Bible in 90 Days Plan

¹The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”

²So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.

³Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.”

⁴For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods.

⁵Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.

¹Hear the word of the LORD, you Israelites, because the LORD has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: “There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.

²There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.

³Because of this the land dries up, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea are swept away.

⁴“But let no one bring a charge, let no one accuse another, for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.

⁵You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you. So I will destroy your mother—

⁶my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.

⁷The more priests there were, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful.

⁸They feed on the sins of my people and relish their wickedness.

⁹And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds.

¹⁰“They will eat but not have enough; they will engage in prostitution but not flourish, because they have deserted the LORD to give themselves

¹¹to prostitution; old wine and new wine take away their understanding.

¹²My people consult a wooden idol, and a diviner’s rod speaks to them. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God.

¹³They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar and terebinth, where the shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

¹⁴“I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes— a people without understanding will come to ruin!

¹⁵“Though you, Israel, commit adultery, do not let Judah become guilty. “Do not go to Gilgal; do not go up to Beth Aven. And do not swear, ‘As surely as the LORD lives!’

¹⁶The Israelites are stubborn, like a stubborn heifer. How then can the LORD pasture them like lambs in a meadow?

¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone!

¹⁸Even when their drinks are gone, they continue their prostitution; their rulers dearly love shameful ways.

¹⁹A whirlwind will sweep them away, and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

¹“Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, you Israelites! Listen, royal house! This judgment is against you: You have been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Tabor.

²The rebels are knee-deep in slaughter. I will discipline all of them.

³I know all about Ephraim; Israel is not hidden from me. Ephraim, you have now turned to prostitution; Israel is corrupt.

⁴“Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the LORD.

⁵Israel’s arrogance testifies against them; the Israelites, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin; Judah also stumbles with them.

⁶When they go with their flocks and herds to seek the LORD, they will not find him; he has withdrawn himself from them.

⁷They are unfaithful to the LORD; they give birth to illegitimate children. When they celebrate their New Moon feasts, he will devour their fields.

⁸“Sound the trumpet in Gibeah, the horn in Ramah. Raise the battle cry in Beth Aven; lead on, Benjamin.

⁹Ephraim will be laid waste on the day of reckoning. Among the tribes of Israel I proclaim what is certain.

¹⁰Judah’s leaders are like those who move boundary stones. I will pour out my wrath on them like a flood of water.

¹¹Ephraim is oppressed, trampled in judgment, intent on pursuing idols.

¹²I am like a moth to Ephraim, like rot to the people of Judah.

¹³“When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his sores, then Ephraim turned to Assyria, and sent to the great king for help. But he is not able to cure you, not able to heal your sores.

¹⁴For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them.

¹⁵Then I will return to my lair until they have borne their guilt and seek my face— in their misery they will earnestly seek me.”

¹“Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds.

²After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence.

³Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”

⁴“What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears.

⁵Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth— then my judgments go forth like the sun.

⁶For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷As at Adam, they have broken the covenant; they were unfaithful to me there.

⁸Gilead is a city of evildoers, stained with footprints of blood.

⁹As marauders lie in ambush for a victim, so do bands of priests; they murder on the road to Shechem, carrying out their wicked schemes.

¹⁰I have seen a horrible thing in Israel: There Ephraim is given to prostitution, Israel is defiled.

¹¹“Also for you, Judah, a harvest is appointed. “Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people,

¹whenever I would heal Israel, the sins of Ephraim are exposed and the crimes of Samaria revealed. They practice deceit, thieves break into houses, bandits rob in the streets;

²but they do not realize that I remember all their evil deeds. Their sins engulf them; they are always before me.

³“They delight the king with their wickedness, the princes with their lies.

⁴They are all adulterers, burning like an oven whose fire the baker need not stir from the kneading of the dough till it rises.

⁵On the day of the festival of our king the princes become inflamed with wine, and he joins hands with the mockers.

⁶Their hearts are like an oven; they approach him with intrigue. Their passion smolders all night; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.

⁷All of them are hot as an oven; they devour their rulers. All their kings fall, and none of them calls on me.

⁸“Ephraim mixes with the nations; Ephraim is a flat loaf not turned over.

⁹Foreigners sap his strength, but he does not realize it. His hair is sprinkled with gray, but he does not notice.

¹⁰Israel’s arrogance testifies against him, but despite all this he does not return to the LORD his God or search for him.

¹¹“Ephraim is like a dove, easily deceived and senseless— now calling to Egypt, now turning to Assyria.

