Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹Then the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet is committing adultery, as the LORD loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”

²So I purchased her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and a homer and a lethech of barley.

³Then I said to her, “You shall live with me for many days. You shall not play the prostitute, nor shall you have another man; so I will also be toward you.”

⁴For the sons of Israel will live for many days without a king or leader, without sacrifice or memorial stone, and without ephod or household idols.

⁵Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.

¹Listen to the word of the LORD, you sons of Israel, Because the LORD has a case against the inhabitants of the land, For there is no faithfulness, nor loyalty, Nor knowledge of God in the land.

²There is oath-taking, denial, murder, stealing, and adultery. They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed.

³Therefore the land mourns, And everyone who lives in it languishes Along with the animals of the field and the birds of the sky, And even the fish of the sea disappear.

⁴Yet let no one find fault, and let no one rebuke; For your people are like those who contend with a priest.

⁵So you will stumble by day, And the prophet also will stumble with you by night; And I will destroy your mother.

⁶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Since you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the Law of your God, I also will forget your children.

⁷The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame.

⁸They feed on the sin of My people, And long for their wrongdoing.

⁹And it will be, like people, like priest; So I will punish them for their ways And repay them for their deeds.

¹⁰They will eat, but not have enough; They will play the prostitute, but not increase, Because they gave up devoting themselves to the LORD.

¹¹Infidelity, wine, and new wine take away the understanding.

¹²My people consult their wooden idol, and their diviner’s wand informs them; For a spirit of infidelity has led them astray, And they have been unfaithful, departing from their God.

¹³They offer sacrifices on the tops of the mountains And burn incense on the hills, Under oak, poplar, and terebinth, Because their shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute, And your brides commit adultery.

¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute, Or your brides when they commit adultery, Because the men themselves slip away with the prostitutes And offer sacrifices with temple prostitutes; So the people without understanding are ruined.

¹⁵Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, Judah must not become guilty; Also you are not to go to Gilgal, Nor go up to Beth-aven And take the oath: “As the LORD lives!”

¹⁶Since Israel is stubborn Like a stubborn cow, Will the LORD now pasture them Like a lamb in a large field?

¹⁷Ephraim is allied with idols; Leave him alone.

¹⁸Their liquor is gone, They prostitute themselves continually; Their rulers dearly love shame.

¹⁹The wind wraps them in its wings, And they will be put to shame because of their sacrifices.

¹Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, house of Israel! Listen, you of the house of the king! For the judgment applies to you, Because you have been a trap at Mizpah, And a net spread out on Tabor.

²And the rebels have gone deep in depravity, But I will discipline all of them.

³I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me; Because now, Ephraim, you have been unfaithful, Israel has defiled itself.

⁴Their deeds will not allow them To return to their God. For a spirit of infidelity is within them, And they do not know the LORD.

⁵Moreover, the pride of Israel testifies against him, And Israel and Ephraim stumble in their wrongdoing; Judah also has stumbled with them.

⁶They will go with their flocks and herds To seek the LORD, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn from them.

⁷They have dealt treacherously with the LORD, For they have given birth to illegitimate children. Now the new moon will devour them with their land.

⁸Blow the horn in Gibeah, And the trumpet in Ramah. Sound an alarm at Beth-aven: “Behind you, Benjamin!”

⁹Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke; Among the tribes of Israel I make known what is trustworthy.

¹⁰The leaders of Judah have become like those who displace a boundary marker; On them I will pour out My anger like water.

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed, broken by judgment, Because he was determined to follow man’s command.

¹²Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim, And like rottenness to the house of Judah.

¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah his sore, Ephraim then went to Assyria And sent word to King Jareb. But he is unable to heal you, Or to cure you of your sore.

¹⁴For I will be like a lion to Ephraim And like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, yes I, will tear to pieces and go away, I will carry away, and there will be no one to rescue.

¹⁵I will go away and return to My place Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; In their distress they will search for Me.

¹“Come, let’s return to the LORD. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.

²He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him.

³So let’s learn, let’s press on to know the LORD. His appearance is as sure as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, As the spring rain waters the earth.”

⁴What shall I do with you, Ephraim? What shall I do with you, Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning cloud, And like the dew which goes away early.

⁵Therefore I have cut them in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; And the judgments on you are like the light that shines.

⁶For I desire loyalty rather than sacrifice, And the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷But like Adam they have violated the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously with Me.

⁸Gilead is a city of wrongdoers, Tracked with bloody footprints.

⁹And as a band of robbers lie in wait for a person, So a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem; Certainly they have committed an act of infamy.

¹⁰In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim’s infidelity is there, Israel has defiled itself.

¹¹Also, Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you, When I restore the fortunes of My people.

