Book of Hosea

They list not to him, and they shall be wanderers in nations.

The End of Chapters 6-9 of the Book of Hosea chapter x a luxurious vine israel poured out his fruit as his fruits were increased so his altars increased as his country excelled so his idols excelled double-hearted they now are condemned he will throw down their altars their pillars destroy for now they exclaim there is no king for us for we fear not the lord and what can a king do they make to betray when they ratify bonds so justice springs up like a weed on a furrow and shomaron's mob grieve for beth-aven's calf its people faint for it its priests for it roll on account of its glory now taken away to the proud king of ashur it went as a gift blush ephraim blush israel because of your thoughts for shomeron's king floats a chip on a stream aven's columns are wrecked they were israel's sin on their altars the thorns and the thistles will grow and they cry hide us mountains and hills on us fall from gibeah's days you o israel sinned there they stood should not war seize on the children of sin in gibeah when i wish i will punish and bring on them nations to punish them both for their sin for ephraim was a heifer delighting to thrash but i put a rider on ephraim's fair neck and she now ploughs for judah and harrows for jacob sow for yourselves and then reap perfect mercy plough your fallows in season to seek for the lord until he may come and instruct you aright you have ploughed for revolt you have reaped only sin and you ate falsehood's fruit for you trusted your course on your number of men but a riot shall rise in your people and forts and be plundered as shalmon and plundered beth-arbel when mother and children were slaughtered in fight thus because of your crime shall be done you in beth-el and israel's king be destroyed in a morning chapter eleven When Israel was young, I loved him, and I called my son out of Mitzer.

They called them, so they ran off to offer to Balim and incense to idols.

Although I gave Ephraim a leader who lifted him up in his arms, they would not perceive that I helped them.

He makes a treaty with Ashur, and his oil is poured out to Mitsrayim.

but the lord has a case against judah and will visit his ways upon jacob he will pay him for what he has done in the belly he tripped up his brother and in his strength strove with an angel he strove with the angel and won wept and prayed when he met him in beth-al and so he will speak to ourselves there for he was the lord god of hosts the lord who remembers so you now return to your god by the practice of justice and mercy and always rely on your god a traitor false balance in hand he always desires to be cheating and ephraim says yes i am rich i have found by my industry plenty i earned it and nothing is found about me that i perceive sinful but i am jehovah your god until now from the country of mitzer and will send you to wander in tents as i did in old times that are ancient for i have declared by my preachers and i have revealed it by visions and by the means of the prophets foretold for gilad is guilty and infamy rests upon gilgal they sacrifice bullocks on altars like clods in a plough-field once jacob fled to the wild plain of aram and israel slaved for a wife and wearily watched in his sorrow and the lord israel led by a preacher and by a prophet he guarded from mitser yet now ephraim is bitterly vexed for he is all spattered with bloodshed so his judge will fix infamy on him chapter thirteen when ephraim had spoken they trembled he was so high placed in israel but he died for his guilt about baal yet still they continue to sin and make themselves idols of fanciful silver made forms ideas put in shape by a blacksmith all who sacrifice men to the calves they order to kiss them so they shall be like the clouds at the dawn and like morning dew they shall vanish like chaff a storm sweeps from a barn and smoke that comes out from a chimney but i am the jehovah your god who brought from the country of mtzer you should know no god except me and except me there can be no saviour i acknowledged you when in the desert in the land that possesses no water there they were full pastured and gorged but their heart then rebelled and forgot me so i am a lion a leopard to them on the journey to ashur i will seize like a fierce raging bear who tears when bereaved of her young ones and rip up the cage of their heart the wild beasts of the field shall devour them israel you are a wreck and it is only i that can help you where now is your king let him come and help you in all of your cities and your judges against whom you said give me a king and his princes in my anger i gave you a king but i took him away in my fury ephraim's sin is packed up he hoards up his faults as his treasure to him came the troubles of childbirth to him as lad without sense not expecting the birth of his children shall i free from the hand of the grave or shall i redeem you from death where are your terrors o death and where now o grave your destruction Pity is hid from my eyesight, though he flourish in beautiful meads, an easterly wind shall arrive, a wind of the Lord from the desert, and his spring shall be dry, and his fountain shall fail, and his store shall be robbed of all beautiful products.

