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THE BOOK OF HOSEA
Lesson 06, Chapters 2 and 3
To this point in Hosea, we have seen God, through The Word that is speaking to Hosea, outline how He is going to deal with Israel… meaning the Northern Kingdom… as a result of their long-term idolatry and an unfaithfulness to Him that is now thoroughly embedded in their society. And yet, at regular intervals He says that after a long time has passed, His anger with Israel will pass and He will restore them to their own land, and to peace with Him. In other words, it’s a bit like punishing your child for their wrongdoing, but at the same time reminding them that you love them and that this discipline they are experiencing hasn’t become a permanent condition. It is temporary and is meant to serve a purpose: to instruct and correct. It is also instinctive in our human nature… it simply the way we are wired… that paying a price for our wrongdoing inherently allows us to feel that we have experienced justice and that we indeed have paid a just price for our guilt. In so many ways, release happens; once that price is paid it is freeing to our spirit, and there is this sense that our wrongdoing and its consequences are behind us, and now we have liberty to move on.
Yehoveh’s intent is for Israel to understand what a drastic mistake they have made in their wrongdoing (which is spoken in terms of breaking their covenant with Him) and to learn from it. He carefully explains to them precisely what they have done so that they don’t have to guess or wonder why catastrophe is going to come upon them. He uses the strange life-drama of Hosea and Gomer to demonstrate it all. God wants Israel to repent and then to return to Him with the intent of once again faithfully keeping the terms of the Covenant of Moses. We must never lose sight of one overriding characteristic of our relationship with God: the way we show love to Him is through our obedience. Obedience is God’s love language.
In chapter 2 verse 16, the just judge announces His sentence upon Israel (Gomer) and amazingly that sentence is that He is going to restore Israel to Himself! Since this is being explained in a very visible, tangible life-drama in the marriage of Hosea and Gomer the language used involves love, broken relationship, adultery, the birth of children, and then reconciliation. These are to be equated to the spiritual reality of God’s undying love of His Hebrew people, their breaking of the Covenant of Moses, committing idolatry by melding in the worship of other gods (the Baal god system) with their worship of Yehoveh, being sent away and into seclusion (that was a rather typical result for a woman who was found to be unfaithful to her husband), and then being wooed to come back to God after they have experienced the just fruits of their unfaithfulness.
To be clear: Hosea is not writing a history; he is writing a prophecy. What he is saying is going to happen, but had not yet happened and in fact not even by the end of his book has the exile of Israel occurred. What we also need to understand is that long before Hosea, this set of circumstances was contemplated and spoken by God of what would happen if Israel were to break the newly minted Covenant that God had made with Israel, with Moses as the Mediator. Therefore, what is about to happen to Israel was announced to their forefathers long ago, while they were still wandering in the wilderness. It is worth our while to read about it in the Torah. Turn your Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 4.
READ DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 4:1 – 31
What we find in Deuteronomy 4:31 is that the mercy God will have upon Israel to eventually restore them to Himself is NOT because of the Covenant of Moses, but rather because of the promise He made in an even more ancient covenant that was given to the forefathers of those who were the refugees from Egypt: The Covenant of Abraham.
There is an important lesson, here, that has been all but lost in the Church. It is that every covenant God has ever made remains intact and operative, and will be so until the current heavens and earth pass away and are replaced with a new Creation. Each new covenant that has come along over the ages was not a replacement for a previous one; it was simply another added in a series of covenants, each enacted for a different purpose. It was an additive, not reductive, process. Thus, as concerns the Christian Church, whatever you take the New Covenant to be, precisely, it certainly did not replace the one (or ones) that came before it. The New Covenant did not replace the Covenant of Moses any more than the Covenant of Moses replaced the Covenant of Abraham. Nor did the Covenant of Abraham replace the Covenant of Noah.
To be clear: the punishment Israel is about to face in their exile from their land is a result of their breaking the terms of the Covenant of Moses. But their eventual restoration to the land and to their God is the result of God’s promise in the Covenant of Abraham.
Let’s read the final verses of Hosea chapter 2.
RE-READ HOSEA CHAPTER 2:16 – end
The CJB translation of verse 16 is not a good one. It obscures some important words. Here is a better one.
NAS Hosea 2:14 "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, Bring her into the wilderness, And speak kindly to her.
