Psalm 143

A psalm of David.

¹ LORD, hear my prayer,
listen to my cry for mercy;
in your faithfulness and righteousness
come to my relief.
² Do not bring your servant into judgment,
for no one living is righteous before you.
³ The enemy pursues me,
he crushes me to the ground;
he makes me dwell in the darkness
like those long dead.
⁴ So my spirit grows faint within me;
my heart within me is dismayed.
⁵ I remember the days of long ago;
I meditate on all your works
and consider what your hands have done.
⁶ I spread out my hands to you;
I thirst for you like a parched land.^[a]

⁷ Answer me quickly, LORD;
my spirit fails.
Do not hide your face from me
or I will be like those who go down to the pit.
⁸ Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
for I have put my trust in you.
Show me the way I should go,
for to you I entrust my life.
⁹ Rescue me from my enemies, LORD,
for I hide myself in you.
¹⁰ Teach me to do your will,
for you are my God;
may your good Spirit
lead me on level ground.

¹¹ For your name’s sake, LORD, preserve my life;
in your righteousness, bring me out of trouble.
¹² In your unfailing love, silence my enemies;
destroy all my foes,
for I am your servant.

Psalm 144

Of David.

¹ Praise be to the LORD my Rock,
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.
² He is my loving God and my fortress,
my stronghold and my deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues peoples^[b] under me.

³ LORD, what are human beings that you care for them,
mere mortals that you think of them?
⁴ They are like a breath;
their days are like a fleeting shadow.

⁵ Part your heavens, LORD, and come down;
touch the mountains, so that they smoke.
⁶ Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy;
shoot your arrows and rout them.
⁷ Reach down your hand from on high;
deliver me and rescue me
from the mighty waters,
from the hands of foreigners
⁸ whose mouths are full of lies,
whose right hands are deceitful.

⁹ I will sing a new song to you, my God;
on the ten-stringed lyre I will make music to you,
¹⁰ to the One who gives victory to kings,
who delivers his servant David.

From the deadly sword ¹¹ deliver me;
rescue me from the hands of foreigners
whose mouths are full of lies,
whose right hands are deceitful.

¹² Then our sons in their youth
will be like well-nurtured plants,
and our daughters will be like pillars
carved to adorn a palace.
¹³ Our barns will be filled
with every kind of provision.
Our sheep will increase by thousands,
by tens of thousands in our fields;
¹⁴ our oxen will draw heavy loads.^[c]
There will be no breaching of walls,
no going into captivity,
no cry of distress in our streets.
¹⁵ Blessed is the people of whom this is true;
blessed is the people whose God is the LORD.

Psalm 145

Psalm 145^[d]

A psalm of praise. Of David.

¹ I will exalt you, my God the King;
I will praise your name for ever and ever.
² Every day I will praise you
and extol your name for ever and ever.

³ Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise;
his greatness no one can fathom.
⁴ One generation commends your works to another;
they tell of your mighty acts.
⁵ They speak of the glorious splendor of your majesty−
and I will meditate on your wonderful works.^[e]
6 They tell of the power of your awesome works−
and I will proclaim your great deeds.
⁷ They celebrate your abundant goodness
and joyfully sing of your righteousness.

⁸ The LORD is gracious and compassionate,
slow to anger and rich in love.

⁹ The LORD is good to all;
he has compassion on all he has made.
¹⁰ All your works praise you, LORD;
your faithful people extol you.
¹¹ They tell of the glory of your kingdom
and speak of your might,
¹² so that all people may know of your mighty acts
and the glorious splendor of your kingdom.
¹³ Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom,
and your dominion endures through all generations.

The LORD is trustworthy in all he promises
and faithful in all he does.^[f]
14 The LORD upholds all who fall
and lifts up all who are bowed down.
¹⁵ The eyes of all look to you,
and you give them their food at the proper time.
¹⁶ You open your hand
and satisfy the desires of every living thing.

¹⁷ The LORD is righteous in all his ways
and faithful in all he does.
¹⁸ The LORD is near to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
¹⁹ He fulfills the desires of those who fear him;
he hears their cry and saves them.
²⁰ The LORD watches over all who love him,
but all the wicked he will destroy.

²¹ My mouth will speak in praise of the LORD.
Let every creature praise his holy name
for ever and ever.

Hosea 9

Punishment for Israel

¹ Do not rejoice, Israel;
do not be jubilant like the other nations.
For you have been unfaithful to your God;
you love the wages of a prostitute
at every threshing floor.
² Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people;
the new wine will fail them.
³ They will not remain in the LORD’s land;
Ephraim will return to Egypt
and eat unclean food in Assyria.
⁴ They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD,
nor will their sacrifices please him.
Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;
all who eat them will be unclean.
This food will be for themselves;
it will not come into the temple of the LORD.

