Nowata Methodists Podcast

Join me as I cover another five chapters of Ezekiel and another psalm. The Lord is today called “the Rock that is higher than I.” May we all come to know the Living Lord who sits enthroned in the highest heavens! Someday the skies will be rolled back as a scroll and all that is now hidden will be made evident for all to see. Many on that day will wail for how they have lived. May such wailing be far from us who have heeded the Word of the Lord!

Ezekiel 11

Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the gate of the house of the LORD that faces east. And there at the entrance of the gate were twenty-five men. Among them I saw Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, who were leaders of the people.

And the LORD said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who plot evil and give wicked counsel in this city. They are saying, ‘Is not the time near to build houses? The city is the cooking pot, and we are the meat.’

Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, O son of man!”

And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me and told me to declare that this is what the LORD says: “That is what you are thinking, O house of Israel; and I know the thoughts that arise in your minds.

You have multiplied those you killed in this city and filled its streets with the dead.

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: The slain you have laid within this city are the meat, and the city is the pot; but I will remove you from it.

You fear the sword, so I will bring the sword against you, declares the Lord GOD.

I will bring you out of the city and deliver you into the hands of foreigners, and I will execute judgments against you.

You will fall by the sword, and I will judge you even to the borders of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

The city will not be a pot for you, nor will you be the meat within it. I will judge you even to the borders of Israel.

Then you will know that I am the LORD. For you have neither followed My statutes nor practiced My ordinances, but you have conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.”

Now as I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell facedown and cried out in a loud voice, “Oh, Lord GOD, will You bring the remnant of Israel to a complete end?”

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“Son of man, your brothers—your relatives, your fellow exiles, and the whole house of Israel—are those of whom the people of Jerusalem have said, ‘They are far away from the LORD; this land has been given to us as a possession.’

Therefore declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Although I sent them far away among the nations and scattered them among the countries, yet for a little while I have been a sanctuary for them in the countries to which they have gone.’

Therefore declare that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries to which you have been scattered, and I will give back to you the land of Israel.’

When they return to it, they will remove all its detestable things and all its abominations.

And I will give them singleness of heart and put a new spirit within them; I will remove their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh,

so that they may follow My statutes, keep My ordinances, and practice them. Then they will be My people, and I will be their God.

But as for those whose hearts pursue detestable things and abominations, I will bring their conduct down upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.”

Then the cherubim, with the wheels beside them, spread their wings, and the glory of the God of Israel was above them.

And the glory of the LORD rose up from within the city and stood over the mountain east of the city.

And the Spirit lifted me up and carried me back to Chaldea, to the exiles in the vision given by the Spirit of God. After the vision had gone up from me,

I told the exiles everything the LORD had shown me.

Ezekiel 12

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, you are living in a rebellious house. They have eyes to see but do not see, and ears to hear but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house.

Therefore, son of man, pack your bags for exile. In broad daylight, set out from your place and go to another as they watch. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house.

Bring out your baggage for exile by day, as they watch. Then in the evening, as they watch, go out like those who go into exile.

As they watch, dig through the wall and carry your belongings out through it.

And as they watch, lift your bags to your shoulder and take them out at dusk; cover your face so that you cannot see the land. For I have made you a sign to the house of Israel.”

So I did as I was commanded. I brought out my bags for exile by day, and in the evening I dug through the wall by hand. I took my belongings out at dusk, carrying them on my shoulder as they watched.

And in the morning the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, hasn’t the rebellious house of Israel asked you, ‘What are you doing?’

Tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel who are there.’

You are to say, ‘I am a sign to you.’ Just as it happened here, so will it be done to them; they will go into exile as captives.

And at dusk the prince among them will lift his bags to his shoulder and go out. They will dig through the wall to bring him out. He will cover his face so he cannot see the land.

But I will spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans; yet he will not see it, and there he will die.

And I will scatter to every wind all the attendants around him and all his troops, and I will draw a sword to chase after them.

And they will know that I am the LORD, when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them throughout the countries.

But I will spare a few of them from sword and famine and plague, so that in the nations to which they go, they can recount all their abominations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”

Moreover, the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, eat your bread with trembling, and drink your water with quivering and anxiety.

Then tell the people of the land that this is what the Lord GOD says about those living in Jerusalem and in the land of Israel: ‘They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water in dread, for their land will be stripped of everything in it because of the violence of all who dwell in it.

The inhabited cities will be laid waste, and the land will become desolate. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ ”

Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel:

‘The days go by,

and every vision fails’?

Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will put an end to this proverb, and in Israel they will no longer recite it.’

But say to them: ‘The days are at hand when every vision will be fulfilled.

For there will be no more false visions or flattering divinations within the house of Israel,

because I, the LORD, will speak whatever word I speak, and it will be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak a message and bring it to pass, declares the Lord GOD.’ ”

Furthermore, the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“Son of man, take note that the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he sees is for many years from now; he prophesies about the distant future.’

Therefore tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘None of My words will be delayed any longer. The message I speak will be fulfilled, declares the Lord GOD.’ ”

Ezekiel 13

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who are now prophesying. Tell those who prophesy out of their own imagination: Hear the word of the LORD!

This is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit, yet have seen nothing. Your prophets, O Israel, are like foxes among the ruins.

You did not go up to the gaps or restore the wall around the house of Israel so that it would stand in the battle on the Day of the LORD.

They see false visions and speak lying divinations. They claim, ‘Thus declares the LORD,’ when the LORD did not send them; yet they wait for the fulfillment of their message.

Haven’t you seen a false vision and spoken a lying divination when you proclaim, ‘Thus declares the LORD,’ even though I have not spoken?

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: Because you have uttered vain words and seen false visions, I am against you, declares the Lord GOD.

My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and speak lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of My people or be recorded in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.

Because they have led My people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and whitewashing any flimsy wall that is built,

tell those whitewashing the wall that it will fall. Rain will come in torrents, I will send hailstones plunging down, and a windstorm will burst forth.

Surely when the wall has fallen, you will not be asked, ‘Where is the whitewash with which you covered it?’

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: In My wrath I will release a windstorm, and in My anger torrents of rain and hail will fall with destructive fury.

I will tear down the wall you whitewashed and level it to the ground, so that its foundation is exposed. The city will fall, and you will be destroyed within it. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

And after I have vented My wrath against the wall and against those who whitewashed it, I will say to you: ‘The wall is gone, and so are those who whitewashed it—

those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw a vision of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Lord GOD.’

Now, O son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy out of their own imagination. Prophesy against them

and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: Woe to the women who sew magic charms on their wrists and make veils for the heads of people of every height, in order to ensnare their souls. Will you ensnare the souls of My people but preserve your own?

You have profaned Me among My people for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. By lying to My people who would listen, you have killed those who should not have died and spared those who should not have lived.

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: See, I am against the magic charms with which you ensnare souls like birds, and I will tear them from your arms. So I will free the souls you have ensnared like birds.

I will also tear off your veils and deliver My people from your hands, so that they will no longer be prey in your hands. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

Because you have disheartened the righteous with your lies, even though I have caused them no grief, and because you have encouraged the wicked not to turn from their evil ways to save their lives,

therefore you will no longer see false visions or practice divination. I will deliver My people from your hands. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”

Ezekiel 14

Then some of the elders of Israel came and sat down before me. And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I consult with them in any way?

Therefore speak to them and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face, and then comes to the prophet, I the LORD will answer him according to his great idolatry,

so that I may take hold of the hearts of the people of Israel. For because of their idols, they are all estranged from Me.’

Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Repent and turn away from your idols; turn your faces away from all your abominations.

For when any Israelite or any foreigner dwelling in Israel separates himself from Me, sets up idols in his heart, and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face, and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me, I the LORD will answer him Myself.

I will set My face against that man and make him a sign and a proverb; I will cut him off from among My people. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

But if the prophet is enticed to speak a message, then it was I the LORD who enticed him, and I will stretch out My hand against him and destroy him from among My people Israel.

They will bear their punishment—the punishment of the inquirer will be the same as that of the prophet—

in order that the house of Israel may no longer stray from Me and no longer defile themselves with all their transgressions. Then they will be My people and I will be their God, declares the Lord GOD.’ ”

And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“Son of man, if a land sins against Me by acting unfaithfully, and I stretch out My hand against it to cut off its supply of food, to send famine upon it, and to cut off from it both man and beast,

then even if these three men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were in it, their righteousness could deliver only themselves, declares the Lord GOD.

Or if I send wild beasts through the land to leave it childless and desolate, with no man passing through it for fear of the beasts,

then as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, even if these three men were in it, they could not deliver their own sons or daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate.

Or if I bring a sword against that land and say, ‘Let a sword pass through it,’ so that I cut off from it both man and beast,

then as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, even if these three men were in it, they could not deliver their own sons or daughters. They alone would be delivered.

Or if I send a plague into that land and pour out My wrath upon it through bloodshed, cutting off from it both man and beast,

then as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they could not deliver their own sons or daughters. Their righteousness could deliver only themselves.

For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘How much worse will it be when I send against Jerusalem My four dire judgments—sword, famine, wild beasts, and plague—in order to cut off from it both man and beast?

Yet, behold, some survivors will be left in it—sons and daughters who will be brought out. They will come out to you, and when you see their conduct and actions, you will be comforted regarding the disaster I have brought upon Jerusalem—all that I have brought upon it.

They will bring you consolation when you see their conduct and actions, and you will know that it was not without cause that I have done all these things within it,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

Ezekiel 15

Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, how does the wood of the vine surpass any other branch among the trees in the forest?

Can wood be taken from it to make something useful? Or can one make from it a peg on which to hang utensils?

No, it is cast into the fire for fuel. The fire devours both ends, and the middle is charred. Can it be useful for anything?

Even when it was whole, it could not be made useful. How much less can it ever be useful when the fire has consumed it and charred it!

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the people of Jerusalem.

And I will set My face against them. Though they may have escaped the fire, yet another fire will consume them. And when I set My face against them, you will know that I am the LORD.

Thus I will make the land desolate, because they have acted unfaithfully,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

Psalm 61

Hear my cry, O God;

attend to my prayer.

From the ends of the earth I call out to You

whenever my heart is faint.

Lead me to the rock

that is higher than I.

For You have been my refuge,

a tower of strength against the enemy.

Let me dwell in Your tent forever

and take refuge in the shelter of Your wings.

Selah

For You have heard my vows, O God;

You have given me the inheritance

reserved for those who fear Your name.

Increase the days of the king’s life;

may his years span many generations.

May he sit enthroned in God’s presence forever;

appoint Your loving devotion

and Your faithfulness to guard him.

Then I will ever sing praise to Your name

and fulfill my vows day by day.

Weeping for Tammuz and bowing down to the sun are two specific instances of idolatry that Ezekiel was granted a vision of seeing in God’s Temple, on top of a vision of a bunch of creepy crawlies in the midst of that holy edifice. Another prophet commissioned to pronounce God’s destruction on that idolatrous and disobedient people. We might feel like we have gotten enough of that. The reason so much of this prophecy is to be found in our scriptures is because we can never really hear too much of it…

Ezekiel 6

And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Son of man, set your face against the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

You are to say: ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! This is what the Lord GOD says to the mountains and hills, to the ravines and valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

Your altars will be demolished and your incense altars will be smashed; and I will cast down your slain before your idols.

I will lay the corpses of the Israelites before their idols and scatter your bones around your altars.

Wherever you live, the cities will be laid waste and the high places will be demolished, so that your altars will be laid waste and desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works blotted out.

The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.

Yet I will leave a remnant, for some of you will escape the sword when you are scattered among the nations and throughout the lands.

Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.

And they will know that I am the LORD; I did not declare in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.

This is what the Lord GOD says: Clap your hands, stomp your feet, and cry out “Alas!” because of all the wicked abominations of the house of Israel, who will fall by sword and famine and plague.

He who is far off will die by the plague, he who is near will fall by the sword, and he who remains will die by famine. So I will vent My fury upon them.

Then you will know that I am the LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and leafy oak—the places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.

I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD.’ ”

Ezekiel 7

And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “O son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel:

‘The end! The end has come

upon the four corners of the land.

The end is now upon you,

and I will unleash My anger against you.

I will judge you according to your ways

and repay you for all your abominations.

I will not look on you with pity,

nor will I spare you,

but I will punish you for your ways

and for the abominations among you.

Then you will know that I am the LORD.’

This is what the Lord GOD says:

‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster —

behold, it is coming!

The end has come!

The end has come!

It has roused itself against you.

Behold, it has come!

Doom has come to you,

O inhabitants of the land.

The time has come;

the day is near;

there is panic on the mountains

instead of shouts of joy.

Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you

and vent My anger against you;

I will judge you according to your ways

and repay you for all your abominations.

I will not look on you with pity,

nor will I spare you,

but I will punish you for your ways

and for the abominations among you.

Then you will know that it is I, the LORD,

who strikes the blow.

Behold, the day is here!

It has come!

Doom has gone out,

the rod has budded,

arrogance has bloomed.

Their violence has grown into a rod

to punish their wickedness.

None of them will remain:

none of their multitude,

none of their wealth,

and nothing of value.

The time has come;

the day has arrived.

Let the buyer not rejoice

and the seller not mourn,

for wrath is upon the whole multitude.

The seller will surely not recover what he sold

while both remain alive.

For the vision concerning the whole multitude

will not be revoked,

and because of their iniquity,

not one of them will preserve his life.

They have blown the trumpet

and made everything ready,

but no one goes to war,

for My wrath is upon the whole multitude.

The sword is outside;

plague and famine are within.

Those in the country will die by the sword,

and those in the city will be devoured

by famine and plague.

The survivors will escape

and live in the mountains,

moaning like doves of the valley,

each for his own iniquity.

Every hand will go limp,

and every knee will turn to water.

They will put on sackcloth,

and terror will overwhelm them.

Shame will cover all their faces,

and all their heads will be shaved.

They will throw their silver into the streets,

and their gold will seem unclean.

Their silver and gold cannot save them

in the day of the wrath of the LORD.

They cannot satisfy their appetites

or fill their stomachs with wealth,

for it became the stumbling block

that brought their iniquity.

His beautiful ornaments

they transformed into pride

and used them to fashion

their vile images and detestable idols.

Therefore I will make these

into something unclean for them.

And I will hand these things over

as plunder to foreigners

and loot to the wicked of the earth,

who will defile them.

I will turn My face away from them,

and they will defile My treasured place.

Violent men will enter it,

and they will defile it.

Forge the chain,

for the land is full of crimes of bloodshed,

and the city is full of violence.

So I will bring the most wicked of nations

to take possession of their houses.

I will end the pride of the mighty,

and their holy places will be profaned.

Anguish is coming!

They will seek peace, but find none.

Disaster upon disaster will come,

and rumor after rumor.

Then they will seek a vision from a prophet,

but instruction from the priests will perish,

as will counsel from the elders.

The king will mourn,

the prince will be clothed with despair,

and the hands of the people of the land will tremble.

I will deal with them according to their conduct,

and I will judge them by their own standards.

Then they will know that I am the LORD.’ ”

Ezekiel 8

In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me.

Then I looked and saw a figure like that of a man. From His waist down His appearance was like fire, and from His waist up He was as bright as the gleam of amber.

He stretched out what looked like a hand and took me by the hair of my head. Then the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and carried me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes jealousy was seated.

And there I saw the glory of the God of Israel, like the vision I had seen in the plain. “Son of man,” He said to me, “now lift up your eyes to the north.”

So I lifted up my eyes to the north, and in the entrance north of the Altar Gate I saw this idol of jealousy.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what they are doing—the great abominations that the house of Israel is committing—to drive Me far from My sanctuary? Yet you will see even greater abominations.”

Then He brought me to the entrance to the court, and I looked and saw a hole in the wall.

“Son of man,” He told me, “dig through the wall.”

So I dug through the wall and discovered a doorway.

Then He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations they are committing here.”

So I went in and looked, and engraved all around the wall was every kind of crawling creature and detestable beast, along with all the idols of the house of Israel.

Before them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’ ”

Again, He told me, “You will see them committing even greater abominations.”

Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Yet you will see even greater abominations than these.”

So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the abominations they are practicing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and continually provoke Me to anger? Look, they are even putting the branch to their nose!

Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”

Ezekiel 9

Then I heard Him call out in a loud voice, saying, “Draw near, O executioners of the city, each with a weapon of destruction in hand.”

And I saw six men coming from the direction of the Upper Gate, which faces north, each with a weapon of slaughter in his hand. With them was another man clothed in linen who had a writing kit at his side. And they came in and stood beside the bronze altar.

Then the glory of the God of Israel rose from above the cherubim, where it had been, and moved to the threshold of the temple. And He called to the man clothed in linen who had the writing kit at his side.

“Go throughout the city of Jerusalem,” said the LORD, “and put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over all the abominations committed there.”

And as I listened, He said to the others, “Follow him through the city and start killing; do not show pity or spare anyone!

Slaughter the old men, the young men and maidens, the women and children; but do not go near anyone who has the mark. Now begin at My sanctuary.”

So they began with the elders who were before the temple.

Then He told them, “Defile the temple and fill the courts with the slain. Go forth!”

So they went out and began killing throughout the city.

While they were killing, I was left alone. And I fell facedown and cried out, “Oh, Lord GOD, when You pour out Your wrath on Jerusalem, will You destroy the entire remnant of Israel?”

He replied, “The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. The land is full of bloodshed, and the city is full of perversity. For they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land; the LORD does not see.’

But as for Me, I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. I will bring their deeds down upon their own heads.”

Then the man clothed in linen with the writing kit at his side reported back, “I have done as You commanded.”

Ezekiel 10

And I looked and saw above the expanse, above the heads of the cherubim, the likeness of a throne of sapphire.

And the LORD said to the man clothed in linen, “Go inside the wheelwork beneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from among the cherubim and scatter them over the city.” And as I watched, he went in.

Now when the man went in, the cherubim were standing on the south side of the temple, and a cloud filled the inner court.

Then the glory of the LORD rose from above the cherubim and stood over the threshold of the temple. The temple was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the LORD.

The sound of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks.

When the LORD commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from within the wheelwork, from among the cherubim,” the man went in and stood beside a wheel.

Then one of the cherubim reached out his hand and took some of the fire that was among them. And he put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who received it and went out.

(The cherubim appeared to have the form of human hands under their wings.)

Then I looked and saw four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub. And the wheels gleamed like a beryl stone.

As for their appearance, all four had the same form, like a wheel within a wheel.

When they moved, they would go in any of the four directions, without turning as they moved. For wherever the head faced, the cherubim would go in that direction, without turning as they moved.

Their entire bodies, including their backs, hands, and wings, were full of eyes all around, as were their four wheels. I heard the wheels being called “the whirling wheels.”

Each of the cherubim had four faces: the first face was that of a cherub, the second that of a man, the third that of a lion, and the fourth that of an eagle.

Then the cherubim rose upward. These were the living creatures I had seen by the River Kebar.

When the cherubim moved, the wheels moved beside them, and even when they spread their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels did not veer away from their side.

When the cherubim stood still, the wheels also stood still, and when they ascended, the wheels ascended with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

Then the glory of the LORD moved away from the threshold of the temple and stood above the cherubim.

As I watched, the cherubim lifted their wings and rose up from the ground, with the wheels beside them as they went. And they stopped at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the LORD, with the glory of the God of Israel above them.

These were the living creatures I had seen beneath the God of Israel by the River Kebar, and I knew that they were cherubim.

Each had four faces and four wings, with what looked like human hands under their wings.

Their faces looked like the faces I had seen by the River Kebar. Each creature went straight ahead.

Proverbs 27

Do not boast about tomorrow,

for you do not know what a day may bring.

Let another praise you, and not your own mouth—

a stranger, and not your own lips.

A stone is heavy and sand is a burden,

but aggravation from a fool outweighs them both.

Wrath is cruel and anger is like a flood,

but who can withstand jealousy?

Better an open rebuke

than love that is concealed.

The wounds of a friend are faithful,

but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

The soul that is full loathes honey,

but to a hungry soul, any bitter thing is sweet.

Like a bird that strays from its nest

is a man who wanders from his home.

Oil and incense bring joy to the heart,

and the sweetness of a friend is counsel to the soul.

Do not forsake your friend or your father’s friend,

and do not go to your brother’s house

in the day of your calamity;

better a neighbor nearby

than a brother far away.

Be wise, my son, and bring joy to my heart,

so that I can answer him who taunts me.

The prudent see danger and take cover;

but the simple keep going and pay the penalty.

Take the garment of him who posts security for a stranger;

get collateral if it is for a foreigner.

If one blesses his neighbor with a loud voice early in the morning,

it will be counted to him as a curse.

A constant dripping on a rainy day

and a contentious woman are alike—

restraining her is like holding back the wind

or grasping oil with one’s right hand.

As iron sharpens iron,

so one man sharpens another.

Whoever tends a fig tree will eat its fruit,

and he who looks after his master will be honored.

As water reflects the face,

so the heart reflects the true man.

Sheol and Abaddon are never satisfied;

so the eyes of man are never satisfied.

A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold,

but a man is tested by the praise accorded him.

Though you grind a fool like grain with mortar and a pestle,

yet his folly will not depart from him.

Be sure to know the state of your flocks,

and pay close attention to your herds;

for riches are not forever,

nor does a crown endure to every generation.

When hay is removed and new growth appears

and the grain from the hills is gathered,

the lambs will provide you with clothing,

and the goats with the price of a field.

You will have plenty of goats’ milk to feed you—

food for your household

and nourishment for your maidservants.

Today we begin Ezekiel with a beatific vision of God on his mobile throne. Ezekiel is called by God to give his message to a people he already knows will not listen. There is some wisdom there. We then encounter a message of truth that is hard to swallow. Ezekiel doesn’t let up. It is a hard book. Gird up yourselves for this final major prophet. God is good, even if his Word is sometimes quite difficult to absorb. These things are too wonderful for us! The Lord grant you spiritual insight through the Holy Spirit.

Ezekiel 1

In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month, while I was among the exiles by the River Kebar, the heavens opened and I saw visions of God.

On the fifth day of the month—it was the fifth year of the exile of King Jehoiachin—

the word of the LORD came directly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the River Kebar. And there the LORD’s hand was upon him.

I looked and saw a whirlwind coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing back and forth and brilliant light all around it. In the center of the fire was a gleam like amber,

and within it was the form of four living creatures.

And this was their appearance: They had a human form, but each had four faces and four wings.

Their legs were straight, and the soles of their feet were like the hooves of a calf, gleaming like polished bronze.

Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four living creatures had faces and wings,

and their wings were touching one another. They did not turn as they moved; each one went straight ahead.

The form of their faces was that of a man, and each of the four had the face of a lion on the right side, the face of an ox on the left side, and also the face of an eagle.

Such were their faces.

Their wings were spread upward; each had two wings touching the wings of the creature on either side, and two wings covering its body.

Each creature went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they moved.

In the midst of the living creatures was the appearance of glowing coals of fire, or of torches. Fire moved back and forth between the living creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it.

The creatures were darting back and forth as quickly as flashes of lightning.

When I looked at the living creatures, I saw a wheel on the ground beside each creature with its four faces.

The workmanship of the wheels looked like the gleam of beryl, and all four had the same likeness. Their workmanship looked like a wheel within a wheel.

As they moved, they went in any of the four directions, without pivoting as they moved. Their rims were high and awesome, and all four rims were full of eyes all around.

So as the living creatures moved, the wheels moved beside them, and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose.

Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise alongside them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

When the creatures moved, the wheels moved; when the creatures stood still, the wheels stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose alongside them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels.

Spread out above the heads of the living creatures was the likeness of an awesome expanse, gleaming like crystal.

And under the expanse, their wings stretched out toward one another. Each one also had two wings covering its body.

When the creatures moved, I heard the sound of their wings like the roar of many waters, like the voice of the Almighty, like the tumult of an army.

When they stood still, they lowered their wings.

And there came a voice from above the expanse over their heads as they stood still with their wings lowered.

Above the expanse over their heads was the likeness of a throne with the appearance of sapphire, and on the throne high above was a figure like that of a man.

From what seemed to be His waist up, I saw a gleam like amber, with what looked like fire within it all around. And from what seemed to be His waist down, I saw what looked like fire; and brilliant light surrounded Him.

The appearance of the brilliant light all around Him was like that of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell facedown and heard a voice speaking.

Ezekiel 2

“Son of man,” He said to me, “stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” And as He spoke to me, the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and I heard Him speaking to me.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me. To this very day they and their fathers have rebelled against Me.

They are obstinate and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you are to say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’

And whether they listen or refuse to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them.

But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns surround you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their presence, though they are a rebellious house.

But speak My words to them, whether they listen or refuse to listen, for they are rebellious.

And you, son of man, listen to what I tell you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you.”

Then I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me, and in it was a scroll,

which He unrolled before me. And written on the front and back of it were words of lamentation, mourning, and woe.

Ezekiel 3

“Son of man,” He said to me, “eat what you find here. Eat this scroll, then go and speak to the house of Israel.”

So I opened my mouth, and He fed me the scroll.

“Son of man,” He said to me, “eat and fill your stomach with this scroll I am giving you.”

So I ate, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

Then He said to me, “Son of man, go now to the house of Israel and speak My words to them.

For you are not being sent to a people of unfamiliar speech or difficult language, but to the house of Israel—

not to the many peoples of unfamiliar speech and difficult language whose words you cannot understand. Surely if I had sent you to them, they would have listened to you.

But the house of Israel will be unwilling to listen to you, since they are unwilling to listen to Me. For the whole house of Israel is hard-headed and hard-hearted.

Behold, I will make your face as hard as their faces, and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.

I will make your forehead like a diamond, harder than flint. Do not be afraid of them or dismayed at their presence, even though they are a rebellious house.”

“Son of man,” He added, “listen carefully to all the words I speak to you, and take them to heart.

Go to your people, the exiles; speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ whether they listen or refuse to listen.”

Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me: ‘Blessed be the glory of the LORD in His dwelling place!’

It was the sound of the wings of the living creatures brushing against one another and the sound of the wheels beside them, a great rumbling sound.

So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in the anger of my spirit, with the strong hand of the LORD upon me.

I came to the exiles at Tel-abib who dwelt by the River Kebar. And for seven days I sat where they sat and remained there among them, overwhelmed.

At the end of seven days the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from My mouth, give them a warning from Me.

If I say to the wicked man, ‘You will surely die,’ but you do not warn him or speak out to warn him from his wicked way to save his life, that wicked man will die in his iniquity, and I will hold you responsible for his blood.

But if you warn a wicked man and he does not turn from his wickedness and his wicked way, he will die in his iniquity, but you will have saved yourself.

Now if a righteous man turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die. If you did not warn him, he will die in his sin, and the righteous acts he did will not be remembered. And I will hold you responsible for his blood.

But if you warn the righteous man not to sin, and he does not sin, he will indeed live because he heeded your warning, and you will have saved yourself.”

And there the hand of the LORD was upon me, and He said to me, “Get up, go out to the plain, and there I will speak with you.”

So I got up and went out to the plain, and behold, the glory of the LORD was present there, like the glory I had seen by the River Kebar, and I fell facedown.

Then the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet. He spoke with me and said, “Go, shut yourself inside your house.

And you, son of man, they will tie with ropes, and you will be bound so that you cannot go out among the people.

I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, and you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, though they are a rebellious house.

But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you are to tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’ Whoever listens, let him listen; and whoever refuses, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.

Ezekiel 4

“Now you, son of man, take a brick, place it before you, and draw on it the city of Jerusalem.

Then lay siege against it: Construct a siege wall, build a ramp to it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams around it on all sides.

Then take an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between yourself and the city. Turn your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This will be a sign to the house of Israel.

Then lie down on your left side and place the iniquity of the house of Israel upon yourself. You are to bear their iniquity for the number of days you lie on your side.

For I have assigned to you 390 days, according to the number of years of their iniquity. So you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

When you have completed these days, lie down again, but on your right side, and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah. I have assigned to you 40 days, a day for each year.

You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it.

Now behold, I will tie you up with ropes so you cannot turn from side to side until you have finished the days of your siege.

But take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them in a single container and make them into bread for yourself. This is what you are to eat during the 390 days you lie on your side.

You are to weigh out twenty shekels of food to eat each day, and you are to eat it at set times.

You are also to measure out a sixth of a hin of water to drink, and you are to drink it at set times.

And you shall eat the food as you would a barley cake, after you bake it over dried human excrement in the sight of the people.”

Then the LORD said, “This is how the Israelites will eat their defiled bread among the nations to which I will banish them.”

“Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “I have never defiled myself. From my youth until now I have not eaten anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts. No unclean meat has ever entered my mouth.”

“Look,” He replied, “I will let you use cow dung instead of human excrement, and you may bake your bread over that.”

Then He told me, “Son of man, I am going to cut off the supply of food in Jerusalem. They will anxiously eat bread rationed by weight, and in despair they will drink water by measure.

So they will lack food and water; they will be appalled at the sight of one another wasting away in their iniquity.

Ezekiel 5

“As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as a barber’s razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a set of scales and divide the hair.

When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.

But you are to take a few strands of hair and secure them in the folds of your garment.

Again, take a few of these, throw them into the fire, and burn them. From there a fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.

This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This is Jerusalem, which I have set in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

But she has rebelled against My ordinances more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes worse than the countries around her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.’

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You have been more insubordinate than the nations around you; you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances, nor have you even conformed to the ordinances of the nations around you.’

Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Behold, I Myself am against you, Jerusalem, and I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.

Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and will never do again.

As a result, fathers among you will eat their sons, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your remnant to every wind.’

Therefore as surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable idols and abominations, I Myself will withdraw My favor; I will not look upon you with pity, nor will I spare you.

A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken.

I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

So you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.

When I shower you with the deadly arrows of famine and destruction that I will send to destroy you, I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of food.

I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.”

Psalm 60

You have rejected us, O God;

You have broken us;

You have been angry;

restore us!

You have shaken the land

and torn it open.

Heal its fractures,

for it is quaking.

You have shown Your people hardship;

we are staggered from the wine You made us drink.

You have raised a banner for those who fear You,

that they may flee the bow.

Selah

Respond and save us with Your right hand,

that Your beloved may be delivered.

God has spoken from His sanctuary:

“I will triumph!

I will parcel out Shechem

and apportion the Valley of Succoth.

Gilead is Mine, and Manasseh is Mine;

Ephraim is My helmet, Judah is My scepter.

Moab is My washbasin;

upon Edom I toss My sandal;

over Philistia I shout in triumph.”

Who will bring me to the fortified city?

Who will lead me to Edom?

Have You not rejected us, O God?

Will You no longer march out, O God, with our armies?

Give us aid against the enemy,

for the help of man is worthless.

With God we will perform with valor,

and He will trample our enemies.

"For through the grace given to me I say to each one among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound thinking, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body and all the members do not have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another, but having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us: whether prophecy, in agreement with the faith; or service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching; or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with generosity; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.Let love be without hypocrisy—by abhorring what is evil, clinging to what is good." - Romans 12:3-9 (LSB)

This week is part 5 of our series on the doctrine of repentance. In this sermon we focus on the hatred someone should have for their sin.

Lamentations is a reflection on the fate of Jerusalem and the Judean people after the Exile was effected by Babylon. We have read multiple accounts of this transpired in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Isaiah, and Jeremiah. Most recently, Jeremiah detailed the rebellious hearts of that final generation that sinned so wickedly. It is one thing to say that judgment was deserved; it is another thing altogether to read the details of how it was that the people were so badly punished. It is truly uncomfortable to consider God’s agency in what transpired in the ruin of Jerusalem. To imagine that we can so offend the Lord as to move him to surround himself with an impenetrable cloud, through which no prayer can pass. To think that God can cause such utter devastation as to remove all food, all love—all that remains is cold suffering. Let us flee to the feet of our Savior! I don’t want to live outside of right relationship with him. The price is far too high. In his embrace are pleasures forevermore!

Lamentations 1

How lonely lies the city,

once so full of people!

She who was great among the nations

has become a widow.

The princess of the provinces

has become a slave.

She weeps aloud in the night,

with tears upon her cheeks.

Among all her lovers

there is no one to comfort her.