To behold means to pay special attention to what follows; because whatever it is, it is important even game changing. The next most important words immediately follow “behold”; they are “I will”. The idea is that what comes next happens is due to the direct intervention of God. In science this is called “cause and effect”. So, the cause of what is about to be declared is Yehoveh. The effect is that God is going to “allure her”. Some Bibles say “woo her”, some say “entice”, one even says “speak coaxingly to her”, and another “seduce”. The Hebrew word is pathah and it can mean pretty much any of these suggested translations. The range of English words used in various Bible versions comes about because of the various ways translators choose to characterize the entire story of Hosea and Gomer. The most typical is of an intense romance, even erotic. The wife somehow goes astray into prostitution, now a prisoner of her decision and regretful. Then her husband who adores her chases after and rescues her from her now terrible condition, forgives her, and carries her back into his home once again making it their home. I think this characterization goes a bit too far and more gets into the popular Hollywood film motif of a man rescuing a prostitute from her preferred profession and turning her into a respectable woman ala Pretty Woman. That is, such a romantic view removes the entire story from the realities of the 8th century B.C. that happens within this ancient Hebrew culture. More it is a matter of restoring favor, and then coaxing Israel to leave behind a very long time of residing in the many gentile nations to which they were scattered, and finally to come back home where they belong. Coaxing it will take because after centuries of being away from their own land, wherever the many remnants of Israel might be will be the only home and the only culture these people will have ever known… for many generations.
An interesting and a bit confusing part of this verse is when it says next that God is going to allure her into the wilderness. Why would He take her to the wilderness? So often we think of the wilderness as a place of barrenness and punishment. And yet that cannot be the meaning because God says that in the wilderness He is going to speak kindly to her. Here the characterization of the wilderness is intended to recall when Israel had been happily rescued from Egypt, and then given God’s covenant, and then of the generally faithful time of obedience and provision that Israel experienced in the original wilderness journey to the Promised Land. So, this return from exile is likened to a kind of repeat of the exodus event in that Israel will be brought back (by an act of God) to the Promised Land, as God’s redeemed people. The time for exile and discipline is over and the time for restoration has arrived.
Verse 17 says that “from there” (in the wilderness) Israel will be given her vineyards. That is, just as Israel was promised vineyards while she was still trekking in the exodus wilderness, so likewise when Israel is finally wooed home, already God will have ordained and set aside vineyards for His returning people (His returning wife, symbolically speaking). The mention of the Akhor Valley as a gateway to hope is part of that promise and is a play on words. The Akhor Valley is an actual place in Israel, located a few miles north of Jericho. Akhor is Hebrew for “trouble” or “affliction”. So, what had been the valley of trouble and affliction for Israel will be divinely transformed to a valley of hope. The final part of this verse then cements the connection between what God plans to do for Israel with their former escape from Egypt. Referring to the wilderness experience as when she was “in her youth” means that immediately after God had formed the covenant relationship with Israel, it was as though she was the equivalent of a toddler just beginning to learn God’s ways.
Think of it this way: how do we as parents treat a toddler? Do we expect as much from the very young as we do from the older children or the mature adults? Thus, we don’t demand much precision of obedience or nuance of understanding from the young, although we demand much more of the more mature. God, in some ways, will be starting all over again with Israel. They will be returned to the land without much knowledge of God or His ways, and so they will have to be re-educated (so to speak). Thus, the Lord will be loving, gentle and patient on Israel’s journey towards restoration. Yet in time, Israel will be expected to toe the mark and properly obey the Covenant of Moses. What I just described is a biblically defined God-pattern that we need to have hammered into our memories. God won’t overload us with expectations and demands when we first come to know Him. Easy at first, then gradually with more teaching the expectations upon us rise until they finally reach the summit of full understanding of God’s covenants and along with it, full obedience. With that bit of information, I want us to detour for just a minute to address one of the most misunderstood sections of the New Testament that has led so many Christians into some false conceptions of what God’s expectations of us actually are.
