John 14:15–21; Revelation 1:9–20; Job 24; Hosea 4–6

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John 14:15–21

Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit

15 bIf you love me, you will ckeep my commandments. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another dHelper,1 to be with you forever, 17 even ethe Spirit of truth, fwhom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and gwill be2 in you.

18 I will not leave you as orphans; hI will come to you. 19 iYet a little while and the world will see me no more, but jyou will see me. kBecause I live, you also will live. 20 lIn that day you will know that mI am in my Father, and nyou in me, and oI in you. 21 pWhoever has my commandments and qkeeps them, he it is who loves me. And rhe who loves me swill be loved by my Father, and I will love him and tmanifest myself to him.


Revelation 1:9–20

Vision of the Son of Man

I, John, your brother and zpartner in athe tribulation and bthe kingdom and cthe patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos don account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. 10 eI was in the Spirit fon the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice glike a trumpet 11 saying, hWrite what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.

12 Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking to me, and on turning I saw iseven golden lampstands, 13 and in the midst of the lampstands jone like ka son of man, lclothed with a long robe and mwith a golden sash around his chest. 14 nThe hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. oHis eyes were like a flame of fire, 15 phis feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and qhis voice was like the roar of many waters. 16 rIn his right hand he held seven stars, sfrom his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and this face was like the sun shining uin full strength.

17 vWhen I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But vhe laid his right hand on me, wsaying, Fear not, xI am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. yI died, and behold I am alive forevermore, and zI have the keys of Death and Hades. 19 aWrite therefore bthe things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this. 20 As for the mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand, and cthe seven golden lampstands, the seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and dthe seven lampstands are the seven churches.


Job 24

Why are lnot times of judgment mkept by the Almighty,

and why do those who know him never see his ndays?

Some move olandmarks;

they seize flocks and pasture them.

They drive away the donkey of the fatherless;

they ptake the widow’s ox for a pledge.

They qthrust the poor off the road;

the poor of the earth rall hide themselves.

Behold, like wild donkeys in the desert

the poor1 sgo out to their toil, tseeking game;

the wasteland yields food for their children.

They gather their2 fodder in the field,

and they glean the vineyard of the wicked man.

They ulie all night naked, without clothing,

and have no covering in the cold.

They are wet with the rain of the mountains

and vcling to the rock for lack of shelter.

(There are those who snatch the fatherless child from the breast,

and they take a pledge against the poor.)

10  They go about naked, without clothing;

hungry, they wcarry the sheaves;

11  among the olive rows of the wicked3 they make oil;

they tread the winepresses, but suffer thirst.

12  From out of the city the dying4 groan,

and the soul of xthe wounded cries for help;

yet God charges no one with ywrong.

13  There are those who rebel zagainst the light,

who are not acquainted with its ways,

and do not stay in its paths.

14  The murderer rises before it is light,

that he amay kill the poor and needy,

and in the night he is like a thief.

15  The eye of the adulterer also waits for bthe twilight,

saying, No ceye will see me;

and he veils his face.

16  In the dark they ddig through houses;

by day they shut themselves up;

they do not know the light.

17  For edeep darkness is morning to all of them;

for they are friends with the terrors of deep darkness.

18  You say, fSwift are they on the face of the waters;

their portion is cursed in the land;

no treader turns toward their vineyards.

19  Drought and heat snatch away the snow waters;

so does gSheol those who have sinned.

20  The womb forgets them;

the worm finds them sweet;

they are hno longer remembered,

so wickedness is broken like ia tree.

21  They wrong the barren, childless woman,

and do no good to the widow.

22  Yet God5 prolongs the life of the mighty by his power;

they rise up when they despair of life.

23  He gives them security, and they are supported,

and his jeyes are upon their ways.

24  They are exalted ka little while, and then lare gone;

they are brought low and gathered up like all others;

they are mcut off like the heads of grain.

25  If it is nnot so, who will prove me a liar

and show that there is nothing in what I say?


Hosea 4–6

The Lord Accuses Israel

kHear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel,

for lthe Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land.

There is no faithfulness or steadfast love,

and mno knowledge of God in the land;

nthere is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery;

they break all bounds, and obloodshed follows bloodshed.

Therefore pthe land mourns,

and all who dwell in it languish,

qand also the beasts of the field

and the birds of the heavens,

rand even the fish of the sea are taken away.

sYet let no one contend,

and let none accuse,

for with you is tmy contention, O priest.1

You shall stumble by day;

the prophet also shall stumble with you by night;

and I will destroy uyour mother.