All her friends have betrayed her;

they have become her enemies.

Judah has gone into exile

under affliction and harsh slavery;

she dwells among the nations

but finds no place to rest.

All her pursuers have overtaken her

in the midst of her distress.

The roads to Zion mourn,

because no one comes to her appointed feasts.

All her gates are deserted;

her priests groan,

her maidens grieve,

and she herself is bitter with anguish.

Her foes have become her masters;

her enemies are at ease.

For the LORD has brought her grief

because of her many transgressions.

Her children have gone away

as captives before the enemy.

All the splendor has departed

from the Daughter of Zion.

Her princes are like deer

that find no pasture;

they lack the strength to flee

in the face of the hunter.

In the days of her affliction and wandering

Jerusalem remembers all the treasures

that were hers in days of old.

When her people fell into enemy hands

she received no help.

Her enemies looked upon her,

laughing at her downfall.

Jerusalem has sinned greatly;

therefore she has become an object of scorn.

All who honored her now despise her,

for they have seen her nakedness;

she herself groans and turns away.

Her uncleanness stains her skirts;

she did not consider her end.

Her downfall was astounding;

there was no one to comfort her.

Look, O LORD, on my affliction,

for the enemy has triumphed!

The adversary has seized

all her treasures.

For she has seen the nations

enter her sanctuary—

those You had forbidden

to enter Your assembly.

All her people groan

as they search for bread.

They have traded their treasures for food

to keep themselves alive.

Look, O LORD, and consider,

for I have become despised.

Is this nothing to you, all you who pass by?

Look around and see!

Is there any sorrow like mine,

which was inflicted on me,

which the LORD made me suffer

on the day of His fierce anger?

He sent fire from on high,

and it overpowered my bones.

He spread a net for my feet

and turned me back.

He made me desolate,

faint all the day long.

My transgressions are bound into a yoke,

knit together by His hand;

they are draped over my neck,

and the Lord has broken my strength.

He has delivered me into the hands

of those I cannot withstand.

The Lord has rejected

all the mighty men in my midst;

He has summoned an army against me

to crush my young warriors.

Like grapes in a winepress,

the Lord has trampled the Virgin Daughter of Judah.

For these things I weep;

my eyes flow with tears.

For there is no one nearby to comfort me,

no one to revive my soul.

My children are destitute

because the enemy has prevailed.

Zion stretches out her hands,

but there is no one to comfort her.

The LORD has decreed against Jacob

that his neighbors become his foes.

Jerusalem has become

an unclean thing among them.

The LORD is righteous,

for I have rebelled against His command.

Listen, all you people;

look upon my suffering.

My young men and maidens

have gone into captivity.

I called out to my lovers,

but they have betrayed me.

My priests and elders

perished in the city

while they searched for food

to keep themselves alive.

See, O LORD, how distressed I am!

I am churning within;

my heart is pounding within me,

for I have been most rebellious.

Outside, the sword bereaves;

inside, there is death.

People have heard my groaning,

but there is no one to comfort me.

All my enemies have heard of my trouble;

they are glad that You have caused it.

May You bring the day You have announced,

so that they may become like me.

Let all their wickedness come before You,

and deal with them

as You have dealt with me

because of all my transgressions.

For my groans are many,

and my heart is faint.

Lamentations 2

How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion

with the cloud of His anger!

He has cast the glory of Israel

from heaven to earth.

He has abandoned His footstool

in the day of His anger.

Without pity the Lord has swallowed up

all the dwellings of Jacob.

In His wrath He has demolished

the fortified cities of the Daughter of Judah.

He brought to the ground and defiled

her kingdom and its princes.

In fierce anger He has cut off

every horn of Israel

and withdrawn His right hand

at the approach of the enemy.

He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire

that consumes everything around it.

He has bent His bow like an enemy;

His right hand is positioned.

Like a foe He has killed

all who were pleasing to the eye;

He has poured out His wrath like fire

on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.

The Lord is like an enemy;

He has swallowed up Israel.

He has swallowed up all her palaces

and destroyed her strongholds.

He has multiplied mourning and lamentation

for the Daughter of Judah.

He has laid waste His tabernacle like a garden booth;

He has destroyed His place of meeting.

The LORD has made Zion forget

her appointed feasts and Sabbaths.

In His fierce anger

He has despised both king and priest.

The Lord has rejected His altar;

He has abandoned His sanctuary;

He has delivered the walls of her palaces

into the hand of the enemy.

They have raised a shout in the house of the LORD

as on the day of an appointed feast.

The LORD determined to destroy

the wall of the Daughter of Zion.

He stretched out a measuring line

and did not withdraw His hand from destroying.

He made the ramparts and walls lament;

together they waste away.

Her gates have sunk into the ground;

He has destroyed and shattered their bars.

Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations,

the law is no more,

and even her prophets

find no vision from the LORD.

The elders of the Daughter of Zion

sit on the ground in silence.

They have thrown dust on their heads

and put on sackcloth.

The young women of Jerusalem

have bowed their heads to the ground.

My eyes fail from weeping;

I am churning within.

My heart is poured out in grief

over the destruction of the daughter of my people,

because children and infants faint

in the streets of the city.

They cry out to their mothers:

“Where is the grain and wine?”

as they faint like the wounded

in the streets of the city,

as their lives fade away

in the arms of their mothers.

What can I say for you?

To what can I compare you,

O Daughter of Jerusalem?

To what can I liken you,

that I may console you,

O Virgin Daughter of Zion?

For your wound is as deep as the sea.

Who can ever heal you?

The visions of your prophets

were empty and deceptive;

they did not expose your guilt

to ward off your captivity.

The burdens they envisioned for you

were empty and misleading.

All who pass by

clap their hands at you in scorn.

They hiss and shake their heads

at the Daughter of Jerusalem:

“Is this the city that was called

the perfection of beauty,

the joy of all the earth?”

All your enemies

open their mouths against you.

They hiss and gnash their teeth,

saying, “We have swallowed her up.

This is the day for which we have waited.

We have lived to see it!”

The LORD has done what He planned;

He has accomplished His decree,

which He ordained in days of old;

He has overthrown you without pity.

He has let the enemy gloat over you

and exalted the horn of your foes.

The hearts of the people

cry out to the Lord.

O wall of the Daughter of Zion,

let your tears run down like a river

day and night.

Give yourself no relief,

and your eyes no rest.

Arise, cry out in the night

from the first watch of the night.

Pour out your heart like water

in the presence of the Lord.

Lift up your hands to Him

for the lives of your children

who are fainting from hunger

on the corner of every street.

Look, O LORD, and consider:

Whom have You ever treated like this?

Should women eat their offspring,

the infants they have nurtured?

Should priests and prophets be killed

in the sanctuary of the Lord?

Both young and old lie together

in the dust of the streets.

My young men and maidens

have fallen by the sword.

You have slain them in the day of Your anger;

You have slaughtered them without compassion.

You summoned my attackers on every side,

as for the day of an appointed feast.

In the day of the LORD’s anger

no one escaped or survived;

my enemy has destroyed

those I nurtured and reared.

Lamentations 3

I am the man who has seen affliction

under the rod of God’s wrath.

He has driven me away and made me walk

in darkness instead of light.

Indeed, He keeps turning His hand

against me all day long.

He has worn away my flesh and skin;

He has shattered my bones.

He has besieged me and surrounded me

with bitterness and hardship.

He has made me dwell in darkness

like those dead for ages.

He has walled me in so I cannot escape;

He has weighed me down with chains.

Even when I cry out and plead for help,

He shuts out my prayer.

He has barred my ways with cut stones;

He has made my paths crooked.

He is a bear lying in wait,

a lion hiding in ambush.

He forced me off my path and tore me to pieces;

He left me without help.

He bent His bow

and set me as the target for His arrow.

He pierced my kidneys

with His arrows.

I am a laughingstock to all my people;

they mock me in song all day long.

He has filled me with bitterness;

He has intoxicated me with wormwood.

He has ground my teeth with gravel

and trampled me in the dust.

My soul has been deprived of peace;

I have forgotten what prosperity is.

So I say, “My strength has perished,

along with my hope from the LORD.”

Remember my affliction and wandering,

the wormwood and the gall.

Surely my soul remembers

and is humbled within me.

Yet I call this to mind,

and therefore I have hope:

Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed,

for His mercies never fail.

They are new every morning;

great is Your faithfulness!

“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,

“therefore I will hope in Him.”

The LORD is good to those who wait for Him,

to the soul who seeks Him.

It is good to wait quietly

for the salvation of the LORD.

It is good for a man to bear the yoke

while he is still young.

Let him sit alone in silence,

for God has disciplined him.

Let him bury his face in the dust—

perhaps there is still hope.

Let him offer his cheek to the one who would strike him;

let him be filled with reproach.

For the Lord will not

cast us off forever.

Even if He causes grief, He will show compassion

according to His abundant loving devotion.

For He does not willingly afflict

or grieve the sons of men.

To crush underfoot

all the prisoners of the land,

to deny a man justice

before the Most High,

to subvert a man in his lawsuit—

of these the Lord does not approve.

Who has spoken and it came to pass,

unless the Lord has ordained it?

Do not both adversity and good

come from the mouth of the Most High?

Why should any mortal man complain,

in view of his sins?

Let us examine and test our ways,

and turn back to the LORD.

Let us lift up our hearts and hands

to God in heaven:

“We have sinned and rebelled;

You have not forgiven.”

You have covered Yourself in anger and pursued us;

You have killed without pity.

You have covered Yourself with a cloud

that no prayer can pass through.

You have made us scum and refuse

among the nations.

All our enemies

open their mouths against us.

Panic and pitfall have come upon us—

devastation and destruction.

Streams of tears flow from my eyes

over the destruction of the daughter of my people.

My eyes overflow unceasingly,

without relief,

until the LORD

looks down from heaven and sees.

My eyes bring grief to my soul

because of all the daughters of my city.

Without cause my enemies

hunted me like a bird.

They dropped me alive into a pit

and cast stones upon me.

The waters flowed over my head,

and I thought I was going to die.

I called on Your name, O LORD,

out of the depths of the Pit.

You heard my plea:

“Do not ignore my cry for relief.”

You drew near when I called on You;

You said, “Do not be afraid.”

You defend my cause, O Lord;

You redeem my life.

You have seen, O LORD, the wrong done to me;

vindicate my cause!

You have seen all their malice,

all their plots against me.

O LORD, You have heard their insults,

all their plots against me—

the slander and murmuring of my assailants

against me all day long.

When they sit and when they rise,

see how they mock me in song.

You will pay them back what they deserve, O LORD,

according to the work of their hands.

Put a veil of anguish over their hearts;

may Your curse be upon them!

You will pursue them in anger and exterminate them

from under Your heavens, O LORD.

Lamentations 4

How the gold has become tarnished,

the pure gold has become dull!

The gems of the temple lie scattered

on every street corner.

How the precious sons of Zion,

once worth their weight in pure gold,

are now esteemed as jars of clay,

the work of a potter’s hands!

Even jackals offer their breasts

to nurse their young,

but the daughter of my people has become cruel,

like an ostrich in the wilderness.

The nursing infant’s tongue

clings in thirst to the roof of his mouth.

Little children beg for bread,

but no one gives them any.

Those who once ate delicacies

are destitute in the streets;

those brought up in crimson

huddle in ash heaps.

The punishment of the daughter of my people

is greater than that of Sodom,

which was overthrown in an instant

without a hand turned to help her.

Her dignitaries were brighter than snow,

whiter than milk;

their bodies were more ruddy than rubies,

their appearance like sapphires.

But now their appearance is blacker than soot;

they are not recognized in the streets.

Their skin has shriveled on their bones;

it has become as dry as a stick.

Those slain by the sword are better off

than those who die of hunger,

who waste away, pierced with pain

because the fields lack produce.

The hands of compassionate women

have cooked their own children,

who became their food

in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

The LORD has exhausted His wrath;

He has poured out His fierce anger;

He has kindled a fire in Zion,

and it has consumed her foundations.

The kings of the earth did not believe,

nor any people of the world,

that an enemy or a foe

could enter the gates of Jerusalem.

But this was for the sins of her prophets

and the guilt of her priests,

who shed the blood of the righteous

in her midst.

They wandered blind in the streets,

defiled by this blood,

so that no one dared

to touch their garments.

“Go away! Unclean!”

men shouted at them.

“Away, away! Do not touch us!”

So they fled and wandered.

Among the nations it was said,

“They can stay here no longer.”

The presence of the LORD has scattered them;

He regards them no more.

The priests are shown no honor;

the elders find no favor.

All the while our eyes were failing

as we looked in vain for help.

We watched from our towers

for a nation that could not save us.

They stalked our every step,

so that we could not walk in our streets.

Our end drew near, our time ran out,

for our end had come!

Those who chased us were swifter

than the eagles in the sky;

they pursued us over the mountains

and ambushed us in the wilderness.

The LORD’s anointed, the breath of our life,

was captured in their pits.

We had said of him,

“Under his shadow we will live among the nations.”

So rejoice and be glad, O Daughter of Edom,

you who dwell in the land of Uz.

Yet the cup will pass to you as well;

you will get drunk and expose yourself.

O Daughter of Zion, your punishment is complete;

He will not prolong your exile.

But He will punish your iniquity, O Daughter of Edom;

He will expose your sins.

Lamentations 5

Remember, O LORD, what has happened to us.

Look and see our disgrace!

Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers,

our houses to foreigners.

We have become fatherless orphans;

our mothers are widows.

We must buy the water we drink;

our wood comes at a price.

We are closely pursued;

we are weary and find no rest.

We submitted to Egypt and Assyria

to get enough bread.

Our fathers sinned and are no more,

but we bear their punishment.

Slaves rule over us;

there is no one to deliver us from their hands.

We get our bread at the risk of our lives

because of the sword in the wilderness.

Our skin is as hot as an oven

with fever from our hunger.

Women have been ravished in Zion,

virgins in the cities of Judah.

Princes have been hung up by their hands;

elders receive no respect.

Young men toil at millstones;

boys stagger under loads of wood.

The elders have left the city gate;

the young men have stopped their music.

Joy has left our hearts;

our dancing has turned to mourning.

The crown has fallen from our head.

Woe to us, for we have sinned!

Because of this, our hearts are faint;

because of these, our eyes grow dim—

because of Mount Zion, which lies desolate,

patrolled by foxes.

You, O LORD, reign forever;

Your throne endures from generation to generation.

Why have You forgotten us forever?

Why have You forsaken us for so long?

Restore us to Yourself, O LORD, so we may return;

renew our days as of old,

unless You have utterly rejected us

and remain angry with us beyond measure.

Psalm 50

The Mighty One, God the LORD,

speaks and summons the earth

from where the sun rises to where it sets.

From Zion, perfect in beauty,

God shines forth.

Our God approaches and will not be silent!

Consuming fire precedes Him,

and a tempest rages around Him.

He summons the heavens above,

and the earth, that He may judge His people:

“Gather to Me My saints,

who made a covenant with Me by sacrifice.”

And the heavens proclaim His righteousness,

for God Himself is Judge.

Selah

“Hear, O My people, and I will speak,

O Israel, and I will testify against you:

I am God, your God.

I do not rebuke you for your sacrifices,

and your burnt offerings are ever before Me.

I have no need for a bull from your stall

or goats from your pens,

for every beast of the forest is Mine—

the cattle on a thousand hills.

I know every bird in the mountains,

and the creatures of the field are Mine.

If I were hungry, I would not tell you,

for the world is Mine, and the fullness thereof.

Do I eat the flesh of bulls,

or drink the blood of goats?

Sacrifice a thank offering to God,

and fulfill your vows to the Most High.

Call upon Me in the day of trouble;

I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

To the wicked, however, God says,

“What right have you to recite My statutes

and to bear My covenant on your lips?

For you hate My instruction

and cast My words behind you.

When you see a thief, you befriend him,

and throw in your lot with adulterers.

You unleash your mouth for evil

and unharness your tongue for deceit.

You sit and malign your brother;

you slander your own mother’s son.

You have done these things, and I kept silent;

you thought I was just like you.

But now I rebuke you

and accuse you to your face.

