Aug 18 - Jeremiah 9-11
Jeremiah
1Oh, that my head were a spring of water and my eyes a fountain of tears! I would weep day and night for the slain of my people.2Oh, that I had in the desert a lodging place for travelers, so that I might leave my people and go away from them; for they are all adulterers, a crowd of unfaithful people.3"They make ready their tongue like a bow, to shoot lies; it is not by truth that they triumph in the land. They go from one sin to another; they do not acknowledge me," declares the LORD.4"Beware of your friends; do not trust your brothers. For every brother is a deceiver, and every friend a slanderer.5Friend deceives friend, and no one speaks the truth. They have taught their tongues to lie; they weary themselves with sinning.6You live in the midst of deception; in their deceit they refuse to acknowledge me," declares the LORD.7Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: "See, I will refine and test them, for what else can I do because of the sin of my people?8Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks with deceit. With his mouth each speaks cordially to his neighbor, but in his heart he sets a trap for him.9Should I not punish them for this?" declares the LORD. "Should I not avenge myself on such a nation as this?"10I will weep and wail for the mountains and take up a lament concerning the desert pastures. They are desolate and untraveled, and the lowing of cattle is not heard. The birds of the air have fled and the animals are gone.11"I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a haunt of jackals; and I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there."12What man is wise enough to understand this? Who has been instructed by the LORD and can explain it? Why has the land been ruined and laid waste like a desert that no one can cross?13The LORD said, "It is because they have forsaken my law, which I set before them; they have not obeyed me or followed my law.14Instead, they have followed the stubbornness of their hearts; they have followed the Baals, as their fathers taught them."15Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: "See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water.16I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will pursue them with the sword until I have destroyed them."17This is what the LORD Almighty says: "Consider now! Call for the wailing women to come; send for the most skillful of them.18Let them come quickly and wail over us till our eyes overflow with tears and water streams from our eyelids.19The sound of wailing is heard from Zion: 'How ruined we are! How great is our shame! We must leave our land because our houses are in ruins.'"20Now, O women, hear the word of the LORD; open your ears to the words of his mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail; teach one another a lament.21Death has climbed in through our windows and has entered our fortresses; it has cut off the children from the streets and the young men from the public squares.22Say, "This is what the LORD declares: "'The dead bodies of men will lie like refuse on the open field, like cut grain behind the reaper, with no one to gather them.'"23This is what the LORD says: "Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches,24but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight," declares the LORD.25"The days are coming," declares the LORD, "when I will punish all who are circumcised only in the flesh-26Egypt, Judah, Edom, Ammon, Moab and all who live in the desert in distant places. For all these nations are really uncircumcised, and even the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart."
1Hear what the LORD says to you, O house of Israel.2This is what the LORD says: "Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them.3For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.4They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.5Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good."6No one is like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is mighty in power.7Who should not revere you, O King of the nations? This is your due. Among all the wise men of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.8They are all senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols.9Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz. What the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed in blue and purple- all made by skilled workers.10But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King. When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath.11"Tell them this: 'These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.'"12But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.13When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.14Everyone is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. His images are a fraud; they have no breath in them.15They are worthless, the objects of mockery; when their judgment comes, they will perish.16He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things, including Israel, the tribe of his inheritance- the LORD Almighty is his name.17Gather up your belongings to leave the land, you who live under siege.18For this is what the LORD says: "At this time I will hurl out those who live in this land; I will bring distress on them so that they may be captured."19Woe to me because of my injury! My wound is incurable! Yet I said to myself, "This is my sickness, and I must endure it."20My tent is destroyed; all its ropes are snapped. My sons are gone from me and are no more; no one is left now to pitch my tent or to set up my shelter.21The shepherds are senseless and do not inquire of the LORD; so they do not prosper and all their flock is scattered.22Listen! The report is coming- a great commotion from the land of the north! It will make the towns of Judah desolate, a haunt of jackals.23I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps.24Correct me, LORD, but only with justice- not in your anger, lest you reduce me to nothing.25Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the peoples who do not call on your name. For they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him completely and destroyed his homeland.
1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:2"Listen to the terms of this covenant and tell them to the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem.3Tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'Cursed is the man who does not obey the terms of this covenant-4the terms I commanded your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.' I said, 'Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God.5Then I will fulfill the oath I swore to your forefathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey'-the land you possess today." I answered, "Amen, LORD."6The LORD said to me, "Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: 'Listen to the terms of this covenant and follow them.7From the time I brought your forefathers up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, "Obey me."8But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.'"9Then the LORD said to me, "There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem.10They have returned to the sins of their forefathers, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken the covenant I made with their forefathers.11Therefore this is what the LORD says: 'I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.12The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes.13You have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah; and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.'14"Do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress.15"What is my beloved doing in my temple as she works out her evil schemes with many? Can consecrated meat avert your punishment? When you engage in your wickedness, then you rejoice. "16The LORD called you a thriving olive tree with fruit beautiful in form. But with the roar of a mighty storm he will set it on fire, and its branches will be broken.17The LORD Almighty, who planted you, has decreed disaster for you, because the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done evil and provoked me to anger by burning incense to Baal.18Because the LORD revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing.19I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying, "Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more."20But, O LORD Almighty, you who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you I have committed my cause.21"Therefore this is what the LORD says about the men of Anathoth who are seeking your life and saying, 'Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD or you will die by our hands'-22therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: 'I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine.23Not even a remnant will be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.'"