Bible Reading December 12 (World English Bible)
Hosea
1-4
Hos
1:1 The word of Yahweh that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the
days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in
the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
Hos
1:2 When Yahweh spoke at first by Hosea, Yahweh said to Hosea, "Go,
take for yourself a wife of prostitution and children of
unfaithfulness; for the land commits great adultery, forsaking
Yahweh."
Hos
1:3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she
conceived, and bore him a son.
Hos
1:4 Yahweh said to him, "Call his name Jezreel; for yet a
little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of
Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease.
Hos
1:5 It will happen in that day that I will break the bow of Israel
in the valley of Jezreel."
Hos
1:6 She conceived again, and bore a daughter. Then he said to him,
"Call her name Lo-Ruhamah; for I will no longer have mercy on
the house of Israel, that I should in any way pardon them.
Hos
1:7 But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them
by Yahweh their God, and will not save them by bow, sword, battle,
horses, or horsemen."
Hos
1:8 Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived, and bore a
son.
Hos
1:9 He said, "Call his name Lo-Amm; for you are not my people,
and I will not be yours.
Hos
1:10 Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of
the sea, which can't be measured nor numbered; and it will come to
pass that, in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my
people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.'
Hos
1:11 The children of Judah and the children of Israel will be
gathered together, and they will appoint themselves one head, and
will go up from the land; for great will be the day of Jezreel.
Hos
2:1 "Say to your brothers, 'My people!' and to your sisters,
'My loved one!'
Hos
2:2 Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife,
neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from
her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
Hos
2:3 Lest I strip her naked, and make her bare as in the day that she
was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry
land, and kill her with thirst.
Hos
2:4 Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy; for they are
children of unfaithfulness;
Hos
2:5 For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived
them has done shamefully; for she said, 'I will go after my lovers,
who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my
drink.'
Hos
2:6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I
will build a wall against her, that she can't find her way.
Hos
2:7 She will follow after her lovers, but she won't overtake them;
and she will seek them, but won't find them. Then she will say, 'I
will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with
me than now.'
Hos
2:8 For she did not know that I gave her the grain, the new wine,
and the oil, and multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used
for Baal.
Hos
2:9 Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my new wine
in its season, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should
have covered her nakedness.
Hos
2:10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and
no one will deliver her out of my hand.
Hos
2:11 I will also cause all her celebrations to cease: her feasts,
her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.
Hos
2:12 I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, about which she
has said, 'These are my wages that my lovers have given me; and I
will make them a forest,' and the animals of the field shall eat
them.
Hos
2:13 I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned
incense, when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels,
and went after her lovers, and forgot me," says Yahweh.
Hos
2:14 "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into
the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.
Hos
2:15 I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor
for a door of hope; and she will respond there, as in the days of her
youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
Hos
2:16 It will be in that day," says Yahweh, "that you will
call me 'my husband,' and no longer call me 'my master.'
Hos
2:17 For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth,
and they will no longer be mentioned by name.
Hos
2:18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of
the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping
things of the ground. I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle
out of the land, and will make them lie down safely.
Hos
2:19 I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me
in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion.
Hos
2:20 I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall
know Yahweh.
Hos
2:21 It will happen in that day, I will respond," says Yahweh,
"I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the
earth;
Hos
2:22 and the earth will respond to the grain, and the new wine, and
the oil; and they will respond to Jezreel.
Hos
2:23 I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her
who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my
people, 'You are my people;' and they will say, 'My God!' "
Hos
3:1 Yahweh said to me, "Go again, love a woman loved by
another, and an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the children of
Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins."
Hos
3:2 So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a
homer and a half of barley.
Hos
3:3 I said to her, "You shall stay with me many days. You shall
not play the prostitute, and you shall not be with any other man. I
will also be so toward you."
Hos
3:4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king,
and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone,
and without ephod or idols.
Hos
3:5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek Yahweh
their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to
Yahweh and to his blessings in the last days.
Hos
4:1 Hear the word of Yahweh, you children of Israel; for Yahweh has
a charge against the inhabitants of the land: "Indeed there is
no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.
Hos
4:2 There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing
adultery; they break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed.
Hos
4:3 Therefore the land will mourn, and everyone who dwells therein
will waste away. all living things in her, even the animals of the
field and the birds of the sky; yes, the fish of the sea also die.
Hos
4:4 "Yet let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse;
For your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.
Hos
4:5 You will stumble in the day, and the prophet will also stumble
with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother.
Hos
4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have
rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest
to me. Because you have forgotten your God's law, I will also forget
your children.
Hos
4:7 As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me. I will
change their glory into shame.
Hos
4:8 They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their
iniquity.
