Day 261 of 364

^11:1“When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. ^11:2They called to them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to engraved images. ^11:3Yet I taught Ephraim to walk. I took them by their arms, but they didn’t know that I healed them. ^11:4I drew them with cords of a man, with ties of love; and I was to them like those who lift up the yoke on their necks; and I bent down to him and I fed him. ^11:5“They won’t return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian will be their king, because they refused to repent. ^11:6The sword will fall on their cities, and will destroy the bars of their gates, and will put an end to their plans. ^11:7My people are determined to turn from me. Though they call to the Most High, he certainly won’t exalt them. ^11:8“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused. ^11:9I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God, and not man—the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath. ^11:10They will walk after the LORD, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west. ^11:11They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses,” says the LORD. ^11:12Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from God, and is unfaithful to the Holy One. ^12:1Ephraim feeds on wind, and chases the east wind. He continually multiplies lies and desolation. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried into Egypt. ^12:2The LORD also has a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his deeds he will repay him. ^12:3In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his manhood he contended with God. ^12:4Indeed, he struggled with the angel, and prevailed; he wept, and made supplication to him. He found him at Bethel, and there he spoke with us— ^12:5even the LORD, the God of Armies. The LORD is his name of renown! ^12:6Therefore turn to your God. Keep kindness and justice, and wait continually for your God. ^12:7A merchant has dishonest scales in his hand. He loves to defraud. ^12:8Ephraim said, “Surely I have become rich. I have found myself wealth. In all my wealth they won’t find in me any iniquity that is sin.” ^12:9“But I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt. I will yet again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the solemn feast. ^12:10I have also spoken to the prophets, and I have multiplied visions; and by the ministry of the prophets I have used parables. ^12:11If Gilead is wicked, surely they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls. Indeed, their altars are like heaps in the furrows of the field. ^12:12Jacob fled into the country of Aram. Israel served to get a wife. For a wife he tended flocks and herds. ^12:13By a prophet the LORD brought Israel up out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved. ^12:14Ephraim has bitterly provoked anger. Therefore his blood will be left on him, and his Lord will repay his contempt. ^13:1When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. He exalted himself in Israel, but when he became guilty through Baal, he died. ^13:2Now they sin more and more, and have made themselves molten images of their silver, even idols according to their own understanding, all of them the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, ‘They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves.’ ^13:3Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the dew that passes away early, like the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the threshing floor, and like the smoke out of the chimney. ^13:4“Yet I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; and you shall acknowledge no god but me, and besides me there is no savior. ^13:5I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought. ^13:6According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted. Therefore they have forgotten me. ^13:7Therefore I am like a lion to them. Like a leopard, I will lurk by the path. ^13:8I will meet them like a bear that is bereaved of her cubs, and will tear the covering of their heart. There I will devour them like a lioness. The wild animal will tear them. ^13:9You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your helper. ^13:10Where is your king now, that he may save you in all your cities? And your judges, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes’? ^13:11I have given you a king in my anger, and have taken him away in my wrath. ^13:12The guilt of Ephraim is stored up. His sin is stored up. ^13:13The sorrows of a travailing woman will come on him. He is an unwise son, for when it is time, he doesn’t come to the opening of the womb. ^13:14I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction? “Compassion will be hidden from my eyes. ^13:15Though he is fruitful among his brothers, an east wind will come, the breath of the LORD coming up from the wilderness; and his spring will become dry, and his fountain will be dried up. He will plunder the storehouse of treasure. ^13:16Samaria will bear her guilt, for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open.” ^14:1Israel, return to the LORD your God; for you have fallen because of your sin. ^14:2Take words with you, and return to the LORD. Tell him, “Forgive all our sins, and accept that which is good; so we offer bulls as we vowed of our lips. ^14:3Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘Our gods!’ for in you the fatherless finds mercy.” ^14:4“I will heal their waywardness. I will love them freely; for my anger is turned away from them. ^14:5I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the lily, and send down his roots like Lebanon. ^14:6His branches will spread, and his beauty will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon. ^14:7Men will dwell in his shade. They will revive like the grain, and blossom like the vine. Their fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon. ^14:8Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols? I answer, and will take care of him. I am like a green cypress tree; from me your fruit is found.” ^14:9Who is wise, that he may understand these things? Who is prudent, that he may know them? For the ways of the LORD are right, and the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.

^1:1The LORD’s word that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel. ^1:2Hear this, you elders, and listen, all you inhabitants of the land! Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your fathers? ^1:3Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their children, and their children, another generation. ^1:4What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten. What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten. ^1:5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it is cut off from your mouth. ^1:6For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number. His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness. ^1:7He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white. ^1:8Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth! ^1:9The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from the LORD’s house. The priests, the LORD’s ministers, mourn. ^1:10The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes. ^1:11Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers, for the wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished. ^1:12The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered— the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from the sons of men. ^1:13Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God, for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house. ^1:14Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD, your God, and cry to the LORD. ^1:15Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand, and it will come as destruction from the Almighty. ^1:16Isn’t the food cut off before our eyes, joy and gladness from the house of our God? ^1:17The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered. ^1:18How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed, because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made desolate. ^1:19LORD, I cry to you, for the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field. ^1:20Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks have dried up, and the fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness. ^2:1Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD comes, for it is close at hand: ^2:2A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong people; there has never been the like, neither will there be any more after them, even to the years of many generations. ^2:3A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them. ^2:4Their appearance is as the appearance of horses, and they run as horsemen. ^2:5Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains, they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, like a strong people set in battle array. ^2:6At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale. ^2:7They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors. They each march in his line, and they don’t swerve off course. ^2:8One doesn’t jostle another. They each march in their own path. They burst through the defenses and don’t break ranks. ^2:9They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves. ^2:10The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining. ^2:11The LORD thunders his voice before his army, for his forces are very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of the LORD is great and very awesome, and who can endure it? ^2:12“Yet even now,” says the LORD, “turn to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning.” ^2:13Tear your heart and not your garments, and turn to the LORD, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity. ^2:14Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to the LORD, your God. ^2:15Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. ^2:16Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the elders. Gather the children, and those who nurse from breasts. Let the bridegroom go out of his room, and the bride out of her chamber. ^2:17Let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, “Spare your people, LORD, and don’t give your heritage to reproach, that the nations should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, ‘Where is their God?’” ^2:18Then the LORD was jealous for his land, and had pity on his people. ^2:19The LORD answered his people, “Behold, I will send you grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; and I will no more make you a reproach among the nations. ^2:20But I will remove the northern army far away from you, and will drive it into a barren and desolate land, its front into the eastern sea, and its back into the western sea; and its stench will come up, and its bad smell will rise.” Surely he has done great things. ^2:21Land, don’t be afraid. Be glad and rejoice, for the LORD has done great things. ^2:22Don’t be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree and the vine yield their strength. ^2:23“Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the LORD, your God; for he gives you the early rain in just measure, and he causes the rain to come down for you, the early rain and the latter rain, as before. ^2:24The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will overflow with new wine and oil. ^2:25I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, my great army, which I sent among you. ^2:26You will have plenty to eat and be satisfied, and will praise the name of the LORD, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; and my people will never again be disappointed. ^2:27You will know that I am among Israel, and that I am the LORD, your God, and there is no one else; and my people will never again be disappointed. ^2:28“It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions. ^2:29And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I will pour out my Spirit. ^2:30I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. ^2:31The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. ^2:32It will happen that whoever will call on the LORD’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the LORD has said, and among the remnant, those whom the LORD calls.