¹When I would heal Israel, The wrongdoing of Ephraim is uncovered, And the evil deeds of Samaria, For they practice deception; The thief enters, A band of robbers attack outside,

²And they do not consider in their hearts That I remember all their wickedness. Now their deeds surround them; They are before My face.

³With their wickedness they make the king happy, And the officials with their lies.

⁴They are all adulterers, Like an oven heated by the baker, Who stops stoking the fire From the time the dough is kneaded until it is leavened.

⁵On the day of our king, the officials became sick with the heat of wine; He stretched out his hand with scoffers,

⁶For their hearts are like an oven As they approach their plotting; Their anger smolders all night, In the morning it burns like flaming fire.

⁷All of them are hot like an oven, And they consume their rulers; All their kings have fallen. None of them calls on Me.

⁸Ephraim is himself thrown about with the nations; Ephraim has become a round loaf not turned over.

⁹Strangers devour his strength, Yet he does not know it; Gray hairs also are sprinkled on him, Yet he does not know it.

¹⁰Though the pride of Israel testifies against him, Yet they have not returned to the LORD their God, Nor have they sought Him, despite all this.

¹¹So Ephraim has become like a gullible dove, without sense; They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

¹²When they go, I will spread My net over them; I will bring them down like the birds of the sky. I will discipline them in accordance with the proclamation to their assembly.

¹³Woe to them, for they have strayed from Me! Destruction is theirs, for they have rebelled against Me! I would redeem them, but they have spoken lies against Me.

¹⁴And they do not cry to Me from their heart When they wail on their beds; For the sake of grain and new wine they assemble themselves, They turn against Me.

¹⁵Although I trained and strengthened their arms, Yet they devise evil against Me.

¹⁶They turn, but not upward, They are like a loose bow; Their officials will fall by the sword Because of the insolence of their tongue. This will be their derision in the land of Egypt.

¹Put the trumpet to your lips! Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the LORD, Because they have violated My covenant And rebelled against My Law.

²They cry out to Me, “My God, we of Israel know You!”

³Israel has rejected the good; The enemy will pursue him.

⁴They have set up kings, but not by Me; They have appointed officials, but I did not know it. With their silver and gold they have made idols for themselves, So that they will be eliminated.

⁵He has rejected your calf, Samaria, saying, “My anger burns against them!” How long will they be incapable of innocence?

⁶For from Israel comes even this! A craftsman made it, so it is not God; Assuredly, the calf of Samaria will be broken to pieces.

⁷For they sow wind And they harvest a storm. The standing grain has no kernels; It yields no grain. If it were to yield, strangers would swallow it.

⁸Israel has been swallowed up; They are now among the nations Like a vessel in which no one delights.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria, Like a wild donkey all alone; Ephraim has paid fees for lovers.

¹⁰Even though they pay for allies among the nations, I will gather them up now; And they will begin to diminish Because of the burden of the king of officials.

¹¹Since Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin, They have become altars of sinning for him.

¹²Though I wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My Law, They are regarded as a strange thing.

¹³As for My sacrificial gifts, They sacrifice the flesh and eat it, But the LORD has taken no delight in them. Now He will remember their guilt, And punish them for their sins; They will return to Egypt.

¹⁴For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; And Judah has multiplied fortified cities, But I will send a fire on its cities, and it will consume its palatial buildings.

¹Do not rejoice, Israel, with jubilation like the nations! For you have been unfaithful, abandoning your God. You have loved the earnings of unfaithfulness on every threshing floor.

²Threshing floor and wine press will not feed them, And the new wine will fail them.

³They will not remain in the LORD’S land, But Ephraim will return to Egypt, And in Assyria they will eat unclean food.

⁴They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the LORD, Nor will their sacrifices please Him. Their bread will be to them like mourners’ bread; All who eat it will be defiled, Because their bread will be for themselves alone; It will not enter the house of the LORD.

⁵What will you do on the day of the appointed festival And on the day of the feast of the LORD?

⁶For behold, they will be gone because of destruction; Egypt will gather them together, Memphis will bury them. Weeds will take possession of their treasures of silver; Thorns will be in their tents.

⁷The days of punishment have come, The days of retribution have come; Let Israel know this! The prophet is a fool, The inspired person is insane, Because of the grossness of your wrongdoing, And because your hostility is so great.

⁸Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet; Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways, And there is only hostility in the house of his God.

⁹They are deeply depraved As in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt, He will punish their sins.

¹⁰I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season. But they came to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to shame, And they became as detestable as that which they loved.

¹¹As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird— No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!

¹²Though they bring up their children, Yet I will bereave them of their children until not a person is left. Yes, woe to them indeed when I depart from them!

¹³Ephraim, as I have seen, Is planted in a pasture like Tyre; But Ephraim is going to bring out his children for slaughter.