Now consider this, you who forget God,

lest I tear you to pieces,

with no one to rescue you:

He who sacrifices a thank offering honors Me,

and to him who rights his way,

I will show the salvation of God.”

Today we conclude Jeremiah, and we read the final chapters of Judah’s history, as well as that of many of the surrounding nations. God’s retribution is pronounced. As I read these passages, I was in awe that the Jews at all survived this prolonged dispersion and carnage. Any other people-group would fall apart. Not God’s chosen people. He preserved them. He brought them back together. Of all of history’s developments, is that not a persuasive proof that ours is the God of history? He is Sovereign, guiding all things towards his glory and his people’s good. Blessed be the name of the Lord!

Jeremiah 49

Concerning the Ammonites, this is what the LORD says:

“Has Israel no sons?

Is he without heir?

Why then has Milcom taken possession of Gad?

Why have his people settled in their cities?

Therefore, behold, the days are coming,

declares the LORD,

when I will sound the battle cry

against Rabbah of the Ammonites.

It will become a heap of ruins,

and its villages will be burned.

Then Israel will drive out their dispossessors,

says the LORD.

Wail, O Heshbon, for Ai has been destroyed;

cry out, O daughters of Rabbah!

Put on sackcloth and mourn;

run back and forth within your walls,

for Milcom will go into exile

together with his priests and officials.

Why do you boast of your valleys—

your valleys so fruitful,

O faithless daughter?

You trust in your riches and say,

‘Who can come against me?’

Behold, I am about to bring terror upon you,

declares the Lord GOD of Hosts,

from all those around you.

You will each be driven headlong,

with no one to regather the fugitives.

Yet afterward I will restore the Ammonites from captivity,”

declares the LORD.

Concerning Edom, this is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“Is there no longer wisdom in Teman?

Has counsel perished from the prudent?

Has their wisdom decayed?

Turn and run!

Lie low, O dwellers of Dedan,

for I will bring disaster on Esau

at the time I punish him.

If grape gatherers came to you,

would they not leave some gleanings?

Were thieves to come in the night,

would they not steal only what they wanted?

But I will strip Esau bare;

I will uncover his hiding places,

and he will be unable to conceal himself.

His descendants will be destroyed

along with his relatives and neighbors,

and he will be no more.

Abandon your orphans; I will preserve their lives.

Let your widows trust in Me.”

For this is what the LORD says: “If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, can you possibly remain unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for you must drink it too.

For by Myself I have sworn, declares the LORD, that Bozrah will become a desolation, a disgrace, a ruin, and a curse, and all her cities will be in ruins forever.”

I have heard a message from the LORD;

an envoy has been sent to the nations:

“Assemble yourselves to march against her!

Rise up for battle!”

“For behold, I will make you small among nations,

despised among men.

The terror you cause

and the pride of your heart

have deceived you,

O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks,

O occupiers of the mountain summit.

Though you elevate your nest like the eagle,

even from there I will bring you down,”

declares the LORD.

“Edom will become an object of horror.

All who pass by will be appalled

and will scoff at all her wounds.

As Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown

along with their neighbors,”

says the LORD,

“no one will dwell there;

no man will abide there.

Behold, one will come up like a lion

from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture.

For in an instant I will chase Edom from her land.

Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this?

For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me?

What shepherd can stand against Me?”

Therefore hear the plans

that the LORD has drawn up against Edom

and the strategies He has devised

against the people of Teman:

Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away;

certainly their pasture will be made desolate because of them.

At the sound of their fall the earth will quake;

their cry will resound to the Red Sea.

Look! An eagle will soar and swoop down,

spreading its wings over Bozrah.

In that day the hearts of Edom’s mighty men

will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

Concerning Damascus:

“Hamath and Arpad are put to shame,

for they have heard a bad report;

they are agitated like the sea;

their anxiety cannot be calmed.

Damascus has become feeble;

she has turned to flee.

Panic has gripped her;

anguish and pain have seized her

like a woman in labor.

How is the city of praise not forsaken,

the town that brings Me joy?

For her young men will fall in the streets,

and all her warriors will be silenced in that day,”

declares the LORD of Hosts.

“I will set fire to the walls of Damascus;

it will consume the fortresses of Ben-hadad.”

Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon defeated, this is what the LORD says:

“Rise up, advance against Kedar,

and destroy the people of the east!

They will take their tents and flocks,

their tent curtains and all their goods.

They will take their camels for themselves.

They will shout to them: ‘Terror is on every side!’

Run! Escape quickly!

Lie low, O residents of Hazor,”

declares the LORD,

“for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon

has drawn up a plan against you;

he has devised a strategy against you.

Rise up, advance against a nation at ease,

one that dwells securely,”

declares the LORD.

“They have no gates or bars;

they live alone.

Their camels will become plunder,

and their large herds will be spoil.

I will scatter to the wind in every direction

those who shave their temples;

I will bring calamity on them

from all sides,”

declares the LORD.

“Hazor will become a haunt for jackals,

a desolation forever.

No one will dwell there;

no man will abide there.”

This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“Behold, I will shatter Elam’s bow,

the mainstay of their might.

I will bring the four winds against Elam

from the four corners of the heavens,

and I will scatter them

to all these winds.

There will not be a nation

to which Elam’s exiles will not go.

So I will shatter Elam before their foes,

before those who seek their lives.

I will bring disaster upon them,

even My fierce anger,”

declares the LORD.

“I will send out the sword after them

until I finish them off.

I will set My throne in Elam,

and destroy its king and officials,”

declares the LORD.

“Yet in the last days,

I will restore Elam from captivity,”

declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 50

This is the word that the LORD spoke through Jeremiah the prophet concerning Babylon and the land of the Chaldeans:

“Announce and declare to the nations;

lift up a banner and proclaim it;

hold nothing back when you say,

‘Babylon is captured;

Bel is put to shame;

Marduk is shattered,

her images are disgraced,

her idols are broken in pieces.’

For a nation from the north will come against her;

it will make her land a desolation.

No one will live in it;

both man and beast will flee.”

“In those days and at that time,

declares the LORD,

the children of Israel and the children of Judah

will come together, weeping as they come,

and will seek the LORD their God.

They will ask the way to Zion

and turn their faces toward it.

They will come and join themselves to the LORD

in an everlasting covenant

that will never be forgotten.

My people are lost sheep;

their shepherds have led them astray,

causing them to roam the mountains.

They have wandered from mountain to hill;

they have forgotten their resting place.

All who found them devoured them,

and their enemies said,

‘We are not guilty,

for they have sinned against the LORD, their true pasture,

the LORD, the hope of their fathers.’

Flee from the midst of Babylon;

depart from the land of the Chaldeans;

be like the he-goats that lead the flock.

For behold, I stir up and bring against Babylon

an assembly of great nations from the land of the north.

They will line up against her;

from the north she will be captured.

Their arrows will be like skilled warriors

who do not return empty-handed.

Chaldea will be plundered;

all who plunder her will have their fill,”

declares the LORD.

“Because you rejoice,

because you sing in triumph—

you who plunder My inheritance—

because you frolic like a heifer treading grain

and neigh like stallions,

your mother will be greatly ashamed;

she who bore you will be disgraced.

Behold, she will be the least of the nations,

a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.

Because of the wrath of the LORD,

she will not be inhabited;

she will become completely desolate.

All who pass through Babylon will be horrified

and will hiss at all her wounds.

Line up in formation around Babylon,

all you who draw the bow!

Shoot at her! Spare no arrows!

For she has sinned against the LORD.

Raise a war cry against her on every side!

She has thrown up her hands in surrender;

her towers have fallen;

her walls are torn down.

Since this is the vengeance of the LORD,

take out your vengeance upon her;

as she has done,

do the same to her.

Cut off the sower from Babylon,

and the one who wields the sickle at harvest time.

In the face of the oppressor’s sword,

each will turn to his own people,

each will flee to his own land.

Israel is a scattered flock,

chased away by lions.

The first to devour him

was the king of Assyria;

the last to crush his bones

was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”

Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says:

“I will punish the king of Babylon and his land

as I punished the king of Assyria.

I will return Israel to his pasture,

and he will graze on Carmel and Bashan;

his soul will be satisfied

on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.

In those days and at that time,

declares the LORD,

a search will be made for Israel’s guilt,

but there will be none,

and for Judah’s sins,

but they will not be found;

for I will forgive

the remnant I preserve.

Go up against the land of Merathaim,

and against the residents of Pekod.

Kill them and devote them to destruction.

Do all that I have commanded you,”

declares the LORD.

“The noise of battle is in the land—

the noise of great destruction.

How the hammer of the whole earth

lies broken and shattered!

What a horror Babylon has become

among the nations!

I laid a snare for you, O Babylon,

and you were caught before you knew it.

You were found and captured

because you challenged the LORD.

The LORD has opened His armory

and brought out His weapons of wrath,

for this is the work of the Lord GOD of Hosts

in the land of the Chaldeans.

Come against her

from the farthest border.

Break open her granaries;

pile her up like mounds of grain.

Devote her to destruction;

leave her no survivors.

Kill all her young bulls;

let them go down to the slaughter.

Woe to them, for their day has come—

the time of their punishment.

Listen to the fugitives and refugees

from the land of Babylon,

declaring in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God,

the vengeance for His temple.

Summon the archers against Babylon,

all who string the bow.

Encamp all around her;

let no one escape.

Repay her according to her deeds;

do to her as she has done.

For she has defied the LORD,

the Holy One of Israel.

Therefore, her young men will fall in the streets,

and all her warriors will be silenced in that day,”

declares the LORD.

“Behold, I am against you, O arrogant one,”

declares the Lord GOD of Hosts,

“for your day has come,

the time when I will punish you.

The arrogant one will stumble and fall

with no one to pick him up.

And I will kindle a fire in his cities

to consume all those around him.”

This is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“The sons of Israel are oppressed,

and the sons of Judah as well.

All their captors hold them fast,

refusing to release them.

Their Redeemer is strong;

the LORD of Hosts is His name.

He will fervently plead their case

so that He may bring rest to the earth,

but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.

A sword is against the Chaldeans,

declares the LORD,

against those who live in Babylon,

and against her officials and wise men.

A sword is against her false prophets,

and they will become fools.

A sword is against her warriors,

and they will be filled with terror.

A sword is against her horses and chariots

and against all the foreigners in her midst,

and they will become like women.

A sword is against her treasuries,

and they will be plundered.

A drought is upon her waters,

and they will be dried up.

For it is a land of graven images,

and the people go mad over idols.

So the desert creatures and hyenas will live there

and ostriches will dwell there.

It will never again be inhabited

or lived in from generation to generation.

As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah

along with their neighbors,”

declares the LORD,

“no one will dwell there;

no man will abide there.

Behold, an army is coming from the north;

a great nation and many kings are stirred up

from the ends of the earth.

They grasp the bow and spear;

they are cruel and merciless.

Their voice roars like the sea,

and they ride upon horses,

lined up like men in formation

against you, O Daughter of Babylon.

The king of Babylon has heard the report,

and his hands hang limp.

Anguish has gripped him,

pain like that of a woman in labor.

Behold, one will come up like a lion

from the thickets of the Jordan to the watered pasture.

For in an instant I will chase Babylon from her land.

Who is the chosen one I will appoint for this?

For who is like Me, and who can challenge Me?

What shepherd can stand against Me?”

Therefore hear the plans

that the LORD has drawn up against Babylon

and the strategies He has devised

against the land of the Chaldeans:

Surely the little ones of the flock will be dragged away;

certainly their pasture will be made desolate because of them.

At the sound of Babylon’s capture the earth will quake;

a cry will be heard among the nations.

Jeremiah 51

This is what the LORD says:

“Behold, I will stir up against Babylon

and against the people of Leb-kamai

the spirit of a destroyer.

I will send strangers to Babylon

to winnow her and empty her land;

for they will come against her from every side

in her day of disaster.

Do not let the archer bend his bow

or put on his armor.

Do not spare her young men;

devote all her army to destruction!

And they will fall slain in the land of the Chaldeans,

and pierced through in her streets.

For Israel and Judah have not been abandoned

by their God, the LORD of Hosts,

though their land is full of guilt

before the Holy One of Israel.”

Flee from Babylon! Escape with your lives!

Do not be destroyed in her punishment.

For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance;

He will pay her what she deserves.

Babylon was a gold cup in the hand of the LORD,

making the whole earth drunk.

The nations drank her wine;

therefore the nations have gone mad.

Suddenly Babylon has fallen and been shattered.

Wail for her; get her balm for her pain;

perhaps she can be healed.

“We tried to heal Babylon,

but she could not be healed.

Abandon her!

Let each of us go to his own land,

for her judgment extends to the sky

and reaches to the clouds.”

“The LORD has brought forth our vindication;

come, let us tell in Zion

what the LORD our God has accomplished.”

Sharpen the arrows!

Fill the quivers!

The LORD has aroused the spirit

of the kings of the Medes,

because His plan is aimed at Babylon

to destroy her,

for it is the vengeance of the LORD—

vengeance for His temple.

Raise a banner against the walls of Babylon;

post the guard;

station the watchmen;

prepare the ambush.

For the LORD has both devised and accomplished

what He spoke against the people of Babylon.

You who dwell by many waters,

rich in treasures,

your end has come;

the thread of your life is cut.

The LORD of Hosts has sworn by Himself:

“Surely I will fill you up with men as with locusts,

and they will shout in triumph over you.”

The LORD made the earth by His power;

He established the world by His wisdom

and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.

When He thunders,

the waters in the heavens roar;

He causes the clouds to rise

from the ends of the earth.

He generates the lightning with the rain

and brings forth the wind from His storehouses.

Every man is senseless and devoid of knowledge;

every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols.

For his molten images are a fraud,

and there is no breath in them.

They are worthless, a work to be mocked.

In the time of their punishment they will perish.

The Portion of Jacob is not like these,

for He is the Maker of all things,

and of the tribe of His inheritance—

the LORD of Hosts is His name.

“You are My war club,

My weapon for battle.

With you I shatter nations;

with you I bring kingdoms to ruin.

With you I shatter the horse and rider;

with you I shatter the chariot and driver.

With you I shatter man and woman;

with you I shatter the old man and the youth;

with you I shatter the young man and the maiden.

With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock;

with you I shatter the farmer and his oxen;

with you I shatter the governors and officials.

Before your very eyes I will repay

Babylon and all the dwellers of Chaldea

for all the evil they have done in Zion,”

declares the LORD.

“Behold, I am against you,

O destroying mountain,

you who devastate the whole earth,

declares the LORD.

I will stretch out My hand against you;

I will roll you over the cliffs

and turn you into a charred mountain.

No one shall retrieve from you a cornerstone

or a foundation stone,

because you will become desolate forever,”

declares the LORD.

“Raise a banner in the land!

Blow the ram’s horn among the nations!

Prepare the nations against her.

Summon the kingdoms against her—

Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.

Appoint a captain against her;

bring up horses like swarming locusts.

Prepare the nations for battle against her—

the kings of the Medes,

their governors and all their officials,

and all the lands they rule.

The earth quakes and writhes

because the LORD’s intentions against Babylon stand:

to make the land of Babylon a desolation,

without inhabitant.

The warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting;

they sit in their strongholds.

Their strength is exhausted;

they have become like women.

Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze,

the bars of her gates are broken.

One courier races to meet another,

and messenger follows messenger,

to announce to the king of Babylon

that his city has been captured from end to end.

The fords have been seized,

the marshes set on fire,

and the soldiers are terrified.”

For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says:

“The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor

at the time it is trampled.

In just a little while

her harvest time will come.”

“Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me;

he has crushed me.

He has set me aside like an empty vessel;

he has swallowed me like a monster;

he filled his belly with my delicacies

and vomited me out.

May the violence done to me

and to my flesh

be upon Babylon,”

says the dweller of Zion.

“May my blood be on the dwellers of Chaldea,”

says Jerusalem.

Therefore this is what the LORD says:

“Behold, I will plead your case

and take vengeance on your behalf;

I will dry up her sea

and make her springs run dry.

Babylon will become a heap of rubble,

a haunt for jackals,

an object of horror and scorn,

without inhabitant.

They will roar together like young lions;

they will growl like lion cubs.

While they are flushed with heat,

I will serve them a feast,

and I will make them drunk

so that they may revel;

then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up,

declares the LORD.

