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THE BOOK OF HOSEA
Lesson 10, Chapters 5 and 6
We left off last time in Hosea chapter 5 verse 11. There it begins to outline what is going to occur to the Northern Kingdom of Ephraim/Israel as a result of her political recklessness; a folly in which the religious leadership were willing accomplices. As becomes explicit in verse 13, it will be Assyria that God uses as the vessel to carry out His wrath against His set-apart, but now faithless, people.
Let’s re-read the final verses of Hosea chapter 5.
RE-READ HOSEA CHAPTER 5:11 – end
When reading the Bible, we of course find that the focus is entirely upon the Hebrew people. This focus begins as early as the 12th chapter of Genesis when Abraham was selected by Yehoveh to create a separate people group that would be different than all other people on the planet. Not superior; just not the same. The only difference between them and everyone else would be whom their God is. We must recognize from Genesis chapter 12 an implication that only a precious few in the world, as it was around 2000 B.C., may still have been worshipping the one and true God that created Adam and Eve and constructed an entire Universe from nothingness. Mankind had turned to human fabricated god systems; and that included Abraham and his family. What was different about Abraham? We don’t really know other than Yehoveh somehow foreknew that Abraham would accept the call to turn away from idols and instead to hear, trust and obey the Supreme and Holy Creator. Something like 12 centuries later, after Abraham’s grandson Jacob had founded the 12 tribes of Jacob called Israel, we read of how Ephraim had behaved the opposite of Abraham. Whereas Abraham journeyed from idolatry to faithfulness, Ephraim turned to idolatry from a former faithfulness.
Yet even though the Bible focus is on God’s set apart people, these represented only a relative few among the earth’s population, and involved but a tiny area of land on the planet where they lived. There was much going on surrounding Israel and Judah and beyond; a vibrant world of many races, ethnicities, and exotic cultures existed in every corner of our globe. Nations were formed and substantial civilizations had died off; empires had already been built and collapsed only to be replaced by others, by the time of Hosea in the 700’s B.C. Israel and Judah did not exist in a vacuum. Communication was primitive and slow, but effective. These nations were known to one another. I’ll take just a few minutes to give you a broad overview of what was happening in other parts of the world, some of which had an effect on Israel. I do this so as to lift us away and out of a kind of mythologized brain-cloud vision of the biblical happenings and characters that is much too easy to fall into; and instead to make it more real to us, as it was; because if we can do this, then we can better grab hold of the enduring God-patterns that emerge from human history that have and will play out in our personal lives, in our national politics, and in our Judeo-Christian religious institutions.
At the mid-point of Hosea’s prophetical writings (in fact right about when the 5th and 6th chapters were being written) Rome was established and before Hosea was finished with his work the first Olympic games would be held. Egypt, so very ancient by now, was already in the period of its 23rd and 24th dynasties. It had finally recovered from Israel having left it 6 centuries earlier, taking with them most of the skilled labor force that the Pharaohs relied upon to build roads and vast tracts of mud-brick structures, so that their native Egyptian males could be used to form a formidable national army. The pyramids were already in a state of deterioration as even the newest one was now 1800 years old.
In Europe, iron working had become widespread. Eastern Europe and Scandinavia were the outer limits of the known world. For the most part that region of the world was wet and cold, and so this limited the food supply, which was the determining factor in how many, and where, people could live. But due to the warm waters of the Mediterranean, and the ambitions of their politicians and businessmen, Greece was thriving and expanding. They began to populate islands and the coastal areas of the Mediterranean, establishing colonies and cities, and also moving westward into parts of sparsely populated Eastern and Southern Europe. The Greek seafaring society soon would dominate the sea shipping routes ranging from Northern Africa to Spain. It was during Hosea’s lifetime that Homer wrote his two epic poems “The Iliad” and “The Odyssey”.
Far away in North America the first migrants had long ago arrived in the Alaskan region, crossing over the Bearing Straits when sea levels were lower. They were slowly moving south, no doubt as they discovered a warmer and more inviting climate there. A spreading culture known as the Olmecs began in what is now modern-day Mexico and Central America and their influence had begun to spread north. Ancient native settlements have been discovered on both coasts of North America dating from 8th century BC and earlier. From the Olmecs came the Mayans, and they also spawned other large civilizations to their north and south.