CJB Acts 15:13-20 13 Ya'akov broke the silence to reply. "Brothers," he said, "hear what I have to say. 14 Shim'on has told in detail what God did when he first began to show his concern for taking from among the Goyim a people to bear his name. 15 And the words of the Prophets are in complete harmony with this for it is written, 16 '"After this, I will return; and I will rebuild the fallen tent of David. I will rebuild its ruins, I will restore it, 17 so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, that is, all the Goyim who have been called by my name," 18 says ADONAI, who is doing these things.' All this has been known for ages. 19 "Therefore, my opinion is that we should not put obstacles in the way of the Goyim who are turning to God. 20 Instead, we should write them a letter telling them to abstain from things polluted by idols, from fornication, from what is strangled and from blood.
This Bible portion is known as the Jerusalem Council. Notice how Ya’akov (usually called James by Christians) directly refers to the Prophets predicting that David’s tent will be rebuilt and restored. David’s tent meant that his dynasty would somehow, divinely, be restored and resurrected, and the one who will occupy the throne will rule over a restored Kingdom of Israel. This mysterious person from David’s line was thought to be the Messiah, and the restoration was still future for them because Israel at this time (the 10 tribes) was still in exile. Therefore, since it was believed by James that his half-brother Jesus was the Messiah, and yet the Kingdom had not been restored, then however this was to come about was still in the future. And, in making a comparison to this very well-known reality to the Jews, James says that in this same way gentiles who are but toddlers in their learning about the God of Israel and salvation in Yeshua shouldn’t immediately have all the Torah requirements placed upon them as though they were like Hebrews that have been the Covenant people for centuries. Can you see how well this connects to the thought of Hosea 2:17? How this God-pattern never changes? The gentiles who accept Christ will be “young” just like Israel was “young” out in the wilderness. This toddler (my word) will have only basic and fairly easy to do requirements placed upon them for the time being, because that’s about the best that can be expected at such an early stage of their development. But it goes without saying that you can’t become part of the Covenant people and not eventually be expected to mature and to fully obey the Covenant just as does Israel.
Back to Hosea. Verse 18 begins with the words: “On that day”. “That day” is the common term in the Old Testament that is approximately equivalent to “The Day of the Lord”. It is term that indicates the End Times… the Latter Days. It doesn’t refer to a precise date… a single day… you can circle on a calendar; it is speaking of an era. So now we understand that when this wooing home and restoration of Israel occurs, it will be far into the future from Hosea’s time and is essentially what modern Christianity would call an End Times prophecy.
I want to also use this to demonstrate something else. The verse says “On that day says the Lord” or in the CJB, “says Adonai”. That is NOT what the original Hebrew Scripture actually says. It says, literally, “On that day says Yehoveh”. Over 6000 times in the Old Testament we read God’s name Yehoveh in the Hebrew. But in our English Bibles we’d be lucky to find it 10 times. All other times the words “Lord” or “God” are substituted. Why would translators do something like that? The claim is that it has to do with the Jews ceasing to say or write God’s name starting around the late 4th century B.C. That’s difficult to buy since Christianity long ago separated itself from anything Jewish. So why would gentile Christians remove what is clearly there (God’s name) and instead insert the rather generic term “Lord”? It is simply a Christian tradition to do it this way, which no doubt stems from not wanting to acknowledge God’s formal name. Most often, to Christians, the term “the Lord” is meant as Jesus Christ. And thus, when we see the word “Lord” even in the Old Testament it can create an inference to Christ, or at best make the meaning murky. Beginning with the Roman Church of the 4th century, institutional gentile Christianity has attempted to relegate The Father (Yehoveh) to an association with a people of the past. So, this God of the past and this people of the past have faded away to obscurity and given way to Jesus and the Christian Church. This erroneous belief greatly affects the way we read and understand the Bible.
Next there are some interesting words that many Bible interpreters have for well over a century claimed are not original but rather are a much later addition called a gloss (even though the oldest Bible manuscripts contain these words so the only hard evidence we have actually disproves that claim). Those words are: “You will call me Ishi, and no longer will you call Me Baali”. Some, like the CJB, will go on to say in brackets that Baali means My Master. Technically it is true that Baali can mean My Master, but much more commonly it means My Lord. Ishi means husband in Hebrew. So, the verse more literally translated to English is “You will call me husband, and no longer will you call me My Lord”. So, let’s put this verse back together as it is originally given to us. “And it will come about on that day, says Yehoveh, that you will call me husband and no longer will you call Me My Lord”. In fact, the scholarly Young’s Literal Translation Bible says exactly that. So today, just like in the 8th century B.C., the term lord as it refers to a god can be misused. For us it is not a misuse that confuses the pagan with the biblical but rather it is a misuse that can confuse between 2 persons of God: The Father and The Son.