I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,

like rams with male goats.

How Sheshach has been captured!

The praise of all the earth has been seized.

What a horror Babylon has become

among the nations!

The sea has come up over Babylon;

she is covered in turbulent waves.

Her cities have become a desolation,

a dry and arid land,

a land where no one lives,

where no son of man passes through.

I will punish Bel in Babylon.

I will make him spew out what he swallowed.

The nations will no longer stream to him;

even the wall of Babylon will fall.

Come out of her, My people!

Save your lives, each of you,

from the fierce anger of the LORD.

Do not let your heart grow faint,

and do not be afraid

when the rumor is heard in the land;

for a rumor will come one year—

and then another the next year—

of violence in the land

and of ruler against ruler.

Therefore, behold, the days are coming

when I will punish the idols of Babylon.

Her entire land will suffer shame,

and all her slain will lie fallen within her.

Then heaven and earth and all that is in them

will shout for joy over Babylon

because the destroyers from the north

will come against her,”

declares the LORD.

“Babylon must fall

on account of the slain of Israel,

just as the slain of all the earth

have fallen because of Babylon.

You who have escaped the sword,

depart and do not linger!

Remember the LORD from far away,

and let Jerusalem come to mind.”

“We are ashamed because we have heard reproach;

disgrace has covered our faces,

because foreigners have entered

the holy places of the LORD’s house.”

“Therefore, behold, the days are coming,”

declares the LORD,

“when I will punish her idols,

and throughout her land the wounded will groan.

Even if Babylon ascends to the heavens

and fortifies her lofty stronghold,

the destroyers I send will come against her,”

declares the LORD.

“The sound of a cry

comes from Babylon,

the sound of great destruction

from the land of the Chaldeans!

For the LORD will destroy Babylon;

He will silence her mighty voice.

The waves will roar like great waters;

the tumult of their voices will resound.

For a destroyer is coming against her—

against Babylon.

Her warriors will be captured,

and their bows will be broken,

for the LORD is a God of retribution;

He will repay in full.

I will make her princes and wise men drunk,

along with her governors, officials, and warriors.

Then they will fall asleep forever

and not wake up,”

declares the King,

whose name is the LORD of Hosts.

This is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“Babylon’s thick walls will be leveled,

and her high gates consumed by fire.

So the labor of the people will be for nothing;

the nations will exhaust themselves to fuel the flames.”

This is the message that Jeremiah the prophet gave to the quartermaster Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign.

Jeremiah had written on a single scroll about all the disaster that would come upon Babylon—all these words that had been written concerning Babylon.

And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud,

and say, ‘O LORD, You have promised to cut off this place so that no one will remain—neither man nor beast. Indeed, it will be desolate forever.’

When you finish reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and cast it into the Euphrates.

Then you are to say, ‘In the same way Babylon will sink and never rise again, because of the disaster I will bring upon her. And her people will grow weary.’ ”

Here end the words of Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 52

Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah.

And Zedekiah did evil in the sight of the LORD, just as Jehoiakim had done.

For because of the anger of the LORD, all this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, until He finally banished them from His presence.

And Zedekiah also rebelled against the king of Babylon.

So in the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army. They encamped outside the city and built a siege wall all around it.

And the city was kept under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.

By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine in the city was so severe that the people of the land had no food.

Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden.

They headed toward the Arabah, but the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was separated from him.

The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on Zedekiah.

There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the officials of Judah.

Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes, bound him with bronze shackles, and took him to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day.

On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign over Babylon, Nebuzaradan captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem.

He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.

And the whole army of the Chaldeans under the captain of the guard broke down all the walls around Jerusalem.

Then Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried into exile some of the poorest people and those who remained in the city, along with the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon and the rest of the craftsmen.

But Nebuzaradan captain of the guard left behind some of the poorest of the land to tend the vineyards and fields.

Moreover, the Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars and stands and the bronze Sea in the house of the LORD, and they carried all the bronze to Babylon.

They also took away the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling bowls, dishes, and all the articles of bronze used in the temple service.

The captain of the guard also took away the basins, censers, sprinkling bowls, pots, lampstands, pans, and drink offering bowls—anything made of pure gold or fine silver.

As for the two pillars, the Sea, the twelve bronze bulls under it, and the movable stands that King Solomon had made for the house of the LORD, the weight of the bronze from all these articles was beyond measure.

Each pillar was eighteen cubits tall and twelve cubits in circumference; each was hollow, four fingers thick.

The bronze capital atop one pillar was five cubits high, with a network of bronze pomegranates all around. The second pillar, with its pomegranates, was similar.

Each capital had ninety-six pomegranates on the sides, and a total of a hundred pomegranates were above the surrounding network.

The captain of the guard also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of second rank, and the three doorkeepers.

Of those still in the city, he took a court official who had been appointed over the men of war, as well as seven trusted royal advisers. He also took the scribe of the captain of the army, who had enlisted the people of the land, and sixty men who were found in the city.

Nebuzaradan captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah.

There at Riblah in the land of Hamath, the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death. So Judah was taken into exile, away from its own land.

These are the people Nebuchadnezzar carried away:

in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews;

in Nebuchadnezzar’s eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem;

in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried away 745 Jews.

So in all, 4,600 people were taken away.

On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the first year of the reign of Evil-merodach king of Babylon, he pardoned Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison.

And he spoke kindly to Jehoiachin and set his throne above the thrones of the other kings who were with him in Babylon.

So Jehoiachin changed out of his prison clothes, and he dined regularly at the king’s table for the rest of his life.

And the king of Babylon provided Jehoiachin a daily portion for the rest of his life, until the day of his death.

Proverbs 25

These are additional proverbs of Solomon, which were copied by the men of Hezekiah king of Judah:

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter

and the glory of kings to search it out.

As the heavens are high and the earth is deep,

so the hearts of kings cannot be searched.

Remove the dross from the silver,

and a vessel for a silversmith will come forth.

Remove the wicked from the king’s presence,

and his throne will be established in righteousness.

Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king,

and do not stand in the place of great men;

for it is better that he says to you, “Come up here!”

than that you should be demoted in the presence of the prince.

Even what you have seen with your own eyes,

do not bring hastily to court.

Otherwise, what will you do in the end

when your neighbor puts you to shame?

Argue your case with your neighbor

without betraying another’s confidence,

lest the one who hears may disgrace you,

and your infamy never go away.

A word fitly spoken

is like apples of gold in settings of silver.

Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine gold

is a wise man’s rebuke to a listening ear.

Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest

is a trustworthy messenger to those who send him;

he refreshes the soul of his masters.

Like clouds and wind without rain

is the man who boasts of gifts never given.

Through patience a ruler can be persuaded,

and a gentle tongue can break a bone.

If you find honey, eat just what you need,

lest you have too much and vomit it up.

Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house,

lest he grow weary and hate you.

Like a club or sword or sharp arrow

is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.

Like a broken tooth or a foot out of joint

is confidence in a faithless man in time of trouble.

Like one who removes a garment on a cold day

or vinegar poured on a wound

is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat,

and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head,

and the LORD will reward you.

As the north wind brings forth rain,

so a backbiting tongue brings angry looks.

Better to live on a corner of the roof

than to share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

Like cold water to a weary soul

is good news from a distant land.

Like a muddied spring or a polluted well

is a righteous man who gives way to the wicked.

It is not good to eat too much honey

or to search out one’s own glory.

Like a city whose walls are broken down

is a man who does not control his temper.

Despite the remaining Jews having committed to listen to Jeremiah and obey the Lord’s instruction through him, once they get the instruction, they welch on their commitment. They insist on going to Egypt even though the Lord tells them explicitly to stay in the Promised Land. When Jeremiah later calls them out for their disobedience, the willful women and their husbands proudly confess their worship of “the Queen of Heaven,” another idol deity. For this, the Lord prospers the hand of Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian horde to come destroy Egypt and the Judeans within her. When it is all said and done, only a small fraction of God’s people remain. After that, there are condemnations of other historical people-groups of the Ancient Near East. All true history. All beautiful and sad…

Jeremiah 43

When Jeremiah had finished telling all the people all the words of the LORD their God—everything that the LORD had sent him to say—

Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to reside there.’

Rather, Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, so that they may put us to death or exile us to Babylon!”

So Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces disobeyed the command of the LORD to stay in the land of Judah.

Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the forces took the whole remnant of Judah, those who had returned to the land of Judah from all the nations to which they had been scattered,

the men, the women, the children, the king’s daughters, and everyone whom Nebuzaradan captain of the guard had allowed to remain with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, as well as Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah.

So they entered the land of Egypt because they did not obey the voice of the LORD, and they went as far as Tahpanhes.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah at Tahpanhes:

“In the sight of the Jews, pick up some large stones and bury them in the clay of the brick pavement at the entrance to Pharaoh’s palace at Tahpanhes.

Then tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will send for My servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will set his throne over these stones that I have embedded, and he will spread his royal pavilion over them.

He will come and strike down the land of Egypt, bringing death to those destined for death, captivity to those destined for captivity, and the sword to those destined for the sword.

I will kindle a fire in the temples of the gods of Egypt, and Nebuchadnezzar will burn those temples and take their gods as captives. So he will wrap himself with the land of Egypt as a shepherd wraps himself in his garment, and he will depart from there unscathed.

He will demolish the sacred pillars of the temple of the sun in the land of Egypt, and he will burn down the temples of the gods of Egypt.’ ”

Jeremiah 44

This is the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews living in the land of Egypt —in Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis —and in the land of Pathros:

“This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: You have seen all the disaster that I brought against Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, they lie today in ruins and desolation

because of the evil they have done.

They provoked Me to anger by continuing to burn incense and to serve other gods that neither they nor you nor your fathers ever knew.

Yet I sent you all My servants the prophets again and again, saying: ‘Do not do this detestable thing that I hate.’

But they did not listen or incline their ears; they did not turn from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods.

Therefore My wrath and anger poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so that they have become the desolate ruin they are today.

So now, this is what the LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Why are you doing such great harm to yourselves by cutting off from Judah man and woman, child and infant, leaving yourselves without a remnant?

Why are you provoking Me to anger by the work of your hands by burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have gone to reside?

As a result, you will be cut off and will become an object of cursing and reproach among all the nations of the earth.

Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers and of the kings of Judah and their wives, as well as the wickedness that you and your wives committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

To this day they have not humbled themselves or shown reverence, nor have they followed My instruction or the statutes that I set before you and your fathers.

Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I will set My face to bring disaster and to cut off all Judah.

And I will take away the remnant of Judah who have resolved to go to the land of Egypt to reside there; they will meet their end. They will all fall by the sword or be consumed by famine. From the least to the greatest, they will die by sword or famine; and they will become an object of cursing and horror, of vilification and reproach.

I will punish those who live in the land of Egypt, just as I punished Jerusalem, by sword and famine and plague,

so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone to reside in Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah, where they long to return and live; for none will return except a few fugitives.”

Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, and all the women standing by—a great assembly—along with all the people living in the land of Egypt and in Pathros, said to Jeremiah,

“As for the word you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you!

Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.

At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster.

But from the time we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been perishing by sword and famine.”

“Moreover,” said the women, “when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands’ knowledge that we made sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

Then Jeremiah said to all the people, both men and women, who were answering him,

“As for the incense you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem—you, your fathers, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land—did the LORD not remember and bring this to mind?

So the LORD could no longer endure the evil deeds and detestable acts you committed, and your land became a desolation, a horror, and an object of cursing, without inhabitant, as it is this day.

Because you burned incense and sinned against the LORD, and did not obey the voice of the LORD or walk in His instruction, His statutes, and His testimonies, this disaster has befallen you, as you see today.”

Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, “Hear the word of the LORD, all those of Judah who are in the land of Egypt.

This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: As for you and your wives, you have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands your words: ‘We will surely perform our vows that we have made to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ Go ahead, then, do what you have promised! Keep your vows!

Nevertheless, hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah living in Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by My great name, says the LORD, that never again will any man of Judah living in the land of Egypt invoke My name or say, ‘As surely as the Lord GOD lives.’

I am watching over them for harm and not for good, and every man of Judah who is in the land of Egypt will meet his end by sword or famine, until they are finished off.

Those who escape the sword will return from Egypt to Judah, few in number, and the whole remnant of Judah who went to dwell in the land of Egypt will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs!

This will be a sign to you that I will punish you in this place, declares the LORD, so that you may know that My threats of harm against you will surely stand.

This is what the LORD says: Behold, I will deliver Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hands of his enemies who seek his life, just as I delivered Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the enemy who was seeking his life.”

Jeremiah 45

This is the word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch son of Neriah when he wrote these words on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:

“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch:

You have said, ‘Woe is me because the LORD has added sorrow to my pain! I am worn out with groaning and have found no rest.’ ”

Thus Jeremiah was to say to Baruch: “This is what the LORD says: Throughout the land I will demolish what I have built and uproot what I have planted.

But as for you, do you seek great things for yourself? Stop seeking! For I will bring disaster on every living creature, declares the LORD, but wherever you go, I will grant your life as a spoil of war.”

Jeremiah 46

This is the word of the LORD about the nations—the word that came to Jeremiah the prophet

concerning Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Neco king of Egypt, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates River by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah:

“Deploy your shields, small and large;

advance for battle!

Harness the horses; mount the steeds;

take your positions with helmets on!

Polish your spears;

put on armor!

Why am I seeing this?

They are terrified,

they are retreating;

their warriors are defeated,

they flee in haste without looking back;

terror is on every side!”

declares the LORD.

“The swift cannot flee,

and the warrior cannot escape!

In the north by the River Euphrates

they stumble and fall.

Who is this, rising like the Nile,

like rivers whose waters churn?

Egypt rises like the Nile,

and its waters churn like rivers,

boasting, ‘I will rise and cover the earth;

I will destroy the cities and their people.’

Advance, O horses! Race furiously, O chariots!

Let the warriors come forth—

Cush and Put carrying their shields,

men of Lydia drawing the bow.

For that day belongs to the Lord GOD of Hosts,

a day of vengeance against His foes.

The sword will devour until it is satisfied,

until it is quenched with their blood.

For the Lord GOD of Hosts will hold a sacrifice

in the land of the north by the River Euphrates.

Go up to Gilead for balm,

O Virgin Daughter of Egypt!

In vain you try many remedies,

but for you there is no healing.

The nations have heard of your shame,

and your outcry fills the earth,

because warrior stumbles over warrior

and both of them have fallen together.”

This is the word that the LORD spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt:

“Announce it in Egypt, and proclaim it in Migdol;

proclaim it in Memphis and Tahpanhes:

‘Take your positions and prepare yourself,

for the sword devours those around you.’

Why have your warriors been laid low?

They cannot stand, for the LORD has thrust them down.

They continue to stumble;

indeed, they have fallen over one another.

They say, ‘Get up! Let us return to our people

and to the land of our birth,

away from the sword of the oppressor.’

There they will cry out:

‘Pharaoh king of Egypt was all noise;

he has let the appointed time pass him by.’

As surely as I live, declares the King,

whose name is the LORD of Hosts,

there will come one who is like Tabor among the mountains

and like Carmel by the sea.

Pack your bags for exile,

O daughter dwelling in Egypt!

For Memphis will be laid waste,

destroyed and uninhabited.

Egypt is a beautiful heifer,

but a gadfly from the north is coming against her.

Even the mercenaries among her

are like fattened calves.

They too will turn back;

together they will flee, they will not stand their ground,

for the day of calamity is coming upon them—

the time of their punishment.

Egypt will hiss like a fleeing serpent,

for the enemy will advance in force;

with axes they will come against her

like woodsmen cutting down trees.

They will chop down her forest, declares the LORD,

dense though it may be,

for they are more numerous than locusts;

they cannot be counted.

The Daughter of Egypt will be put to shame;

she will be delivered into the hands of the people of the north.”

The LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Behold, I am about to punish Amon god of Thebes, along with Pharaoh, Egypt with her gods and kings, and those who trust in Pharaoh.

I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek their lives—of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers. But after this, Egypt will be inhabited as in days of old, declares the LORD.

But you, O Jacob My servant, do not be afraid,

and do not be dismayed, O Israel.