¹⁴Give to them, LORD—what will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dried-up breasts.

¹⁵All their evil is at Gilgal; Indeed, I came to hate them there! Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of My house! I will no longer love them; All their leaders are rebels.

¹⁶Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up, They will produce no fruit. Even though they give birth to children, I will put to death the precious ones of their womb.

¹⁷My God will reject them Because they have not listened to Him; And they will be wanderers among the nations.

¹Israel is a luxuriant vine; He produces fruit for himself. The more his fruit, The more altars he made; The richer his land, The better he made the memorial stones.

²Their heart is deceitful; Now they must suffer for their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars And destroy their memorial stones.

³Certainly now they will say, “We have no king, For we do not revere the LORD. As for the king, what can he do for us?”

⁴They speak mere words, With worthless oaths they make covenants; And judgment sprouts like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field.

⁵The inhabitants of Samaria will fear For the calf of Beth-aven. Indeed, its people will mourn for it, And its idolatrous priests will cry out over it, Over its glory, since it has left it.

⁶The thing itself will be brought to Assyria As a gift of tribute to King Jareb; Ephraim will be seized with shame, And Israel will be ashamed of its own plan.

⁷Samaria will be destroyed with her king, Like a twig on the surface of the water.

⁸Also the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed; Thorns and thistles will grow on their altars; Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” And to the hills, “Fall on us!”

⁹Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, Israel; There they stand! Will the battle against the sons of injustice not overtake them in Gibeah?

¹⁰When it is My desire, I will discipline them; And the peoples will be gathered against them When they are bound for their double guilt.

¹¹Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh, And I passed over her lovely neck; I will harness Ephraim, Judah will plow, Jacob will harrow for himself.

¹²Sow for yourselves, with a view to righteousness; Harvest in accordance with kindness. Break up your uncultivated ground, For it is time to seek the LORD Until He comes and rains righteousness on you.

¹³You have plowed wickedness, you have harvested injustice, You have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your way, in your many warriors,

¹⁴An uproar will arise among your people, And all your fortresses will be destroyed, As Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle, When mothers were slaughtered with their children.

¹⁵So it will be done to you at Bethel because of your great wickedness. At dawn the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.

¹When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.

²The more they called them, The more they went away from them; They kept sacrificing to the Baals And burning incense to idols.

³Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; But they did not know that I healed them.

⁴I pulled them along with cords of a man, with ropes of love, And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; And I bent down and fed them.

⁵They will not return to the land of Egypt; But Assyria—he will be their king Because they refused to return to Me.

⁶And the sword will whirl against their cities, And will destroy their oracle priests And consume them, because of their counsels.

⁷So My people are determined to turn from Me. Though they call them to the One on high, None at all exalts Him.

⁸How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I surrender you, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned over within Me, All My compassions are kindled.

⁹I will not carry out My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, And I will not come in wrath.

¹⁰They will walk after the LORD, He will roar like a lion; Indeed He will roar, And His sons will come trembling from the west.

¹¹They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, And like doves from the land of Assyria; And I will settle them in their houses, declares the LORD.

¹²Ephraim surrounds Me with lies And the house of Israel with deceit; Judah is still unruly against God, Even against the Holy One who is faithful.

¹Ephraim feeds on wind, And pursues the east wind continually; He multiplies lies and violence. Moreover, he makes a covenant with Assyria, And oil is brought to Egypt.

²The LORD also has a case against Judah, And will punish Jacob according to his ways; He will repay him according to his deeds.

³In the womb he took his brother by the heel, And in his mature strength he contended with God.

⁴Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed; He wept and implored His favor. He found Him at Bethel, And there He spoke with us,

⁵And the LORD, the God of armies, The LORD is His name.

⁶So as for you, return to your God, Maintain kindness and justice, And wait for your God continually.

⁷A merchant, in whose hands are fraudulent balances, Loves to exploit.

⁸And Ephraim said, “I have certainly become rich, I have found wealth for myself; In all my labors they will find in me No wrongdoing, which would be sin.”

⁹But I have been the LORD your God since the land of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, As in the days of the appointed festival.

¹⁰I have also spoken to the prophets, And I provided many visions, And through the prophets I spoke in parables.

¹¹Is there injustice in Gilead? Certainly they are worthless. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls, Yes, their altars are like stone heaps Beside the furrows of a field.

¹²Now Jacob fled to the land of Aram, And Israel worked for a wife, And for a wife he kept sheep.

¹³But by a prophet the LORD brought Israel up from Egypt, And by a prophet he was protected.

¹⁴Ephraim has provoked God to bitter anger; So his Lord will leave his guilt for bloodshed on him And bring his disgrace back to him.

¹When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. He exalted himself in Israel, But through Baal he incurred guilt and died.

