To The Word – Day 127

₁The LORD says, “Sound the alarm! Enemies are swooping down on my land like eagles! My people have broken the covenant I made with them and have rebelled against my teaching. ₂Even though they call me their God and claim that they are my people and that they know me, ₃they have rejected what is good. Because of this their enemies will pursue them.

₄“My people chose kings, but they did it on their own. They appointed leaders, but without my approval. They took their silver and gold and made idols — for their own destruction. ₅I hate the gold bull worshipped by the people of the city of Samaria. I am furious with them. How long will it be before they give up their idolatry? ₆An Israelite craftsman made the idol, and it is not a god at all! The gold bull worshipped in Samaria will be smashed to pieces! ₇When they sow the wind, they will reap a storm! A field of corn that doesn't ripen can never produce any bread. But even if it did, foreigners would eat it up. ₈Israel has become like any other nation and is as useless as a broken pot. ₉Stubborn as wild donkeys, the people of Israel go their own way. They have gone off to seek help from Assyria, and have paid other nations to protect them. ₁₀But now I am going to gather them together and punish them. Soon they will writhe in pain, when the emperor of Assyria oppresses them.

₁₁“The more altars the people of Israel build for removing sin, the more places they have for sinning! ₁₂I write down countless teachings for the people, but they reject them as strange and foreign. ₁₃They offer sacrifices to me and eat the meat of the sacrifices. But I, the LORD, am not pleased with them, and now I will remember their sin and punish them for it; I will send them back to Egypt!

₁₄“The people of Israel have built palaces, but they have forgotten their own Maker. The people of Judah have built fortified cities. But I will send fire that will burn down their palaces and their cities.”

₁People of Israel, stop celebrating your festivals like pagans. You have turned away from your God and have been unfaithful to him. All over the land you have sold yourselves like prostitutes to the god Baal and have loved the corn you thought he paid you with! ₂But soon you will not have enough corn and olive oil, and there will be no wine. ₃The people of Israel will not remain in the LORD's land, but will have to go back to Egypt and will have to eat forbidden food in Assyria. ₄In those foreign lands they will not be able to make offerings of wine to the LORD, or bring their sacrifices to him. Their food will defile everyone who eats it, like food eaten at funerals. It will be used only to satisfy their hunger; none of it will be taken as an offering to the LORD's Temple. ₅And when the time comes for the appointed festivals in honour of the LORD, what will they do then? ₆When the disaster comes and the people are scattered, the Egyptians will gather them up — gather them for burial there at Memphis! Their treasures of silver and the places where their homes once stood will be overgrown with weeds and thorn bushes.

₇The time for punishment has come, the time when people will get what they deserve. When that happens, Israel will know it! “This prophet,” you say, “is a fool. This inspired man is insane.” You people hate me so much because your sin is so great. ₈God has sent me as a prophet to warn his people Israel. Yet wherever I go, you try to trap me like a bird. Even in God's Temple the people are the prophet's enemies. ₉They are hopelessly evil in what they do, just as they were at Gibeah. God will remember their sin and punish them for it.

₁₀The LORD says, “When I first found Israel, it was like finding grapes growing in the desert. When I first saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season. But when they came to Mount Peor, they began to worship Baal, and soon became as disgusting as the gods they loved. ₁₁Israel's greatness will fly away like a bird, and there will be no more children born to them, no more women pregnant, no more children conceived. ₁₂But even if they did bring up children, I would take them away and not leave one alive. When I abandon these people, terrible things will happen to them.”

₁₃LORD, I can see their children being hunted down and killed. ₁₄What shall I ask you to do to these people? Make their women barren! Make them unable to nurse their babies!

₁₅The LORD says, “All their evil-doing began in Gilgal. It was there that I began to hate them. And because of the evil they have done, I will drive them out of my land. I will not love them any more; all their leaders have rebelled against me. ₁₆The people of Israel are like a plant whose roots have dried up and which bears no fruit. They will have no children, but even if they did, I would kill the children so dear to them.”

₁₇The God I serve will reject his people, because they have not listened to him. They will become wanderers among the nations.

₃These people will soon be saying, “We have no king because we did not fear the LORD. But what could a king do for us anyway?” ₄They utter empty words and make false promises and useless treaties. Justice has become injustice, growing like poisonous weeds in a ploughed field.

₅The people who live in the city of Samaria will be afraid and will mourn the loss of the gold bull at Bethaven. They and the priests who serve the idol will weep over it. They will wail when it is stripped of its golden splendour. ₆The idol will be carried off to Assyria as tribute to the great emperor. The people of Israel will be disgraced and put to shame because of the advice they followed. ₇Their king will be carried off, like a chip of wood on water. ₈The hilltop shrines of Aven, where the people of Israel worship idols, will be destroyed. Thorns and weeds will grow up over their altars. The people will call out to the mountains, “Hide us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!”

₉The LORD says, “The people of Israel have not stopped sinning against me since the time of their sin at Gibeah. So at Gibeah war will catch up with them. ₁₀I will attack this sinful people and punish them. Nations will join together against them, and they will be punished for their many sins.