For I will surely save you out of a distant place,

your descendants from the land of their captivity!

Jacob will return to quiet and ease,

with no one to make him afraid.

And you, My servant Jacob, do not be afraid,

declares the LORD, for I am with you.

Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have banished you,

I will not completely destroy you.

Yet I will discipline you justly,

and will by no means leave you unpunished.”

Jeremiah 47

This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet about the Philistines before Pharaoh struck down Gaza. This is what the LORD says:

“See how the waters are rising from the north

and becoming an overflowing torrent.

They will overflow the land and its fullness,

the cities and their inhabitants.

The people will cry out,

and all who dwell in the land will wail

at the sound of the galloping hooves of stallions,

the rumbling of chariots,

and the clatter of their wheels.

The fathers will not turn back for their sons;

their hands will hang limp.

For the day has come

to destroy all the Philistines,

to cut off from Tyre and Sidon

every remaining ally.

Indeed, the LORD is about to destroy the Philistines,

the remnant from the coasts of Caphtor.

The people of Gaza will shave their heads in mourning;

Ashkelon will be silenced.

O remnant of their valley,

how long will you gash yourself?

‘Alas, O sword of the LORD,

how long until you rest?

Return to your sheath;

cease and be still!’

How can it rest

when the LORD has commanded it?

He has appointed it against Ashkelon

and the shore of its coastland.”

Jeremiah 48

Concerning Moab, this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says:

“Woe to Nebo,

for it will be devastated.

Kiriathaim will be captured and disgraced;

the fortress will be shattered and dismantled.

There is no longer praise for Moab;

in Heshbon they devise evil against her:

‘Come, let us cut her off from nationhood.’

You too, O people of Madmen, will be silenced;

the sword will pursue you.

A voice cries out from Horonaim:

‘Devastation and great destruction!’

Moab will be shattered;

her little ones will cry out.

For on the ascent to Luhith

they weep bitterly as they go,

and on the descent to Horonaim

cries of distress resound

over the destruction:

‘Flee! Run for your lives!

Become like a juniper in the desert.’

Because you trust in your works and treasures,

you too will be captured,

and Chemosh will go into exile

with his priests and officials.

The destroyer will move against every city,

and not one town will escape.

The valley will also be ruined,

and the high plain will be destroyed,

as the LORD has said.

Put salt on Moab,

for she will be laid waste;

her cities will become desolate,

with no one to dwell in them.

Cursed is the one who is remiss

in doing the work of the LORD,

and cursed is he who withholds

his sword from bloodshed.

Moab has been at ease from youth,

settled like wine on its dregs;

he has not been poured from vessel to vessel

or gone into exile.

So his flavor has remained the same,

and his aroma is unchanged.

Therefore behold, the days are coming,

declares the LORD,

when I will send to him wanderers,

who will pour him out.

They will empty his vessels

and shatter his jars.

Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh,

just as the house of Israel was ashamed

when they trusted in Bethel.

How can you say, ‘We are warriors,

mighty men ready for battle’?

Moab has been destroyed

and its towns have been invaded;

the best of its young men

have gone down in the slaughter,

declares the King,

whose name is the LORD of Hosts.

Moab’s calamity is at hand,

and his affliction is rushing swiftly.

Mourn for him, all you who surround him,

everyone who knows his name;

tell how the mighty scepter is shattered—

the glorious staff!

Come down from your glory; sit on parched ground,

O daughter dwelling in Dibon,

for the destroyer of Moab has come against you;

he has destroyed your fortresses.

Stand by the road and watch,

O dweller of Aroer!

Ask the man fleeing or the woman escaping,

‘What has happened?’

Moab is put to shame, for it has been shattered.

Wail and cry out!

Declare by the Arnon

that Moab is destroyed.

Judgment has come upon the high plain—

upon Holon, Jahzah, and Mephaath,

upon Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim,

upon Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon,

upon Kerioth, Bozrah, and all the towns of Moab,

those far and near.

The horn of Moab has been cut off,

and his arm is broken,”

declares the LORD.

“Make him drunk,

because he has magnified himself against the LORD;

so Moab will wallow in his own vomit,

and he will also become a laughingstock.

Was not Israel your object of ridicule?

Was he ever found among thieves?

For whenever you speak of him

you shake your head.

Abandon the towns and settle among the rocks,

O dwellers of Moab!

Be like a dove

that nests at the mouth of a cave.

We have heard of Moab’s pomposity,

his exceeding pride and conceit,

his proud arrogance and haughtiness of heart.

I know his insolence,”

declares the LORD,

“but it is futile.

His boasting is as empty as his deeds.

Therefore I will wail for Moab;

I will cry out for all of Moab;

I will moan for the men of Kir-heres.

I will weep for you, O vine of Sibmah,

more than I weep for Jazer.

Your tendrils have extended to the sea;

they reach even to Jazer.

The destroyer has descended

on your summer fruit and grape harvest.

Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard

and from the fields of Moab.

I have stopped the flow of wine from the presses;

no one treads them with shouts of joy;

their shouts are not for joy.

There is a cry from Heshbon to Elealeh;

they raise their voices to Jahaz,

from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah;

for even the waters of Nimrim have dried up.

In Moab, declares the LORD,

I will bring an end

to those who make offerings on the high places

and burn incense to their gods.

Therefore My heart laments like a flute for Moab;

it laments like a flute for the men of Kir-heres,

because the wealth they acquired has perished.

For every head is shaved

and every beard is clipped;

on every hand is a gash,

and around every waist is sackcloth.

On all the rooftops of Moab

and in the public squares,

everyone is mourning;

for I have shattered Moab like an unwanted jar,”

declares the LORD.

“How shattered it is! How they wail!

How Moab has turned his back in shame!

Moab has become an object of ridicule and horror

to all those around him.”

For this is what the LORD says:

“Behold, an eagle swoops down

and spreads his wings against Moab.

Kirioth has been taken,

and the strongholds seized.

In that day the heart of Moab’s warriors

will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

Moab will be destroyed as a nation

because he vaunted himself against the LORD.

Terror and pit and snare await you, O dweller of Moab,”

declares the LORD.

“Whoever flees the panic

will fall into the pit,

and whoever climbs from the pit

will be caught in the snare.

For I will bring upon Moab

the year of their punishment,”

declares the LORD.

“Those who flee will stand helpless in Heshbon’s shadow,

because fire has gone forth from Heshbon

and a flame from within Sihon.

It devours the foreheads of Moab

and the skulls of the sons of tumult.

Woe to you, O Moab!

The people of Chemosh have perished;

for your sons have been taken into exile

and your daughters have gone into captivity.

Yet in the latter days I will restore Moab from captivity,”

declares the LORD.

Here ends the judgment on Moab.

Psalm 56

Be merciful to me, O God,

for men are hounding me;

all day they press their attack.

My enemies pursue me all day long,

for many proudly assail me.

When I am afraid,

I put my trust in You.

In God, whose word I praise—

in God I trust.

I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?

All day long they twist my words;

all their thoughts are on my demise.

They conspire, they lurk,

they watch my steps

while they wait to take my life.

In spite of such sin, will they escape?

In Your anger, O God, cast down the nations.

You have taken account of my wanderings.

Put my tears in Your bottle—

are they not in Your book?

Then my enemies will retreat

on the day I cry for help.

By this I will know that God is on my side.

In God, whose word I praise,

in the LORD, whose word I praise,

in God I trust; I will not be afraid.

What can man do to me?

Your vows are upon me, O God;

I will render thank offerings to You.

For You have delivered my soul from death,

and my feet from stumbling,

that I may walk before God

in the light of life.

Jerusalem finally falls exactly the way in which Jeremiah prophesied. He told them nothing but the truth, but they rejected him and hated him all those years. When his own people tried to kill him by keeping him in a muddy well, it was a Cushite who saved him. When the city was finally overrun, it was a Babylonian who offered to care for him. In the end, all of the Hebrews destroyed themselves and one another. The final act of so many was to disregard the very prophet who had so faithfully warned them of consequences.

Some people are so allergic to consequences that they would rather die than face them. But in dead is found the final consequence, and there is no escape…

Jeremiah 38

Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchijah heard that Jeremiah had been telling all the people:

“This is what the LORD says: Whoever stays in this city will die by sword and famine and plague, but whoever surrenders to the Chaldeans will live; he will retain his life like a spoil of war, and he will live.

This is what the LORD says: This city will surely be delivered into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.”

Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to die, for he is discouraging the warriors who remain in this city, as well as all the people, by speaking such words to them; this man is not seeking the well-being of these people, but their ruin.”

“Here he is,” replied King Zedekiah. “He is in your hands, since the king can do nothing to stop you.”

So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

Now Ebed-melech the Cushite, a court official in the royal palace, heard that Jeremiah had been put into the cistern. While the king was sitting at the Gate of Benjamin,

Ebed-melech went out from the king’s palace and said to the king,

“My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all that they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have dropped him into the cistern, where he will starve to death, for there is no more bread in the city.”

So the king commanded Ebed-melech the Cushite, “Take thirty men from here with you and pull Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.”

Then Ebed-melech took the men with him and went to the king’s palace, to a place below the storehouse. From there he took old rags and worn-out clothes and lowered them with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern.

Ebed-melech the Cushite cried out to Jeremiah, “Put these worn-out rags and clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.” Jeremiah did so,

and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and received him at the third entrance to the house of the LORD. “I am going to ask you something,” said the king to Jeremiah. “Do not hide anything from me.”

“If I tell you,” Jeremiah replied, “you will surely put me to death. And even if I give you advice, you will not listen to me.”

But King Zedekiah swore secretly to Jeremiah, “As surely as the LORD lives, who has given us this life, I will not kill you, nor will I deliver you into the hands of these men who are seeking your life.”

Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you indeed surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will not be burned down, and you and your household will survive.

But if you do not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, then this city will be delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans. They will burn it down, and you yourself will not escape their grasp.’ ”

But King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have deserted to the Chaldeans, for the Chaldeans may deliver me into their hands to abuse me.”

“They will not hand you over,” Jeremiah replied. “Obey the voice of the LORD in what I am telling you, that it may go well with you and you may live.

But if you refuse to surrender, this is the word that the LORD has shown me:

All the women who remain in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon, and those women will say:

‘They misled you and overcame you—

those trusted friends of yours.

Your feet sank into the mire,

and they deserted you.’

All your wives and children will be brought out to the Chaldeans. And you yourself will not escape their grasp, for you will be seized by the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned down.”

Then Zedekiah warned Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know about this conversation, or you will die.

If the officials hear that I have spoken with you, and they come and demand of you, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what he said to you; do not hide it from us, or we will kill you,’

then tell them, ‘I was presenting to the king my petition that he not return me to the house of Jonathan to die there.’ ”

When all the officials came to Jeremiah and questioned him, he relayed to them the exact words the king had commanded him to say. So they said no more to him, for no one had overheard the conversation.

And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.

Jeremiah 39

In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his entire army and laid siege to the city.

And on the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, the city was breached.

Then all the officials of the king of Babylon entered and sat in the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-sarsekim the Rabsaris, Nergal-sharezer the Rabmag, and all the rest of the officials of the king of Babylon.

When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled. They left the city at night by way of the king’s garden, through the gate between the two walls, and they went out along the route to the Arabah.

But the army of the Chaldeans pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They seized him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced judgment on him.

There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and he also killed all the nobles of Judah.

Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze chains to take him to Babylon.

The Chaldeans set fire to the palace of the king and to the houses of the people, and they broke down the walls of Jerusalem.

Then Nebuzaradan captain of the guard carried away to Babylon the remnant of the people who had remained in the city, along with the deserters who had defected to him.

But Nebuzaradan left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people who had no property, and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields.

Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had given orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan captain of the guard, saying,

“Take him, look after him, and do not let any harm come to him; do for him whatever he says.”

So Nebuzaradan captain of the guard, Nebushazban the Rabsaris, Nergal-sharezer the Rabmag, and all the captains of the king of Babylon

had Jeremiah brought from the courtyard of the guard, and they turned him over to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him home. So Jeremiah remained among his own people.

And while Jeremiah had been confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the LORD had come to him:

“Go and tell Ebed-melech the Cushite that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I am about to fulfill My words against this city for harm and not for good, and on that day they will be fulfilled before your eyes.

But I will deliver you on that day, declares the LORD, and you will not be delivered into the hands of the men whom you fear.

For I will surely rescue you so that you do not fall by the sword. Because you have trusted in Me, you will escape with your life like a spoil of war, declares the LORD.’ ”

Jeremiah 40

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan captain of the guard had released him at Ramah, having found him bound in chains among all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon.

The captain of the guard found Jeremiah and said to him, “The LORD your God decreed this disaster on this place,

and now the LORD has fulfilled it; He has done just as He said. Because you people have sinned against the LORD and have not obeyed His voice, this thing has happened to you.

But now, behold, I am freeing you today from the chains that were on your wrists. If it pleases you to come with me to Babylon, then come, and I will take care of you. But if it seems wrong to you to come with me to Babylon, go no farther. Look, the whole land is before you. Wherever it seems good and right to you, go there.”

But before Jeremiah turned to go, Nebuzaradan added, “Return to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and stay with him among the people, or go anywhere else that seems right.” Then the captain of the guard gave him a ration and a gift and released him.

So Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah and stayed with him among the people who were left in the land.

When all the commanders and men of the armies in the field heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam over the land and that he had put him in charge of the men, women, and children who were the poorest of the land and had not been exiled to Babylon,

they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah son of the Maacathite—they and their men.

Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, swore an oath to them and their men, assuring them, “Do not be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you.

As for me, I will stay in Mizpah to represent you before the Chaldeans who come to us. As for you, gather wine grapes, summer fruit, and oil, place them in your storage jars, and live in the cities you have taken.”

When all the Jews in Moab, Ammon, Edom, and all the other lands heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, over them,

they all returned from all the places to which they had been banished and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah. And they gathered an abundance of wine grapes and summer fruit.

Meanwhile, Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies in the field came to Gedaliah at Mizpah

and said to him, “Are you aware that Baalis king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to take your life?”

But Gedaliah son of Ahikam did not believe them.

Then Johanan son of Kareah spoke privately to Gedaliah at Mizpah. “Let me go and kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah,” he said. “No one will know it. Why should he take your life and scatter all the people of Judah who have gathered to you, so that the remnant of Judah would perish?”

But Gedaliah son of Ahikam said to Johanan son of Kareah, “Do not do such a thing! What you are saying about Ishmael is a lie.”

Jeremiah 41

In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, who was a member of the royal family and one of the king’s chief officers, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah, and they ate a meal together there.

Then Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, with the sword, killing the one whom the king of Babylon had appointed to govern the land.

Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, as well as the Chaldean soldiers who were there.

On the second day after the murder of Gedaliah, when no one yet knew about it,

eighty men who had shaved off their beards, torn their garments, and cut themselves came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria, carrying grain offerings and frankincense for the house of the LORD.

And Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he went.

When Ishmael encountered the men, he said, “Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam.”

And when they came into the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men with him slaughtered them and threw them into a cistern.

But ten of the men among them said to Ishmael, “Do not kill us, for we have hidden treasure in the field—wheat, barley, oil, and honey!” So he refrained from killing them with the others.

Now the cistern into which Ishmael had thrown all the bodies of the men he had struck down along with Gedaliah was a large one that King Asa had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with the slain.

Then Ishmael took captive all the remnant of the people of Mizpah—the daughters of the king along with all the others who remained in Mizpah—over whom Nebuzaradan captain of the guard had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael son of Nethaniah took them captive and set off to cross over to the Ammonites.

When Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies with him heard of all the crimes that Ishmael son of Nethaniah had committed,

they took all their men and went to fight Ishmael son of Nethaniah. And they found him near the great pool in Gibeon.

When all the people with Ishmael saw Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the army with him, they rejoiced,

and all the people whom Ishmael had taken captive at Mizpah turned and went over to Johanan son of Kareah.

But Ishmael son of Nethaniah and eight of his men escaped from Johanan and went to the Ammonites.

Then Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies with him took the whole remnant of the people from Mizpah whom he had recovered from Ishmael son of Nethaniah after Ishmael had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam: the soldiers, women, children, and court officials he had brought back from Gibeon.