In Hosea’s era, China and the far east had advanced cultures and boasted enormous populations. The Zhou Dynasty by now had controlled ancient China for nearly 3 centuries. Sea faring Indonesians stretched out their influence and by now had established colonies in Australia. Their offspring became what we today call the Aborigines. The Aborigines had already settled not only the coast of Australia but also well inland by Hosea’s era. I think this is enough to paint the picture I intended. The world did not center around Israel and Judah, except for spiritually. Israel and Judah were but small actors on a very large stage. In fact, in some respects Israel and Judah were not nearly as advanced or influential in their civilization as others in Asia, Western Europe and Northern Africa. What made Israel and Judah at all interesting to other nations was that they had developed some abundant agriculture, their western border was the Mediterranean Sea with several good ports, and a couple of major north-south trade routes (one called the Via Maris and the other The Kings Highway) wound their way through their territory. So, this was the world of Hosea. He would have had knowledge of several of these nations and cultures, and they of his. But one civilization in his region had become the current superpower, and was quite aggressive in their empire building ambitions; this was the Assyrians to Israel’s northeast. This is also the world that the 10 tribes of the Northern Kingdom would be scattered and dispersed into.
Verse 11 of Hosea chapter 5 is speaking of that time when Tiglath-Pileser, King of Assyria, would conquer Ephraim/Israel and the people would be in process of being expelled from their homeland. This is another verse of Hosea that has been very difficult to decipher first because the condition of the oldest manuscripts of Hosea chapter 5 is poor, and because the Hebrew words chosen are themselves challenging to understand. Here’s just a quick sample of attempts to translate this verse to English.
JPS Hosea 5:11 Oppressed is Ephraim, crushed in his right; because he willingly walked after filth.
TNK Hosea 5:11 Ephraim is defrauded, robbed of redress, because he has witlessly Gone after futility
KJV Hosea 5:11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment.
Some of these don’t make a lot of sense to us when we read them and this is because some of the Hebrew words used, and the sentence structure itself, are uncommon. I think from my research the JPS Tanakh version is probably closer to the intent. H. L. Ginsberg renders the verse this way: “Ephraim was defrauded, robbed of redress, because he (meaning Ephraim/Israel) has been a fool; he has followed delusion.” This fits very nicely where the same words are used in a similar sentence structure, or expressing the similar thought, in Leviticus 5, Deuteronomy 28, 1Samuel 12 and Amos 4. So, what do those words actually mean then; that Ephraim was defrauded and robbed of redress? It means that when the time comes that they are exiled, they will not be treated justly, and as an expelled people living as foreigners in gentile nations they will not have the same legal means and protections to have their grievances heard as would the citizens of those various nations. And why is this situation coming about for Israel? The 2nd half of the verse says that Ephraim has been a fool by following a delusion; the delusion no doubt reflecting their trust in the Baals to provide for them (the way Gomer symbolically trusted her lovers). And this due to the hybridized religious system Israel had adopted, which tried to mix pagan elements with their Hebrew faith and the Baals with their Hebrew God, Yehoveh, and think it good and righteous.
Verse 12 says: CJB Hosea 5:12 Therefore I am like a moth to Efrayim and like rottenness to the house of Y'hudah.
This translation is technically correct. However, in modern English what does it mean to be like a moth to Ephraim? Being a moth is an expression; a moth feeds on weakened fabric. So, for a better word picture for us in the 21st century, this would be better rendered: “Therefore I am like rot to Ephraim”. When speaking of Judah, a different Hebrew word is used: raqab. It means decay. Because this verse is written using the common Hebrew literary technique of couplets, which uses slightly different words to express the same thought in two different ways for the sake of drama and thus making it more memorable, then the best way to render this verse is probably: “Therefore I am like rot to Ephraim, and like decay to the house of Judah”. Personally, I think there’s a problem with the way this verse has come down to us, in the same way that this problem also appears in the next verse.
Verse 13, which is connected in thought to verse 12, says: CJB Hosea 5:13 When Efrayim saw his sickness and Y'hudah his wound, Efrayim went to Ashur and sent envoys to a warring king; but he can't heal you or cure your wound.
