The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Monday December 7, 2020 (NIV)

⁴ What shall I do with you, ^(J)O ^(K)Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O ^(L)Judah?
Your love is ^(M)like a morning cloud,
^(N)like the dew that goes early away.
⁵ Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
I have slain them ^(O)by the words of my mouth,
and my judgment goes forth as the light.
⁶ For ^(P)I desire steadfast love^[a] and not sacrifice,
^(Q)the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

⁷ But ^(R)like Adam they ^(S)transgressed the covenant;
^(T)there they dealt faithlessly with me.
^8 (U)Gilead is a city of evildoers,
^(V)tracked with blood.
⁹ As robbers ^(W)lie in wait for a man,
so the priests band together;
they murder on the way to ^(X)Shechem;
they commit villainy.
¹⁰ In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing;
^(Y)Ephraim's whoredom is there; ^(Z)Israel is defiled.

¹¹ For you also, O ^(AA)Judah, ^(AB)a harvest is appointed.

When ^(AC)I restore the fortunes of my people,
7 ^(AD)when I would heal Israel,
the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed,
and the evil deeds of ^(AE)Samaria,
for ^(AF)they deal falsely;
the thief breaks in,
and the bandits raid outside.
² But they do not consider
that ^(AG)I remember all their evil.
Now ^(AH)their deeds surround them;
^(AI)they are before my face.
³ By their evil ^(AJ)they make ^(AK)the king glad,
and the princes by their treachery.
^4 (AL)They are all adulterers;
they are like a heated oven
whose baker ceases to stir the fire,
from the kneading of the dough
until it is leavened.
⁵ On the day of ^(AM)our king, the princes
became sick with the heat of wine;
he stretched out his hand with mockers.
⁶ For with hearts like an oven ^(AN)they approach their intrigue;
all night their anger smolders;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
⁷ All of them are hot as an oven,
and they devour their rulers.
All ^(AO)their kings ^(AP)have fallen,
and none of them calls upon me.

⁸ Ephraim ^(AQ)mixes himself with the peoples;
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
^9 (AR)Strangers devour his strength,
and ^(AS)he knows it not;
gray hairs are sprinkled upon him,
and ^(AT)he knows it not.
^10 (AU)The pride of Israel testifies to his face;^[b]
(AV)yet they do not return to the Lord their God,
nor seek him, for all this.

¹¹ Ephraim is like a dove,
^(AW)silly and without sense,
calling to ^(AX)Egypt, going to ^(AY)Assyria.
¹² As they go, ^(AZ)I will spread over them my net;
I will bring them down like birds of the heavens;
^(BA)I will discipline them ^(BB)according to the report made to their congregation.
^13 (BC)Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!
^(BD)I would redeem them,
but ^(BE)they speak lies against me.

^14 (BF)They do not cry to me from the heart,
but ^(BG)they wail upon their beds;
for grain and wine they gash themselves;
they rebel against me.
¹⁵ Although ^(BH)I trained and strengthened their arms,
yet they devise evil against me.
¹⁶ They ^(BI)return, but not upward;^[c]
they are ^(BJ)like a treacherous bow;
their princes shall fall by the sword
because of ^(BK)the insolence of their tongue.
This shall be their derision ^(BL)in the land of Egypt.

^4 (BQ)They made kings, ^(BR)but not through me.
They set up princes, but I knew it not.
With their silver and gold they made idols
for their own destruction.
^5 (BS)I have^[d] spurned your calf, O Samaria.
My anger burns against them.
^(BT)How long will they be incapable of innocence?
⁶ For it is from Israel;
a craftsman made it;
it is not God.
^(BU)The calf of Samaria
^(BV)shall be broken to pieces.^[e]

⁷ For ^(BW)they sow the wind,
and they shall reap the whirlwind.
The standing grain has no heads;
it shall yield no flour;
if it were to yield,
^(BX)strangers would devour it.
^8 (BY)Israel is swallowed up;
already they are among the nations
as ^(BZ)a useless vessel.
⁹ For ^(CA)they have gone up to Assyria,
^(CB)a wild donkey wandering alone;
Ephraim has hired lovers.
¹⁰ Though they hire allies among the nations,
I will soon gather them up.
And ^(CC)the king and princes ^(CD)shall soon writhe
because of the tribute.

¹¹ Because Ephraim ^(CE)has multiplied altars for sinning,
they have become to him altars for sinning.
^12 (CF)Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,
they would be regarded as a strange thing.
¹³ As for my sacrificial offerings,
^(CG)they sacrifice meat and eat it,
but the Lord does not accept them.
^(CH)Now he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins;
^(CI)they shall return to Egypt.
¹⁴ For ^(CJ)Israel has forgotten ^(CK)his Maker
and ^(CL)built palaces,
and ^(CM)Judah has multiplied fortified cities;
so ^(CN)I will send a fire upon his cities,
and it shall devour her strongholds.

^4 (CV)They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,
^(CW)and their sacrifices shall not please him.
It shall be like ^(CX)mourners' bread to them;
all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
^(CY)it shall not come to the house of the Lord.

^5 (CZ)What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,
and on the day of the feast of the Lord?
⁶ For behold, they are going away from destruction;
but ^(DA)Egypt shall gather them;
Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess ^(DB)their precious things of silver;
^(DC)thorns shall be in their tents.

^7 (DD)The days of punishment have come;
the days of recompense have come;
Israel shall know it.
^(DE)The prophet is a fool;
the man of the spirit is mad,
because of your great iniquity
and great hatred.
⁸ The prophet is ^(DF)the watchman of Ephraim with my God;
yet ^(DG)a fowler's snare is on all his ways,
and hatred in the house of his God.
^9 (DH)They have deeply corrupted themselves
as ^(DI)in the days of Gibeah:
^(DJ)he will remember their iniquity;
he will punish their sins.

¹⁰ Like grapes in the wilderness,
^(DK)I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree
in its first season,
I saw your fathers.
But ^(DL)they came to Baal-peor
and ^(DM)consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,
and ^(DN)became detestable like the thing they loved.
¹¹ Ephraim's ^(DO)glory shall fly away like a bird—
^(DP)no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
^12 (DQ)Even if they bring up children,
I will bereave them till none is left.
^(DR)Woe to them
when ^(DS)I depart from them!
¹³ Ephraim, ^(DT)as I have seen, was like a young palm^[f] planted in a meadow;
but ^(DU)Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.^[g]
14 Give them, O Lord—
what will you give?
Give them ^(DV)a miscarrying womb
and dry breasts.

¹⁵ Every evil of theirs is in ^(DW)Gilgal;
there I began to hate them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no more;
all ^(DX)their princes are ^(DY)rebels.

¹⁶ Ephraim is stricken;
^(DZ)their root is dried up;
they shall bear no fruit.
Even ^(EA)though they give birth,
^(EB)I will put their beloved children to death.
^17 (EC)My God will reject them
because they have not listened to him;
^(ED)they shall be wanderers among the nations.

⁴ Restore our fortunes, O Lord,
like streams in the Negeb!
^5 (F)Those who sow in tears
shall reap with shouts of joy!
⁶ He who goes out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
bringing his sheaves with him.