Shabbat Shuvah

Shabbat Shuvah Posted On Jan 1, 1980 | Haftarah Reading
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This translation was taken from the JPS Tanakh

Hosea 14:2-10; Micah 7:18-20; Joel 2:15-27

Hosea 14

2 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God,
For you have fallen because of your sin.
3 Take words with you
And return to the Lord.
Say to Him:
“Forgive all guilt
And accept what is good;
Instead of bulls we will pay
[The offering of] our lips.
4 Assyria shall not save us,
No more will we ride on steeds;
Nor ever again will we call
Our handiwork our god,
Since in You alone orphans find pity!”

5 I will heal their affliction,
Generously will I take them back in love;
For My anger has turned away from them.
6 I will be to Israel like dew;
He shall blossom like the lily,
He shall strike root like a Lebanon tree.
7 His boughs shall spread out far,
His beauty shall be like the olive tree’s,
His fragrance like that of Lebanon.
8 They who sit in his shade shall be revived:
They shall bring to life new grain,
They shall blossom like the vine;
His scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
9 Ephraim [shall say]:
“What more have I to do with idols?
When I respond and look to Him,
I become like a verdant cypress.”
Your fruit is provided by Me.

10 He who is wise will consider these words,
He who is prudent will take note of them.
For the paths of the Lord are smooth;
The righteous can walk on them,
While sinners stumble on them.

Micah 7

18 Who is a God like You,
Forgiving iniquity
And remitting transgression;
Who has not maintained His wrath forever
Against the remnant of His own people,
Because He loves graciousness!
19 He will take us back in love;
He will cover up our iniquities,
You will hurl all our sins
Into the depths of the sea.
20 You will keep faith with Jacob,
Loyalty to Abraham,
As You promised on oath to our fathers
In days gone by.
Sepharadim end here

Joel 2

15 Blow a horn in Zion,
Solemnize a fast,
Proclaim an assembly!
16 Gather the people,
Bid the congregation purify themselves.
Bring together the old,
Gather the babes
And the sucklings at the breast;
Let the bridegroom come out of his chamber,
The bride from her canopied couch.
17 Between the portico and the altar,
Let the priests, the Lord’s ministers, weep
And say:
“Oh, spare Your people, Lord!
Let not Your possession become a mockery,
To be taunted by nations!
Let not the peoples say,
‘Where is their God?'”

18 Then the Lord was roused
On behalf of His land
And had compassion
Upon His people.
19 In response to His people
The Lord declared:
“I will grant you the new grain,
The new wine, and the new oil,
And you shall have them in abundance.
Nevermore will I let you be
A mockery among the nations.
20 I will drive the northerner far from you,
I will thrust it into a parched and desolate land — 
Its van to the Eastern Sea
And its rear to the Western Sea;
And the stench of it shall go up,
And the foul smell rise.”
For [the Lord] shall work great deeds.

21 Fear not, O soil, rejoice and be glad;
For the Lord has wrought great deeds.
22 Fear not, O beasts of the field,
For the pastures in the wilderness
Are clothed with grass.
The trees have borne their fruit;
Fig tree and vine
Have yielded their strength.
23 O children of Zion, be glad,
Rejoice in the Lord your God.
For He has given you the early rain in [His] kindness,
Now He makes the rain fall [as] formerly — 
The early rain and the late — 
24 And threshing floors shall be piled with grain,
And vats shall overflow with new wine and oil.

25 “I will repay you for the years
Consumed by swarms and hoppers,
By grubs and locusts,
The great army I let loose against you.
26 And you shall eat your fill
And praise the name of the Lord your God
Who dealt so wondrously with you — 
My people shall be shamed no more.
27 And you shall know
That I am in the midst of Israel:
That I the Lord am your God
And there is no other.
And My people shall be shamed no more.”


Taken from Tanakh, The Holy Scriptures, (Philadelphia, Jerusalem: Jewish Publication Society) 1985.
Used by permission of The Jewish Publication Society. Copyright © 1962, 1992
Third Edition by the Jewish Publication Society.
No part of this text can be reproduced or forwarded without written permission.
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