall sacrifice flesh, and shall eat it, and the Lord will not receive them: now will he remember their iniquity, and will visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.

14 And Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and hath built temples: and Juda hath built many fenced cities: and I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the houses thereof.

Revelation 2

1 Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write: These things saith he who holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks:

2 I know thy works and thy labour and thy patience and how thou canst not bear them that are evil. And thou hast tried them who say they are apostles and are not: and hast found them liars:

3 And thou hast patience and hast endured for my name and hast not fainted.

4 But I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first charity.

5 Be mindful therefore from whence thou art fallen: and do penance and do the first works. Or else I come to thee and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou do penance.

6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaites, which I also hate.

7 He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: To him that overcometh I will give to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of my God.

8 And to the angel of the church of Smyrna write: These things saith the First and the Last, who was dead and is alive:

9 I know thy tribulation and thy poverty: but thou art rich. And thou art blasphemed by them that say they are Jews and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.

10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil will cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried: and you shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death: and I will give thee the crown of life.

11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: He that shall overcome shall not be hurt by the second death.

12 And to the angel of the church of Pergamus write: These things saith he that hath the sharp two-edged sword:

13 I know where thou dwellest, where the seat of Satan is. And thou holdest fast my name and hast not denied my faith. Even in those days when Antipas was my faithful witness, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth.

14 But I have against thee a few things: because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat and to commit fornication.

15 So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaites.

16 In like manner do penance. If not, I will come to thee quickly and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

17 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches: To him that overcometh I will give the hidden manna and will give him a white counter: and in the counter, a new name written, which no man knoweth but he that receiveth it.

18 And to the angel of the church of Thyatira write: These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like to a flame of fire and his feet like to fine brass.

19 I know thy works and thy faith and thy charity and thy ministry and thy patience and thy last works, which are more than the former.

20 But I have against thee a few things: because thou sufferest the woman Jezabel, who calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants, to commit fornication and to eat of things sacrificed to idols.

21 And I gave her a time that she might do penance: and she will not repent of her fornication.

22 Behold, I will cast her into a bed: and they that commit adultery with her shall be in very great tribulation, except they do penance from their deeds,

23 And I will kill her children with death: and all the churches shall know that I am he that searcheth the reins and hearts. And I will give to every one of you according to your works. But to you I say

24 And to the rest who are at Thyatira: Whosoever have not this doctrine and who have not known the depths of Satan, as they say: I will not put upon you any other burthen.

25 Yet that which you have, hold fast till I come.

26 And he that shall overcome and keep my words unto the end, I will give him power over the nations.

27 And he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and as the vessel of a potter they shall be broken:

28 As I also have received of my Father. And I will give him the morning star.

29 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.