The events of the time frame that is being envisioned occurred about 740 B.C. There is an immediate and noticeable problem with this verse that also directly affects the preceding verse. It speaks of Ephraim AND Judah together going to Assyria for help. Somewhere along the way an ancient copyist made a mistake or misunderstood and inserted the word Judah where originally the word Israel was written. So, I don’t think the word Judah belongs in either verse 12 or 13. By no means did Judah approach Assyria; only Ephraim/Israel did that. Both of these verses are dealing with Israel running to Assyria for assistance. So, in your Bibles, in verses 12 and 13, cross out Judah and write in “Israel”, which I am quite convinced was the original way it was written.
The terms sickness and wound in verse 13 are connected in meaning to rot and decay in verse 12. There’s a couple of keys to grasping the gravity of this verse. First is that the king of Ephraim/Israel (at that time probably Pekah) went to the king of Assyria and asked to ally with him in order to attack Judah. The CJB uses the term Ashur instead of Assyria and this is correct. Ashur was not the name of the nation, but rather of its god. Ashur and Assyria are directly related but not the same things. A nation and its god were seen in that era as one organic entity. So, Ashur was the god and Assyria his nation. When we see this from Yehoveh’s viewpoint, it of course was the god Ashur that Ephraim was going to seek to help him against Judah. So, while the CJB has that part of the verse correct, the next words “sent envoys to a warring king” are not correct. Notice again the use of a couplet: “Ephraim went to Ashur, sent envoys to a warring king”. The first half of the couplet speaks of the nation’s god, the second half of the nation’s king. The problem in translating is that the Hebrew term melekh yareb isn’t so much about a warring king as it is about a king being a champion. That is, the king is willing to be a patron who champions the cause of someone…usually for profit. Might war be a means of championing a cause? Certainly. But that is incidental to the meaning. The better rendering is “and sent envoys to a patron king”. Let’s reconstruct this verse, then, using modern English meaning to extract its intent. “When Ephraim became aware of his sickness, and Israel of his disease, Ephraim went to Ashur… he sent envoys to a king who might champion his cause, but the king was not able to heal you, nor can he cure you of disease”.
There is a Hebrew expression nahla makkateka that literally says “your wound is sick”. What the expression means, however, is that whether it is a wound or a disease, it is of a very severe nature. This is what is intended with verse 13. Israel’s problems are of the most serious kind, and no human king can solve them no matter how great a champion that king may be to Israel’s cause. And why is this? Verse 14 addresses why the King of Assyria can’t cure Israel of what ails them.
CJB Hosea 5:14 For to Efrayim I will be like a lion, and like a young lion to the house of Y'hudah- I will tear them up and go away; I will carry them off, and no one will rescue.
Before we get into the particulars, the crux of this verse is this: the reason the King of Assyria can’t cure Israel’s disease is because only the God of Israel can do it because the God of Israel is causing it. Here we get something that so greatly bothers Christians. God is saying that on the surface it may appear that He is allowing Assyria to attack Israel (by stepping aside), but in reality He is making it clear that He is directly and actively causing Ephraim’s demise. That is, it is possible for those who claim to worship Him to eventually become so deluded in our beliefs and worship practices that God will act severely against us. Believers: Yeshua did not change this. Indeed, there are times when God steps aside and allows bad things to happen to us; but there are also times that He directly causes bad things to happen to us. That said, when God causes something bad to happen to us (this is what we can rightly call God’s wrath), it is always at the end of a very long road of a series of corrections that we (as an individual or as a nation) have refused to acknowledge, repent, and change. Although it is only my opinion, I think this God-pattern shows us that only in the rarest of occasions does God pour out His wrath on an individual, and more often that He directly pours it out on a nation, communally. But beware: Hosea’s prophecy is revealing an invisible line in the sand that can be crossed, which results in wrath. If I knew exactly where that line was, I’d tell you. What I can tell you, however, is that many years ago my dear departed wife and I began this Torah Class ministry partly because we sensed something sick and wounded in the modern Church, of which we counted ourselves as part, and I still do. It didn’t take too much study to quickly realize how far off course much of the mainstream institutional Church had strayed; mostly by doing exactly what Ephraim/Israel had done. We have intentionally incorporated pagan worship practices into our midst, thinking that if we were to re-purpose these practices into worshipping Yehoveh (and doing it in the name of Jesus), it would somehow become acceptable to The Father. We have also instituted a belief system based mostly on a few letters written by Paul, but that throws out the context for them, which is the Torah and the rest of the Old Testament. Neither science nor government nor social tolerance is going to save us when God from Heaven says “enough!”
