Hosea 10:11–13

¹⁶For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the Lord will feed them as a lamb in a large place.

⁴¶ Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn.

¹¹Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;

⁵Wherefore the Lord his God delivered him into the hand of the king of Syria; and they smote him, and carried away a great multitude of them captives, and brought them to Damascus. And he was also delivered into the hand of the king of Israel, who smote him with a great slaughter.

⁶¶ For Pekah the son of Remaliah slew in Judah an hundred and twenty thousand in one day, which were all valiant men; because they had forsaken the Lord God of their fathers.

⁷And Zichri, a mighty man of Ephraim, slew Maaseiah the king’s son, and Azrikam the governor of the house, and Elkanah that was next to the king.

⁸And the children of Israel carried away captive of their brethren two hundred thousand, women, sons, and daughters, and took also away much spoil from them, and brought the spoil to Samaria.

⁴I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.

⁵For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.

¹THEN said the Lord unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.

¹REJOICE not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.

²⁴Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?

¹⁸For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple.

³¶ For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

⁴Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your heart, ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

¹⁸And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

⁸Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the Lord have created it.

¹⁸The wicked worketh a deceitful work: but to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward.

⁶¶ Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near:

³Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

¹²Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.

¹³And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

¹⁴And I will be found of you, saith the Lord: and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord; and I will bring you again into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.

³For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:

⁶In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.

⁴Seek the Lord, and his strength: seek his face evermore.

¹⁵Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the Lord God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.

¹GATHER yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired;

²Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the Lord come upon you, before the day of the Lord’s anger come upon you.

³Seek ye the Lord, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the Lord’s anger.

²⁴¶ Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.

⁶Seek the Lord, and ye shall live; lest he break out like fire in the house of Joseph, and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Beth-el.

¹WOE to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the Lord!

⁶I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

⁷So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

⁴¶ For thus saith the Lord unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live:

⁶Therefore turn thou to thy God: keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually.

⁸Seek him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night: that calleth for the waters of the sea, and poureth them out upon the face of the earth: The Lord is his name:

⁷For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.

¹⁸And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

²⁶And I will make them and the places round about my hill a blessing; and I will cause the shower to come down in his season; there shall be showers of blessing.

²⁰Blessed are ye that sow beside all waters, that send forth thither the feet of the ox and the ass.

²³Then shall he give the rain of thy seed, that thou shalt sow the ground withal; and bread of the increase of the earth, and it shall be fat and plenteous: in that day shall thy cattle feed in large pastures.

⁵They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.

⁶He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.

⁶He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass: as showers that water the earth.

⁶And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

⁴¶ In those days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Lord their God.

²¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

⁸Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.

⁷Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

⁸For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

³¹Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.

⁸He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity: and the rod of his anger shall fail.

⁷For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.

²⁰A man’s belly shall be satisfied with the fruit of his mouth; and with the increase of his lips shall he be filled.

²¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.

¹⁰Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them.

¹¹¶ I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.

³They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

¹⁹The lip of truth shall be established for ever: but a lying tongue is but for a moment.

⁵A false witness shall not be unpunished, and he that speaketh lies shall not escape.

¹⁶There is no king saved by the multitude of an host: a mighty man is not delivered by much strength.

⁷Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness.

¹²Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.