¹²When they go, I will throw my net over them; I will pull them down like the birds in the sky. When I hear them flocking together, I will catch them.

¹³Woe to them, because they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against me! I long to redeem them but they speak about me falsely.

¹⁴They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail on their beds. They slash themselves, appealing to their gods for grain and new wine, but they turn away from me.

¹⁵I trained them and strengthened their arms, but they plot evil against me.

¹⁶They do not turn to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their insolent words. For this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt.

¹“Put the trumpet to your lips! An eagle is over the house of the LORD because the people have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law.

²Israel cries out to me, ‘Our God, we acknowledge you!’

³But Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him.

⁴They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval. With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction.

⁵Samaria, throw out your calf-idol! My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of purity?

⁶They are from Israel! This calf—a metalworker has made it; it is not God. It will be broken in pieces, that calf of Samaria.

⁷“They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no head; it will produce no flour. Were it to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it up.

⁸Israel is swallowed up; now she is among the nations like something no one wants.

⁹For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.

¹⁰Although they have sold themselves among the nations, I will now gather them together. They will begin to waste away under the oppression of the mighty king.

¹¹“Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning.

¹²I wrote for them the many things of my law, but they regarded them as something foreign.

¹³Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to me, and though they eat the meat, the LORD is not pleased with them. Now he will remember their wickedness and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt.

¹⁴Israel has forgotten their Maker and built palaces; Judah has fortified many towns. But I will send fire on their cities that will consume their fortresses.”

¹Do not rejoice, Israel; do not be jubilant like the other nations. For you have been unfaithful to your God; you love the wages of a prostitute at every threshing floor.

²Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people; the new wine will fail them.

³They will not remain in the LORD’s land; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.

⁴They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, nor will their sacrifices please him. Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat them will be unclean. This food will be for themselves; it will not come into the temple of the LORD.

⁵What will you do on the day of your appointed festivals, on the feast days of the LORD?

⁶Even if they escape from destruction, Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them. Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers, and thorns will overrun their tents.

⁷The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired person a maniac.

⁸The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.

⁹They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.

¹⁰“When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree. But when they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved.

¹¹Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird— no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

¹²Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of every one. Woe to them when I turn away from them!

¹³I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place. But Ephraim will bring out their children to the slayer.”

¹⁴Give them, LORD— what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that are dry.

¹⁵“Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.

¹⁶Ephraim is blighted, their root is withered, they yield no fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring.”

¹⁷My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him; they will be wanderers among the nations.

¹Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones.

²Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones.

³Then they will say, “We have no king because we did not revere the LORD. But even if we had a king, what could he do for us?”

⁴They make many promises, take false oaths and make agreements; therefore lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.

⁵The people who live in Samaria fear for the calf-idol of Beth Aven. Its people will mourn over it, and so will its idolatrous priests, those who had rejoiced over its splendor, because it is taken from them into exile.

⁶It will be carried to Assyria as tribute for the great king. Ephraim will be disgraced; Israel will be ashamed of its foreign alliances.

⁷Samaria’s king will be destroyed, swept away like a twig on the surface of the waters.

⁸The high places of wickedness will be destroyed— it is the sin of Israel. Thorns and thistles will grow up and cover their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”

⁹“Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, Israel, and there you have remained. Will not war again overtake the evildoers in Gibeah?

¹⁰When I please, I will punish them; nations will be gathered against them to put them in bonds for their double sin.

¹¹Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh; so I will put a yoke on her fair neck. I will drive Ephraim, Judah must plow, and Jacob must break up the ground.

¹²Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.

¹³But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors,

¹⁴the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be devastated— as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.

¹⁵So will it happen to you, Bethel, because your wickedness is great. When that day dawns, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.

¹“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

²But the more they were called, the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.

³It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them.

⁴I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.

⁵“Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent?

⁶A sword will flash in their cities; it will devour their false prophets and put an end to their plans.

⁷My people are determined to turn from me. Even though they call me God Most High, I will by no means exalt them.

⁸“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.

⁹I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man— the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities.

¹⁰They will follow the LORD; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west.

¹¹They will come from Egypt, trembling like sparrows, from Assyria, fluttering like doves. I will settle them in their homes,” declares the LORD.

¹²Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, Israel with deceit. And Judah is unruly against God, even against the faithful Holy One.

¹Ephraim feeds on the wind; he pursues the east wind all day and multiplies lies and violence. He makes a treaty with Assyria and sends olive oil to Egypt.