My people are destroyed vfor lack of knowledge;

wbecause you have rejected knowledge,

I reject you xfrom being a priest to me.

And since you have forgotten the law of your God,

yI also will forget your children.

zThe more they increased,

the more they sinned against me;

aI will change their glory into shame.

bThey feed on the sin2 of my people;

they are greedy for their iniquity.

cAnd it shall be like people, like priest;

I will punish them for their ways

and repay them for their deeds.

10  dThey shall eat, but not be satisfied;

they shall play the whore, but not multiply,

because they have forsaken the Lord

to cherish 11 whoredom, wine, and new wine,

which etake away the understanding.

12  My people finquire of a piece of wood,

and their walking staff gives them oracles.

For ga spirit of whoredom has led them astray,

and they have left their God to play the whore.

13  hThey sacrifice on the tops of the mountains

and burn offerings on the hills,

iunder oak, poplar, and terebinth,

because their shade is good.

Therefore your daughters play the whore,

and your brides commit adultery.

14  I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,

nor your brides when they commit adultery;

for jthe men themselves go aside with prostitutes

and sacrifice with kcult prostitutes,

and a people lwithout understanding shall come to ruin.

15  Though you play the whore, O mIsrael,

let not mJudah become guilty.

nEnter not into oGilgal,

nor go up to pBeth-aven,

and swear not, As the Lord lives.

16  Like a stubborn heifer,

Israel is stubborn;

can the Lord now feed them

like a lamb in a broad pasture?

17  qEphraim is joined to idols;

rleave him alone.

18  When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring;

stheir rulers3 dearly love shame.

19  tA wind has wrapped them4 in its wings,

and they shall ube ashamed because of their sacrifices.

Punishment Coming for Israel and Judah

vHear this, O priests!

Pay attention, O house of Israel!

Give ear, O house of the king!

For the judgment is for you;

for wyou have been a snare at Mizpah

and a net spread upon xTabor.

And ythe revolters zhave gone deep into slaughter,

but aI will discipline all of them.

bI know Ephraim,

and Israel is not hidden from me;

for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore;

Israel is defiled.

cTheir deeds do not permit them

to return to their God.

For dthe spirit of whoredom is within them,

and they know not the Lord.

eThe pride of Israel testifies to his face;5

Israel and fEphraim shall stumble in his guilt;

fJudah also shall stumble with them.

gWith their flocks and herds they shall go

to seek the Lord,

gbut they will not find him;

hhe has withdrawn from them.

iThey have dealt faithlessly with the Lord;

for they have borne alien children.

Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

jBlow the horn in kGibeah,

the trumpet in lRamah.

Sound the alarm at mBeth-aven;

we follow you,6 O Benjamin!

Ephraim shall become a desolation

in the day of punishment;

among the tribes of Israel

I make known what is sure.

10  The princes of Judah have become

like nthose who move the landmark;

upon them I will pour out

my wrath like water.

11  Ephraim is ooppressed, crushed in judgment,

because he was determined to go after filth.7

12  But I am plike a moth to Ephraim,

and plike dry rot to the house of Judah.

13  When Ephraim saw his sickness,

and Judah qhis wound,

then Ephraim went rto Assyria,

and sent to the great king.8

sBut he is not able to cure you

or heal qyour wound.

14  For I will be tlike a lion to uEphraim,

and like a young lion to the house of uJudah.

vI, even I, will tear and go away;

I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.

15  wI will return again to my place,

until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face,

and xin their distress earnestly seek me.

Israel and Judah Are Unrepentant

Come, let us yreturn to the Lord;

for zhe has torn us, that he may heal us;

he has struck us down, and ahe will bind us up.

After two days bhe will revive us;

on the third day he will raise us up,

that we may live before him.

cLet us know; clet us press on to know the Lord;

dhis going out is sure as the dawn;

he will come to us eas the showers,

fas the spring rains that water the earth.

What shall I do with you, gO hEphraim?

What shall I do with you, O hJudah?

Your love is ilike a morning cloud,

ilike the dew that goes early away.

Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;

I have slain them jby the words of my mouth,

and my judgment goes forth as the light.

For kI desire steadfast love9 and not sacrifice,

lthe knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

But mlike Adam they ntransgressed the covenant;

othere they dealt faithlessly with me.

pGilead is a city of evildoers,

qtracked with blood.

As robbers rlie in wait for a man,

so the priests band together;

they murder on the way to sShechem;

they commit villainy.

10  In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;

tEphraim’s whoredom is there; uIsrael is defiled.

11  For you also, O uJudah, va harvest is appointed.

When wI restore the fortunes of my people,