The intent of this odd statement from God is to say that in the future all this confusion between He as Israel’s legitimate God, versus Baal and the illegitimate Baal god system, will come to an end. Does anyone in this world still worship Baal? Especially the 21st century Israelites, in whatever nation they might reside in this day and time? The point is not the name of the pagan god, it is the syncretism between pagan and biblical. I’ve spent much time in scores of lessons in Torah Class explaining a hard reality. It is that from their earliest beginning, the Hebrews have struggled with idolatry as they tended to introduce other gods into their Hebrew faith and at the same time moved steadily to accept much manmade doctrine and tradition that doesn’t accurately reflect the truth of the Holy Scriptures; Christianity has done the same. This illicit mixing has gone on for so many centuries that adherents of both Judaism and Christianity assume that the way we practice our faith must be correct and so react quite defensively when challenged about it. Therefore, no matter how many pagan elements have obviously been woven-in over the centuries, these elements have (as I have been informed on several occasions) “been baptized by Jesus” so it’s ok. Not according to God is it ok.
When God finally determines that the time for Israel to return home is here, He will begin to teach them who He is and un-confuse them. We can be certain that this will be a long process because right now, in the early part of the 21st century, the 10 tribes of the former Northern Kingdom are returning home to the reborn nation of Israel in ever increasing numbers. But, either paganism or atheism during their long exile has replaced a pure worship. So, this cleansing and restoration are nowhere near complete. Even so, it has begun and it would seem that we have, therefore, entered into what this verse describes as “On that day”.
Verse 20 explains the new and restored conditions Israel will operate under. God will make a covenant with Israel that establishes a kind of peace between them and the animal kingdom. This is in response to what God spoke of earlier in order to punish Israel.
CJB Hosea 2:14 I will ravage her vines and fig trees, of which she says, 'These are my wages that my lovers have given me.' But I will turn them into a forest, and wild animals will eat them.
In verse 14 Yehoveh said He would turn the animal kingdom into an enemy of Israel that would devour what forest and field normally provide. So, restoration includes a resumption of the divine harmony with nature that had worked in Israel’s favor for so long. Saying that God will break bow and sword means the end of war in the Holy Land. With the end of war, Israel will now be able to rest securely. So, this era ends the centuries-long strife between Israel and nature, and between Israel and the gentile world. When the Bible speaks of covenant making it is either an agreement between humans, or in Israel’s case it can be an agreement between God and His chosen. Here, however, much like with Noah’s Covenant that promises that nature won’t flood the earth and destroy all human life ever again, so God makes a covenant with certain parts of His Creation. This covenant represents a reversal of the curses that God has been inflicting upon Israel; the curses spelled out in Deuteronomy and in this prophecy of Hosea.
Verses 21 and 22 operate together and are really a single unified statement, not 2 as the verse numbering system makes it appear. These statements are once again couched in symbolic marriage terms, in order to keep within the motif of the playing out of the Hosea/Gomer life-drama. We are told that God will betroth Israel to Himself and this will be a forever arrangement. The basis of this betrothal, the underlying terms of the symbolic marriage contract if you would, will be righteousness, judgment, in grace, and in compassion. Or in Hebrew, tzedek, mishpat, chesed, and ruchamah. Verse 22 adds to this betrothal basis faithfulness, or in Hebrew emunah. While Hosea and Gomer’s betrothal was real and literal, God’s betrothal to Israel is figurative and only meant to draw an illustration to help our understanding. Hosea’s Hebrew readers would understand this a little better than we do. It is common in modern times to equate betrothal with engagement; biblically there is no such thing as engagement… it is a Western concept. Engagement is but a statement of intent that is not binding. Betrothal was not only binding, it had almost all the legal authority of marriage. Once a betrothal took place, a marriage contract was drawn up, agreed to by the groom and by the bride’s father, and a dowry price was paid. Typically for around 30 days the bride would continue to live with her father. Then at an agreed to time, the father would deliver his daughter to her new husband, and transfer authority over her to the husband. The final step to sealing the marriage was consummation.