Chapter 14 and shomeron shall be repaid because it rebelled against god her children shall fall by the sword and her pregnant be crushed and be ripped up to your living god israel return for by your own sins you have fallen choose your words and return to the lord say removing our errors have mercy for we offer the fruit of our lips for ashur shall not be our saviour and on horses no more will we ride no more will we call those our gods that we ourselves made by our hands only you for the orphaned have pity i will nurse those returning and love for my anger has vanished from them and to israel i will be like the dew and he like the lily shall bloom and like lebanon send out his roots like a bright olive spread out his boughs and lebanon's fragrance be his and those passing shall rest in his shade he shall live like the corn and spread out like the vine with a scent such as lebanon's wine what ephraim to me were your idols i depressed you but now will endow i am like to a flourishing pine-tree your fruit shall be found upon me who is wise and can comprehend these will reflect and endeavour to learn that the paths of the lord are direct and in them the righteous can travel but the wicked will stumble on them The End of the Book of Hosea.

the message of the lord that came to joel ben pehuel you elders come listen to this and attend all who dwell in the land has this ever been in your lifetime or occurred in the days of your fathers about it relate to your children and let your sons tell it to their sons and they to the sons who succeed them what the grub left now the locust has eaten and the liquor devours what the locust had left and the orts of the liquor the swarmer consumes awake drunkard and weep howl you drinkers of wine for the sweet drink is cut from your mouths for a powerful people comes up to my land who cannot be numbered and with lion-like teeth and jaws like a tiger are theirs they have wasted my vine and have shattered my fig and have stripped and exposed to the whiteness its twigs i weep like a girl who is clothed with a sack for the loss of the love of her youth the gift and the wine from the lord's house is gone the priests perish who wait on the lord the field grieves the ground mourns for the corn is destroyed the wine bunches dry and the olive-tree pines faint ploughmen and vine-dressers wail for the barley and wheat harvest dies from the field the vine is scorched up and the fig-tree droops down and the riman the palm and the plum with all trees of the field are dried up and pleasure is burnt from the children of men come gird you and mourn all you priests let who serve at the altar bewail go lie down in sackcloth you servants of god from god's house is withheld bread and wine proclaim fasts preach restraint let the elders collect all who dwell in the land at the house of the lord and cry to your god to the lord alas for the day of the lord has come near and from the almighty destruction has come are not our victuals cut off in our sight and laughter and joy from the house of our god the seeding is withered pants under the clods the grain stores are ruins the corn has decayed how the cattle are groaning the flocks in the

We are starting today the book of Hosea.

We're going to have to give a little bit of background on the 12 prophets, the 3 Asar that we are beginning today.

Hosea is the first of the 3 Asar, but before we do that...

And then there's always something new coming.

So it's not like we don't get into the long period of just similar Nivuot one after another.

Now, to the book of Hosea.

Hosea was in the time of Uzziah.

That's exactly...

And here, as we move into the minor prophets, this is Amos, and there are a number of them during the 8th century.

That's Amos and Micah, Hosea.

and the like, these prophets begin to prophesy into the divided kingdom.

You'll remember that the divided kingdom pushed ten of the tribes north and two of the tribes south.

We think of them as like God's voice of wrath against his people or the voice of judgment against his people.

And certainly the prophets hold an element of what God will do if their people don't turn from their wicked ways.

But the primary function of the prophets, particularly Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, is to be instruments of grace, not judgment.

God raises up these individuals to speak truth to power.

All right.

We also go over to, is it, how is mix it up? Is it Amos or Hosea? And it says that God says, you have set up kings, but not by me.

You have established princes, and I knew it not.

Meaning that not all rulers are set up by God.

Who's speaking? God, through Amos.

He also, by the way, speaks through Hosea, chapter 5, verse 15, where God says, I will return, which means he must have left it.

I will return until they acknowledge their offense.

In their affliction, they will seek me earnestly.