Verse 14 again deals with this issue, without doubt, of an ancient copyist replacing the term Israel with the term Judah, likely sometime after Judah was invaded and exiled to Babylon. The subject clearly remains what is going to happen to the Northern Kingdom for its idolatry and for going to the King of Assyria for an alliance. But what of the lion and then the young lion remark? Allow me to de-mythologize something for you. There are a few places in our English Bibles that we’ll see the English terms lion and young lion used together. Here’s the thing: Hebrew has at least 6 words for lion. In fact, Job chapter 4 uses 5 of them. It was David Kimchi in the 13th century who invented this structure for the various meanings of 6 lion terms. He claimed that each word classifies a lion according to its age and size. Thus, the kepir is larger and older than a cub lion (a gur), the youngest and smallest lion. And the aryeh is bigger and older than the kepir. The labi is more developed than the aryeh, and the layis is the oldest and most developed lion. This is completely artificial and has no biblical or historical basis; but it has been adopted and can be found in nearly every English Bible translation. When we get rid of the term “Judah” and reinsert the term “Israel”, then once again the Hebrew literary couplet appears as it is constantly used in Hosea. And when we understand that because the technique was to use two different words with essentially the same meaning to form a couplet, then we can better render the first half of verse 14 as: “Now I shall be like a big lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to the House of Israel”. Big and great are not meant to be taken as meaning a certain size and then an even larger lion. They’re just two terms with the same meaning, but the couplet technique demands that two different Hebrew words be used to pull it off.
The second half of verse 14 begins with an emphatic imperative: ani, ani. In basic Hebrew ani means “I”. Yehoveh is essentially doubling-down on His declaration that Israel is not to look to bad fortune for what will soon befall them. Rather Yehoveh is actively causing it; He’s taking credit for causing their misery. In doing this, He likens Himself to a lion that attacks its prey and carries it off to devour it at his leisure. And who can take this potential meal away from a hungry lion and survive? No one. What will soon befall Israel is disaster; it is unavoidable; God is bringing it about. No mere earthly king is powerful enough to the change the outcome that Yehoveh ordains. These are powerful words and meant to terrify its Israelite hearers.
Verse 15 completes chapter 5. It is:
CJB Hosea 5:15 I will go and return to my place, till they admit their guilt and search for me, seeking me eagerly in their distress."
This is a kind of transitional verse. It sits in the middle between the judgments we’ve just been reading, and the invitation to repent that we find that opens chapter 6. One could almost say that Yehoveh is revealing His strategy to return His people to Him, since restoration has always been the goal. The punishments have been previously laid out, and having done that, God will now “go”. That is, He will no longer be present to help Israel as a national god is expected to do at all times. Instead, He says He will “return to His place”. Where is His place? There are different thoughts about this. Perhaps it means the Temple in Jerusalem; I think it is more likely meaning His throne in Heaven. But the idea is separation. In so many ways, the next step is up to Israel. God is now content to sit back and wait for them. Israel must do 2 things: 1) admit (or acknowledge) their guilt for all the offenses He has accused them. 2) They must work to search for Him, doing so eagerly even though they have found themselves in dire straits.
There is an ongoing implication that for now God is unavailable to Israel. But it is more explicit that even if Hosea immediately transmitted this prophecy and Israel immediately began to respond with contrition, that God would still not forgive or call-off the coming catastrophe. Only after the punishment… only after they are exiled and in the clutches of the governments of the many gentile nations where they’ll be sent… will God finally turn a listening ear to their plight. The idea is that avoidance of disaster, no matter how repentant Israel might be at the moment, is not an option. The line has been crossed and no amount of remorse will stop the impending doom.
CJB Proverbs 1:22-28 22 "How long, you whose lives have no purpose, will you love thoughtless living? How long will scorners find pleasure in mocking? How long will fools hate knowledge? 23 Repent when I reprove- I will pour out my spirit to you, I will make my words known to you. 24 Because you refused when I called, and no one paid attention when I put out my hand, 25 but instead you neglected my counsel and would not accept my reproof; 26 I, in turn, will laugh at your distress, and mock when terror comes over you- 27 yes, when terror overtakes you like a storm and your disaster approaches like a whirlwind, when distress and trouble assail you. 28 Then they will call me, but I won't answer; they will seek me earnestly, but they won't find me.
