Selections from Hosea 4 – 6
4:1 – Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel,
for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,
and no knowledge of God in the land;
[2] there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;
they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
[7] The more they increased,
the more they sinned against me;
I will change their glory into shame.
[8] They feed on the sin of my people;
they are greedy for their iniquity.
[9] And it shall be like people, like priest;
I will punish them for their ways
and repay them for their deeds.
[10] They shall eat, but not be satisfied;
they shall play the whore, but not multiply,
because they have forsaken the LORD
to cherish [11] whoredom, wine, and new wine,
which take away the understanding.
5:3 – I know Ephraim,
and Israel is not hidden from me;
for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore;
Israel is defiled.
[4] Their deeds do not permit them
to return to their God.
For the spirit of whoredom is within them,
and they know not the LORD.
[15] I will return again to my place,
until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,
and in their distress earnestly seek me.
Hosea 6:1–3
6:1 – “Come, let us return to the LORD;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
[2] After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.
[3] Let us know; let us press on to know the LORD;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.”