And they went and stayed in Geruth Chimham, near Bethlehem, in order to proceed into Egypt

to escape the Chaldeans. For they were afraid of the Chaldeans because Ishmael son of Nethaniah had struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.

Jeremiah 42

Then all the commanders of the forces, along with Johanan son of Kareah, Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, approached

Jeremiah the prophet and said, “May our petition come before you; pray to the LORD your God on behalf of this entire remnant. For few of us remain of the many, as you can see with your own eyes.

Pray that the LORD your God will tell us the way we should walk and the thing we should do.”

“I have heard you,” replied Jeremiah the prophet. “I will surely pray to the LORD your God as you request, and I will tell you everything that the LORD answers; I will not withhold a word from you.”

Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not act upon every word that the LORD your God sends you to tell us.

Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us, for we will obey the voice of the LORD our God!”

After ten days the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah,

and he summoned Johanan son of Kareah, all the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest.

Jeremiah told them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition:

‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will build you up and not tear you down; I will plant you and not uproot you, for I will relent of the disaster I have brought upon you.

Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear; do not be afraid of him, declares the LORD, for I am with you to save you and deliver you from him.

And I will show you compassion, and he will have compassion on you and restore you to your own land.’

But if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ and you thus disobey the voice of the LORD your God,

and if you say, ‘No, but we will go to the land of Egypt and live there, where we will not see war or hear the sound of the ram’s horn or hunger for bread,’

then hear the word of the LORD, O remnant of Judah! This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are determined to go to Egypt and reside there,

then the sword you fear will overtake you there, and the famine you dread will follow on your heels into Egypt, and you will die there.

So all who resolve to go to Egypt to reside there will die by sword and famine and plague. Not one of them will survive or escape the disaster I will bring upon them.’

For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as My anger and wrath were poured out on the residents of Jerusalem, so will My wrath be poured out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an object of cursing and horror, of vilification and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.’

The LORD has told you, O remnant of Judah, ‘Do not go to Egypt.’ Know for sure that I have warned you today!

For you have deceived yourselves by sending me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray to the LORD our God on our behalf, and as for all that the LORD our God says, tell it to us and we will do it.’

For I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God in all He has sent me to tell you.

Now therefore, know for sure that by sword and famine and plague you will die in the place where you desire to go to reside.”

Psalm 55

Listen to my prayer, O God,

and do not ignore my plea.

Attend to me and answer me.

I am restless in my complaint,

and distraught at the voice of the enemy,

at the pressure of the wicked.

For they release disaster upon me

and revile me in their anger.

My heart murmurs within me,

and the terrors of death assail me.

Fear and trembling grip me,

and horror has overwhelmed me.

I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove!

I would fly away and find rest.

How far away I would flee!

In the wilderness I would remain.

Selah

I would hurry to my shelter,

far from this raging tempest.”

O Lord, confuse and confound their speech,

for I see violence and strife in the city.

Day and night they encircle the walls,

while malice and trouble lie within.

Destruction is within;

oppression and deceit never leave the streets.

For it is not an enemy who insults me;

that I could endure.

It is not a foe who rises against me;

from him I could hide.

But it is you, a man like myself,

my companion and close friend.

We shared sweet fellowship together;

we walked with the crowd into the house of God.

Let death seize them by surprise;

let them go down to Sheol alive,

for evil is with them in their homes.

But I call to God,

and the LORD saves me.

Morning, noon, and night, I cry out in distress,

and He hears my voice.

He redeems my soul in peace

from the battle waged against me,

even though many oppose me.

God will hear and humiliate them—

the One enthroned for the ages—

Selah

because they do not change

and they have no fear of God.

My companion attacks his friends;

he violates his covenant.

His speech is smooth as butter,

but war is in his heart.

His words are softer than oil,

yet they are swords unsheathed.

Cast your burden upon the LORD

and He will sustain you;

He will never let the righteous be shaken.

But You, O God, will bring them down

to the Pit of destruction;

men of bloodshed and deceit

will not live out half their days.

But I will trust in You.

The hour grows later and further developments vindicate Jeremiah, yet he is not vindicated in the eyes of his countrymen. Rather, they arrest and imprison him. He and Baruch write down his prophecies, which are then burned by the king. Jeremiah arranges to have these read in the ears of all in the Temple. His words come to nothing. Was Jeremiah a fool for warning the people? No. Love and obedience require it. The Lord’s people are expected to warn the world. The world will continue to refuse to listen. In all these things, God will be glorified. Blessed be the name of the LORD!

Jeremiah 33

While Jeremiah was still confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the LORD came to him a second time:

“Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it, the LORD is His name: Call to Me, and I will answer and show you great and unsearchable things you do not know.

For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the houses of this city and the palaces of the kings of Judah that have been torn down for defense against the siege ramps and the sword:

The Chaldeans are coming to fight and to fill those places with the corpses of the men I will strike down in My anger and in My wrath. I have hidden My face from this city because of all its wickedness.

Nevertheless, I will bring to it health and healing, and I will heal its people and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.

I will restore Judah and Israel from captivity and will rebuild them as in former times.

And I will cleanse them from all the iniquity they have committed against Me, and will forgive all their sins of rebellion against Me.

So this city will bring Me renown, joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the good I do for it. They will tremble in awe because of all the goodness and prosperity that I will provide for it.

This is what the LORD says: In this place you say is a wasteland without man or beast, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that are deserted—inhabited by neither man nor beast—there will be heard again

the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom, and the voices of those bringing thank offerings into the house of the LORD, saying:

‘Give thanks to the LORD of Hosts,

for the LORD is good;

His loving devotion endures forever.’

For I will restore the land from captivity as in former times, says the LORD.

This is what the LORD of Hosts says: In this desolate place, without man or beast, and in all its cities, there will once more be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks.

In the cities of the hill country, the foothills, and the Negev, in the land of Benjamin and the cities surrounding Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, the flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the LORD.

Behold, the days are coming,

declares the LORD,

when I will fulfill the gracious promise

that I have spoken

to the house of Israel

and the house of Judah.

In those days and at that time

I will cause to sprout for David a righteous Branch,

and He will administer justice

and righteousness in the land.

In those days Judah will be saved,

and Jerusalem will dwell securely,

and this is the name by which it will be called:

The LORD Our Righteousness.

For this is what the LORD says: David will never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel,

nor will the priests who are Levites ever fail to have a man before Me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to present sacrifices.”

And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

“This is what the LORD says: If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night cease to occupy their appointed time,

then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant and with My ministers the Levites who are priests, so that David will not have a son to reign on his throne.

As the hosts of heaven cannot be counted and as the sand on the seashore cannot be measured, so too will I multiply the descendants of My servant David and the Levites who minister before Me.”

Moreover, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

“Have you not noticed what these people are saying: ‘The LORD has rejected the two families He had chosen’? So they despise My people and no longer regard them as a nation.

This is what the LORD says: If I have not established My covenant with the day and the night and the fixed order of heaven and earth,

then I would also reject the descendants of Jacob and of My servant David, so as not to take from his descendants rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore them from captivity and will have compassion on them.”

Jeremiah 34

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, all his army, all the earthly kingdoms under his control, and all the other nations were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding cities.

The LORD, the God of Israel, told Jeremiah to go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him that this is what the LORD says: “Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.

And you yourself will not escape his grasp, but will surely be captured and delivered into his hand. You will see the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak with him face to face; and you will go to Babylon.

Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says concerning you: You will not die by the sword;

you will die in peace. As spices were burned for your fathers, the former kings who preceded you, so people will burn spices for you and lament, ‘Alas, O master!’ For I Myself have spoken this word, declares the LORD.”

In Jerusalem, then, Jeremiah the prophet relayed all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah

as the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the remaining cities of Judah—against Lachish and Azekah. For these were the only fortified cities remaining in Judah.

After King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty, the word came to Jeremiah from the LORD

that each man should free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female, and no one should hold his fellow Jew in bondage.

So all the officials and all the people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their menservants and maidservants and no longer hold them in bondage. They obeyed and released them,

but later they changed their minds and took back the menservants and maidservants they had freed, and they forced them to become slaves again.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your forefathers when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, saying:

Every seventh year, each of you must free his Hebrew brother who has sold himself to you. He may serve you six years, but then you must let him go free. But your fathers did not listen or incline their ear.

Recently you repented and did what pleased Me; each of you proclaimed freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before Me in the house that bears My Name.

But now you have changed your minds and profaned My name. Each of you has taken back the menservants and maidservants whom you had set at liberty to go wherever they wanted, and you have again forced them to be your slaves.

Therefore this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed Me; you have not proclaimed freedom, each man for his brother and for his neighbor. So now I proclaim freedom for you, declares the LORD—freedom to fall by sword, by plague, and by famine! I will make you a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

And those who have transgressed My covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before Me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two in order to pass between its pieces.

The officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf,

I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth.

And I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who seek their lives, to the army of the king of Babylon that had withdrawn from you.

Behold, I am going to give the command, declares the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down. And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

Jeremiah 35

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:

“Go to the house of the Rechabites, speak to them, and bring them to one of the chambers of the house of the LORD to offer them a drink of wine.”

So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons—the entire house of the Rechabites—

and I brought them into the house of the LORD, to a chamber occupied by the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, a man of God. This room was near the chamber of the officials, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah son of Shallum the doorkeeper.

Then I set pitchers full of wine and some cups before the men of the house of the Rechabites, and I said to them, “Drink some wine.”

“We do not drink wine,” they replied, “for our forefather Jonadab son of Rechab commanded us, ‘Neither you nor your descendants are ever to drink wine.

Nor are you ever to build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard. Those things are not for you. Instead, you must live in tents all your lives, so that you may live a long time in the land where you wander.’

And we have obeyed the voice of our forefather Jonadab son of Rechab in all he commanded us. So we have not drunk wine all our lives—neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters.

Nor have we built houses in which to live, and we have not owned any vineyards or fields or crops.

But we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done exactly as our forefather Jonadab commanded us.

So when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched into the land, we said: ‘Come, let us go into Jerusalem to escape the armies of the Chaldeans and the Arameans.’ So we have remained in Jerusalem.”

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

“This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Go and tell the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem: ‘Will you not accept discipline and obey My words?’ declares the LORD.

The words of Jonadab son of Rechab have been carried out. He commanded his sons not to drink wine, and they have not drunk it to this very day because they have obeyed the command of their forefather. But I have spoken to you again and again, and you have not obeyed Me!

Again and again I have sent you all My servants the prophets, proclaiming: ‘Turn now, each of you, from your wicked ways, and correct your actions. Do not go after other gods to serve them. Live in the land that I have given to you and your fathers.’ But you have not inclined your ear or listened to Me.

Yes, the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab carried out the command their forefather gave them, but these people have not listened to Me.

Therefore this is what the LORD God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Behold, I will bring to Judah and to all the residents of Jerusalem all the disaster I have pronounced against them, because I have spoken to them but they have not obeyed, and I have called to them but they have not answered.’ ”

Then Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites: “This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you have obeyed the command of your forefather Jonadab and have kept all his commandments and have done all that he charged you to do,

this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Jonadab son of Rechab will never fail to have a man to stand before Me.’ ”

Jeremiah 36

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

“Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you during the reign of Josiah until today.

Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the calamity I plan to bring upon them, each of them will turn from his wicked way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and at the dictation of Jeremiah, Baruch wrote on a scroll all the words that the LORD had spoken to Jeremiah.

Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch, “I am restricted; I cannot enter the house of the LORD;

so you are to go to the house of the LORD on a day of fasting, and in the hearing of the people you are to read the words of the LORD from the scroll you have written at my dictation. Read them in the hearing of all the people of Judah who are coming from their cities.

Perhaps they will bring their petition before the LORD, and each one will turn from his wicked way; for great are the anger and fury that the LORD has pronounced against this people.”

So Baruch son of Neriah did everything that Jeremiah the prophet had commanded him. In the house of the LORD he read the words of the LORD from the scroll.

Now in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a fast before the LORD was proclaimed to all the people of Jerusalem and all who had come there from the cities of Judah.

From the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, which was in the upper courtyard at the opening of the New Gate of the house of the LORD, Baruch read from the scroll the words of Jeremiah in the hearing of all the people.

When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the scroll,

he went down to the scribe’s chamber in the king’s palace, where all the officials were sitting: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials.

And Micaiah reported to them all the words he had heard Baruch read from the scroll in the hearing of the people.

Then all the officials sent word to Baruch through Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, saying, “Bring the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people, and come here.”

So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll and went to them.

“Please sit down,” they said, “and read it in our hearing.”

So Baruch read it in their hearing.

When they had heard all these words, they turned to one another in fear and said to Baruch, “Surely we must report all these words to the king.”

“Tell us now,” they asked Baruch, “how did you write all these words? Was it at Jeremiah’s dictation?”

“It was at his dictation,” Baruch replied. “He recited all these words to me and I wrote them in ink on the scroll.”

Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must hide yourselves and tell no one where you are.”

So the officials went to the king in the courtyard. And having stored the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, they reported everything to the king.

Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and all the officials who were standing beside him.

Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in his winter quarters with a fire burning before him.

And as soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns, Jehoiakim would cut them off with a scribe’s knife and throw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll had been consumed by the fire.

Yet in hearing all these words, the king and his servants did not become frightened or tear their garments.

Even though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.

Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, as well as Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel, to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the LORD had hidden them.

After the king had burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

“Take another scroll and rewrite on it the very words that were on the original scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah has burned.

You are to proclaim concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah that this is what the LORD says: You have burned the scroll and said, ‘Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon would surely come and destroy this land and deprive it of man and beast?’

Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on David’s throne, and his body will be thrown out and exposed to heat by day and frost by night.

I will punish him and his descendants and servants for their iniquity. I will bring on them, on the residents of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the calamity about which I warned them but they did not listen.”

Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and at Jeremiah’s dictation he wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.

Jeremiah 37

Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made Zedekiah son of Josiah the king of Judah, and he reigned in place of Coniah son of Jehoiakim.

But he and his officers and the people of the land refused to obey the words that the LORD had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.

Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, to Jeremiah the prophet with the message, “Please pray to the LORD our God for us!”

Now Jeremiah was free to come and go among the people, for they had not yet put him in prison.

Pharaoh’s army had left Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report, they withdrew from Jerusalem.

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet:

“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says that you are to tell the king of Judah, who sent you to Me: Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has marched out to help you, will go back to its own land of Egypt.

Then the Chaldeans will return and fight against this city. They will capture it and burn it down.

This is what the LORD says: Do not deceive yourselves by saying, ‘The Chaldeans will go away for good,’ for they will not!

Indeed, if you were to strike down the entire army of the Chaldeans that is fighting against you, and only wounded men remained in their tents, they would still get up and burn this city down.”

When the Chaldean army withdrew from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army,

Jeremiah started to leave Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to claim his portion there among the people.

But when he reached the Gate of Benjamin, the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, seized him and said, “You are deserting to the Chaldeans!”

“That is a lie,” Jeremiah replied. “I am not deserting to the Chaldeans!”

But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested Jeremiah and took him to the officials.

The officials were angry with Jeremiah, and they beat him and placed him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for it had been made into a prison.

So Jeremiah went into a cell in the dungeon and remained there a long time.

Later, King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and received him in his palace, where he asked him privately, “Is there a word from the LORD?”

“There is,” Jeremiah replied. “You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.”

Then Jeremiah asked King Zedekiah, “How have I sinned against you or your servants or these people, that you have put me in prison?

Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, claiming, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or this land’?

But now please listen, O my lord the king. May my petition come before you. Do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, or I will die there.”

So King Zedekiah gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread daily from the street of the bakers, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

Psalm 24

The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof,

the world and all who dwell therein.

For He has founded it upon the seas

and established it upon the waters.

Who may ascend the hill of the LORD?

Who may stand in His holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

who does not lift up his soul to an idol

or swear deceitfully.

He will receive blessing from the LORD

and vindication from the God of his salvation.

Such is the generation of those who seek Him,

who seek Your face, O God of Jacob.

Selah

Lift up your heads, O gates!

Be lifted up, O ancient doors,

that the King of Glory may enter!

Who is this King of Glory?

The LORD strong and mighty,

the LORD mighty in battle.

Lift up your heads, O gates!

