Today’s Reading :  Hosea  5 - 9  and  Matthew 22   (KJV)     

 

 

Hosea  5

Hos 5:1  Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.

Hos 5:2  And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.

Hos 5:3  I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.

Hos 5:4  They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD.

Hos 5:5  And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.

Hos 5:6  They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them.

Hos 5:7  They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.

Hos 5:8  Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Beth-aven, after thee, O Benjamin.

Hos 5:9  Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.

Hos 5:10  The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.

Hos 5:11  Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment.

Hos 5:12  Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.

Hos 5:13  When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.

Hos 5:14  For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.

Hos 5:15  I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

 

Hosea  6

Hos 6:1  Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.

Hos 6:2  After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

Hos 6:3  Then 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.

Hos 6:4  O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

Hos 6:5  Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.

Hos 6:6  For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Hos 6:7  But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.

Hos 6:8  Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.

Hos 6:9  And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.

Hos 6:10  I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

Hos 6:11  Also, O Judah, he hath set a harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

 

Hosea  7

Hos 7:1  When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.

Hos 7:2  And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.

Hos 7:3  They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

Hos 7:4  They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

Hos 7:5  In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

Hos 7:6  For they have made ready their heart like an oven, while they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

Hos 7:7  They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.

Hos 7:8  Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

Hos 7:9  Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.

Hos 7:10  And the pride of Israel testifieth to his face: and they do not return to the LORD their God, nor seek him for all this.

Hos 7:11  Ephraim also is like a silly dove without heart: they call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.

Hos 7:12  When they shall go, I will spread my net upon them; I will bring them down as the fowls of the heaven; I will chastise them, as their congregation hath heard.

Hos 7:13  Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

Hos 7:14  And they have not cried unto me with their heart, when they howled upon their beds: they assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me.

Hos 7:15  Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.

Hos 7:16  They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

 

Hosea  8

Hos 8:1  Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and trespassed against my law.

Hos 8:2  Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.

Hos 8:3  Israel hath cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.

Hos 8:4  They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and their gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.

Hos 8:5  Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off; mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency?

Hos 8:6  For from Israel was it also: the workman made it; therefore it is not God: but the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.

Hos 8:7  For 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.

Hos 8:8  Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.

Hos 8:9  For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.

Hos 8:10  Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes.

Hos 8:11  Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.

Hos 8:12  I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.

Hos 8:13  They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.

Hos 8:14  For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.

 

Hosea  9

Hos 9:1  Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every corn floor.

Hos 9:2  The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.

Hos 9:3  They shall not dwell in the LORD's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

Hos 9:4  They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.

Hos 9:5  What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?

Hos 9:6  For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.

Hos 9:7  The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.

Hos 9:8  The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.

Hos 9:9  They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

Hos 9:10  I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.

Hos 9:11  As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.

Hos 9:12  Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!

Hos 9:13  Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.

Hos 9:14  Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

Hos 9:15  All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.

Hos 9:16  Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.

Hos 9:17  My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

 

Matthew  22

Mat 22:1  And Jesus answered and spake unto them again by parables, and said,

Mat 22:2  The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son.

Mat 22:3  And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come.

Mat 22:4  Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage.

Mat 22:5  But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise:

Mat 22:6  And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them.

Mat 22:7  But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city.

Mat 22:8  Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy.

Mat 22:9  Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.

Mat 22:10  So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests.

Mat 22:11  And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:

Mat 22:12  And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless.

Mat 22:13  Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Mat 22:14  For many are called, but few are chosen.

Mat 22:15  Then went the Pharisees, and took counsel how they might entangle him in his talk.

Mat 22:16  And they sent out unto him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we know that thou art true, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any man: for thou regardest not the person of men.

Mat 22:17  Tell us therefore, What thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar, or not?

Mat 22:18  But Jesus perceived their wickedness, and said, Why tempt ye me, ye hypocrites?

Mat 22:19  Show me the tribute money. And they brought unto him a penny.

Mat 22:20  And he saith unto them, Whose is this image and superscription?

Mat 22:21  They say unto him, Caesar's. Then saith he unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's.

Mat 22:22  When they had heard these words, they marvelled, and left him, and went their way.

Mat 22:23  The same day came to him the Sadducees, which say that there is no resurrection, and asked him,

Mat 22:24  Saying, Master, Moses said, If a man die, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed unto his brother.

Mat 22:25  Now there were with us seven brethren: and the first, when he had married a wife, deceased, and, having no issue, left his wife unto his brother:

Mat 22:26  Likewise the second also, and the third, unto the seventh.

Mat 22:27  And last of all the woman died also.

Mat 22:28  Therefore in the resurrection whose wife shall she be of the seven? for they all had her.

Mat 22:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.

Mat 22:30  For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven.

Mat 22:31  But as touching the resurrection of the dead, have ye not read that which was spoken unto you by God, saying,

Mat 22:32  I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.

Mat 22:33  And when the multitude heard this, they were astonished at his doctrine.

Mat 22:34  But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together.

Mat 22:35  Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying,

Mat 22:36  Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

Mat 22:38  This is the first and great commandment.

Mat 22:39  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

Mat 22:40  On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Mat 22:41  While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them,

Mat 22:42  Saying, What think ye of Christ? whose son is he? They say unto him, The son of David.

Mat 22:43  He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying,

Mat 22:44  The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool?

Mat 22:45  If David then call him, Lord, how is he his son?

Mat 22:46  And no man was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.