Day 347 reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 26:1–8

¹Like snow in summer and rain at harvest, honor does not befit a fool. ²Like a fluttering sparrow or darting swallow, an undeserved curse does not come to rest. ³A whip for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the backs of fools! ⁴Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be like him. ⁵Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he become wise in his own eyes. ⁶Like cutting off one’s own feet or drinking violence is the sending of a message by the hand of a fool. ⁷Like lame legs hanging limp is a proverb in the mouth of a fool. ⁸Like binding a stone into a sling is the giving of honor to a fool.

New Testament·Revelation 1

¹This is the revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants what must soon come to pass. He made it known by sending His angel to His servant John, ²who testifies to everything he saw. This is the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. ³Blessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear and obey what is written in it, because the time is near. ⁴John, To the seven churches in the province of Asia: Grace and peace to you from Him who is and was and is to come, and from the seven Spirits before His throne, ⁵and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To Him who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood, ⁶who has made us to be a kingdom, priests to His God and Father—to Him be the glory and power forever and ever! Amen. ⁷Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him—even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen. ⁸“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and was and is to come—the Almighty. ⁹I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance that are in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and my testimony about Jesus. ¹⁰On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, ¹¹saying, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” ¹²Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands, ¹³and among the lampstands was One like the Son of Man, dressed in a long robe, with a golden sash around His chest. ¹⁴The hair of His head was white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes were like a blazing fire. ¹⁵His feet were like polished bronze refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters. ¹⁶He held in His right hand seven stars, and a sharp double-edged sword came from His mouth. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest. ¹⁷When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. But He placed His right hand on me and said, “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last, ¹⁸the Living One. I was dead, and behold, now I am alive forever and ever! And I hold the keys of Death and of Hades. ¹⁹Therefore write down the things you have seen, and the things that are, and the things that will happen after this. ²⁰This is the mystery of the seven stars you saw in My right hand and of the seven golden lampstands: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.

Old Testament·Hosea 2–5

¹“Say of your brothers, ‘My people,’ and of your sisters, ‘My loved one.’ ²Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not My wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adultery from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts. ³Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her like the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and turn her into a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst. ⁴I will have no compassion on her children, because they are the children of adultery. ⁵For their mother has played the harlot and has conceived them in disgrace. For she thought, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and water, wool and linen, oil and drink.’ ⁶Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her path with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so she cannot find her way. ⁷She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will seek them but not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will return to my first husband, for then I was better off than now.’ ⁸For she does not acknowledge that it was I who gave her grain, new wine, and oil, who lavished on her silver and gold— which they crafted for Baal. ⁹Therefore I will take back My grain in its time and My new wine in its season; I will take away My wool and linen, which were given to cover her nakedness. ¹⁰And then I will expose her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of My hands. ¹¹I will put an end to all her exultation: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths— all her appointed feasts. ¹²I will destroy her vines and fig trees, which she thinks are the wages paid by her lovers. So I will make them into a thicket, and the beasts of the field will devour them. ¹³I will punish her for the days of the Baals when she burned incense to them, when she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers. But Me she forgot,” declares the LORD. ¹⁴“Therefore, behold, I will allure her and lead her to the wilderness, and speak to her tenderly. ¹⁵There I will give back her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor into a gateway of hope. There she will respond as she did in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt. ¹⁶In that day,” declares the LORD, “you will call Me ‘my Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘my Master.’ ¹⁷For I will remove from her lips the names of the Baals; no longer will their names be invoked. ¹⁸On that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that crawl on the ground. And I will abolish bow and sword and weapons of war in the land, and will make them lie down in safety. ¹⁹So I will betroth you to Me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in loving devotion and compassion. ²⁰And I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will know the LORD.” ²¹“On that day I will respond—” declares the LORD— “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth. ²²And the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. ²³And I will sow her as My own in the land, and I will have compassion on ‘No Compassion.’ I will say to those called ‘Not My People,’ ‘You are My people,’ and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”

3Then the LORD said to me, “Go show love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and offer raisin cakes to idols.” ²So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. ³Then I said to her, “You must live with me for many days; you must not be promiscuous or belong to another, and I will do the same for you.” ⁴For the Israelites must live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or idol. ⁵Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.

4Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a case against the people of the land: “There is no truth, no loving devotion, and no knowledge of God in the land! ²Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another. ³Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it will waste away with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air; even the fish of the sea disappear. ⁴But let no man contend; let no man offer reproof; for your people are like those who contend with a priest. ⁵You will stumble by day, and the prophet will stumble with you by night; so I will destroy your mother— ⁶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you as My priests. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children. ⁷The more they multiplied, the more they sinned against Me; they exchanged their Glory for a thing of disgrace. ⁸They feed on the sins of My people and set their hearts on iniquity. ⁹And it shall be like people, like priest. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds. ¹⁰They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have stopped obeying the LORD. ¹¹Promiscuity, wine, and new wine take away understanding. ¹²My people consult their wooden idols, and their divining rods inform them. For a spirit of prostitution leads them astray and they have played the harlot against their God. ¹³They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery. ¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin. ¹⁵Though you prostitute yourself, O Israel, may Judah avoid such guilt! Do not journey to Gilgal, do not go up to Beth-aven, and do not swear on oath, ‘As surely as the LORD lives!’ ¹⁶For Israel is as obstinate as a stubborn heifer. Can the LORD now shepherd them like lambs in an open meadow? ¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone! ¹⁸When their liquor is gone, they turn to prostitution; their rulers dearly love disgrace. ¹⁹The whirlwind has wrapped them in its wings, and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

5“Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O royal house! For this judgment is against you because you have been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Tabor. ²The rebels are deep in slaughter; but I will chastise them all. ³I know all about Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me. For now, O Ephraim, you have turned to prostitution; Israel is defiled. ⁴Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God, for a spirit of prostitution is within them, and they do not know the LORD. ⁵Israel’s arrogance testifies against them; Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; even Judah stumbles with them. ⁶They go with their flocks and herds to seek the LORD, but they do not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them. ⁷They have been unfaithful to the LORD; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the New Moon will devour them along with their land. ⁸Blow the ram’s horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah; raise the battle cry in Beth-aven: Lead on, O Benjamin! ⁹Ephraim will be laid waste on the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel I proclaim what is certain. ¹⁰The princes of Judah are like those who move boundary stones; I will pour out My fury upon them like water. ¹¹Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, for he is determined to follow worthless idols. ¹²So I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like decay to the house of Judah. ¹³When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim turned to Assyria and sent to the great king. But he cannot cure you or heal your wound. ¹⁴For I am like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear them to pieces and then go away. I will carry them off where no one can rescue them. ¹⁵Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”