Let’s read Hosea chapter 6.
READ HOSEA CHAPTER 6 all
“Let us turn back to Yehoveh”. This is a call to repent since turning is what repentance amounts to. However sincere this repentance actually is, is a bit hazy to determine. Essentially this is Israel’s response to all the sobering words that have preceded this verse. But, this response that is spoken of in the form of a song probably belongs to the time of the Latter Days; a generation far beyond Hosea’s and perhaps might be referring to our current generation since the exiles are returning home. Essentially this is what Yehoveh has been waiting to hear. Not all Bible commentators, however, see this as a song of legitimate penitence. Rather some (like William R. Harper) see this declaration of verses 1 -3 as impulsive, insincere and full of pride and hubris. I admit that I can see how someone could come to that conclusion. Yet, in the larger picture, knowing that God’s purpose has always been to return His people to fellowship with Himself, I think it might a bit too harsh to see their statement of repentance as pride and hubris.
Using the metaphor that God has “torn us” connects to the lion metaphor that Yehoveh uses for Himself of stalking and killing his prey. Yes, God will tear, but he is also fully capable to heal that tear. God has struck Israel hard… not just allowed bad things to happen… but with repentance shown to Him, He can also bind the wound that resulted from Israel’s idolatry.
What is more interesting to me is verse 2: CJB Hosea 6:2 After two days, he will revive us; on the third day, he will raise us up; and we will live in his presence. Most any Believer, no matter how new or mature in faith, nearly instantly thinks of Christ dying and then being raised to life on the 3rd day. Fascinatingly, though, nearly every scholarly level commentary I consulted on this verse denied this connection to Jesus. Instead, they insisted that it was merely a Hebrew saying; it was a way of expressing an indeterminate amount of time, and should not be taken literally. Yet, the Jewish scholar Mayer Gruber (not a Believer) wrote this:
“…a closer reading of Hosea 6:2 should reveal that the two parallel numerical terms are not ‘in two days’ time…in three days’ time’…but rather ‘after two days and on the third day’. It follows, therefore, that in Hosea 6:2 we find one of the instances of synonymous parallelism in the most literal sense, which means that ‘after two days and on the third day’ are literally synonymous adverbial phrases fully adumbrating the literal usage reflected in the two New Testament citations quoted by Stuart”.
Here's what this Hebrew Bible scholar said: the two days and on the third day is meant to be taken literally and not symbolically or indefinitely. And, it is undeniable that these words vaguely foreshadow Yeshua of Nazareth dying on the cross and being resurrected on the third day. One has to work awfully hard not to make this connection, which is why I appreciate the works of scholars such as Mayer Gruber. He is an intellectually honest Jewish man. So, while he cannot bring himself to accept that Yeshua is His Savior, He can accept that this prophecy of Hosea probably carries a direct reference to the New Testament Yeshua and, interestingly, it also is expansive enough to incorporate the idea of all the 10 tribes coming to repentance and then being revived (resurrected) as well.
READ EZEKIEL CHAPTER 37:1 – 12
Ezekiel prophesied a little over a hundred years after Hosea, and his main assignment from God was to deal with Judah and their Babylonian exile. And yet this Ezekiel passage is speaking about both houses of Israel: Judah and Ephraim. So, the idea of death and resurrection is clearly present in Hosea 6:2 as it is in Ezekiel chapter 37. How so many Christian Bible scholars can deny this connection to Israel and at the same time to Jesus is baffling.
The final words of verse 2 that are “we will live in His presence” have been variously interpreted but it seems quite plain to me. From the vantage point of the 8th century B.C., when the belief was that Yehoveh was Israel’s national god, and that to be exiled from the land meant they were no longer in His jurisdiction; and along with the comment in 5:15 that “I will go and return to My place”, then clearly separation was the intent. But then to live in His presence meant that Yehoveh had returned to being the national God over the land of Israel, and with Ephraim’s return to their land, now they are back in the territorial jurisdiction of Yehoveh. This isn’t, of course, what God necessarily meant, but the tailoring of the words could mean nothing else to 8th century B.C. Israelites. But, verse 3 actually adds to what it means to be in God’s presence; and it involves something that you may find a bit surprising. The first words of verse 3 are:
CJB Hosea 6:3 Let us know, let us strive to know ADONAI.