Hos
4:9 It will be, like people, like priest; and I will punish them for
their ways, and will repay them for their deeds.
Hos
4:10 They will eat, and not have enough. They will play the
prostitute, and will not increase; because they have abandoned giving
to Yahweh.
Hos
4:11 Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.
Hos
4:12 My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick
of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and
they have been unfaithful to their God.
Hos
4:13 They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense
on the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because its
shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute, and your
brides commit adultery.
Hos
4:14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute,
nor your brides when they commit adultery; because the men consort
with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with the shrine prostitutes; so
the people without understanding will come to ruin.
Hos
4:15 "Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet don't let
Judah offend; and don't come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth Aven,
nor swear, 'As Yahweh lives.'
Hos
4:16 For Israel has behaved extremely stubbornly, like a stubborn
heifer. Then how will Yahweh feed them like a lamb in a meadow.
Hos
4:17 Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone!
Hos
4:18 Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute
continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.
Hos
4:19 The wind has wrapped her up in its wings; and they shall be
disappointed because of their sacrifices.
1 John 2
1Jn 2:1
My little children, I write these things to you so that you may not
sin. If anyone sins, we have a Counselor with the Father, Jesus
Christ, the righteous.
1Jn 2:2
And he is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not for ours only,
but also for the whole world.
1Jn 2:3
This is how we know that we know him: if we keep his commandments.
1Jn 2:4
One who says, "I know him," and doesn't keep his
commandments, is a liar, and the truth isn't in him.
1Jn 2:5
But whoever keeps his word, God's love has most certainly been
perfected in him. This is how we know that we are in him:
1Jn 2:6
he who says he remains in him ought himself also to walk just like he
walked.
1Jn 2:7
Brothers, I write no new commandment to you, but an old commandment
which you had from the beginning. The old commandment is the word
which you heard from the beginning.
1Jn 2:8
Again, I write a new commandment to you, which is true in him and in
you; because the darkness is passing away, and the true light already
shines.
1Jn 2:9
He who says he is in the light and hates his brother, is in the
darkness even until now.
1Jn 2:10
He who loves his brother remains in the light, and there is no
occasion for stumbling in him.
1Jn 2:11
But he who hates his brother is in the darkness, and walks in the
darkness, and doesn't know where he is going, because the darkness
has blinded his eyes.
1Jn 2:12
I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you
for his name's sake.
1Jn 2:13
I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the
beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the
evil one. I write to you, little children, because you know the
Father.
1Jn 2:14
I have written to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the
beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong,
and the word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the evil
one.
1Jn 2:15
Don't love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If
anyone loves the world, the Father's love isn't in him.
1Jn 2:16
For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life, isn't the Father's, but is the world's.
1Jn 2:17
The world is passing away with its lusts, but he who does God's will
remains forever.
1Jn 2:18
Little children, these are the end times, and as you heard that the
Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have arisen. By this
we know that it is the final hour.
1Jn 2:19
They went out from us, but they didn't belong to us; for if they had
belonged to us, they would have continued with us. But they left,
that they might be revealed that none of them belong to us.
1Jn 2:20
You have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all have knowledge.
1Jn 2:21
I have not written to you because you don't know the truth, but
because you know it, and because no lie is of the truth.
1Jn 2:22
Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is
the Antichrist, he who denies the Father and the Son.
1Jn 2:23
Whoever denies the Son, the same doesn't have the Father. He who
confesses the Son has the Father also.
1Jn 2:24
Therefore, as for you, let that remain in you which you heard from
the beginning. If that which you heard from the beginning remains in
you, you also will remain in the Son, and in the Father.
1Jn 2:25
This is the promise which he promised us, the eternal life.
1Jn 2:26
These things I have written to you concerning those who would lead
you astray.
1Jn 2:27
As for you, the anointing which you received from him remains in you,
and you don't need for anyone to teach you. But as his anointing
teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is no lie, and
even as it taught you, you will remain in him.
1Jn 2:28
Now, little children, remain in him, that when he appears, we may
have boldness, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.
1Jn 2:29
If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who
practices righteousness is born of him.
influx of those who do not share the Christian worldview (i.e.,
Muslims), and the clamor of the “politically correct” crowd to allow
open homosexuality, instigating further deterioration of moral
standards. Indeed, society at large is undergoing the same dilution. In
stark contrast, the Founders of America were insistent on the critical
role played by Christianity in the founding of the Republic. For
example, issuing General Orders from Headquarters, New York, July 9,
1776, General George Washington emphasized to the Continental Army the
critical importance of living as Christians during the period of seeking
national independence:
ty”
would be called into question. Sadly, more often than not,
evolutionists choose to “toe the party line” and come up with other
explanations, regardless of their improbability.