²And now they sin more and more, And make for themselves cast metal images, Idols skillfully made from their silver, All of them the work of craftsmen. They say of them, “Let the people who sacrifice kiss the calves!”

³Therefore they will be like the morning cloud And like dew which soon disappears, Like chaff which is blown away from the threshing floor, And like smoke from a chimney.

⁴Yet I have been the LORD your God Since the land of Egypt; And you were not to know any god except Me, For there is no savior besides Me.

⁵I cared for you in the wilderness, In the land of drought.

⁶As they had their pasture, they became satisfied, And as they became satisfied, their heart became proud; Therefore they forgot Me.

⁷So I will be like a lion to them; Like a leopard I will lie in wait by the wayside.

⁸I will confront them like a bear deprived of her cubs, And I will tear open their chests; I will also devour them there like a lioness, As a wild animal would tear them to pieces.

⁹It is to your own destruction, Israel, That you are against Me, against your help.

¹⁰Where then is your king, That he might save you in all your cities; And your judges, to whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”?

¹¹I gave you a king in My anger, And took him away in My wrath.

¹²The guilt of Ephraim is wrapped up; His sin is stored up.

¹³The pains of childbirth come on him; He is not a wise son, For it is not the time that he should delay at the opening of the womb.

¹⁴Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death? Death, where are your thorns? Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight.

¹⁵Though he flourishes among the reeds, An east wind will come, The wind of the LORD coming up from the wilderness; And his fountain will become dry And his spring will dry up; It will plunder his treasury of every precious article.

¹⁶Samaria will pay the penalty for her guilt, Because she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword, Their children will be slaughtered, And their pregnant women will be ripped open.

¹Return, Israel, to the LORD your God, For you have stumbled because of your wrongdoing.

²Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to Him, “Take away all guilt And receive us graciously, So that we may present the fruit of our lips.

³Assyria will not save us, We will not ride on horses; Nor will we say again, ‘Our god’ To the work of our hands; For in You the orphan finds mercy.”

⁴I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, Because My anger has turned away from them.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel; He will blossom like the lily, And he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

⁶His shoots will sprout, His majesty will be like the olive tree, And his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.

⁷Those who live in his shadow Will again raise grain, And they will blossom like the vine. His fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.

⁸Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like a luxuriant juniper; From Me comes your fruit.

⁹Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; Whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right, And the righteous will walk in them, But wrongdoers will stumble in them.

¹The word of the LORD that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel:

²Hear this, you elders, And listen, all inhabitants of the land. Has anything like this happened in your days, Or in your fathers’ days?

³Tell your sons about it, And have your sons tell their sons, And their sons the next generation.

⁴What the gnawing locust has left, the swarming locust has eaten; And what the swarming locust has left, the creeping locust has eaten; And what the creeping locust has left, the stripping locust has eaten.

⁵Awake, you heavy drinkers, and weep; And wail, all you wine drinkers, Because of the sweet wine, For it has been eliminated from your mouth.

⁶For a nation has invaded my land, Mighty and without number; Its teeth are the teeth of a lion, And it has the jaws of a lioness.

⁷It has made my vine a waste And my fig tree a stump. It has stripped them bare and hurled them away; Their branches have become white.

⁸Wail like a virgin clothed with sackcloth For the groom of her youth.

⁹The grain offering and the drink offering have been cut off From the house of the LORD. The priests mourn, The ministers of the LORD.

¹⁰The field is ruined, The land mourns; For the grain is ruined, The new wine has dried up, Fresh oil has failed.

¹¹Be ashamed, you farm workers, Wail, you vinedressers, For the wheat and the barley; Because the harvest of the field is destroyed.

¹²The vine has dried up And the fig tree has withered; The pomegranate, the palm also, and the apple tree, All the trees of the field have dried up. Indeed, joy has dried up From the sons of mankind.

¹³Put on sackcloth And mourn, you priests; Wail, you ministers of the altar! Come, spend the night in sackcloth, You ministers of my God, For the grain offering and the drink offering Have been withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴Consecrate a fast, Proclaim a solemn assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land To the house of the LORD your God, And cry out to the LORD.

¹⁵Woe for the day! For the day of the LORD is near, And it will come as destruction from the Almighty.

¹⁶Has food not been cut off before our eyes, and Joy and rejoicing from the house of our God?

¹⁷The seeds have dried up under their shovels; The storehouses have become desolate, The grain silos are ruined, Because the grain has dried up.

¹⁸How the animals have groaned! The herds of cattle have wandered aimlessly Because there is no pasture for them; Even the flocks of sheep have suffered.

¹⁹To You, LORD, I cry out; For fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness, And the flame has burned up all the trees of the field.

²⁰Even the animals of the field pant for You; For the stream beds of water are dried up, And fire has devoured the pastures of the wilderness.