₁₁“Israel was once like a well-trained young cow, ready and willing to thresh grain. But I decided to put a yoke on her beautiful neck and to harness her for harder work. I made Judah pull the plough and Israel pull the harrow. ₁₂I said, ‘Plough new ground for yourselves, plant righteousness, and reap the blessings that your devotion to me will produce. It is time for you to turn to me, your LORD, and I will come and pour out blessings upon you.’ ₁₃But instead you planted evil and reaped its harvest. You have eaten the fruit produced by your lies.

“Because you trusted in your chariots and in the large number of your soldiers, ₁₄war will come to your people, and all your fortresses will be destroyed. It will be like the day when King Shalman destroyed the city of Betharbel in battle, and mothers and their children were crushed to death. ₁₅That is what will happen to you, people of Bethel, because of the terrible evil that you have done. As soon as the battle begins, the king of Israel will die.”

₁The LORD says,

₅“They refuse to return to me, and so they must return to Egypt, and Assyria will rule them. ₆War will sweep through their cities and break down the city gates. It will destroy my people because they do what they themselves think best. ₇They insist on turning away from me. They will cry out because of the yoke that is on them, but no one will lift it from them.

₁₀“My people will follow me when I roar like a lion at their enemies. They will hurry to me from the west. ₁₁They will come from Egypt, as swiftly as birds, and from Assyria, like doves. I will bring them to their homes again. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

₁₂The LORD says, “The people of Israel have surrounded me with lies and deceit, and the people of Judah are still rebelling against me, the faithful and holy God.

₂The LORD has an accusation to bring against the people of Judah; he is also going to punish Israel for the way her people act. He will pay them back for what they have done. ₃Their ancestor Jacob struggled with his twin brother Esau while the two of them were still in their mother's womb; when Jacob grew up, he fought against God — ₄he fought against an angel and won. He wept and asked for a blessing. And at Bethel God came to our ancestor Jacob and spoke with him. ₅This was the LORD God Almighty — the LORD is the name by which he is to be worshipped. ₆So now, descendants of Jacob, trust in your God and return to him. Be loyal and just, and wait patiently for your God to act.

₇The LORD says, “The people of Israel are as dishonest as the Canaanites; they love to cheat their customers with false scales. ₈‘We are rich,’ they say. ‘We've made a fortune. And no one can accuse us of getting rich dishonestly.’ ₉But I, the LORD your God who led you out of Egypt, I will make you live in tents again, as you did when I came to you in the desert.

₁₀“I spoke to the prophets and gave them many visions, and through the prophets I gave my people warnings. ₁₁Yet idols are worshipped in Gilead, and those who worship them will die. Bulls are sacrificed in Gilgal, and the altars there will become piles of stone in the open fields.”

₁₂Our ancestor Jacob had to flee to Mesopotamia, where, in order to get a wife, he worked for another man and took care of his sheep. ₁₃The LORD sent a prophet to rescue the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt and to take care of them. ₁₄The people of Israel have made the LORD bitterly angry; they deserve death for their crimes. Their Lord will punish them for the disgrace they have brought on him.

₁In the past, when the tribe of Ephraim spoke, the other tribes of Israel were afraid; they looked up to Ephraim. But the people sinned by worshipping Baal, and for this they will die. ₂They still keep on sinning by making metal images to worship — idols of silver, designed by human minds, made by human hands. And then they say, “Offer sacrifices to them!” How can anyone kiss those idols — idols in the shape of bulls! ₃And so these people will disappear like morning mist, like the dew that vanishes early in the day. They will be like chaff which the wind blows from the threshing place, like smoke from a chimney.

₄The LORD says, “I am the LORD your God, who led you out of Egypt. You have no God but me. I alone am your saviour. ₅I took care of you in a dry, desert land. ₆But when you entered the good land, you became full and satisfied, and then you grew proud and forgot me. ₇So I will attack you like a lion. Like a leopard I will lie in wait along your path. ₈I will attack you like a bear that has lost her cubs, and I will tear you open. Like a lion I will devour you on the spot, and will tear you to pieces like a wild animal.

₉“I will destroy you, people of Israel! Then who can help you? ₁₀You asked for a king and for leaders, but how can they save the nation? ₁₁In my anger I have given you kings, and in my fury I have taken them away.

₁₂“Israel's sin and guilt are on record, and the records are safely stored away. ₁₃Israel has a chance to live, but is too foolish to take it — like a child about to be born, who refuses to come out of the womb. ₁₄I will not save this people from the world of the dead or rescue them from the power of death. Bring on your plagues, death! Bring on your destruction, world of the dead! I will no longer have pity for this people. ₁₅Even though Israel flourishes like weeds, I will send a hot east wind from the desert, and it will dry up their springs and wells. It will take away everything of value. ₁₆Samaria must be punished for rebelling against me. Her people will die in war; babies will be dashed to the ground, and pregnant women will be ripped open.”

₁Return to the LORD your God, people of Israel. Your sin has made you stumble and fall. ₂Return to the LORD, and let this prayer be your offering to him: “Forgive all our sins and accept our prayer, and we will praise you as we have promised. ₃Assyria can never save us, and war horses cannot protect us. We will never again say to our idols that they are our God. O LORD, you show mercy to those who have no one else to turn to.”

₄The LORD says,

₉May those who are wise understand what is written here, and may they take it to heart. The LORD's ways are right, and righteous people live by following them, but sinners stumble and fall because they ignore them.