²The LORD has a charge to bring against Judah; he will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds.

³In the womb he grasped his brother’s heel; as a man he struggled with God.

⁴He struggled with the angel and overcame him; he wept and begged for his favor. He found him at Bethel and talked with him there—

⁵the LORD God Almighty, the LORD is his name!

⁶But you must return to your God; maintain love and justice, and wait for your God always.

⁷The merchant uses dishonest scales and loves to defraud.

⁸Ephraim boasts, “I am very rich; I have become wealthy. With all my wealth they will not find in me any iniquity or sin.”

⁹“I have been the LORD your God ever since you came out of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, as in the days of your appointed festivals.

¹⁰I spoke to the prophets, gave them many visions and told parables through them.”

¹¹Is Gilead wicked? Its people are worthless! Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Their altars will be like piles of stones on a plowed field.

¹²Jacob fled to the country of Aram; Israel served to get a wife, and to pay for her he tended sheep.

¹³The LORD used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt, by a prophet he cared for him.

¹⁴But Ephraim has aroused his bitter anger; his Lord will leave on him the guilt of his bloodshed and will repay him for his contempt.

¹When Ephraim spoke, people trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.

²Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, “They offer human sacrifices! They kiss calf-idols!”

³Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window.

⁴“But I have been the LORD your God ever since you came out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me.

⁵I cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of burning heat.

⁶When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.

⁷So I will be like a lion to them, like a leopard I will lurk by the path.

⁸Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open; like a lion I will devour them— a wild animal will tear them apart.

⁹“You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your helper.

¹⁰Where is your king, that he may save you? Where are your rulers in all your towns, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes’?

¹¹So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away.

¹²The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, his sins are kept on record.

¹³Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him, but he is a child without wisdom; when the time arrives, he doesn’t have the sense to come out of the womb.

¹⁴“I will deliver this people from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction? “I will have no compassion,

¹⁵even though he thrives among his brothers. An east wind from the LORD will come, blowing in from the desert; his spring will fail and his well dry up. His storehouse will be plundered of all its treasures.

¹⁶The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open.”

¹Return, Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall!

²Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.

³Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount warhorses. We will never again say ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.”

⁴“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.

⁵I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots;

⁶his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.

⁷People will dwell again in his shade; they will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like the vine— Israel’s fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.

⁸Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a flourishing juniper; your fruitfulness comes from me.”

⁹Who is wise? Let them realize these things. Who is discerning? Let them understand. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.

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

²Hear this, you elders; listen, all who live in the land. Has anything like this ever happened in your days or in the days of your ancestors?

³Tell it to your children, and let your children tell it to their children, and their children to the next generation.

⁴What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten.

⁵Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine; wail because of the new wine, for it has been snatched from your lips.

⁶A nation has invaded my land, a mighty army without number; it has the teeth of a lion, the fangs of a lioness.

⁷It has laid waste my vines and ruined my fig trees. It has stripped off their bark and thrown it away, leaving their branches white.

⁸Mourn like a virgin in sackcloth grieving for the betrothed of her youth.

⁹Grain offerings and drink offerings are cut off from the house of the LORD. The priests are in mourning, those who minister before the LORD.

¹⁰The fields are ruined, the ground is dried up; the grain is destroyed, the new wine is dried up, the olive oil fails.

¹¹Despair, you farmers, wail, you vine growers; grieve for the wheat and the barley, because the harvest of the field is destroyed.

¹²The vine is dried up and the fig tree is withered; the pomegranate, the palm and the apple tree— all the trees of the field—are dried up. Surely the people’s joy is withered away.

¹³Put on sackcloth, you priests, and mourn; wail, you who minister before the altar. Come, spend the night in sackcloth, you who minister before my God; for the grain offerings and drink offerings are withheld from the house of your God.

¹⁴Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly. Summon the elders and all who live in the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.

¹⁵Alas for that day! For the day of the LORD is near; it will come like destruction from the Almighty.

¹⁶Has not the food been cut off before our very eyes— joy and gladness from the house of our God?

¹⁷The seeds are shriveled beneath the clods. The storehouses are in ruins, the granaries have been broken down, for the grain has dried up.

¹⁸How the cattle moan! The herds mill about because they have no pasture; even the flocks of sheep are suffering.

¹⁹To you, LORD, I call, for fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness and flames have burned up all the trees of the field.

²⁰Even the wild animals pant for you; the streams of water have dried up and fire has devoured the pastures in the wilderness.