Today's Reading

¹Thus said the Lord: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,

²Say, 'Hear the word of the Lord, king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates.

³Thus says the Lord: "Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence, to the foreigner, the fatherless, nor the widow; neither shed innocent blood in this place.

⁴For if you do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people.

⁵But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself, says the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation."

⁶For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah: "You are Gilead to me, the head of Lebanon. Yet surely I will make you a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited.

⁷I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons; and they shall cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.

⁸Many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbor, 'Why has the Lord done thus to this great city?'

⁹Then they shall answer, 'Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshiped other gods, and served them.'

¹⁰Do not weep for the dead, neither bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him who goes away; for he shall return no more, nor see his native country."

¹¹For thus says the Lord touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went forth out of this place: "He shall not return there any more.

¹²But in the place where they have led him captive, there shall he die, and he shall see this land no more."

¹³Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his rooms by injustice; who uses his neighbor's service without wages, and doesn't give him his hire;

¹⁴who says, "I will build me a wide house and spacious rooms," and cuts him out windows; and it is ceiling with cedar, and painted with vermilion.

¹⁵Shall you reign, because you strive to excel in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.

¹⁶He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Wasn't this to know me?' says the Lord.

¹⁷''But your eyes and your heart are not but for your covetousness, and for shedding innocent blood, and for oppression, and for violence, to do it.

¹⁸Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: "they shall not lament for him, saying, 'Ah my brother! or, Ah sister!' They shall not lament for him, saying, 'Ah lord!' or, 'Ah his glory!'

¹⁹He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all your lovers are destroyed.

²¹I spoke to you in your prosperity; but you said, 'I will not hear.' This has been your way from your youth, that you did not obey my voice.

²²The wind shall feed all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity: surely then you will be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness.

²³Inhabitant of Lebanon, who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied you will be when pangs come on you, the pain as of a woman in travail!

²⁴As I live," says the Lord, "though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, yet would I pluck you there;

²⁵and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.

²⁶I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country, where you were not born; and there you will die.

²⁷But to the land whereunto their soul longs to return, there shall they not return."

²⁸Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? Is he a vessel in which none delights? Why are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into the land which they do not know?

²⁹O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the Lord.

³⁰Thus says the Lord, "Write this man childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days; for no more shall a man of his seed prosper, sitting on the throne of David, and ruling in Judah.

¹"Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!" says the Lord.

²Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people: "You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings," says the Lord.

³"I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and multiply.

⁴I will set up shepherds over them, who shall feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be lacking," says the Lord.

⁵"Behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that I will raise to David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

⁶In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name by which he shall be called: 'The Lord our righteousness.'

⁷Therefore behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that they shall no more say, 'As the Lord lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt';

⁸but, 'As the Lord lives, who brought up and who led the seed of the house of Israel out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had driven them.' They shall dwell in their own land."'

⁹Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the Lord, and because of his holy words.

¹⁰For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. "Their course is evil, and their might is not right;

¹¹for both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in my house have I found their wickedness," says the Lord.

¹²"Therefore their way shall be to them as slippery places in the darkness: they shall be driven on, and fall therein; for I will bring evil on them, even the year of their visitation," says the Lord.

¹³"I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied by Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.

¹⁴In the prophets of Jerusalem also I have seen a horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies; and they strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none does return from his wickedness: they are all of them become to me as Sodom, and its inhabitants as Gomorrah.

¹⁵Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: 'Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the water of gall; for from the prophets of Jerusalem is ungodliness gone forth into all the land.'

¹⁶Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord.

¹⁷They say continually to those who despise me, "The Lord has said, 'You shall have peace'"; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, "No evil shall come on you."

¹⁸For who has stood in the council of the Lord, that he should perceive and hear his word? Who has marked my word, and heard it?

¹⁹Behold, the storm of the Lord, his wrath, has gone forth. Yes, a whirling storm. It shall burst on the head of the wicked.

²⁰The anger of the Lord shall not return, until he has executed, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days you shall understand it perfectly.

²¹I sent not these prophets, yet they ran: I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.

²²But if they had stood in my council, then had they caused my people to hear my words, and had turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

²³Am I a God at hand,' says the Lord, 'and not a God afar off?

²⁴Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him?' says the Lord. 'Do I not fill heaven and earth?' says the Lord.

²⁵'I have heard what the prophets have said, who prophesy lies in my name, saying, "I have dreamed, I have dreamed."

²⁶How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, even the prophets of the deceit of their own heart,

²⁷who think to cause my people to forget my name by their dreams which they tell every man to his neighbor, as their fathers forgot my name for Baal.

²⁸The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; and he who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the straw to the wheat?' says the Lord.

²⁹'Isn't my word like fire?' says the Lord; 'and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

³⁰Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,' says the Lord, 'who steal my words everyone from his neighbor.

³¹Behold, I am against the prophets,' says the Lord, 'who use their tongues, and say, "He says."

³²Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams,' says the Lord, 'and do tell them, and cause my people to err by their lies, and by their vain boasting: yet I did not send them, nor commanded them; neither do they profit this people at all,' says the Lord.

³³'When this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask you, saying, "What is the burden of the Lord?" Then you shall tell them, "What burden! I will cast you off," says the Lord.

³⁴As for the prophet, and the priest, and the people, who shall say, "The burden of the Lord," I will even punish that man and his house.

³⁵You shall say everyone to his neighbor, and everyone to his brother, "What has the Lord answered?" and, "What has the Lord spoken?"

³⁶You shall mention the burden of the Lord no more: for every man's own word shall be his burden; for you have perverted the words of the living God, of the Lord of hosts our God.

³⁷You shall say to the prophet, "What has the Lord answered you?" and, "What has the Lord spoken?"

³⁸But if you say, "The burden of the Lord"; therefore thus says the Lord: Because you say this word, "The burden of the Lord," and I have sent to you, saying, "You shall not say, 'The burden of the Lord'";

³⁹therefore, behold, I will utterly forget you, and I will cast you off, and the city that I gave to you and to your fathers, away from my presence:

⁴⁰and I will bring an everlasting reproach on you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.'"

¹The Lord showed me, and behold, two baskets of figs set before the Lord's temple, after that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah, with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

²One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first-ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

³Then the Lord said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" I said, "Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, that can't be eaten, they are so bad."

⁴The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁵"Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: 'Like these good figs, so will I regard the captives of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans, for good.

⁶For I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them again to this land: and I will build them, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up.

⁷I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return to me with their whole heart.'

⁸As the bad figs, which can't be eaten, they are so bad, surely thus says the Lord, 'So will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt,

⁹I will even give them up to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth for evil; to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them.

¹⁰I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, until they be consumed from off the land that I gave to them and to their fathers.'"

¹Let as many as are bondservants under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and the doctrine not be blasphemed.

²Those who have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brothers, but rather let them serve them, because those who partake of the benefit are believing and beloved. Teach and exhort these things.

³If anyone teaches a different doctrine, and does not consent to sound words, the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness,

⁴he is conceited, knowing nothing, but obsessed with arguments, disputes, and word battles, from which come envy, strife, reviling, evil suspicions,

⁵constant friction of people of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is a means of gain.

⁶But godliness with contentment is great gain.

⁷For we brought nothing into the world, so neither can we carry anything out.

⁸But having food and clothing, we will be content with that.

⁹But those who are determined to be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful lusts, such as drown men in ruin and destruction.

¹⁰For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some have been led astray from the faith in their greed, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

¹¹But you, man of God, flee these things, and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.

¹²Fight the good fight of faith. Lay hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you confessed the good confession in the sight of many witnesses.

¹³I command you before God, who gives life to all things, and before Christ Jesus, who before Pontius Pilate testified the good confession,

¹⁴that you keep the commandment without spot, blameless, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ;

¹⁵which in its own times he will show, who is the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;

¹⁶who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light; whom no man has seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and eternal power. Amen.

¹⁷Charge those who are rich in this present world that they not be haughty, nor have their hope set on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy;

¹⁸that they do good, that they be rich in good works, that they be ready to distribute, willing to communicate;

¹⁹laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come, that they may lay hold of that which is truly life.

²⁰Timothy, guard that which is committed to you, turning away from the empty chatter and oppositions of the knowledge which is falsely so called;

²¹which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with you.

¹The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father; but a foolish son brings grief to his mother.

²Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death.

³The Lord will not allow the soul of the righteous to go hungry, but he thrusts away the desire of the wicked.

⁴He becomes poor who works with a lazy hand, but the hand of the diligent brings wealth.

⁵He who gathers in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during the harvest is a son who causes shame.

⁶Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.

⁷The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.

⁸The wise in heart accept commandments, but a chattering fool will fall.

⁹He who walks blamelessly walks surely, but he who perverts his ways will be found out.

¹⁰One winking with the eye causes sorrow, but a chattering fool will fall.

¹¹The mouth of the righteous is a spring of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.

¹²Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs.

¹³Wisdom is found on the lips of him who has discernment, but a rod is for the back of him who is void of understanding.

¹⁴Wise men lay up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish is near ruin.

¹⁵The rich man's wealth is his strong city. The destruction of the poor is their poverty.

¹⁶The labor of the righteous leads to life. The increase of the wicked leads to sin.

¹⁷He is in the way of life who heeds correction, but he who forsakes reproof leads others astray.

¹⁸He who hides hatred has lying lips. He who utters a slander is a fool.

¹⁹In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely.

²⁰The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of little worth.

²¹The lips of the righteous feed many, but the foolish die for lack of understanding.

²²The Lord's blessing brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.

²³It is a fool's pleasure to do wickedness, but wisdom is a man of understanding's pleasure.

²⁴What the wicked fear, will overtake them, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

²⁵When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more; but the righteous stand firm forever.

²⁶As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.

²⁷The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.

²⁸The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hope of the wicked will perish.

²⁹The way of the Lord is a stronghold to the upright, but it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.

³⁰The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not dwell in the land.

³¹The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off.

³²The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked is perverse.