Hos. 2

2:1 “Then you will call your brother, ‘My People’ (Ammi)! You will call your sister, ‘Pity’ (Ruhamah)!

2“Plead earnestly with your mother

(for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband),

so that she might put an end to her adulterous lifestyle

and turn away from her sexually immoral behavior.

3Otherwise, I will strip her naked

and expose her like she was when she was born.

I will turn her land into a wilderness

and make her country a parched land,

so that I might kill her with thirst.

4I will have no pity on her children

because they are children conceived in adultery.

5For their mother has committed adultery;

she who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For she said, ‘I will seek out my lovers;

they are the ones who give me my bread and my water,

my wool, my flax, my olive oil, and my wine.’

6“Therefore, I will soon fence her in with thorns;

I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way.

7Then she will pursue her lovers, but she will not catch them;

she will seek them, but she will not find them.

Then she will say,

‘I will go back to my husband,

because I was better off then than I am now.’

8“Yet until now she has refused to acknowledge that I was the one

who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil;

and that it was I who lavished on her the silver and gold—

that they used in worshiping Baal!

9Therefore, I will take back my grain during the harvest time

and my new wine when it ripens;

I will take away my wool and my flax

that I had provided in order to clothe her.

10Soon I will expose her lewd nakedness in front of her lovers,

and no one will be able to rescue her from me!

11I will put an end to all her celebrations:

her annual religious festivals,

monthly new moon celebrations,

and weekly Sabbath festivities—

all her appointed festivals.

12I will destroy her vines and fig trees,

about which she said, ‘These are my wages for prostitution

that my lovers gave to me!’

I will turn her cultivated vines and fig trees into an uncultivated thicket,

so that wild animals will devour them.

13I will punish her for the festival days

when she burned incense to the Baal idols;

she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry,

and went after her lovers,

but she forgot me!” says the Lord.

14“However, in the future I will allure her;

I will lead her back into the wilderness

and speak tenderly to her.

15From there I will give back her vineyards to her

and turn the ‘Valley of Trouble’ into an ‘Opportunity for Hope.’

There she will sing as she did when she was young,

when she came up from the land of Egypt.

16At that time,” declares the Lord,

“you will call me, ‘My husband’;

you will never again call me, ‘My master.’

17For I will remove the names of the Baal idols from your lips,

so that you will never again utter their names!

18“At that time I will make a covenant for them with the wild animals,

the birds of the air, and the creatures that crawl on the ground.

I will abolish the warrior’s bow and sword—

that is, every weapon of warfare—from the land,

and I will allow them to live securely.

19I will commit myself to you forever;

I will commit myself to you in righteousness and justice,

in steadfast love and tender compassion.

20I will commit myself to you in faithfulness;

then you will acknowledge the Lord.

21“At that time, I will willingly respond,” declares the Lord.

“I will respond to the sky,

and the sky will respond to the ground;

22then the ground will respond to the grain, the new wine, and the olive oil;

and they will respond to ‘God Plants’ (Jezreel)!

23Then I will plant her as my own in the land.

I will have pity on ‘No Pity’ (Lo-Ruhamah).

I will say to ‘Not My People’ (Lo-Ammi), ‘You are my people!’

And he will say, ‘You are my God!’”

Ps. 67

67:1 For the music director, to be accompanied by stringed instruments; a psalm, a song.

May God show us his favor and bless us.

May he smile on us. (Selah)

2Then those living on earth will know what you are like;

all nations will know how you deliver your people.

3Let the nations thank you, O God.

Let all the nations thank you.

4Let foreigners rejoice and celebrate.

For you execute justice among the nations

and govern the people living on earth. (Selah)

5Let the nations thank you, O God.

Let all the nations thank you.

6The earth yields its crops.

May God, our God, bless us.

7May God bless us.

Then all the ends of the earth will give him the honor he deserves.

Rom. 3:1–20

3:1 Therefore what advantage does the Jew have, or what is the value of circumcision? 2Actually, there are many advantages. First of all, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. 3What then? If some were unfaithful, their unfaithfulness will not nullify God’s faithfulness, will it? 4Absolutely not! Let God be proven true, and every human being shown up as a liar, just as it is written: “so that you will be justified in your words and will prevail when you are judged.”

5But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is he? (I am speaking in human terms.) 6Absolutely not! For otherwise how could God judge the world? 7For if by my lie the truth of God enhances his glory, why am I still actually being judged as a sinner? 8And why not say, “Let us do evil so that good may come of it”?—as some who slander us allege that we say. (Their condemnation is deserved!)

9What then? Are we better off? Certainly not, for we have already charged that Jews and Greeks alike are all under sin, 10just as it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

11there is no one who understands;

there is no one who seeks God.

12All have turned away;

together they have become worthless;

there is no one who shows kindness, not even one.”

13“Their throats are open graves;

they deceive with their tongues;

the poison of asps is under their lips.”

14“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”

15“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

16ruin and misery are in their paths,

17and the way of peace they have not known.”

18“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

19Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world may be held accountable to God. 20For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. (NET Bible)