⁵ What will you do on the day of your appointed festivals,
on the feast days of the LORD?
⁶ Even if they escape from destruction,
Egypt will gather them,
and Memphis will bury them.
Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers,
and thorns will overrun their tents.
⁷ The days of punishment are coming,
the days of reckoning are at hand.
Let Israel know this.
Because your sins are so many
and your hostility so great,
the prophet is considered a fool,
the inspired person a maniac.
⁸ The prophet, along with my God,
is the watchman over Ephraim,^[a]
yet snares await him on all his paths,
and hostility in the house of his God.
⁹ They have sunk deep into corruption,
as in the days of Gibeah.
God will remember their wickedness
and punish them for their sins.

¹⁰ "When I found Israel,
it was like finding grapes in the desert;
when I saw your ancestors,
it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.
But when they came to Baal Peor,
they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol
and became as vile as the thing they loved.
¹¹ Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird−
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.
¹² Even if they rear children,
I will bereave them of every one.
Woe to them
when I turn away from them!
¹³ I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre,
planted in a pleasant place.
But Ephraim will bring out
their children to the slayer."

¹⁴ Give them, LORD−
what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry
and breasts that are dry.

¹⁵ "Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,
I hated them there.
Because of their sinful deeds,
I will drive them out of my house.
I will no longer love them;
all their leaders are rebellious.
¹⁶ Ephraim is blighted,
their root is withered,
they yield no fruit.
Even if they bear children,
I will slay their cherished offspring."

¹⁷ My God will reject them
because they have not obeyed him;
they will be wanderers among the nations.

Hosea 10

¹ Israel was a spreading vine;
he brought forth fruit for himself.
As his fruit increased,
he built more altars;
as his land prospered,
he adorned his sacred stones.
² Their heart is deceitful,
and now they must bear their guilt.
The LORD will demolish their altars
and destroy their sacred stones.

³ Then they will say, "We have no king
because we did not revere the LORD.
But even if we had a king,
what could he do for us?"
⁴ They make many promises,
take false oaths
and make agreements;
therefore lawsuits spring up
like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.
⁵ The people who live in Samaria fear
for the calf-idol of Beth Aven.^[b]
Its people will mourn over it,
and so will its idolatrous priests,
those who had rejoiced over its splendor,
because it is taken from them into exile.
⁶ It will be carried to Assyria
as tribute for the great king.
Ephraim will be disgraced;
Israel will be ashamed of its foreign alliances.
⁷ Samaria’s king will be destroyed,
swept away like a twig on the surface of the waters.
⁸ The high places of wickedness^[c] will be destroyed−
it is the sin of Israel.
Thorns and thistles will grow up
and cover their altars.
Then they will say to the mountains, "Cover us!"
and to the hills, "Fall on us!"

⁹ "Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, Israel,
and there you have remained.^[d]
Will not war again overtake
the evildoers in Gibeah?
¹⁰ When I please, I will punish them;
nations will be gathered against them
to put them in bonds for their double sin.
¹¹ Ephraim is a trained heifer
that loves to thresh;
so I will put a yoke
on her fair neck.
I will drive Ephraim,
Judah must plow,
and Jacob must break up the ground.
¹² Sow righteousness for yourselves,
reap the fruit of unfailing love,
and break up your unplowed ground;
for it is time to seek the LORD,
until he comes
and showers his righteousness on you.
¹³ But you have planted wickedness,
you have reaped evil,
you have eaten the fruit of deception.
Because you have depended on your own strength
and on your many warriors,
¹⁴ the roar of battle will rise against your people,
so that all your fortresses will be devastated−
as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle,
when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.
¹⁵ So will it happen to you, Bethel,
because your wickedness is great.
When that day dawns,
the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.

Hosea 11

God’s Love for Israel

¹ "When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.
² But the more they were called,
the more they went away from me.^[e]
They sacrificed to the Baals
and they burned incense to images.
³ It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
taking them by the arms;
but they did not realize
it was I who healed them.
⁴ I led them with cords of human kindness,
with ties of love.
To them I was like one who lifts
a little child to the cheek,
and I bent down to feed them.

⁵ "Will they not return to Egypt
and will not Assyria rule over them
because they refuse to repent?
⁶ A sword will flash in their cities;
it will devour their false prophets
and put an end to their plans.
⁷ My people are determined to turn from me.
Even though they call me God Most High,
I will by no means exalt them.

⁸ "How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
How can I make you like Zeboyim?
My heart is changed within me;
all my compassion is aroused.
⁹ I will not carry out my fierce anger,
nor will I devastate Ephraim again.
For I am God, and not a man−
the Holy One among you.
I will not come against their cities.
¹⁰ They will follow the LORD;
he will roar like a lion.
When he roars,
his children will come trembling from the west.
¹¹ They will come from Egypt,
trembling like sparrows,
from Assyria, fluttering like doves.
I will settle them in their homes,"
declares the LORD.

Israel’s Sin

¹² Ephraim has surrounded me with lies,
Israel with deceit.
And Judah is unruly against God,
even against the faithful Holy One.^[f]