I’m going to teach you something that I want you to write in the margins of your Bible, dog ear the page, and then refer to it often. Biblically, to “know” God or to “have knowledge” of God does not mean what it sounds like to our 21st century ears. To us, to know something is to be aware of something by means of our observation or inquiry. It means to have some information about something; or to be able to identify something. If I ask you if you know Jerry, I’m asking if this person is recognizable to you to some degree. To help get my point across, I want to read to you something with which most Christians are familiar: it is from Jeremiah chapter 31.
CJB Jeremiah 31:26-33 26 "Here, the days are coming," says ADONAI, when I will sow the house of Isra'el and the house of Y'hudah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals. 27 At that time, just as I used to watch over them with the intent to uproot, break down, overthrow, destroy and do harm; so, then I will watch over them to build and plant," says ADONAI. 28 "When those days come they will no longer say, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.' 29 Rather, each will die for his own sin; everyone who eats sour grapes, his own teeth will be set on edge. 30 "Here, the days are coming," says ADONAI, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Isra'el and with the house of Y'hudah. 31 It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by their hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt; because they, for their part, violated my covenant, even though I, for my part, was a husband to them," says ADONAI. 32 "For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Isra'el after those days," says ADONAI: "I will put my Torah within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 33 No longer will any of them teach his fellow community member or his brother, 'Know ADONAI'; for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest; because I will forgive their wickedness and remember their sins no more."
You see, we have always taken that mention about a member of the community saying to another person “know Adonai” (know God) as meaning acquiring an awareness of God or perhaps some information about Him. That is not at all what it means. In the biblical era, to know your master or to know your king meant to be obedient and loyal to him. The way we all are to “know” God is be obedient and loyal to Him. Otherwise, most of us could say we “know” Allah, God of Islam, because we are aware of him. To put a yet finer point on it, to know God or to have knowledge of God is a way of saying: “Let us obey Yehoveh by observing His moral law code”. God’s moral law code expresses God’s character and nature. Yehoveh’s moral law code biblically goes by the names The Torah, the Law, and the Covenant of Moses. Israel’s ability to have a relationship with God… and so the ability for a Christian relationship with God… is predicated on one thing alone: covenant. Hosea 6:3 offers a program about how knowing God can come about. Jeremiah makes the process even more clear: God will put the desire within our hearts to strive for a deeper devotion to the Law Covenant (the Torah) as our standard of morality and obedience. This, and nothing else, is what the Bible means by the call to “know God”.
Somehow within Christianity we must recover exactly the same as what Ephraim/Israel lost. It is an understanding that the Law and the Law Giver are organically and forever connected. If we want an intimate relationship with Yehoveh, then we must know the terms of His Covenant of Moses and use those terms as the structure for our morality and our obedience to God. Loving God is not a warm feeling towards Him. Loving God is not having tears running down our faces at the words and melody of a particularly impactful and inspiring worship song. Loving God is being obedient to God, as expressed by His covenant.
It is so very uplifting when we read the final words of verse 3 that Israel knows, deep down, that God’s re-appearance (that is, Israel again living in His presence in the only place it can happen, the Holy Land) is as certain as daybreak. Nothing can stop the earth from turning and the sun from rising, and that is how certain it is that God will take Israel back. God coming again to Israel (and Israel coming again to God) is likened to rain, and to the latter rain. In Hebrew there’s 3 stages of rain; the most spoken of in the Bible are the 1st and 3rd stages that typically are translated as the former rain and the latter rain. Or in Hebrew yoreh and malqos. These rains must come at the appropriate seasonal moments, or crop yields will be small. Just to further make the connection that to know God means to follow His Torah, the promise of rains at the proper times is made in anticipation of repentance and a renewed devotion to His Torah. This refers directly to a Covenant commandment.
CJB Deuteronomy 11:13-15 13 "So if you listen carefully to my mitzvot which I am giving you today, to love ADONAI your God and serve him with all your heart and all your being; 14 then, [says ADONAI,] 'I will give your land its rain at the right seasons, including the early fall rains and the late spring rains; so that you can gather in your wheat, new wine and olive oil; 15 and I will give your fields grass for your livestock; with the result that you will eat and be satisfied.'
We’ll pick up with verse 4 next time.