The final words of verse 22 add one more element of restoration… it is another blessing: “And you shall know Adonai (or God, or The Lord depending on your Bible version).” Once again none of these are correct. The original Hebrew says: “And you shall know Yehoveh”. The constant drumbeat of repeating God’s name is not mysterious; it is done because in the ancient world of lots of gods, each having a name, Israel’s God is also only identifiable by name. Thus, there need be no guesswork about who is Israel’s God; He is the only God with the name Yehoveh.
Verses 23 and 24 are another unified thought that should never have been separated with verse numbers. These words can be hard to understand especially when the word “answer” is chosen as a translation for the Hebrew anah. While “answer” is correct, the word that makes more sense in modern English is respond. For instance, to answer a threat means to respond to a threat. So here God is responding to this betrothal by once again giving Israel produce from orchard, vine, and field. We notice this progression of heavens (meaning the sky), earth (meaning soil), and finally grain, wine and oil. Keep in mind that God is wooing Israel back from the Baal gods that were wrongly thanked for rain, fertility, and food. So, what is being pictured here is the entire cycle of agriculture with God as its cause. Now, also, the mention of Jezreel is turned on its head. Jezreel was used earlier in Hosea to remind Israel of the murder and bloodshed that took place in the city of Jezreel. Upon this future restoration, Jezreel reassumes it’s meaning of a blessing (God sows).
The climax of this long story of redemption and restoration for Israel in verse 25 is that the symbolic names for Hosea and Gomer’s children are also turned on their heads. Jezreel now means God sows in a positive sense; God will now have pity upon those for whom He refused to have pity (Lo-Ruchamah becomes Ruchamah); and those He considered not His people (Lo-Ammi), will now be considered His people once again (Ammi). This entire scenario of curse that eventually leads to restoration and redemption for Israel appears in others of the Prophets. There is no better example than the last few verses of Ezekiel 37.
CJB Ezekiel 37:21-28 21 Then say to them that Adonai ELOHIM says: 'I will take the people of Isra'el from among the nations where they have gone and gather them from every side and bring them back to their own land. 22 I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Isra'el; and one king will be king for all of them. They will no longer be two nations, and they will never again be divided into two kingdoms. 23 "'They will never again defile themselves with their idols, their detestable things, or any of their transgressions; but I will save them from all the places where they have been living and sinning; and I will cleanse them, so that they will be my people, and I will be their God. 24 My servant David will be king over them, and all of them will have one shepherd; they will live by my rulings and keep and observe my regulations. 25 They will live in the land I gave to Ya'akov my servant, where your ancestors lived; they will live there- they, their children, and their grandchildren, forever; and David my servant will be their leader forever. 26 I will make a covenant of peace with them, an everlasting covenant. I will give to them, increase their numbers, and set my sanctuary among them forever. 27 My home will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people. 28 The nations will know that I am ADONAI, who sets Isra'el apart as holy, when my sanctuary is with them forever.'"
Gentile Christians, understand that your future is entirely wrapped up in Israel’s future. If God is done with Israel, He’s also done with you. Our good fortune is that God is done with neither. He has great things being prepared for all of us who worship Him in love and in truth. But, these good things are still ahead of us and not behind us. Let’s move on to Hosea chapter 3.
READ HOSEA CHAPTER 3 all
After chapter 1 we have heard no more of the name Gomer. Because of the way chapter 2 reads, there is no ambiguity that the woman and wife remain as Gomer. But chapter 3 presents a problem. The scene changes in a couple of important ways. First, the identity of the woman becomes more ambiguous, and second is that we have Hosea speaking in the first person: I, me. This leads to all kinds of conjecture, all of which is opinion and none can be proved.
Verse 1 opens with an instruction from Yehoveh. And, once again, Bible translators simply ignore God’s name that is written in the original Scripture and instead substitute the word Lord or as in the CJB, Adonai (Hebrew for “lord”). Yehoveh’s instruction is to Hosea and it is this: Go again and love a woman. The CJB takes many liberties with this verse and assumes much that isn’t actually written there by suggesting that it should read “ADONAI said to me, "Go once more, and show love to [this] wife [of yours]. Adding the words “this” and “of yours” is how the editor chooses to explain his viewpoint. Although I agree with his viewpoint, I can’t hold with adding words that aren’t there to justify it. The word that most Bibles will translate as “woman” (show love to a woman), is ishshah and it can mean either woman or wife. Notice the relationship; it is automatically assumed that a wife is a woman, and that a women will be a wife. And by assuming that the article before the word “woman” is “a” and not “the” then it makes identifying this woman a bit more challenging. So, is this still Gomer? If it is not, who else could it be? There is nothing that directly suggests that a second woman is contemplated.
