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Further Assurances of God’s Redeeming Love

3The Lord said to me again, ‘Go, love a woman who has a lover and is an adulteress, just as the Lord loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.’ ²So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer of barley and a measure of wine.^{* 3}And I said to her, ‘You must remain as mine for many days; you shall not play the whore, you shall not have intercourse with a man, nor I with you.’ ⁴For the Israelites shall remain many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim. ⁵Afterwards the Israelites shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king; they shall come in awe to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

God Accuses Israel

4Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel;
   for the Lord has an indictment against the inhabitants of the land.
There is no faithfulness or loyalty,
   and no knowledge of God in the land.
² Swearing, lying, and murder,
   and stealing and adultery break out;
   bloodshed follows bloodshed.
³ Therefore the land mourns,
   and all who live in it languish;
together with the wild animals
   and the birds of the air,
   even the fish of the sea are perishing.

⁴ Yet let no one contend,
   and let none accuse,
   for with you is my contention, O priest.^*
5 You shall stumble by day;
   the prophet also shall stumble with you by night,
   and I will destroy your mother.
⁶ My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge;
   because you have rejected knowledge,
   I reject you from being a priest to me.
And since you have forgotten the law of your God,
   I also will forget your children.

⁷ The more they increased,
   the more they sinned against me;
   they changed^* their glory into shame.
⁸ They feed on the sin of my people;
   they are greedy for their iniquity.
⁹ And it shall be like people, like priest;
   I will punish them for their ways,
   and repay them for their deeds.
¹⁰ They shall eat, but not be satisfied;
   they shall play the whore, but not multiply;
because they have forsaken the Lord
   to devote themselves to ¹¹whoredom.

The Idolatry of Israel

Wine and new wine
   take away the understanding.
¹² My people consult a piece of wood,
   and their divining-rod gives them oracles.
For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray,
   and they have played the whore, forsaking their God.
¹³ They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains,
   and make offerings upon the hills,
under oak, poplar, and terebinth,
   because their shade is good.

Therefore your daughters play the whore,
   and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
¹⁴ I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,
   nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery;
for the men themselves go aside with whores,
   and sacrifice with temple prostitutes;
thus a people without understanding comes to ruin.

¹⁵ Though you play the whore, O Israel,
   do not let Judah become guilty.
Do not enter into Gilgal,
   or go up to Beth-aven,
   and do not swear, ‘As the Lord lives.’
¹⁶ Like a stubborn heifer,
   Israel is stubborn;
can the Lord now feed them
   like a lamb in a broad pasture?

¹⁷ Ephraim is joined to idols—
   let him alone.
¹⁸ When their drinking is ended, they indulge in sexual orgies;
   they love lewdness more than their glory.^*
19 A wind has wrapped them^* in its wings,
   and they shall be ashamed because of their altars.^*

Psalm 99

Praise to God for His Holiness

¹ The Lord is king; let the peoples tremble!
   He sits enthroned upon the cherubim; let the earth quake!
² The Lord is great in Zion;
   he is exalted over all the peoples.
³ Let them praise your great and awesome name.
   Holy is he!
⁴ Mighty King,^* lover of justice,
   you have established equity;
you have executed justice
   and righteousness in Jacob.
⁵ Extol the Lord our God;
   worship at his footstool.
   Holy is he!

⁶ Moses and Aaron were among his priests,
   Samuel also was among those who called on his name.
   They cried to the Lord, and he answered them.
⁷ He spoke to them in the pillar of cloud;
   they kept his decrees,
   and the statutes that he gave them.

⁸ O Lord our God, you answered them;
   you were a forgiving God to them,
   but an avenger of their wrongdoings.
⁹ Extol the Lord our God,
   and worship at his holy mountain;
   for the Lord our God is holy.

The Gospel According to

Matthew

The Genealogy of Jesus the Messiah

1An account of the genealogy^* of Jesus the Messiah,^* the son of David, the son of Abraham.

2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, ³and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, ⁴and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, ⁵and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, ⁶and Jesse the father of King David.

And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, ⁷and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph,^{* 8}and Asaph^* the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, ⁹and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, ¹⁰and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos,^* and Amos^* the father of Josiah, ¹¹and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.

12 And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, ¹³and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, ¹⁴and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, ¹⁵and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, ¹⁶and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.^*

17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah,^* fourteen generations.

The Birth of Jesus the Messiah

18 Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah^* took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. ¹⁹Her husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. ²⁰But just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ ²²All this took place to fulfil what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
²³ ‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
   and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
which means, ‘God is with us.’ ²⁴When Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took her as his wife, ²⁵but had no marital relations with her until she had borne a son;^* and he named him Jesus.