TSK · Hosea 3:1

For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. He has chosen you to be his people, prized above all others on the face of the earth.

They threw away the foreign gods they owned and worshiped the LORD. Finally the LORD grew tired of seeing Israel suffer so much.

But the LORD had mercy on them and felt pity for them. He extended his favor to them because of the promise he had made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He has been unwilling to destroy them or remove them from his presence to this very day.

However, due to your abundant mercy you did not do away with them altogether; you did not abandon them. For you are a merciful and compassionate God.

Look, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a female servant look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes will look to the LORD, our God, until he shows us favor.

Turn to me so you can be delivered, all you who live in the earth’s remote regions! For I am God, and I have no peer.

The Lord Calls on Israel and Judah to Repent“Go and shout this message to my people in the countries in the north. Tell them,‘Come back to me, wayward Israel,’ says the LORD.‘I will not continue to look on you with displeasure. For I am merciful,’ says the LORD.‘I will not be angry with you forever.

Indeed, the people of Israel are my dear children. They are the children I take delight in. For even though I must often rebuke them, I still remember them with fondness. So I am deeply moved with pity for them and will surely have compassion on them. I, the LORD, affirm it!

Judgment of Pagan Idolatry and Cultic Prostitution Old and new wine take away the understanding of my people.

Fertility Cult Festivals Have Intoxicated Israel O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly like the nations, for you are unfaithful to your God. You love to receive a prostitute’s wages on all the floors where you thresh your grain.

They stretch out on clothing seized as collateral; they do so right beside every altar! They drink wine bought with the fines they have levied; they do so right in the temple of their God!

But I will keep watching for the LORD; I will wait for the God who delivers me. My God will listen to me.

The Oracle of Response“‘Therefore,’ this is what the LORD has said,‘I have become compassionate toward Jerusalem and will rebuild my temple in it,’ says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.‘Once more a surveyor’s measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.’

He has helped his servant Israel, remembering his mercy,

You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot take part in the table of the Lord and the table of demons.