The verse says outright that this woman is committing adultery; something that Gomer is likened to be doing (symbolically) in earlier chapters. The act of adultery can only happen within the bounds of marriage. This unnamed woman that begins this chapter can’t commit adultery if she isn’t already married. So, while we can’t say with 100% certainty that this woman is Gomer, it is probably better to demand evidence that it is someone else rather than the other way around. For our study, I’m going to assume she is Gomer because I’m convinced that’s who she is. Here’s the thing; as we discussed in an earlier lesson, too many Bible interpreters want to create a detailed biography for Hosea that isn’t there. The issue at hand isn’t the details of Hosea’s life; the issue is the meaning of the symbolism. So, it’s the woman’s situation (her predicament?) that is the point because that’s what the symbolism is all about; Gomer (the woman) equals Israel.
Continuing, the verse says that this woman Hosea is to love has a boyfriend, or a lover, or a paramour depending on how one wants to translate the Hebrew rea. Clearly this woman is committing adultery with this rea. That second half of verse 1 explains exactly what this new act of Hosea as regards this woman is to symbolize:
CJB Hos. 3:1b … just as ADONAI loves the people of Isra'el, even though they turn to other gods and love the raisin cakes [offered to them]
So, Hosea in doing this act is in symbolic imitation of God loving the people of Israel… a people who are committing adultery with other gods. Adultery among humans is therefore equated to idolatry as concerns Israel’s behavior towards God. Adultery is unfaithfulness in what is supposed to be an exclusive relationship between husband and wife, and so idolatry is unfaithfulness in what is supposed to be an exclusive relationship between God and His people. As Douglas Stewart so well puts it in his commentary on Hosea:
“Yehoveh’s love for Israel is noble, unselfish, generous, and protective. Israel’s love for its raisin cakes and the adulteress’s love for evil are selfish, indulgent, and pleasure-oriented”
Gomer doesn’t deserve Hosea’s love; just as Israel doesn’t deserve God’s love. Nonetheless God gives her that love. And even in Israel’s coming exile, that love never diminishes. Therefore, in verse 2 we have a price being paid for the restoration of the adulteress (the idolaters, Israel). But the price isn’t paid by the unfaithful partner, but rather by the faithful one. Here we have another God-pattern. Fellow unfaithful ones, neither have we paid the price for our restoration; it is the Faithful One we have sinned against who makes payment on our behalf.
NAS John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
There has always been much debate and conjecture about this price that Hosea paid: 15 shekels of silver and 8 bushels of barley. Who did he pay the money to? Some Bible commentators say it was to a man that was essentially her Pimp. Others say she had become a slave and so was purchased back from her master for that sum. And yet others that she was living with this boyfriend and so it was a kind of bribe to get him to let her go. I can’t go along with any of these suggestions, although it isn’t possible to absolutely rule any of them out. Rather I see this payment to no one in particular as a second bride-price that represents restoration of marriage into a new condition. Gomer was already Hosea’s wife, now with this new bride-price she is symbolic of a renewed wife. I think this fits with the idea of God paying a bride-price as symbolic of Israel that was already His wife (symbolically), but will in time become a renewed wife (a renewed Israel). It is important to keep at the forefront of our minds that this entire story is all about creating symbolism to send a message. Thus, we must not get focused on tiny details; nor should we try to see this within the precise bounds of how Hebrew marriage works, etc. It is quite similar to how Believers are characterized as being “new creations”. We are in a sense, but not in every sense. And probably, a better way to characterize that meaning is that we are “renewed creations”. The bottom line is that Hosea recovered and restored his wife Gomer from her adulterous condition, and it cost him to do it. And this is symbolic of God paying a price to recover and restore Israel… when the time comes.
We’ll begin in verse 3 next time.