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The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
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The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.
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So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.
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And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.
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And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.
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And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.
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But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.
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Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son.
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Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
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Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.
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Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
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Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.
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Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts;
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Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.
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And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.
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For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.
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Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.
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And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.
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For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
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Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.
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And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand.
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I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.
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And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.
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And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.
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Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
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And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.
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And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.
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For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
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And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.
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And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.
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I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.
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And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth;
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And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.
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And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.
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Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
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So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:
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And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.
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For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
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Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.
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Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
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By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
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Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away.
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Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest.
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Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.
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My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
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As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame.
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They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.
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And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.
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For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD.
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Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.
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My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.
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They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.
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I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.
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Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Bethaven, nor swear, The LORD liveth.
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For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.
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Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.
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Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.
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The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.
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James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
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My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;
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Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
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But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
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If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
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But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
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For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
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A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
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Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted:
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But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away.
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For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
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Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him.
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Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man:
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But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.
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Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.
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Do not err, my beloved brethren.
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Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
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Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
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Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath:
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For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
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Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
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But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
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For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:
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For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.
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But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.
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If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain.
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Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
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My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.
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For if there come unto your assembly a man with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile raiment;
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And ye have respect to him that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place; and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool:
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Are ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts?
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Hearken, my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
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But ye have despised the poor. Do not rich men oppress you, and draw you before the judgment seats?
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Do not they blaspheme that worthy name by the which ye are called?
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If ye fulfil the royal law according to the scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself, ye do well:
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But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors.
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For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.
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For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.
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So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty.
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For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
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What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?
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If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,
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And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?
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Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
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Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.
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Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
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But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?
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Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
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Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect?
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And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.
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Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.
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Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
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For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