Be lifted up, O ancient doors,

that the King of Glory may enter!

Who is He, this King of Glory?

The LORD of Hosts—

He is the King of Glory.

Selah

Jeremiah and Isaiah are both prolonged accounts of prophets and their specific prophecies. They will go back and forth between prolonged prophecy and short segues and scene settings. In this week’s reading, Jeremiah is depicted as being in various places at the center of Jerusalem’s power structure: the temple and the royal palace. He is speaking with kings, priests, and prophets. He is sending messages to Hebrews that have already been dislocated. Because he has the Word of the Lord, he is endowed with great authority. Other authorities take issue with him, but they are unable to stop him because the Lord is prospering his work. And though the Lord does bless through Jeremiah, it is not in the terms or on the timeline that people would have liked. It is the same with us today. We would do well to understand!

Jeremiah 28

In the fifth month of that same year, the fourth year, near the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon, said to me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people:

“This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

Within two years I will restore to this place all the articles of the house of the LORD that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon removed from here and carried to Babylon.

And I will restore to this place Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, along with all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’ ”

Then the prophet Jeremiah replied to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the LORD.

“Amen!” Jeremiah said. “May the LORD do so! May the LORD fulfill the words you have prophesied, and may He restore the articles of His house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon.

Nevertheless, listen now to this message I am speaking in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people.

The prophets of old who preceded you and me prophesied war, disaster, and plague against many lands and great kingdoms.

As for the prophet who prophesies peace, only if the word of the prophet comes true will the prophet be recognized as one the LORD has truly sent.”

Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it.

And in the presence of all the people Hananiah proclaimed, “This is what the LORD says: ‘In this way, within two years I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon off the neck of all the nations.’ ”

At this, Jeremiah the prophet went on his way. But shortly after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke off his neck, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

“Go and tell Hananiah that this is what the LORD says: ‘You have broken a yoke of wood, but in its place you have fashioned a yoke of iron.’

For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations to make them serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they will serve him. I have even given him control of the beasts of the field.’ ”

Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The LORD did not send you, but you have persuaded this people to trust in a lie.

Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I am about to remove you from the face of the earth. You will die this year because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.’ ”

And in the seventh month of that very year, the prophet Hananiah died.

Jeremiah 29

This is the text of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets, and all the others Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

(This was after King Jeconiah, the queen mother, the court officials, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metalsmiths had been exiled from Jerusalem.)

The letter was entrusted to Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It stated:

This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles who were carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:

“Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat their produce.

Take wives and have sons and daughters. Take wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease.

Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have sent you as exiles. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Do not be deceived by the prophets and diviners among you, and do not listen to the dreams you elicit from them.

For they are falsely prophesying to you in My name; I have not sent them, declares the LORD.”

For this is what the LORD says: “When Babylon’s seventy years are complete, I will attend to you and confirm My promise to restore you to this place.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope.

Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

I will be found by you, declares the LORD, and I will restore you from captivity and gather you from all the nations and places to which I have banished you, declares the LORD. I will restore you to the place from which I sent you into exile.”

Because you may say, “The LORD has raised up for us prophets in Babylon,”

this is what the LORD says about the king who sits on David’s throne and all the people who remain in this city, your brothers who did not go with you into exile—

this is what the LORD of Hosts says:

“I will send against them sword and famine and plague, and I will make them like rotten figs, so bad they cannot be eaten.

I will pursue them with sword and famine and plague. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth—a curse, a desolation, and an object of scorn and reproach among all the nations to which I banish them.

I will do this because they have not listened to My words, declares the LORD, which I sent to them again and again through My servants the prophets. And neither have you exiles listened, declares the LORD.”

So hear the word of the LORD, all you exiles I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon.

This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying to you lies in My name: “I will deliver them to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will kill them before your very eyes.

Because of them, all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse: ‘May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire!’

For they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with the wives of their neighbors and speaking lies in My name, which I did not command them to do. I am He who knows, and I am a witness, declares the LORD.”

You are to tell Shemaiah the Nehelamite that

this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “In your own name you have sent out letters to all the people of Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests. You said to Zephaniah:

‘The LORD has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada, to be the chief officer in the house of the LORD, responsible for any madman who acts like a prophet—you must put him in stocks and neck irons.

So now, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth, who poses as a prophet among you?

For he has sent to us in Babylon, claiming: Since the exile will be lengthy, build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat their produce.’ ”

(Zephaniah the priest, however, had read this letter to Jeremiah the prophet.)

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:

“Send a message telling all the exiles what the LORD says concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite. Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you—though I did not send him—and has made you trust in a lie,

this is what the LORD says: ‘I will surely punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will have no one left among this people, nor will he see the good that I will bring to My people, declares the LORD, for he has preached rebellion against the LORD.’ ”

Jeremiah 30

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you.

For behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will restore from captivity My people Israel and Judah, declares the LORD. I will restore them to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.’ ”

These are the words that the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah. Yes, this is what the LORD says:

“A cry of panic is heard—

a cry of terror, not of peace.

Ask now, and see:

Can a male give birth?

Why then do I see every man

with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor

and every face turned pale?

How awful that day will be!

None will be like it!

It is the time of Jacob’s distress,

but he will be saved out of it.

On that day,

declares the LORD of Hosts,

I will break the yoke off their necks

and tear off their bonds,

and no longer will strangers enslave them.

Instead, they will serve the LORD their God

and David their king,

whom I will raise up for them.

As for you, O Jacob My servant, do not be afraid,

declares the LORD,

and do not be dismayed,

O Israel.

For I will surely save you out of a distant place,

your descendants from the land of their captivity!

Jacob will return to quiet and ease,

with no one to make him afraid.

For I am with you to save you,

declares the LORD.

Though I will completely destroy all the nations to which I have scattered you,

I will not completely destroy you.

Yet I will discipline you justly,

and will by no means leave you unpunished.”

For this is what the LORD says:

“Your injury is incurable;

your wound is grievous.

There is no one to plead your cause,

no remedy for your sores,

no recovery for you.

All your lovers have forgotten you;

they no longer seek you,

for I have struck you as an enemy would,

with the discipline of someone cruel,

because of your great iniquity

and your numerous sins.

Why do you cry out over your wound?

Your pain has no cure!

Because of your great iniquity

and your numerous sins

I have done these things to you.

Nevertheless, all who devour you will be devoured,

and all your adversaries—every one of them—

will go off into exile.

Those who plundered you will be plundered,

and all who raided you will be raided.

But I will restore your health and heal your wounds,

declares the LORD,

because they call you an outcast,

Zion, for whom no one cares.”

This is what the LORD says:

“I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents

and have compassion on his dwellings.

And the city will be rebuilt on her own ruins,

and the palace will stand in its rightful place.

Thanksgiving will proceed from them,

a sound of celebration.

I will multiply them, and they will not be decreased;

I will honor them, and they will not be belittled.

Their children will be as in days of old,

and their congregation will be established before Me;

and I will punish all their oppressors.

Their leader will be one of their own,

and their ruler will arise from their midst.

And I will bring him near, and he will approach Me,

for who would dare on his own to approach Me?”

declares the LORD.

“And you will be My people,

and I will be your God.”

Behold, the storm of the LORD

has gone out with fury,

a whirlwind swirling down

upon the heads of the wicked.

The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back

until He has fully accomplished the purposes of His heart.

In the days to come

you will understand this.

Jeremiah 31

“At that time,” declares the LORD, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be My people.”

This is what the LORD says:

“The people who survived the sword

found favor in the wilderness

when Israel went to find rest.”

The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying:

“I have loved you with an everlasting love;

therefore I have drawn you with loving devotion.

Again I will build you, and you will be rebuilt,

O Virgin Israel.

Again you will take up your tambourines

and go out in joyful dancing.

Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria;

the farmers will plant and enjoy the fruit.

For there will be a day when watchmen will call out

on the hills of Ephraim,

‘Arise, let us go up to Zion,

to the LORD our God!’ ”

For this is what the LORD says:

“Sing with joy for Jacob;

shout for the foremost of the nations!

Make your praises heard, and say,

‘O LORD, save Your people,

the remnant of Israel!’

Behold, I will bring them from the land of the north

and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth,

including the blind and the lame,

expectant mothers and women in labor.

They will return as a great assembly!

They will come with weeping,

and by their supplication I will lead them;

I will make them walk beside streams of waters,

on a level path where they will not stumble.

For I am Israel’s Father,

and Ephraim is My firstborn.”

Hear, O nations, the word of the LORD,

and proclaim it in distant coastlands:

“The One who scattered Israel will gather them and keep them

as a shepherd keeps his flock.

For the LORD has ransomed Jacob

and redeemed him from the hand that had overpowered him.

They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;

they will be radiant over the bounty of the LORD—

the grain, new wine, and oil,

and the young of the flocks and herds.

Their life will be like a well-watered garden,

and never again will they languish.

Then the maidens will rejoice with dancing,

young men and old as well.

I will turn their mourning into joy,

and give them comfort and joy for their sorrow.

I will fill the souls of the priests abundantly,

and will fill My people with My goodness,”

declares the LORD.

This is what the LORD says:

“A voice is heard in Ramah,

mourning and great weeping,

Rachel weeping for her children,

and refusing to be comforted,

because they are no more.”

This is what the LORD says:

“Keep your voice from weeping

and your eyes from tears,

for the reward for your work will come,

declares the LORD.

Then your children will return

from the land of the enemy.

So there is hope for your future,

declares the LORD,

and your children will return

to their own land.

I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning:

‘You disciplined me severely,

like an untrained calf.

Restore me, that I may return,

for You are the LORD my God.

After I returned, I repented;

and after I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief.

I was ashamed and humiliated

because I bore the disgrace of my youth.’

Is not Ephraim a precious son to Me,

a delightful child?

Though I often speak against him,

I still remember him.

Therefore My heart yearns for him;

I have great compassion for him,”

declares the LORD.

“Set up the roadmarks,

establish the signposts.

Keep the highway in mind,

the road you have traveled.

Return, O Virgin Israel,

return to these cities of yours.

How long will you wander,

O faithless daughter?

For the LORD has created a new thing in the land—

a woman will shelter a man.”

This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “When I restore them from captivity, they will once again speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities: ‘May the LORD bless you, O righteous dwelling place, O holy mountain.’

And Judah and all its cities will dwell together in the land, the farmers and those who move with the flocks, for I will refresh the weary soul and replenish all who are weak.”

At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been most pleasant to me.

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and of beast.

Just as I watched over them to uproot and tear down, to demolish, destroy, and bring disaster, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” declares the LORD.

“In those days, it will no longer be said:

‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,

and the teeth of the children are set on edge.’

Instead, each will die for his own iniquity. If anyone eats the sour grapes, his own teeth will be set on edge.

Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD,

when I will make a new covenant

with the house of Israel

and with the house of Judah.

It will not be like the covenant

I made with their fathers

when I took them by the hand

to lead them out of the land of Egypt—

a covenant they broke,

though I was a husband to them,”

declares the LORD.

“But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel

after those days, declares the LORD.

I will put My law in their minds

and inscribe it on their hearts.

And I will be their God,

and they will be My people.

No longer will each man teach his neighbor or his brother,

saying, ‘Know the LORD,’

because they will all know Me,

from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD.

For I will forgive their iniquities

and will remember their sins no more.”

Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day, who sets in order the moon and stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD of Hosts is His name:

“Only if this fixed order departed from My presence,

declares the LORD,

would Israel’s descendants ever cease

to be a nation before Me.”

This is what the LORD says:

“Only if the heavens above could be measured

and the foundations of the earth below searched out

would I reject all of Israel’s descendants

because of all they have done,”

declares the LORD.

“The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when this city will be rebuilt for Me, from the tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

The measuring line will once again stretch out straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn toward Goah.

The whole valley of the dead bodies and ashes, and all the fields as far as the Kidron Valley, to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east, will be holy to the LORD. It will never again be uprooted or demolished.”

Jeremiah 32

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard, which was in the palace of the king of Judah.

For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying: “Why are you prophesying like this? You claim that the LORD says, ‘Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.

Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape from the hands of the Chaldeans, but he will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and will speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye.

He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will stay until I attend to him, declares the LORD. If you fight against the Chaldeans, you will not succeed.’ ”

Jeremiah replied, “The word of the LORD came to me, saying:

Behold! Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, is coming to you to say, ‘Buy for yourself my field in Anathoth, for you have the right of redemption to buy it.’

Then, as the LORD had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and urged me, ‘Please buy my field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for you own the right of inheritance and redemption. Buy it for yourself.’ ”

Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

So I bought the field in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and I weighed out seventeen shekels of silver.

I signed and sealed the deed, called in witnesses, and weighed out the silver on the scales.

Then I took the deed of purchase—the sealed copy with its terms and conditions, as well as the open copy—

and I gave this deed to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the sight of my cousin Hanamel and the witnesses who were signing the purchase agreement and all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard.

In their sight I instructed Baruch,

“This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Take these deeds—both the sealed copy and the open copy of the deed of purchase—and put them in a clay jar to preserve them for a long time.

For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”

After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD:

“Oh, Lord GOD! You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for You!

You show loving devotion to thousands but lay the iniquity of the fathers into the laps of their children after them, O great and mighty God whose name is the LORD of Hosts,

the One great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are on all the ways of the sons of men, to reward each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds.

You performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and You do so to this very day, both in Israel and among all mankind. And You have made a name for Yourself, as is the case to this day.

You brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror.

You gave them this land that You had sworn to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

They came in and possessed it, but they did not obey Your voice or walk in Your law. They failed to perform all that You commanded them to do, and so You have brought upon them all this disaster.

See how the siege ramps are mounted against the city to capture it. And by sword and famine and plague, the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What You have spoken has happened, as You now see!

Yet You, O Lord GOD, have said to me, ‘Buy for yourself the field with silver and call in witnesses, even though the city has been delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans!’ ”

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too difficult for Me?

Therefore this is what the LORD says: Behold, I am about to deliver this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who will capture it.

And the Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come in, set it on fire, and burn it, along with the houses of those who provoked Me to anger by burning incense to Baal on their rooftops and by pouring out drink offerings to other gods.

For the children of Israel and of Judah have done nothing but evil in My sight from their youth; indeed, they have done nothing but provoke Me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the LORD.

For this city has aroused My wrath and fury from the day it was built until now. Therefore I will remove it from My presence

because of all the evil the children of Israel and of Judah have done to provoke Me to anger—they, their kings, their officials, their priests and prophets, the men of Judah, and the residents of Jerusalem.

They have turned their backs to Me and not their faces. Though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline.

They have placed their abominations in the house that bears My Name, and so have defiled it.

They have built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Hinnom to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molech—something I never commanded them, nor had it ever entered My mind, that they should commit such an abomination and cause Judah to sin.

Now therefore, about this city of which you say, ‘It will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword and famine and plague,’ this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says:

I will surely gather My people from all the lands to which I have banished them in My furious anger and great wrath, and I will return them to this place and make them dwell in safety.

They will be My people, and I will be their God. I will give them one heart and one way, so that they will always fear Me for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put My fear in their hearts, so that they will never turn away from Me.

Yes, I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will faithfully plant them in this land with all My heart and with all My soul.

For this is what the LORD says: Just as I have brought all this great disaster on this people, so I will bring on them all the good I have promised them.

And fields will be bought in this land about which you are saying, ‘It is a desolation, without man or beast; it has been delivered into the hands of the Chaldeans.’

Fields will be purchased with silver, and deeds will be signed, sealed, and witnessed in the land of Benjamin, in the areas surrounding Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah—the cities of the hill country, the foothills, and the Negev—because I will restore them from captivity, declares the LORD.”

Psalm 53

The fool says in his heart,

“There is no God.”

They are corrupt; their ways are vile.

There is no one who does good.

God looks down from heaven

upon the sons of men

to see if any understand,

if any seek God.

All have turned away,

they have together become corrupt;

there is no one who does good,

not even one.

Will the workers of iniquity never learn?

They devour my people like bread;

they refuse to call upon God.

There they are, overwhelmed with dread,

where there was nothing to fear.

For God has scattered the bones

of those who besieged you.

You put them to shame,

for God has despised them.

Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come from Zion!

When God restores His captive people,

let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad!