I Am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life
1 d“Let not your hearts be troubled. eBelieve in God;1 believe also in me. 2 In fmy Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that gI go to prepare a place for you?2 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you hto myself, that iwhere I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.”3 5 jThomas said to him, “Lord, kwe do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am lthe way, and mthe truth, and nthe life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 oIf you had known me, you would have pknown my Father also.4 From now on you do know him and qhave seen him.”
8 rPhilip said to him, “Lord, sshow us the Father, and it is enough for us.” 9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? tWhoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that uI am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you vI do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that uI am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else wbelieve on account of the works themselves.
12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, xwhoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I yam going to the Father. 13 zWhatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that athe Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 zIf you ask me5 anything in my name, I will do it.
Prologue
1 The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God agave him bto show to his servants1 the things that must soon take place. cHe made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, 2 dwho bore witness to the word of God and to ethe testimony of Jesus Christ, even fto all that he saw. 3 gBlessed is the one who reads aloud the words of this prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written in it, hfor the time is near.
Greeting to the Seven Churches
4 John to the seven churches that are in Asia:
Grace to you and peace from ihim jwho is and kwho was and who is to come, and from lthe seven spirits who are before his throne, 5 and from Jesus Christ mthe faithful witness, nthe firstborn of the dead, and othe ruler of kings on earth.
To phim who loves us and qhas freed us from our sins by his blood 6 and made us ra kingdom, rpriests to shis God and Father, to him be tglory and udominion forever and ever. Amen. 7 Behold, vhe is coming with the clouds, and wevery eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail2 on account of him. Even so. Amen.
8 x“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, y“who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Job Replies: Where Is God?
1 Then Job answered and said:
2 “Today also my rcomplaint is bitter;1
my shand is heavy on account of my groaning.
3 Oh, tthat I knew where I might find him,
that I might come even to his useat!
4 I would vlay my case before him
and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know what he would answer me
and understand what he would say to me.
6 Would he wcontend with me in the greatness of his power?
No; he would pay attention to me.
7 There an upright man could argue with him,
and I would be acquitted forever by my judge.
8 “Behold, xI go forward, but he is not there,
and backward, but I do not perceive him;
9 on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him;
he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him.
10 But he yknows zthe way that I atake;
when he has btried me, I shall come out as gold.
11 My foot chas held fast to his steps;
I have kept his way and have dnot turned aside.
12 I have not departed from the commandment of his lips;
I have etreasured the words of his mouth more than my fportion of food.
13 But he is unchangeable,2 and gwho can turn him back?
What he hdesires, that he does.
14 For he will complete what he iappoints for me,
and many such things are jin his mind.
15 Therefore I am terrified at his presence;
when I consider, I am in dread of him.
16 God has made my kheart faint;
the Almighty has terrified me;
17 yet I am not silenced because of the darkness,
nor because thick darkness covers my face.
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea, the son of Beeri, ain the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of bJeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
Hosea’s Wife and Children
2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, c“Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have dchildren of whoredom, for ethe land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 And the Lord said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while fI will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and gI will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And on that day hI will break the bow of Israel iin the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. And the Lord said to him, j“Call her name No Mercy,1 for kI will no more have mercy on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all. 7 But lI will have mercy on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God. I mwill not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”
8 When she had weaned No Mercy, she conceived and bore a son. 9 And the Lord said, n“Call his name Not My People,2 for oyou are not my people, and I am not your God.”3
10 4 Yet pthe number of the children of Israel shall be qlike the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. rAnd sin the place where it was said to them, o“You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, t“Children5 of uthe living God.” 11 And vthe children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and wthey shall appoint for themselves one head. And they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Israel’s Unfaithfulness Punished
1 6 Say to your brothers, x“You are my people,”7 and to your sisters, y“You have received mercy.”8
2 “Plead with your mother, plead—
for zshe is not my wife,
and I am not her husband—
that she put away aher whoring from her face,
and her adultery from between her breasts;
3 lest bI strip her naked
and make her as cin the day she was born,
and dmake her like a wilderness,
and make her like a parched land,
and kill her with thirst.
4 eUpon her children also I will have no mercy,
fbecause they are children of whoredom.
5 For gtheir mother has played the whore;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For hshe said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
who igive me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6 Therefore jI will hedge up her9 way with thorns,
and kI will build a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She shall pursue her lovers
but not overtake them,
and she shall seek them
but shall not find them.
lThen she shall say,
‘I will go and return to mmy first husband,
lfor it was better for me then than now.’
8 And nshe did not know
that it was oI who gave her
pthe grain, the wine, and the oil,
and who lavished on qher silver and gold,
rwhich they used for Baal.
9 Therefore sI will take back
my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season,
and sI will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
10 Now tI will uncover her lewdness
in the sight of her lovers,
and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
11 uAnd I will put an end to all her mirth,
her feasts, her vnew moons, her vSabbaths,
and all her wappointed feasts.
12 And xI will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
yof which she said,
‘These are zmy wages,
which my lovers have given me.’
I will make them a forest,
aand the beasts of the field shall devour them.
13 And bI will punish her for cthe feast days of the Baals
when she burned offerings to them
and dadorned herself with her ring and jewelry,
and went after her lovers
and forgot me, declares the Lord.
The Lord’s Mercy on Israel
14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
and ebring her into the wilderness,
and fspeak tenderly to her.
15 And there I will give her her vineyards
and make the Valley of Achor10 a door of hope.
And there she shall answer gas in the days of her youth,
as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
16 “And hin that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For iI will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And jI will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And kI will abolish11 the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in lsafety. 19 And I will betroth you to me mforever. nI will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 nI will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And oyou shall know the Lord.
21 “And pin that day qI will answer, declares the Lord,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer rJezreel,12
23 and sI will sow her for myself in the land.
And tI uwill have mercy on No Mercy,13
and vI will say to Not My People,14 w‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”
Hosea Redeems His Wife
1 And the Lord said to me, x“Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a yhomer and a lethech15 of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must zdwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” 4 For the children of Israel zshall dwell many days awithout king or prince, bwithout sacrifice or cpillar, without dephod or ehousehold gods. 5 Afterward fthe children of Israel shall return and gseek the Lord their God, and hDavid their king, iand they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the jlatter days.
