Scripture quotations are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.
Hosea 1
The word of Yahweh that came to Hosea son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
At the beginning when Yahweh spoke through Hosea,
Yahweh said to Hosea,
"Go, take for yourself a wife and children of whoredom,
because the land commits great whoredom
forsaking Yahweh."
So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim,
and she conceived and bore him a son.
And Yahweh said to him,
"Name him Jezreel;
because in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu
for the blood of Jezreel,
and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.
On that day
I will break the bow of Israel
in the Valley of Jezreel."
And she conceived again and bore a daughter, and he said to him,
"Name her Lo-ruhamah,
for I will no longer have pity
on the house of Israel
or forgive them.
But I will have pity on the house of Judah
and I will save them by Yahweh their God,
and will not deliver them
by bow, sword, war,
horses, or horsemen.
And when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son.
And he said, "Name him Lo-ammi,
for you are not my people
and I am not your God.
The number of the children of Israel
will be like the sand of the sea
that cannot be measured or counted;
and in the place where it is said to them,
"You are not my people,"
it will be said to them,
"Children of the living God."
Then the children of Judah
and Israel will be gathered together,
and they will appoint for themselves
one head;
and they will take possession of the land,
for great is the day of Jezreel.
Hosea 2
Say to your brother, "Ammi,"
and to your sister, "Ruhamah."
Plead with your mother, plead—
because she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband.
Let her put away her whoring from before her,
and her adultery from between her breasts.
Lest I strip her naked
and expose her like the day when she was born;
I will make her like the desert
and turn her into parched land;
I will kill her with thirst.
And I will not have pity on her children,
because they are children of whoredom.
Because their mother was unfaithful;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully,
for she said:
"I will go after my lovers,
the ones who give me my bread, my water,
my wool, and my flax,
my oil, and my drink."
Therefore, Look!
I am going to hedge her path with thorns,
and I will build a stone wall, a stone wall against her,
and she will not find her paths.
Then she will pursue her lovers,
but she will not overtake them;
she will seek them and not find them;
and she will say, "I will go
and return to my first husband
because it was better for me then than now."
But she did not know
that it was I who gave her
grain, new wine, and oil,
and who gave her silver in abundance,
and gold which they made into a Baal.
Therefore I will take again
my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season;
and I will take away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
And now I will uncover her nakedness
before the eyes of her lovers,
and no one will rescue her from my hand.
And I will put an end to all her mirth,
her festivals, her new moons, and her Sabbaths,
and all her appointed festivals;
and I will lay waste to her vines and her fig trees,
of which she said,
"They are my payment for prostitution,
which my lovers gave to me."
I will make them a forest,
and the wild animals of the field will devour them.
I will punish her for the days of the Baals,
to whom she burns incense,
and she decked herself with her ornamental ring and jewelry,
and she went after her lovers, and forgot me
—a declaration of Yahweh.
Therefore, Look! I am going to allure her
and bring her into the desert,
and I will speak tenderly to her.
From there I will give her
her vineyards,
and the Valley of Achor as a doorway of hope.
And there she will respond,
as in the days of her youth,
just as in the day of her coming out of
the land of Egypt.
And on that day—
a declaration of Yahweh—
you will call me, "My husband;"
you will no longer call me, "My Baal."
I will remove the names
of the Baals from her mouth,
and they will no longer be mentioned by their name.
I will make a covenant for them on that day,
with the animals of the field,
with the birds of the heaven, and
with the creeping things of the ground;
the bow, the sword, and the war I will abolish from the land, and I will let them lie down in safety.
And I will take you as my wife forever;
I will take you as a wife for myself in righteousness and in justice,
in steadfast love and in mercy.
I will take you as my wife in faithfulness,
and you will know Yahweh.
On that day I will answer, declares Yahweh,
I will answer the heavens,
and they will answer the earth.
And the earth will answer
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they will answer Jezreel.
I will sow her for myself in the land;
I will have pity on Lo-ruhama;
I will say to Lo-ammi,
"You are my people,"
and he himself will say, "you are my God."
Hosea 3
And Yahweh said to me again,
"Go, love a woman
who has a lover and is committing adultery,
just like the love of Yahweh for the children of Israel,
but they are turning to other gods
and love raisin cakes."
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver
and a homer of barely and a measure of wine.
And I said to her,
"You must remain as mine for many days,
and you will not play the whore;
you will not belong to a man,
and I will belong to you."
The children of Israel will remain for many days
without a king and prince,
without sacrifice and stone pillar, ephod and teraphim.
Afterward the children of Israel will return
and seek Yahweh their God and David their king.
They will come in fear to Yahweh
and to his goodness at the end of days.
Matthew 16
And when the Pharisees and Sadducees came to test him, they asked him to show them a sign from heaven. So he answered and said to them, "When evening comes you say, ‘It will be fair weather because the sky is red,’ and early in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy weather, because the sky is red and darkening.’ You know how to evaluate correctly the appearance of the sky, but you are not able to evaluate the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, and a sign will not be given to it except the sign of Jonah!" And he left them and went away.
And when the disciples arrived at the other side, they had forgotten to take bread. And Jesus said to them, "Watch out for and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees!" So they were discussing this among themselves, saying, "It is because we did not take bread." But knowing this, Jesus said, "Why are you discussing among yourselves that you did not take bread, you of little faith? Do you not yet understand or do you not remember the five loaves for the five thousand, and how many baskets you took up? Or the seven loaves for the four thousand and how many baskets you took up? How do you not understand that I did not speak to you about bread? But beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees!" Then they understood that he did not say to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
Now when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he began asking his disciples, saying, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" And Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!" And Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overpower it! I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you release on earth will be released in heaven." Then he commanded the disciples that they should tell no one that he was the Christ.
From that time on Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised on the third day. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, God forbid, Lord! This will never happen to you!" But he turned around and said to Peter, "Get behind me, Satan! You are a cause for stumbling to me, because you are not intent on the things of God, but the things of people!"
Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone wants to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life on account of me will find it. For what will a person be benefited if he gains the whole world but forfeits his life? Or what will a person give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of his Father with his angels, and at that time he will reward each one according to what he has done. Truly I say to you, that there are some of those standing here who will never experience death until they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom."