Read Through the Bible in a Year / August
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Read Through the Bible in a Year / August
August 1. Jeremiah Chapters 10–13CHAPTER 10
HEAR THE word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel.
2 Thus says the Lord: Learn not the way of the [heathen] nations and be not dismayed at the signs of the heavens, though they are dismayed at them,
3 For the customs and ordinances of the peoples are false, empty, and futile; it is but a tree which one cuts out of the forest [to make for himself a god], the work of the hands of the craftsman with the ax or other tool.
4 They deck [the idol] with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers so it will not fall apart or move around.
5 [Their idols] are like pillars of turned work [as upright and stationary and immobile as a palm tree], like scarecrows in a cucumber field; they cannot speak; they have to be carried, for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, neither is it possible for them to do good [and it is not in them].
6 None at all is like You, O Lord; You are great, and Your name is great in might.
7 Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For it is fitting to You and Your due! For among all the wise [men or gods] of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You.
8 But they are altogether irrational and stupid and foolish. Their instruction is given by idols who are but wood [it is a teaching of falsity, emptiness, futility]!
9 Silver beaten [into plates] is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith; the [idols’] clothing is violet and purple—they are all the work of skillful men.
10 But the Lord is the true God and the God of truth (the God Who is Truth). He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations are not able to bear His indignation.
11 Thus shall you say to them: The gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.
12 God made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and by His understanding and skill stretched out the heavens.
13 When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind out from His treasuries and from His storehouses.
14 Every man has become like a brute, irrational and stupid, without knowledge [of God]; every goldsmith is brought to shame by his graven idols; for his molten images are frauds and falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
15 They are devoid of worth, usefulness, or truth, a work of delusion and mockery; in their time of trial and punishment they shall [helplessly] perish.
16 The Portion of Jacob [the true God on Whom Israel has a claim] is not like these, for He is the Fashioner and Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance—the Lord of hosts is His name.
17 Gather up your bundle [of baggage] from the ground, O you who dwell under siege.
18 For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time and will bring distress on them, that they may feel it and find it [to be as I have said, and turn to Me].
19 Woe is me because of my hurt! [says Jeremiah, speaking for the nation.] My wound is grievous and incurable. But I said, Surely this sickness and suffering and grief are mine, and I must endure, tolerate, and bear them.
20 My tent (home) is taken by force and plundered, and all my [tent] cords are broken. My children have gone forth [as captives] from me, and they are no more; there is no one to stretch forth my tent any more and to set up my [tent] curtains.
21 For the shepherds [of the people] have become like brutes, irrational and stupid, and have not sought the Lord or inquired of Him or required Him [by necessity and by right of His word]. Therefore they have not dealt prudently and have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.
22 Hark, the sound of a rumor! [The invading army] comes!—a great commotion out of the north country—to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling place of jackals.
23 O Lord [pleads Jeremiah in the name of the people], I know that [the determination of] the way of a man is not in himself; it is not in man [even in a strong man or in a man at his best] to direct his [own] steps. [Ps. 37:23; Prov. 20:24.]
24 O Lord, correct, instruct, and chastise me, but with judgment and in just measure—not in Your anger, lest You diminish me and bring me to nothing.
25 Pour out Your wrath upon the nations that do not know or recognize You and upon the peoples that do not call upon Your name. For they have devoured Jacob, yes, devoured him and consumed him and made his habitation a desolate waste.
CHAPTER 11
THE WORD that came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2 Hear the words of this covenant or solemn pledge, and speak to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
3 Say to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Cursed is the man who does not heed the words of this covenant or solemn pledge
4 Which I commanded your fathers at the time that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, Listen to My voice and do according to all that I command you. So will you be My people, and I will be your God,
5 That I may perform the oath which I swore to your fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is this day. Then I answered, Amen (so be it), O Lord.
6 And the Lord said to me, Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: Hear the words of this covenant or solemn pledge and do them.
7 For I earnestly protested to and warned your fathers at the time that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, protesting to and warning them persistently, saying, Obey My voice.
8 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear [to Me], but everyone walked in the stubbornness of his own evil heart. Therefore I brought upon them all [the calamities threatened in] the words of this covenant or solemn pledge, which I had commanded, but they did not do.
9 And the Lord said to me, A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
10 They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear My words; they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant or solemn pledge which I made with their fathers.
11 Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I am bringing evil and calamity upon them which they will not be able to escape; though they cry to Me, I will not listen to them.
12 Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they offer incense, but they cannot save them at all in the time of their evil trouble.
13 For [as many as] the number of your cities are your gods, O Judah; and [as many as] the number of the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.
14 Therefore do not pray for this people or lift up a cry or prayer for them, for I will not listen when they cry out to Me in the time of their evil trouble.
15 What right has My beloved [to be] in My house when she has wrought lewdness and done treacherously many times? Can vows and the holy flesh [of your sacrifices] remove from you your wickedness and avert your calamity? Can you by these [escape your doom and] rejoice exultantly?
16 The Lord [acknowledged you once to be worthy to be] called a green olive tree, fair and of good fruit; but with the roar of a great tempest He will set fire to it, and its branches will be consumed. [Ps. 52:8; Jer. 21:14.]
17 For the Lord of hosts, Who planted you, has pronounced evil and calamity against you because of the evil which the house of Israel and the house of Judah have done against themselves in provoking Me to anger by offering incense to Baal.
18 And the Lord gave me [Jeremiah] knowledge of it [their plot], and I knew it; then You [O Lord] showed me their doings.
19 But I was like a tame lamb that is brought to the slaughter; I did not know that they had devised inventions and schemes against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered.
20 But, O Lord of hosts, Who judges rightly and justly, Who tests the heart and the mind, let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You I have revealed and committed my cause [rolling it upon You].
21 Therefore thus says the Lord about the men of Anathoth [Jeremiah’s hometown], who seek your life [Jeremiah] and say, Prophesy not in the name of the Lord, that you die not by our hands—
22 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and their daughters will die by famine;
23 And there will be no remnant [of the conspirators] left, for I will bring evil and calamity upon the men of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.
CHAPTER 12
UNCOMPROMISINGLY RIGHTEOUS and rigidly just are You, O Lord, when I complain against and contend with You. Yet let me plead and reason the case with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are all they at ease and thriving who deal very treacherously and deceitfully?
2 You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; they grow, yes, they bring forth fruit. You are near in their mouths but far from their hearts.
3 But You, O Lord, know and understand me and my devotion to You; You see me and try my heart toward You. [O Lord] pull [these rebellious ones] out like sheep for the slaughter and devote and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
4 How long must the land mourn and the grass and herbs of the whole country wither? Through the wickedness of those who dwell in it, the beasts and the birds are consumed and are swept away [by the drought], because men [mocked] me, saying, He shall not [live to] see our final end.
5 [But the Lord rebukes Jeremiah’s impatience, saying] If you have raced with men on foot and they have tired you out, then how can you compete with horses? And if [you take to flight] in a land of peace where you feel secure, then what will you do [when you tread the tangled maze of jungle haunted by lions] in the swelling and flooding of the Jordan?
6 For even your brethren and the house of your father—even they have dealt treacherously with you; yes, even they are [like a pack of hounds] in full cry after you. Believe them not, though they speak fair words and promise good things to you.
7 I have forsaken My house, I have cast off My heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of My life into the hands of her enemies.
8 My heritage has become to Me like a lion in the forest; she has uttered her voice against Me; therefore I have [treated her as if I] hated her.
9 Is My heritage to Me like a speckled bird of prey? Are the birds of prey against her round about? Go, assemble all the wild beasts of the field; bring them to devour.
10 Many shepherds [of an invading host] have destroyed My vineyard, they have trampled My portion underfoot; they have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.
11 They have made it a desolation, and desolate it mourns before Me; the whole land has been made desolate, but no man lays it to heart.
12 Destroyers have come upon all the bare heights in the desert, for the sword of the Lord devours from one end of the land even to the other; no flesh has peace or can find the means to escape.
13 They have sown wheat but have reaped thorns; they have worn themselves out but without profit. And they shall be ashamed of your [lack of] harvests and revenues because of the fierce and glowing anger of the Lord.
14 Thus says the Lord against all My evil neighbor [nations] who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit: Behold, I will pluck them up from their land and I will pluck up the house of Judah from among them.
15 And after I have plucked them up, I will return and have compassion on them and will bring them back again, every man to his heritage and every man to his land.
16 And if these [neighbor nations] will diligently learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, saying, As the Lord lives—even as they taught My people to swear by Baal—then will they be built up in the midst of My people.
17 But if any nation will not hear and obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation, says the Lord.
CHAPTER 13
THUS THE Lord said to me: Go and buy yourself a linen girdle and put it on your loins, but do not put it in water.
2 So I bought a girdle or waistcloth, according to the word of the Lord, and put it on my loins.
3 And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying,
4 Take the girdle which you have bought, which is on your loins, and arise, go to the [river] Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.
5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me.
6 And after many days the Lord said to me, Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the girdle which I commanded you to hide there.
7 Then I went to the Euphrates and dug and took the girdle or waistcloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the girdle was decayed and spoiled; it was good for nothing.
8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
9 Thus says the Lord: After this manner will I mar the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.
10 These evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have gone after other gods to serve them and to worship them, shall even be like this girdle or waistcloth, which is profitable for nothing.
11 For as the girdle clings to the loins of a man, so I caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me, says the Lord, that they might be for Me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory; but they would not listen or obey.
12 Therefore you shall speak to them this word: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Every bottle and jar should be filled with wine. [The people] will say to you, Do we not certainly know that every bottle and jar should be filled with wine?
13 Then say to them, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will fill with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit upon David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
14 And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, says the Lord. I will not pity or spare or have compassion, that I should not destroy them.
15 Hear and give ear, do not be proud, for the Lord has spoken [says Jeremiah].
16 Give glory to the Lord your God before He brings darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark and twilit mountains, and [before], while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it thick darkness.
17 But if you will not hear and obey, I will weep in secret for your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears, because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.
18 Say to the king and the queen mother, Humble yourselves and take a lowly seat, for down from your head has come your beautiful crown (the crown of your glory).
19 The cities of the South (the Negeb) have been shut up, and there is no one to open them; all Judah has been carried away captive, it has been wholly taken captive and into exile.
20 Lift up your eyes and behold those [the eruption of a hostile army] who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you [to shepherd], your beautiful flock?
21 What will you say [O Jerusalem] when He [the Lord] sets over you as head those [tyrannical foreign nations] whom you yourselves [at intervals] have taught to be lovers (allies) with you [instructing them, even your friends, to be head over you]? Will not pangs take hold of you like that of a woman in travail?
22 And if you say in your heart, Why have these things come upon me?—[the answer is], Because of the greatness of your iniquity has your long robe been pulled aside [showing you in the garb of a menial] and have you [barefooted and treated like a slave] suffered violence.
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard his spots? Then also can you do good who are accustomed and taught [even trained] to do evil.
24 Therefore I will scatter you like chaff driven away by the wind from the desert.
25 This is your lot, the portion measured to you from Me, says the Lord, because you have forgotten Me and trusted in falsehood [false gods and alliances with idolatrous nations].
26 Therefore I Myself will [retaliate], throwing your skirts up over your face, that your shame [of being clad like a slave] may be exposed.
27 I have seen your detestable acts, even your adulteries and your lustful neighings [after idols], and the lewdness of your harlotry on the hills in the field. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! For how long a time yet will you not [meet My conditions and] be made clean?
Read Through the Bible in a Year / August
August 2. Jeremiah Chapters 14–16CHAPTER 14
THE WORD of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
2 Judah mourns and her gates languish; [her people] sit in black [mourning garb] upon the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
3 And their nobles send their little ones and their inferiors for water; they come to the cisterns and find no water. They return with empty vessels; they are put to shame and confounded and cover their heads.
4 Because the ground is cracked and the tillers are dismayed, since there has been no rain on the land, the plowmen are put to shame, and they cover their heads.
5 Yes, even the hind gives birth to her calf in the field and forsakes it, because there is no grass or herbage.
6 And the wild donkeys stand on the bare heights; they pant for air like jackals or crocodiles; their eyesight fails because there is no grass.
7 O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us [prays Jeremiah], deal and work with us for Your own name’s sake [that the heathen may witness Your might and faithfulness]! For our backslidings are many; we have sinned against You.
8 O Hope of Israel, her Savior in time of trouble, why should You be like a sojourner in the land and like a wayfaring man who turns aside and spreads his tent to tarry [only] for a night?
9 Why should You be [hesitant and inactive] like a man stunned and confused, like a mighty man who cannot save? Yet You, O Lord, are in the midst of us, and we are called by Your name; do not leave us!
10 [And the Lord replied to Jeremiah] Thus says the Lord to this people [Judah]: In the manner and to the degree already pointed out have they loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore the Lord does not accept them; He will now [seriously] remember their iniquity and punish them for their sins.
11 The Lord said to me, Do not pray for this people for their good.
12 Though they fast, I will not hear their cry; and though they offer burnt offering and cereal offering [without heartfelt surrender to Me, or by offering it too late], I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.
13 Then said I, Alas, Lord God! Behold, the [false] prophets say to them, You will not see the sword, nor will you have famine; but I [the Lord] will give you assured peace (peace that lasts, the peace of truth) in this place.
14 Then the Lord said to me, The [false] prophets prophesy lies in My name. I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, nor have I spoken to them. They prophesy to you a false or pretended vision, a worthless divination [conjuring or practicing magic, trying to call forth the responses supposed to be given by idols], and the deceit of their own minds.
15 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the [false] prophets who prophesy in My name—although I did not send them—and who say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword; and they shall have none to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will pour out their wickedness upon them [and not on their false teachers only, for the people could not have been deceived except by their own consent].
17 Therefore [Jeremiah] you shall say to them, Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people has been smitten with a great wound, with a very grievous blow.
18 If I go out into the field, then behold, those slain with the sword! And if I enter the city, then behold, those tormented with the diseases of famine! For both prophet and priest go about not knowing what to do or as beggars [exiled] in a land that they know not, and they have no knowledge.
19 [O Lord] have You utterly rejected Judah? Do You loathe Zion? Why have You smitten us so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace and completeness, but no good came, and for a time of healing, but behold, dismay, disaster, and terror!
20 We know and acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against You.
21 Do not abhor, condemn, and spurn us, for Your name’s sake; do not dishonor, debase, and lightly esteem Your glorious throne; [earnestly] remember, break not Your covenant or solemn pledge with us.
22 Are there any among the false gods of the nations who can cause rain? Or can the heavens [of their own will] give showers? Are You [alone] not He, O Lord our God? Therefore we will wait [expectantly] for You, for You have made all these things [the heavens and the rain].
CHAPTER 15
THEN THE Lord said to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood [interceding for them] before Me, yet My mind could not be turned with favor toward this people [Judah]. Send them out of My sight and let them go!
2 And if they say to you, Where shall we go? then tell them, Thus says the Lord: Such as are [destined] for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for famine, to famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.
3 And I will appoint over them four kinds [of destroyers], says the Lord: the sword to slay, the dogs to tear and drag away, and the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth to devour and to destroy.
4 And I will cause them to be tossed to and fro among all the kingdoms of the earth and to be made a horror to all nations because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah, for [the horrible wickedness] which he did in Jerusalem. [II Kings 21:3-7.]
5 For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?
6 You have rejected and forsaken Me, says the Lord. You keep going in reverse. Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am weary of relenting [concerning your punishment].
7 I will winnow them with a fan and a winnowing fork in the gates of the land; I will bereave them [of children], I will destroy My people; from their [evil] ways they did not return.
8 I will increase the number of their widows more than the sand of the seas. I will bring upon them, [both] against the mother of young men and the young men [themselves], a destroyer at noonday. I will cause anguish and terrors to fall upon her [Jerusalem] suddenly.
9 She who has borne seven languishes; she has expired. Her sun has gone down while it was yet day; she has been put to shame, confounded, and disgraced. And the rest of them I will deliver to the sword before their enemies, says the Lord.
10 Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me to be a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither loaned, nor have men loaned to me, yet everyone curses me. [Jer. 1:18, 19.]
11 The Lord said, Truly your release, affliction, and strengthening will be for good [purposes]; surely [Jeremiah] I will intercede for you with the enemy and I will cause the enemy to ask for your aid in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. [Jer. 21:1, 2; 37:3; 42:2; Rom. 8:28.]
12 Can iron break the iron from the north and the bronze?
13 Your [nation’s] substance and your treasures will I give as spoil, without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your territory.
14 And I will make [your possessions] to pass with your enemies into a land which you do not know and I will make you to serve [your conquerors] there, for a fire is kindled in My anger which will burn upon you [Israel].
15 [Jeremiah said] O Lord, You know and understand; [earnestly] remember me and visit me and avenge me on my persecutors. Take me not away [from joy or from life itself] in Your long-suffering [to my enemies]; know that for Your sake I suffer and bear reproach.
16 Your words were found, and I ate them; and Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by Your name, O Lord God of hosts.
17 I sat not in the assembly of those who make merry, nor did I rejoice; I sat alone because Your [powerful] hand was upon me, for You had filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you indeed be to me like a deceitful brook, like waters that fail and are uncertain?
19 Therefore thus says the Lord [to Jeremiah]: If you return [and give up this mistaken tone of distrust and despair], then I will give you again a settled place of quiet and safety, and you will be My minister; and if you separate the precious from the vile [cleansing your own heart from unworthy and unwarranted suspicions concerning God’s faithfulness], you shall be My mouthpiece. [But do not yield to them.] Let them return to you—not you to [the people].
20 And I will make you to this people a fortified, bronze wall; they will fight against you, but they will not prevail over you, for I am with you to save and deliver you, says the Lord.
21 And I will deliver you out of the hands of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the palms of the terrible and ruthless tyrants.
CHAPTER 16
THE WORD of the Lord came also to me, saying,
2 You shall not take a wife or have sons and daughters in this place [Jerusalem].
3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who begot them in this land:
4 They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like dung upon the face of the ground. They shall perish and be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the fowls of the air and for the beasts of the earth.
5 For thus says the Lord: Enter not into the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan [the dead], for I have taken away My peace from this people, says the Lord, even My steadfast love and loving-kindness and tender mercy.
6 Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them or cut themselves or make themselves bald for them.
7 Neither shall men prepare food for the mourners to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
8 And you [Jeremiah] shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink.
9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease from this place before your very eyes and in your days the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
10 And when you tell these people all these words and they inquire of you, Why has the Lord decreed all this enormous evil against us? Or, What is our iniquity? Or, What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?
11 Then you shall say to them, [It is] because your fathers have forsaken Me, says the Lord, and have walked after other gods and have served and worshiped them and have forsaken Me and have not kept My law,
12 And because you have done worse than your fathers. For behold, every one of you walks after the stubbornness of his own evil heart, so that you do not listen to and obey Me.
13 Therefore I will cast you out of this land [of Judah] into the land [of the Babylonians] neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor there.
14 Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it shall no more be said, As the Lord lives, Who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,
15 But, As the Lord lives, Who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries to which He had driven them. And I will bring them again to their land which I gave to their fathers.
16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, says the Lord, and they will fish them out; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and from every hill and out of the clefts of the rocks.
17 For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, neither is their iniquity concealed from My eyes.
18 First [before I bring them back to their land] I will doubly recompense and punish them for their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with the abominable things offered to false gods with which they have filled My inheritance.
19 [Then said Jeremiah] O Lord, my Strength and my Stronghold, and my Refuge in the day of affliction, to You shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, emptiness, and futility, worthless things in which there is no profit!
20 Can a man make gods for himself? Such are not gods!
21 Therefore [says the Lord] behold, I will make them know—[yes] this once I will make them know My power and My might; and they will know and recognize that My name is the Lord.
Read Through the Bible in a Year / August
August 3. Jeremiah Chapters 17–20CHAPTER 17
THE SIN of Judah is written with a pen or stylus of iron and with the point of a diamond; it is engraved on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars,
2 While their children [earnestly] remember their [heathen] altars and their Asherim [wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah] beside the green trees upon the high hills.
3 O [Jerusalem] My mountain in the field, I will give your wealth and all your treasures to the spoil and your high places for sin [as the price of your sin] throughout all your territory.
4 And you, through your own fault, will loosen your hand and discontinue from your heritage which I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in a land which you do not know, for you have kindled a fire in My anger which will burn throughout the ages.
5 Thus says the Lord: Cursed [with great evil] is the strong man who trusts in and relies on frail man, making weak [human] flesh his arm, and whose mind and heart turn aside from the Lord.
6 For he shall be like a shrub or a person naked and destitute in the desert; and he shall not see any good come, but shall dwell in the parched places in the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.
7 [Most] blessed is the man who believes in, trusts in, and relies on the Lord, and whose hope and confidence the Lord is.
8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters that spreads out its roots by the river; and it shall not see and fear when heat comes; but its leaf shall be green. It shall not be anxious and full of care in the year of drought, nor shall it cease yielding fruit.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]? [Matt. 13:15-17; Mark 7:21-23; Eph. 4:20-24.]
10 I the Lord search the mind, I try the heart, even to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.
11 Like the partridge that gathers a brood which she did not hatch and sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches by unjust means and not by right. He will leave them, or they will leave him, in the midst of his days, and at his end he will be a fool.
12 A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary (the temple).
13 O Lord, the Hope of Israel, all who forsake You shall be put to shame. They who depart from You and me [Your prophet] shall [disappear like] writing upon the ground, because they have forsaken the Lord, the Fountain of living waters.
14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for You are my praise.
15 Behold, they say to me, Where is the word of the Lord [predicting the disaster that you said would befall us]? Let it come now!
16 But as for me, I have not sought to escape from being a shepherd after You, nor have I desired the woeful day [of judgment]; You know that. Whatever I said was spoken in Your presence and was from You.
17 Be not a terror to me; You are my refuge and my hope in the day of evil.
18 Let those be put to shame who persecute me, but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed. Bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
19 Thus said the Lord to me: Go and stand in the gate of the sons of the people, through which the kings of Judah enter and through which they go out, and also [stand] in all the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Say to them, Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem who enter through these gates.
21 Thus says the Lord: Take heed to yourselves and for the sake of your lives bear no burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in through the gates of Jerusalem.
22 And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy (set apart to the worship of God), as I commanded your fathers.
23 Yet they would not listen and obey or incline their ears; but they stiffened their necks, that they might not hear and might not receive instruction.
24 But if you diligently listen to and obey Me, says the Lord, and bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy (set apart to the worship of God), to do no work on it,
25 Then there will enter through the gates of this city kings and princes who will sit upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses—the kings and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city will be inhabited and last throughout the ages.
26 And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places round about Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country, and from the South (the Negeb), bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, cereal offerings and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the Lord.
27 But if you will not listen to Me to keep the Sabbath day holy (set apart to the worship of God), and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem [with one] on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in her gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
CHAPTER 18
THE WORD which came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2 Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.
3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he was working at the wheel.
4 And the vessel that he was making from clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he made it over, reworking it into another vessel as it seemed good to the potter to make it.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me:
6 O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter does? says the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.
7 At one time I will suddenly speak concerning a nation or kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it;
8 And if [the people of] that nation concerning which I have spoken turn from their evil, I will relent and reverse My decision concerning the evil that I thought to do to them.
9 At another time I will suddenly speak concerning a nation or kingdom, that I will build up and plant it;
10 And if they do evil in My sight, obeying not My voice, then I will regret and reverse My decision concerning the good with which I said I would benefit them.
11 Now therefore say to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Return now each one from his evil way; reform your [accustomed] ways and make your [individual] actions good and right.
12 But they will say, That is in vain! For we will walk after our own devices, and we will each do as the stubbornness of his own evil heart dictates.
13 Therefore thus says the Lord: Ask now among the nations: Who has heard such things? Virgin Israel has done a very vile and horrible thing.
14 Will the snow of Mount Lebanon fail and vanish from its rocks [which tower above the land of Israel]? Will the cold, rushing waters of strange lands [that dash down from afar] be dried up?
15 Yet My people have forgotten Me; they burn incense to false gods, they have been caused to stumble in their ways and in the ancient roads, to walk in bypaths, in a way not graded and built up [not on a highway],
16 Making their land a desolation and a horror, a thing to be hissed at perpetually; everyone who passes by shall be astounded and horrified and shake his head.
17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them My back and not My face in the day of their calamity [says the Lord].
18 Then [my enemies] said, Come and let us devise schemes against Jeremiah; for the law [of Moses] shall not perish from the priest [as this false prophet Jeremiah predicts], nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us smite him with the tongue [making a charge against him to the king], and let us not pay any attention to his words.
19 Give heed to me, Lord; listen to [what] my adversaries [are plotting to do to me—and intercede].
20 Shall evil be recompensed for good? Yet they have dug a pit for my life. [Earnestly] remember that I stood before You to speak good for them, to turn away Your anger from them.
21 Therefore deliver up their children to the famine; give them over to the power of the sword. And let their wives become childless and widows; let their men meet death by pestilence, their young men be slain by the sword in battle.
22 Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring a troop upon them, for they have dug a pit to take me and have hidden snares for my feet.
23 Yet, Lord, You know all their plotting against me to slay me. Forgive not their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from Your sight. But let them be overthrown before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger.
CHAPTER 19
THUS SAYS the Lord: Go and get a potter’s earthen bottle, and take some of the old people and some of the elderly priests
2 And go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], which is by the entrance of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you,
3 And say, Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am going to bring such evil upon this place that the ears of whoever hears of it will tingle.
4 Because the people have forsaken Me and have estranged and profaned this place [Jerusalem] by burning incense in it to other gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents
5 And have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I commanded not nor spoke of it, nor did it come into My mind and heart—
6 Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], but the Valley of Slaughter. [Jer. 7:31-32.]
7 And I will pour out and make void the counsel and the plans of [the men of] Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives, and their dead bodies I will give to be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.
8 And I will make this city an astonishment and a horror and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss [in scorn] because of all its plagues and disasters.
9 And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and they shall eat each one the flesh of his neighbor and friend in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their lives distress them.
10 Then you shall break the bottle in the sight of the men who accompany you,
11 And say to them, Thus said the Lord of hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it cannot be mended. Men will bury in Topheth because there will be no other place for burial and until there is no more room to bury.
12 Thus will I do to this place, says the Lord, and to its inhabitants; and I will even make this city like Topheth.
13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be like the place of Topheth—even all the houses upon whose roofs incense has been burned to all the host of the heavens and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods. [Acts 7:42, 43.]
14 Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people,
15 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks, refusing to hear My words.
CHAPTER 20
NOW PASHHUR son of Immer, the priest, who was [also] chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.
2 Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate by the house of the Lord. [Jer. 1:19; 15:15.]
3 And the next day Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, The Lord does not call your name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib [terror on every side].
4 For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; they will fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon; he will carry them captive to Babylon and will slay them with the sword.
5 Moreover, I will deliver all the riches of this city—all the results of its labors, all its precious things, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah—into the hand of their enemies, who will make them a prey and plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon.
6 And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house shall go into captivity; you shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied falsely.
7 [But Jeremiah said] O Lord, You have persuaded and deceived me, and I was persuaded and deceived; You are stronger than I am and You have prevailed. I am a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.
8 For whenever I speak, I must cry out and complain; I shout, Violence and destruction! For the word of the Lord has become to me a reproach and a derision and has brought me insult all day long.
9 If I say, I will not make mention of [the Lord] or speak any more in His name, in my mind and heart it is as if there were a burning fire shut up in my bones. And I am weary of enduring and holding it in; I cannot [contain it any longer].
10 For I have heard many whispering and defaming, [There is] terror on every side! Denounce him! Let us denounce him! Say all my familiar friends, they who watch for my fall, Perhaps he will be persuaded and deceived; then we will prevail against him, and we will get our revenge on him.
11 But the Lord is with me as a mighty and terrible One; therefore my persecutors will stumble, and they will not overcome [me]. They will be utterly put to shame, for they will not deal wisely or prosper [in their schemes]; their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
12 But, O Lord of hosts, You Who try the righteous, Who see the heart and the mind, let me see Your vengeance on them, for to You have I revealed and committed my cause.
13 Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For He has delivered the life of the poor and needy from the hands of evildoers.
14 Cursed be the day on which I was born! Let not the day on which my mother bore me be blessed!
15 Cursed be the man who brought the tidings to my father, saying, A son is born to you!—making him very glad.
16 And let that man be like the cities which the Lord overthrew, and did not relent. Let him hear the [war] cry in the morning and the shouting of alarm at noon,
17 Because he did not slay me in the womb, so that my mother might have been my grave, and her womb always great.
18 Why did I come out of the womb to see labor and sorrow, that my days should be consumed in shame?
Read Through the Bible in a Year / August
August 4. 2 Kings 22:1–23:28 / 2 Chron. 34:8–35:192 Kings Chapters 22:1–23:28
JOSIAH WAS eight years old when he began his thirty-one-year reign in Jerusalem. His mother was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah of Bozkath.
2 He did right in the sight of the Lord and walked in all the ways of David his [forefather], and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.
3 In the eighteenth year of King Josiah, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, the son of Meshullam, the scribe, to the Lord’s house, saying,
4 Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, that he may count the money brought into the house of the Lord, which the keepers of the door have gathered from the people. [II Kings 12:4ff.]
5 And let them deliver it into the hands of the workmen who have oversight of the Lord’s house, to give to the laborers engaged in the repairing of the Lord’s house—
6 That is, to the carpenters, builders, and masons—and to buy timber and hewn stone to repair the house.
7 However, there was no accounting required of them for the money delivered into their hands, because they dealt faithfully.
8 Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the scribe, I have found the Book of the Law in the house of the Lord! Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it.
9 And Shaphan the scribe came to the king and reported to him: Your servants have gathered the money that was found in the house and have delivered it into the hands of the workmen who have oversight of the house of the Lord.
10 Then Shaphan the scribe told the king, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
11 And when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he rent his clothes.
12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Achbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah servant of the king,
13 Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for the people and for all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us because our fathers have not listened and obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.
14 So Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam, Achbor, Shaphan, and Asaiah went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tikvah, the son of Harhas, keeper of the wardrobe—now she dwelt in Jerusalem, in the Second Quarter—and they talked with her.
15 She said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me,
16 Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants, according to all the words of the book which the king of Judah has read.
17 Because they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods, provoking Me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore My wrath will be kindled against this place and will not be quenched.
18 But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, say this, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, regarding the words you have heard:
19 Because your heart was [tender and] penitent and you humbled yourself before the Lord when you heard what I said against this place and against its inhabitants, that they should become a desolation, [an astonishment and] a curse, and you have rent your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you, says the Lord.
20 Behold, therefore [King Josiah], I will gather you to your fathers, taken to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring on this place. And they brought the king word.
CHAPTER 23
KING JOSIAH sent and gathered to him all the elders of Judah and of Jerusalem.
2 The king went up to the house of the Lord, and with him all the men of Judah, all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the prophets, and all the people, both small and great. And he read in their ears all the words of the Book of the Covenant, which was found in the Lord’s house.
3 The king stood [on the platform] by the pillar and made a covenant before the Lord—to walk after the Lord and to keep His commandments, His testimonies, and His statutes with all his heart and soul, to confirm the words of this covenant that were written in this book. And all the people stood to join in the covenant.
4 And the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second rank and the keepers of the threshold to bring out of the temple of the Lord all the vessels made for Baal, for [the goddess] Asherah, and for all the hosts of the heavens; and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel [where Israel’s idolatry began]. [I Kings 12:28, 29.]
5 He put away the idolatrous priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense in the high places in Judah’s cities and round about Jerusalem—also those who burned incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations [or twelve signs of the zodiac], and to all the hosts of the heavens.
6 And Josiah brought the Asherah from the house of the Lord to outside Jerusalem to the brook Kidron and burned it there, and beat it to dust and cast its dust upon the graves of the common people [who had sacrificed to it].
7 And he broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes, which were by the house of the Lord, where the women wove [tent] hangings for the Asherah [shrines].
8 And [Josiah] brought all the [idolatrous] priests out of the city of Judah and defiled the high places, where the priests had burned incense, from Geba to Beersheba [north to south], and broke down the high places both at the entrance of the Gate of Joshua the governor of the city and that which was on one’s left at the city’s gate.
9 However, the priests of the high places were not allowed to sacrifice upon the Lord’s altar in Jerusalem, but they ate unleavened bread among their brethren.
10 And Josiah defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], that no man might ever burn there his son or his daughter as an offering to Molech. [Ezek. 16:21.]
11 And he removed the horses that the kings of Judah had devoted to the sun from the entrance of the house of the Lord, by the chamber of Nathan-melech the chamberlain, which was in the area, and he burned the chariots of the sun with fire.
12 And the altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz, which the kings of Judah had made, and the altars which Manasseh had made in the two courts of the house of the Lord, [Josiah] pulled down and beat them in pieces, and he [ran and] cast their dust into the brook Kidron.
13 And the king defiled the high places east of Jerusalem, south of the Mount of Corruption, which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abominable [goddess] of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the abominable god of the Moabites, and for Milcom the abominable [god] of the Ammonites.
14 He broke in pieces the pillars (images) and cut down the Asherim and replaced them with the bones of men [to defile the places forever].
15 Moreover, the altar at Bethel, the high place made by Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, that altar with the high place Josiah tore down and broke in pieces its stones, beating them to dust, and burned the Asherah.
16 And as Josiah turned, he saw the tombs across on the mount, and he sent and brought the bones out of the tombs and burned them upon the altar and defiled it, in fulfillment of the word of the Lord which the man of God prophesied, who predicted these things [about this altar, naming Josiah before he was born]. [I Kings 13:2-5.]
17 Josiah said, What is that monument I see? The men of the city told him, It is the tomb of the man of God who came from Judah and foretold these things that you have just done against the altar of Bethel.
18 He said, Let him alone; let no man move his bones. So they let his bones alone, with the bones of the prophet that came out of Samaria. [I Kings 13:31, 32.]
19 Also Josiah took away all the houses of the high places in the cities of Samaria which the kings of Israel had made, provoking the Lord to anger, and he did to them all that he had done in Bethel.
20 He slew all the priests of the high places that were there upon the altars and burned men’s bones upon them [to defile the places forever]. Then he returned to Jerusalem.
21 The king commanded all the people, Keep the Passover to the Lord your God, as it is written in this Book of the Covenant.
22 Surely such a Passover was not held from the days of Israel’s judges, even in all the days of the kings of Israel or Judah.
23 But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept to the Lord in Jerusalem.
24 Moreover, Josiah put away the mediums, the wizards, the teraphim (household gods), the idols, and all the abominations that were seen in Judah and in Jerusalem, that he might establish the words of the law written in the book found by Hilkiah the priest in the house of the Lord.
25 There was no king like him before or after [Josiah] who turned to the Lord with all his heart and all his soul and all his might, according to all the Law of Moses.
26 Still the Lord did not turn from the fierceness of His great wrath, kindled against Judah because of all the provocations with which Manasseh had provoked Him.
27 And the Lord said, I will remove Judah also out of My sight as I have removed Israel, and will cast off this city, Jerusalem, which I have chosen, and the house, of which I said, My Name [and the pledge of My presence] shall be there.
28 The rest of the acts of Josiah, all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of Judah’s Kings?
29 In his days Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went out against him, but he slew Josiah at Megiddo when he saw him.
30 Josiah’s servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land anointed Jehoahaz son of Josiah king in his stead.
31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began his three-month reign in Jerusalem. His mother was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
32 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all [the evil] his forefathers had done.
33 And Pharaoh Necho put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold upon the land.
34 Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of Josiah and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away to Egypt, where he died.
35 Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money as Pharaoh commanded. He exacted the silver and gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Necho.
36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began his eleven-year reign in Jerusalem. His mother was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah. 37 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, like all his [forefathers] had done.
2 Chronicles 34:8–35:19
8 In the eighteenth year of Josiah’s reign, when he had purged the land and the [Lord’s] house, he sent Shaphan son of Azaliah, and Maaseiah governor of the city, and Joah son of Joahaz, the recorder, to repair the house of the Lord his God.
9 When they came to Hilkiah the high priest, they delivered the money that had been brought into the house of God, which the Levites who kept the doors had collected from Manasseh, Ephraim, all the remnant of Israel, and from all Judah, Benjamin, and Jerusalem.
10 They delivered it to the workmen who had oversight of the Lord’s house, who gave it to repair and restore the temple:
11 To the carpenters and builders to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings and beams for the houses which the kings of Judah had destroyed [by neglect].
12 The men did the work faithfully. Their overseers were Jahath and Obadiah, Levites of the sons of Merari, and Zechariah and Meshullam, of the sons of the Kohathites. The Levites—all who were skillful with instruments of music—
13 Also had oversight of the burden bearers and all who did work in any kind of service; and some of the Levites were scribes, officials, and gatekeepers.
14 When they were bringing out the money that was brought into the house of the Lord, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the Lord given by Moses.
15 Hilkiah told Shaphan the scribe, I have found the Book of the Law in the Lord’s house. And [he] gave the book to Shaphan.
16 Shaphan took the book to King Josiah, but [first] reported to him, All that was committed to your servants they are doing.
17 They have emptied out the money that was found in the house of the Lord and have delivered it into the hand of the overseers and the workmen.
18 Then Shaphan the scribe said to the king, Hilkiah the priest has given me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king.
19 When King Josiah had heard the words of the Law, he rent his clothes.
20 And the king commanded Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah, Shaphan the scribe, and Asaiah a servant of the king, saying,
21 Go, inquire of the Lord for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah about the words of the book that is found. For great is the Lord’s wrath that is poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the Lord, to do according to all that is written in this book.
22 And Hilkiah and they whom the king had appointed went to Huldah the prophetess, the wife of Shallum son of Tokhath, the son of Hasrah, keeper of the wardrobe. She dwelt in Jerusalem, in the Second Quarter. They spoke to her to that effect.
23 And she answered them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Tell the man who sent you to me,
24 Thus says the Lord: Behold, I will bring evil upon this place and upon its inhabitants, even all the curses that are written in the book which they have read before the king of Judah.
25 Because they have forsaken Me and have burned incense to other gods, that they might provoke Me to anger with all the works of their hands, therefore My wrath shall be poured out upon this place and shall not be quenched.
26 But say to King Josiah of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the words which you have heard:
27 Because your heart was tender and penitent and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and its inhabitants, and humbled yourself before Me and rent your clothes and wept before Me, I have heard you, says the Lord.
28 Behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the evil that I will bring upon this place and its inhabitants. So they brought the king word again.
29 Then King Josiah sent and gathered all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem.
30 And [he] went up into the house of the Lord, as did all the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the priests, the Levites, and all the people, great and small; and he [the king] read in their hearing all the words of the Book of the Covenant that was found in the Lord’s house.
31 Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the Lord—to walk after the Lord and to keep His commandments, His testimonies, and His statutes with all his heart and with all his soul, to perform the words of the covenant that are written in this book.
32 And he caused all who were present in Jerusalem and Benjamin to stand in confirmation of it. And the inhabitants of Jerusalem did according to the covenant of God, the God of their fathers.
33 Josiah removed all the [idolatrous] abominations from all the territory that belonged to the Israelites, and made all who were in Israel serve the Lord their God. All his days they did not turn from following the Lord, the God of their fathers.
CHAPTER 35
JOSIAH KEPT the Passover to the Lord in Jerusalem; they killed the Passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the first month.
2 He appointed the priests to their positions and encouraged them in the service of the house of the Lord.
3 To the Levites who taught all Israel and were holy to the Lord he said: Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon son of David king of Israel, built; it shall no longer be a burden carried on your shoulders. Now serve the Lord your God and His people Israel.
4 Prepare yourselves according to your fathers’ houses by your divisions, after the directions of David king of Israel and of Solomon his son.
5 And stand in the holy court of the priests according to the sections of the fathers’ families of your kinsmen, the common people, and let there be a section of the Levites [to attend] to each division of the families of the people.
6 Kill the Passover lambs and sanctify yourselves and prepare for your brethren to do according to the word of the Lord by Moses.
7 Then Josiah contributed to the lay people lambs and kids of the flock as Passover offerings for all who were present, to the number of 30,000, and 3,000 young bulls—all from the king’s possessions.
8 And his princes gave for a freewill offering to the people, to the priests, and the Levites. Hilkiah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, chief officers of God’s house, gave the priests for the Passover offerings 2,600 [lambs and kids] and 300 bulls.
9 Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel his brothers, and Hashabiah, Jeiel, and Jozabad, chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for Passover offerings 5,000 [lambs and kids] and 500 bulls.
10 When the service was ready, the priests stood in their place and the Levites in their divisions as the king commanded.
11 They killed the Passover lambs, and the priests sprinkled the blood they received from the Levites who skinned the animals.
12 Then they removed the burnt offerings, that they might distribute them according to the divisions of the lay families to offer to the Lord, as directed in the Book of Moses. And so they did with the bulls.
13 And they roasted the Passover lambs with fire according to the ordinance; and they cooked the holy offerings in pots, in caldrons, and in pans and carried them quickly to all the people.
14 Afterward [the Levites] prepared for themselves and the priests, because the priests, the sons of Aaron, were busy in offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night; so the Levites prepared for themselves and also for the priests, the sons of Aaron.
15 The singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their places according to the command of David, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun the king’s seer. And the gatekeepers were at every gate; they did not need to leave their service, for their brethren the Levites prepared for them.
16 So all the Lord’s service was prepared the same day to keep the Passover and to offer burnt offerings upon the Lord’s altar, as King Josiah commanded.
17 And the Israelites who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days.
18 No Passover like it had been kept in Israel since the days of Samuel the prophet, even by any of the kings of Israel, as was kept by Josiah and the priests, the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
19 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah this Passover was kept.
Read Through the Bible in a Year / August
August 5. Nahum; 2 Kings 23:29–37; 2 Chron. 35:20–36:5; Jer. 22:10–17Book of Nahum
5 The mountains tremble and quake before Him and the hills melt away, and the earth is upheaved at His presence—yes, the world and all that dwell in it.
6 Who can stand before His indignation? And who can stand up and endure the fierceness of His anger? His wrath is poured out like fire, and the rocks are broken asunder by Him.
7 The Lord is good, a Strength and Stronghold in the day of trouble; He knows (recognizes, has knowledge of, and understands) those who take refuge and trust in Him. [Ps. 1:6; Hos. 13:5; John 10:14, 27.]
8 But with an overrunning flood He will make a full end of [Nineveh’s very] site and pursue His enemies into darkness.
9 What do you devise and [how mad is your attempt to] plot against the Lord? He will make a full end [of Nineveh]; affliction [which My people shall suffer from Assyria] shall not rise up the second time.
10 For [the Ninevites] are as bundles of thorn branches [for fuel], and even while drowned in their drunken [carousing] they shall be consumed like stubble fully dry [in the day of the Lord’s wrath]. [Mal. 4:1.]
11 There is one gone forth out of you [O Nineveh] who plots evil against the Lord, a villainous counselor [the king of Assyria, who counsels for wickedness and worthlessness]. [II Kings 19:20–23; Isa. 10:5–7; 36:15–20.]
12 Thus says the Lord: Though they be in full strength and likewise many, even so shall [the Assyrians] be cut down when [their evil counselor] shall pass away. Though I have afflicted you [Jerusalem], I will not cause you to be afflicted [for your past sins] any more. [II Kings 19:35-37; John 5:14.]
13 For now will I break his yoke from off you and will burst your bonds asunder. [Isa. 14:25.]
14 And the Lord has given a commandment concerning you [evil Assyrian counselor], that no more of your name shall be born nor shall your name be perpetuated. Out of the house of your gods I will cut off the graven and molten images; I will make [their temple] your tomb, for you are vile and despised. [Isa. 37:38.]
15 Behold! upon the mountains the feet of him who brings good tidings [telling of the Assyrian’s death], who publishes peace! Celebrate your feasts, O Judah; perform your vows. For the wicked counselor [the king of Assyria] shall no more come against you or pass through your land; he is utterly cut off. [Isa. 52:7; Rom. 10:15.] [Then the prophet Nahum sarcastically addresses his message to Nineveh:]
CHAPTER 2
HE WHO dashes in pieces [that is, the king of Medo-Babylon] is come up before your face [Nineveh]. Keep the fortress and ramparts manned, watch the road, gird your loins, collect and fortify all your strength and power mightily.
2 For the Lord restores the excellency of Jacob as the excellency of [ancient] Israel, for plunderers have plundered them and emptied them out and [outrageously] destroyed their vine branches. [Isa. 10:12.]
3 The shields of the mighty men [of Media and Babylon] are [dyed] red; the valiant men are [clothed] in dyed scarlet. The chariots blaze with fire of steel on the day of his preparation [for battle], and the officers’ horses prance like a cypress forest [reeling in the wind].
4 The chariots rage in confusion in the streets; they run to and fro [in wild terror] in the broad ways. They flash with steel [making them appear like torches]; they rush [in various directions] like forked lightnings.
5 [The Assyrian leader] remembers and summons his bravest men; they stumble in their march. They hasten to the city’s wall, and their movable defense shelter is prepared and set up.
6 The gates or dams of the rivers [surrounding and guarding Nineveh] are opened and the [imperial] palace [of sun-dried brick] is dissolved [by the torrents] and is in dismay.
7 It is decreed. She [Nineveh] is stripped and removed, and her maids are lamenting and moaning like doves [softly for fear], beating upon their breasts [and hearts].
8 And Nineveh, like a standing pool are her waters and [her inhabitants] are fleeing away! Stand! Stand [firm! a few cry], but no one looks back or causes them to return.
9 Take the spoil of silver; take the spoil of gold! For there is no end of the treasure, the glory and wealth of all the precious furnishings.
10 Emptiness! Desolation! Utter waste! Hearts faint and knees smite together, and anguish is in all loins, and the faces of all grow pale! [Isa. 13:7, 8.]
11 Where is the den of the lions which was the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, and the lion’s whelp, and none made them afraid?
12 The lion tore in pieces enough for his whelps and strangled [prey] for his lionesses; he filled his caves with prey and his dens with what he had seized and carried off.
13 Behold, I am against you [Nineveh], says the Lord of hosts, and I will burn your chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions. And I will cut off your prey from the earth, and the voice of your messengers shall no more be heard.
CHAPTER 3
WOE TO the bloody city! It is full of lies and booty and [there is] no end to the plunder! [Ezek. 24:6, 9, 10; Hab. 2:12.]
2 The cracking of the whip, the noise of the rattling of wheels, and prancing horses and chariots rumbling and bounding,
3 Horsemen mounting and charging, the flashing sword, the gleaming spear, a multitude of slain and a great number of corpses, no end of corpses! [The horsemen] stumble over the corpses!
4 All because of the multitude of the harlotries [of Nineveh], the well-favored harlot, the mistress of deadly charms who betrays and sells nations through her whoredoms [idolatry] and peoples through her enchantments.
5 Behold, I am against you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will lift up your skirts over your face, and I will let the nations look on your nakedness [O Nineveh] and the kingdoms on your shame.
6 I will cast abominable things at you and make you filthy, treat you with contempt, and make you a gazingstock.
7 And all who look on you will shrink and flee from you and say, Nineveh is laid waste; who will pity and bemoan her? Where [then] shall I seek comforters for you?
8 Are you better than No-amon [Thebes, capital of Upper Egypt], that dwelt by the rivers or canals, that had the waters round about her, whose rampart was a sea [the Nile] and water her wall?
9 Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and that without limit. Put and the Libyans were her helpers.
10 Yet she was carried away; she went into captivity. Her young children also were dashed in pieces at all the street corners; lots were cast [by the Assyrian officers] for her nobles, and all her great men were bound with chains.
11 You will be drunk [Nineveh, with the cup of God’s wrath]; you will be dazed. You will seek and require a refuge because of the enemy.
12 All your fortresses are fig trees with early figs; if they are shaken they will fall into the mouth of the eater.
13 Behold, your troops in the midst of you are [as weak and helpless as] women; the gates of your land are set wide open to your enemies [without effort]; fire consumes your bars.
14 Draw for yourself the water [necessary] for a [long continued] siege, make strong your fortresses! Go down into the clay pits and trample the mortar; make ready the brickkiln [to burn bricks for the bulwarks]!
15 [But] there [in the very midst of these preparations] will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off; it will destroy you as the locusts [destroy]. Multiply yourselves like the licking locusts; make yourselves many like the swarming locusts!
16 You increased your merchants more than the [visible] stars of the heavens. The swarming locust spreads itself and destroys, and then flies away.
17 Your princes are like the grasshoppers and your marshals like the swarms of locusts which encamp in the hedges on a cold day—but when the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where they are.
18 Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles are lying still [in death]. Your people are scattered on the mountains and there is no one to gather them.
19 There is no healing of your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over [what has happened to] you. For upon whom has not your [unceasing] evil come continually?
2 Kings 23:29–37
29 In his days Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt went up against the king of Assyria to the river Euphrates. King Josiah went out against him, but he slew Josiah at Megiddo when he saw him.
30 Josiah’s servants carried him dead in a chariot from Megiddo, brought him to Jerusalem, and buried him in his own tomb. The people of the land anointed Jehoahaz son of Josiah king in his stead.
31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he began his three-month reign in Jerusalem. His mother was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
32 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all [the evil] his forefathers had done.
33 And Pharaoh Necho put him in bonds at Riblah in the land of Hamath, that he might not reign in Jerusalem, and laid a tribute of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold upon the land.
34 Pharaoh Necho made Eliakim son of Josiah king in place of Josiah and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But he took Jehoahaz away to Egypt, where he died.
35 Jehoiakim gave the silver and the gold to Pharaoh, but he taxed the land to give the money as Pharaoh commanded. He exacted the silver and gold of the people of the land, from everyone according to his assessment, to give it to Pharaoh Necho.
36 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began his eleven-year reign in Jerusalem. His mother was Zebidah daughter of Pedaiah of Rumah.
37 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, like all his [forefathers] had done.
2 Chronicles 35:20–36:5
20 After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went out to fight against Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah went out against him.
21 But [Neco] sent ambassadors to [Josiah], saying, What have I to do with you, you king of Judah? I come not against you this day, but against the house with which I am at war; and God has commanded me to make haste. Refrain from opposing God, Who is with me, lest He destroy you.
22 Yet Josiah would not turn away from him, but disguised himself in order to fight with him. He did not heed the words of Neco from the mouth of God, but came to fight with him in the valley of Megiddo.
23 And the archers shot King Josiah, and the king said to his servants, Take me away, for I am severely wounded.
24 So his servants took him out of the chariot and put him in his second chariot and brought him to Jerusalem. And he died and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.
25 Jeremiah gave a lament for Josiah, and all the singing men and women have spoken of Josiah in their laments to this day. They made them an ordinance in Israel; behold, they are written in the Laments. [Lam. 4:20.]
26 Now the rest of the acts of Josiah and his deeds, according to what is written in the Law of the Lord,
27 And his acts, from first to last, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah.
CHAPTER 36
THEN THE people of the land took Jehoahaz son of Josiah and made him king in his father’s stead in Jerusalem.
2 Jehoahaz was [then] twenty-three years old; he reigned three months in Jerusalem.
3 Then the king of Egypt deposed him at Jerusalem and fined the land a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold.
4 And the king of Egypt made Eliakim, Jehoahaz’ brother, king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed his name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Jehoahaz his brother and carried him to Egypt.
5 Jehoiakim was twenty-five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. He did evil in the sight of the Lord his God.
Jeremiah 22:10–17
10 Weep not for him who is dead nor bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him who goes away [into captivity], for he shall return no more nor see his native country [again].
11 For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum son of Josiah king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father and who went forth out of this place: [Shallum] shall not return here any more;
12 But he shall die in the place where they have led him captive, and he shall see this land no more.
13 Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness and his [upper] chambers by injustice, who uses his neighbor’s service without wages and does not give him his pay [for his work],
14 Who says, I will build myself a wide house with large rooms, and he cuts himself out windows, and it is ceiled or paneled with cedar and painted with vermilion.
15 Do you think that being a king [merely] means [self-indulgent] vying [with Solomon] and striving to excel in cedar [palaces]? Did not your father [Josiah], as he ate and drank, do justice and righteousness [being upright and in right standing with God]? Then it was well with him.
16 He judged and defended the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not [all] this [what it means] to know and recognize Me? says the Lord.
17 But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness and dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, for oppression and doing violence
Read Through the Bible in a Year / August
August 6. Jeremiah 26 / HabakkukJeremiah 26 Chapter 26
IN THE beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah came this word from the Lord:
2 Thus says the Lord: Stand in the court of the Lord’s house [Jeremiah] and speak to all [the people of] the cities of Judah who come to worship in the Lord’s house all the words that I command you to speak to them; subtract not a word.
3 It may be that they will listen and turn every man from his evil way, that I may relent and reverse My decision concerning the evil which I purpose to do to them because of their evil doings.
4 And you will say to them, Thus says the Lord: If you will not listen to and obey Me, to walk in My law, which I have set before you,
5 And to hear and obey the words of My servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you urgently and persistently—though you have not listened and obeyed—
6 Then will I make this house [the temple] like Shiloh [the home of the Tent of Meeting, abandoned and later destroyed after the ark was captured by the Philistines], and I will make this city subject to the curses of all nations of the earth [so vile in their sight will it be]. [I Sam. 4; Jer. 7:12.]
7 And the priests and the [false] prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the Lord.
8 Now when Jeremiah had finished speaking all that the Lord had commanded him to speak to all the people, the priests and the [false] prophets and all the people seized him, saying, You shall surely die!
9 Why have you prophesied in the name of the Lord, saying, This house shall be like Shiloh [after the ark of the Lord had been taken by our enemies] and this city [Jerusalem] shall be desolate, without inhabitant? And all the people were gathered around Jeremiah in the [outer area of the] house of the Lord.
10 When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the Lord and sat down in the entry of the New Gate of the house of the Lord.
11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the princes and to all the people, This man is deserving of death, for he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.
12 Then Jeremiah said to all the princes and to all the people: The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words that you have heard.
13 Therefore now amend your ways and your doings and obey the voice of the Lord your God; then the Lord will relent and reverse the decision concerning the evil which He has pronounced against you.
14 As for me, behold, I am in your hands; do with me as seems good and suitable to you.
15 But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood upon yourselves and upon this city and upon its inhabitants, for in truth the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.
16 Then said the princes and all the people to the priests and to the prophets: This man is not deserving of death, for he has spoken to us in the name of the Lord our God.
17 Then certain of the elders of the land arose and said to all the assembly of the people,
18 Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah and said to all the people of Judah, Thus says the Lord of hosts: Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps [of ruins], and the mountain of the house [of the Lord—Mount Moriah, on which stands the temple, shall become covered not with buildings, but] like a densely wooded height. [Mic. 3:12.]
19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah put [Micah] to death? Did he not [reverently] fear the Lord and entreat the Lord? And did not the Lord relent and reverse the decision concerning the evil which He had pronounced against them? But [here] we are thinking of committing what will be a great evil against ourselves.
20 And there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah son of Shemaiah of Kiriath-jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land in words similar to those of Jeremiah.
21 And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put [Uriah] to death; but when Uriah heard of it, he was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt.
22 And Jehoiakim the king sent men into Egypt, namely, Elnathan son of Achbor and certain other men [who went] with him into Egypt.
23 And they fetched Uriah from Egypt and brought him to Jehoiakim the king, who slew him [God’s spokesman] with the sword and cast his dead body among the graves of the common people.
24 But the hand of Ahikam son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, that he might not be given into the hands of the people to put him [also] to death.
THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK
CHAPTER 1
THE BURDEN or oracle (the thing to be lifted up) which Habakkuk the prophet saw.
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help and You will not hear? Or cry out to You of violence and You will not save?
3 Why do You show me iniquity and wrong, and Yourself look upon or cause me to see perverseness and trouble? For destruction and violence are before me; and there is strife, and contention arises.
4 Therefore the law is slackened and justice and a righteous sentence never go forth, for the [hostility of the] wicked surrounds the [uncompromisingly] righteous; therefore justice goes forth perverted.
5 Look around [you, Habakkuk, replied the Lord] among the nations and see! And be astonished! Astounded! For I am putting into effect a work in your days [such] that you would not believe it if it were told you. [Acts 13:40, 41.]
6 For behold, I am rousing up the Chaldeans, that bitter and impetuous nation who march through the breadth of the earth to take possession of dwelling places that do not belong to them. [II Kings 24:2.]
7 [The Chaldeans] are terrible and dreadful; their justice and dignity proceed [only] from themselves.
8 Their horses also are swifter than leopards and are fiercer than the evening wolves, and their horsemen spread themselves and press on proudly; yes, their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle that hastens to devour.
9 They all come for violence; their faces turn eagerly forward, and they gather prisoners together like sand.
10 They scoff at kings, and rulers are a derision to them; they ridicule every stronghold, for they heap up dust [for earth mounds] and take it.
11 Then they sweep by like a wind and pass on, and they load themselves with guilt, [as do all men] whose own power is their god.
12 Are not You from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die. O Lord, You have appointed [the Chaldean] to execute [Your] judgment, and You, O Rock, have established him for chastisement and correction. [Deut. 32:4.]
13 You are of purer eyes than to behold evil and can not look [inactively] upon injustice. Why then do You look upon the plunderer? Why are you silent when the wicked one destroys him who is more righteous than [the Chaldean oppressor] is?
14 Why do You make men like the fish of the sea, like reptiles and creeping things that have no ruler [and are defenseless against their foes]?
15 [The Chaldean] brings all of them up with his hook; he catches and drags them out with his net, he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is in high spirits.
16 Therefore he sacrifices [offerings] to his net and burns incense to his dragnet, because from them he lives luxuriously and his food is plentiful and rich.
17 Shall he therefore continue to empty his net and mercilessly go on slaying the nations forever?
CHAPTER 2
[OH, I know, I have been rash to talk out plainly this way to God!] I will [in my thinking] stand upon my post of observation and station myself on the tower or fortress, and will watch to see what He will say within me and what answer I will make [as His mouthpiece] to the perplexities of my complaint against Him.
2 And the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision and engrave it so plainly upon tablets that everyone who passes may [be able to] read [it easily and quickly] as he hastens by.
3 For the vision is yet for an appointed time and it hastens to the end [fulfillment]; it will not deceive or disappoint. Though it tarry, wait [earnestly] for it, because it will surely come; it will not be behindhand on its appointed day. [Heb. 10:37, 38.]
4 Look at the proud; his soul is not straight or right within him, but the [rigidly] just and the [uncompromisingly] righteous man shall live by his faith and in his faithfulness. [Rom. 1:17; Gal. 3:11.]
5 Moreover, wine and wealth are treacherous; the proud man [the Chaldean invader] is restless and cannot stay at home. His appetite is large like that of Sheol and [his greed] is like death and cannot be satisfied; he gathers to himself all nations and collects all people as if he owned them.
6 Shall not all these [victims of his greed] take up a taunt against him and in scoffing derision of him say, Woe to him who piles up that which is not his! [How long will he possess it?] And [woe to him] who loads himself with promissory notes for usury!
7 Shall [your debtors] not rise up suddenly who shall bite you, exacting usury of you, and those awake who will vex you [toss you to and fro and make you tremble violently]? Then you will be booty for them.
8 Because you [king of Babylon] have plundered many nations, all who are left of the people shall plunder you—because of men’s blood and for the violence done to the earth, to the city and all the people who live in each city.
9 Woe to him who obtains wicked gain for his house, [who thinks by so doing] to set his nest on high that he may be preserved from calamity and delivered from the power of evil!
10 You have devised shame to your house by cutting off and putting an end to many peoples, and you have sinned against and forfeited your own life.
11 For the stone shall cry out of the wall [built in sin, to accuse you], and the beam out of the woodwork will answer it [agreeing with its charge against you].
12 Woe to him who builds a town with blood and establishes a city by iniquity!
13 Behold, is it not by appointment of the Lord of hosts that the nations toil only to satisfy the fire [that will consume their work], and the peoples weary themselves only for emptiness, falsity, and futility?
14 But [the time is coming when] the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. [Isa. 11:9.]
15 Woe to him who gives his neighbors drink, who pours out your bottle to them and adds to it your poisonous and blighting wrath and also makes them drunk, that you may look on their stripped condition and pour out foul shame [on their glory]!
16 You [yourself] will be filled with shame and contempt instead of glory. Drink also and be like an uncircumcised [heathen]! The cup [of wrath] in the Lord’s right hand will come around to you [O destroyer], and foul shame shall be upon your own glory! [Rev. 16:19.]
17 For the violence done to Lebanon will cover and overwhelm you; the destruction of the animals [which the violence frightened away] will terrify you on account of men’s blood and the violence done to the land, to the city and all its inhabitants.
18 What profit is the graven image when its maker has formed it? It is only a molten image and a teacher of lies. For the maker trusts in his own creations [as his gods] when he makes dumb idols.
19 Woe to him who says to the wooden image, Awake! and to the dumb stone, Arise, teach! [Yet, it cannot, for] behold, it is laid over with gold and silver and there is no breath at all inside it!
20 But the Lord is in His holy temple; let all the earth hush and keep silence before Him. [Zeph. 1:7; Zech. 2:13.]
CHAPTER 3
A PRAYER of Habakkuk the prophet, set to wild, enthusiastic, and triumphal music.
2 O Lord, I have heard the report of You and was afraid. O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make [Yourself] known! In wrath [earnestly] remember love, pity, and mercy.
3 God [approaching from Sinai] came from Teman [which represents Edom] and the Holy One from Mount Paran [in the Sinai region]. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! His glory covered the heavens and the earth was full of His praise.
4 And His brightness was like the sunlight; rays streamed from His hand, and there [in the sunlike splendor] was the hiding place of His power.
5 Before Him went the pestilence [as in Egypt], and burning plague followed His feet [as in Sennacherib’s army]. [Exod. 7:2-4; II Kings 19:32-35.]
6 He stood and measured the earth; He looked and shook the nations, and the eternal mountains were scattered and the perpetual hills bowed low. His ways are everlasting and His goings are of old.
7 I [Habakkuk, in vision] saw the tents of Cushan [probably Ethiopia] in affliction; the [tent] curtains of the land of Midian trembled.
8 Were You displeased with the rivers, O Lord? Or was Your anger against the rivers [You divided]? Was Your wrath against the [Red] Sea, that You rode [before] upon Your horses and Your chariots of victory and deliverance?
9 Your bow was made quite bare; sworn to the tribes [of Israel] by Your sure word were the rods of chastisement, scourges, and calamities. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]! With rivers You cleaved the earth [bringing forth waters in dry places]. [Exod. 17:6; Num. 20:11.]
10 The mountains saw You; they trembled and writhed [as if in pain]. The overflowing of the water passed by [as at the deluge]; the deep uttered its voice and lifted its hands on high.
11 The sun and moon stood back [as before Joshua] in their habitation at the light of Your arrows as they sped, at the flash of Your glittering spear. [Josh. 10:12, 13.]
12 You marched through the land in indignation; You trampled and threshed the nations in anger.
13 You went forth and have come for the salvation of Your people, for the deliverance and victory of Your anointed [people Israel]; You smote the head of the house of the wicked, laying bare the foundation even to the neck. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
14 You pierced with his own arrows the head of [the enemy’s] hordes; they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me [the people], rejoicing as if to devour the poor [Israel] secretly.
15 You have trodden the sea with Your horses, [beside] the heap of great and surging waters. [Exod. 15:8.]
16 I heard and my [whole inner self] trembled; my lips quivered at the sound. Rottenness enters into my bones and under me [down to my feet]; I tremble. I will wait quietly for the day of trouble and distress when there shall come up against [my] people him who is about to invade and oppress them.
17 Though the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit on the vines, [though] the product of the olive fails and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there are no cattle in the stalls,
18 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation! [Rom. 8:37.]
19 The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds’ feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!
For the Chief Musician; with my stringed instruments.
Read Through the Bible in a Year / August
August 7Jeremiah 46–47; 2 Kings 24:1–4, 7; 2 Chronicles 36:6–7; Jer. 25, 35
Jeremiah Chapter 46
THE WORD of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning and against the [Gentile] nations.
2 Concerning and against Egypt: against the army of Pharaoh Necho king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates at Carchemish, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon smote and defeated in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: [Isa. 19–20; Ezek. 29–32; Zech. 14:18, 19.]
3 Put in order the buckler and shield, and advance for battle!
4 Harness the horses, and mount, you horsemen! Stand forth with your helmets! Polish the spears, put on the coats of mail!
5 Why have I seen it? They are dismayed and have turned backward, and their mighty warriors are beaten down. They flee in haste and look not back; terror is on every side! says the Lord. [Ps. 31:13; Jer. 6:25; 20:3, 10; 49:29.]
6 Let not the swift flee nor the mighty man escape; in the north by the river Euphrates they stumble and fall.
7 Who is this that rises up like the Nile [River], like the branches [of the Nile in the delta of Egypt] whose waters surge and toss?
8 Egypt rises like the Nile, like the rivers whose waters surge and toss. She says, I will rise, I will cover the earth; I will destroy cities and their inhabitants.
9 Go up, you horses, and drive furiously, you chariots! Let the warriors go forth—men of Ethiopia and Put who handle the shield, men of Lud who are skilled in handling and stringing the bow.
10 But that day is a day of the Lord, the Lord of hosts—a day of vengeance, that He may avenge Himself on His adversaries. And the sword shall devour, and it shall be satiated and shall drink its fill of their blood; for the Lord, the Lord of hosts has a sacrifice [like that of a great sin offering] in the north country by the river Euphrates.
11 Go up into Gilead and take [healing] balm, O Virgin Daughter of Egypt! In vain do you use many medicines; for you there is no healing or remedy.
12 The nations have heard of your disgrace and shame, and your cry has filled the earth. For warrior has stumbled against and thrown down warrior, and they have fallen both of them together.
13 The word that the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the coming of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and his smiting of the land of Egypt:
14 Declare in Egypt and proclaim in Migdol; and publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes; say, Stand forth and get yourself ready, for the sword devours round about you.
15 Why is your strong one [the sacred bull-god Apis] swept and dragged away? He stood not, because the Lord drove him and thrust him down.
16 [The Lord] made many to stumble and fall; yes, they fell one upon another. And they said, Arise, and let us go back to our own people and to the land of our birth, away from the sword of the oppressor.
17 They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is destroyed and is only a noise; he has let the appointed time [in which God had him on probation] pass by!
18 As I live, says the King, Whose name is the Lord of hosts, surely like Tabor among the mountains and like Carmel by the sea, so shall he [the king of Babylon, standing out above other rulers] come.
19 O you daughter who dwells in Egypt and you who dwell with her, furnish yourselves [with all you will need] to go into exile, for Memphis will be waste, desolate, and burned up, without inhabitant.
20 Egypt is a very fair heifer [like Apis the bull-god, to which the country is, so to speak, espoused], but destruction [a gadfly] is coming—out of the north it is coming [against her]!
21 Also her hired troops in the midst of her are like fatted calves [in the stall], for they also are turned back and are fleeing together; they do not stand, because the day of their calamity is coming upon them, the time of their visitation (their inspection and punishment).
22 The sound [of Egypt fleeing from the enemy] is like the rustling of an escaping serpent, for her foes advance with a mighty army and come against her with axes, like those who fell trees and cut wood.
23 They shall cut down her forest, says the Lord, though it is impenetrable, because they [the invading army] are more numerous than locusts and cannot be counted.
24 The Daughter of Egypt shall be disgraced; she shall be delivered into the hands of the people of the north [the Chaldeans].
25 The Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will visit punishment upon Amon [the chief god of the sacred city, the capital of Upper Egypt] of No or Thebes, and upon Pharaoh and Egypt, with her gods and her kings—even Pharaoh and all those [Jews and others] who put their trust in [Pharaoh as a support against Babylon].
26 And I will deliver them into the hands of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hands of his servants. Afterward [Egypt] will be inhabited as in the days of old, says the Lord.
27 But fear not, O My servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel. For behold, I will save you from afar, and your offspring from the land of their exile; and Jacob will return and be quiet and at ease, and none will make him afraid.
28 Fear not, O Jacob My servant, says the Lord, for I am with you. For I will make a full and complete end of all the nations to which I have driven you; yet I will not make a full end of you. But I will chasten and correct you in just measure, and I will not hold you guiltless by any means or leave you unpunished.
Jeremiah Chapter 47
THE WORD of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines before Pharaoh smote [the Philistine city] Gaza. [Isa. 14:29-31; Ezek. 25:15-17; Amos 1:6-8; Zeph. 2:4-7; Zech. 9:5-7.]
2 Thus says the Lord: Behold, waters are rising out of the north and shall become an overflowing stream and shall overflow the land and all that is in it, the city and those who dwell in it. Then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land [of Philistia] shall wail.
3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of [the Chaldean king’s] war-horses, at the rattling of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers do not look back to their children, so feeble are their hands [with terror]
4 Because of the day that is coming to destroy all the Philistines and to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains. For the Lord is destroying the Philistines, the remnant [still surviving] of the isle or coastland of Caphtor [where the Philistines originated]. [Amos 9:7.]
5 Baldness [as a token of mourning] will come upon Gaza; Ashkelon will be cut off and be dumb. O remnant of their valley and of the giants, how long will you gash yourselves [as a token of mourning]?
6 O you sword of the Lord, how long will it be before you are quiet? Put yourself into your scabbard; rest and be still.
7 How can it [the sword of the Lord] be quiet when the Lord has given it an assignment to discharge? Against Ashkelon and against the [whole Philistine] seashore He has appointed it.
2 Kings 24:1–4, 7
IN HIS days, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant for three years; then he turned and rebelled against him.
2 The Lord sent against Jehoiakim bands of Chaldeans, of Syrians, of Moabites, and of Ammonites. And He sent them against Judah to destroy it, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by His servants the prophets.
3 Surely this came upon Judah at the command of the Lord, to remove them out of His sight because of the sins of Manasseh according to all he had done,
4 And also for the innocent blood that he shed. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the Lord would not pardon.
7 The king of Egypt came no more out of his land, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to Egypt’s king, from the River of Egypt to the river Euphrates.
2 Chronicles 36:6–7
6 Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and bound him in fetters to take him to Babylon.
7 Nebuchadnezzar also took some of the vessels of the house of the Lord to Babylon and put them in his temple or palace there.
Jeremiah 25 & 35
Chapter 25
THE WORD that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah—which was the first year of the reign of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon—
2 Which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem:
3 For these twenty-three years—from the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah, even to this day—the word of the Lord has come to me and I have spoken to you persistently early and late, but you have not listened and obeyed.
4 Although the Lord persistently sent you all the prophets, His servants, yet you have not listened and obeyed or [even] inclined your ear to hear.
5 [The prophets came on My behalf] saying, Turn again now every one from his evil way and wrongdoing; [that you may not forfeit the right to] dwell in the land that the Lord gave to you and to your fathers from of old and forevermore.
6 Do not go after other gods to serve and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.
7 Yet you have not listened to and obeyed Me, says the Lord, that you might provoke Me to anger with the works (idols) made by your hands to your own hurt.
8 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts: Because you have not heard and obeyed My words,
9 Behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, says the Lord, and I will send for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, My servant [or agent to fulfill My designs], and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will devote them [to God] and utterly destroy them and make them an amazement, a hissing, and perpetual and agelong desolations.
10 Moreover, I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones [grinding out the meal] and the light of the candle [which every home burned throughout the night]. [Jer. 7:34.]
11 And this whole land shall be a waste and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. [II Chron. 36:20–23; Jer. 4:27; 12:11, 12; Dan. 9:2.]
12 Then when seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, says the Lord, for their iniquity, and will make the land [of the Chaldeans] a perpetual waste. [Jer. 29:10.]
13 And I will bring upon that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, even all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.
14 For many nations and great kings shall make bondmen of them, even them [the Chaldeans who enslaved other nations]; and I will recompense [all of] them according to their deeds and according to the work of their [own] hands.
15 For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to me: Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.
16 They shall drink and reel to and fro and be crazed because of the sword that I will send among them.
17 Then I [Jeremiah] took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations drink it to whom the Lord had sent me: [that is,]
18 Jerusalem and the cities of Judah [being most guilty because their privileges were greatest], its kings and princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is to this day; [I Pet. 4:17.]
19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes, all his people,
20 And all the mixed foreign population; all the kings of the land of Uz; and all the kings of the land of the Philistines and [their cities of] Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;
21 Edom, Moab, and the children of Ammon;
22 All the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the islands and the coastlands across the [Mediterranean] Sea;
23 Dedan, Tema, Buz [neighboring tribes north of Arabia], and all who clip off the corners of their hair and beards; [Lev. 19:27; Jer. 9:26.]
24 All the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mixed foreign people who dwell in the desert;
25 All the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam (Persia), and all the kings of Media;
26 All the kings of the north, far and near, one after another—and all the kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of Sheshach (Babel or Babylon) shall drink.
27 Then you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink, be drunk, vomit, and fall to rise no more because of the sword which I am sending among you.
28 And if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts: You shall surely drink!
29 For behold, I am beginning to work evil in the city which is called by My Name, and shall you go unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, for I am calling for a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord of hosts. [Jer. 7:10.]
30 Therefore prophesy against them all these words and say to them: The Lord shall roar from on high and utter His voice from His holy habitation; He shall roar mightily against His fold and pasture. He shall give a shout like those who tread grapes [in the winepress, but His shout will be] against all the inhabitants of the earth.
31 A noise will come even to the ends of the earth, for the Lord has a controversy and an indictment against the nations; He will enter into judgment with all mankind; as for the wicked, He will give them to the sword, says the Lord.
32 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, evil will go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirling tempest will rise from the uttermost parts of the earth.
33 And those slain by the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented or gathered or buried; their [dead bodies] shall be dung upon the ground. [Jer. 8:2; 16:4.]
34 Wail, you shepherds, and cry; and roll in ashes, you principal ones of the flock. For the days of your slaughter and of your dispersions have fully come, and you shall fall and be dashed into pieces like a choice vessel.
35 And the shepherds shall have no way to flee, nor the principal ones of the flock any means of escape.
36 A voice! The cry of the shepherds and the wailing of the principal ones of the flock! For the Lord is laying waste and destroying their pasture.
37 And the peaceable folds are devastated and brought to silence because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
38 He has left His shelter like the lion; for their land has become a waste and an astonishment because of the fierceness of the oppressor and because of [the Lord’s] fierce anger.
Jeremiah Chapter 36
IN THE fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2 Take a scroll [of parchment] for a book and write on it all the words I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations from the day I spoke to you in the days of [King] Josiah until this day.
3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them, so that each one may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. [Jer. 18:7-10; 26:3.]
4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote upon the scroll of the book all the words which Jeremiah dictated, [words] that the Lord had spoken to him.
5 And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am [in hiding, virtually] restrained and shut up; I cannot go into the house of the Lord.
6 Therefore you go, and on a day of fasting, in the hearing of all the people in the Lord’s house, you shall read the words of the Lord which you have written on the scroll at my dictation. Also you shall read them in the hearing of all who come out of the cities of Judah.
7 It may be that they will make their supplication [for mercy] before the Lord, and each one will turn back from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.
8 And Baruch son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from [Jeremiah’s] book the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house.
9 And in the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, a fast was proclaimed before the Lord for all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came to Jerusalem from the cities of Judah.
10 Then Baruch read in the hearing of all the people the words of Jeremiah from the scroll of the book in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord’s house.
11 When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the Lord,
12 He went down to the king’s house into the scribe’s chamber, and behold, all the princes were sitting there: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the [other] princes.
13 Then Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the hearing of the people.
14 Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, Take in your hand the scroll from which you have read in the hearing of the people and come [to us]. So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.
15 And they said to him, Sit down now and read it in our hearing. So Baruch read it in their hearing.
16 Now when they had heard all the words, they turned one to another in fear and said to Baruch, We must surely tell the king of all these words.
17 And they asked Baruch, Tell us now, how did you write all these words? At [Jeremiah’s] dictation?
18 Then Baruch answered them, He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink in the book.
19 Then the princes said to Baruch, Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.
20 Then they went into the court to the king, but they [first] put the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe; then they reported all the words to the king.
21 So the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and of all the princes who stood beside the king.
22 Now it was the ninth month, and the king was sitting in the winter house, and a fire was burning there before him in the brazier.
23 And [each time] when Jehudi had read three or four columns [of the scroll], he [King Jehoiakim] would cut them off with a penknife and cast them into the fire that was in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.
24 Yet they were not afraid, nor did they rend their garments—neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these words.
25 Even though Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah tried to persuade the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.
26 And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son and Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the Lord hid them.
27 Now the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch wrote at the dictation of Jeremiah, [and the Lord] said:
28 Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned.
29 And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, Thus says the Lord: You have burned this scroll, saying, Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon shall surely come and destroy this land and shall cut off man and beast from it?
30 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have no [heir] to sit upon the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and to the frost by night.
31 And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah all the evil that I have pronounced against them—but they would not hear.
32 Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and besides them many similar words were added.
Read Through the Bible in a Year / August
August 8Jeremiah Chapter 36 - 45- 48
CHAPTER 36
IN THE fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2 Take a scroll [of parchment] for a book and write on it all the words I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations from the day I spoke to you in the days of [King] Josiah until this day.
3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do to them, so that each one may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. [Jer. 18:7-10; 26:3.]
4 Then Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote upon the scroll of the book all the words which Jeremiah dictated, [words] that the Lord had spoken to him.
5 And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am [in hiding, virtually] restrained and shut up; I cannot go into the house of the Lord.
6 Therefore you go, and on a day of fasting, in the hearing of all the people in the Lord’s house, you shall read the words of the Lord which you have written on the scroll at my dictation. Also you shall read them in the hearing of all who come out of the cities of Judah.
7 It may be that they will make their supplication [for mercy] before the Lord, and each one will turn back from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people.
8 And Baruch son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from [Jeremiah’s] book the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house.
9 And in the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, in the ninth month, a fast was proclaimed before the Lord for all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came to Jerusalem from the cities of Judah.
10 Then Baruch read in the hearing of all the people the words of Jeremiah from the scroll of the book in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord’s house.
11 When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, had heard out of the book all the words of the Lord,
12 He went down to the king’s house into the scribe’s chamber, and behold, all the princes were sitting there: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the [other] princes.
13 Then Micaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the hearing of the people.
14 Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, Take in your hand the scroll from which you have read in the hearing of the people and come [to us]. So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.
15 And they said to him, Sit down now and read it in our hearing. So Baruch read it in their hearing.
16 Now when they had heard all the words, they turned one to another in fear and said to Baruch, We must surely tell the king of all these words.
17 And they asked Baruch, Tell us now, how did you write all these words? At [Jeremiah’s] dictation?
18 Then Baruch answered them, He dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink in the book.
19 Then the princes said to Baruch, Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.
20 Then they went into the court to the king, but they [first] put the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe; then they reported all the words to the king.
21 So the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and of all the princes who stood beside the king.
22 Now it was the ninth month, and the king was sitting in the winter house, and a fire was burning there before him in the brazier.
23 And [each time] when Jehudi had read three or four columns [of the scroll], he [King Jehoiakim] would cut them off with a penknife and cast them into the fire that was in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.
24 Yet they were not afraid, nor did they rend their garments—neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these words.
25 Even though Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah tried to persuade the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them.
26 And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son and Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the Lord hid them.
27 Now the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch wrote at the dictation of Jeremiah, [and the Lord] said:
28 Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned.
29 And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, Thus says the Lord: You have burned this scroll, saying, Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon shall surely come and destroy this land and shall cut off man and beast from it?
30 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have no [heir] to sit upon the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and to the frost by night.
31 And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah all the evil that I have pronounced against them—but they would not hear.
32 Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and besides them many similar words were added.
CHAPTER 45
THE WORD that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the dictation of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,
2 Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, unto you, O Baruch:
3 You said, Woe is me now! For the Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning and sighing and I find no rest.
4 Say this to him: The Lord speaks thus: Behold, what I have built I will break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up—and this means the whole land.
5 And should you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not; for behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, says the Lord, but your life I will give to you [as your only booty and] as a [snatched] prize of war wherever you go.
CHAPTER 48
CONCERNING MOAB: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Woe to [the city of] Nebo, for it is laid waste! Kiriathaim is put to shame and taken; Misgab [the high fortress] is put to shame, broken down, and crushed. [Isa. 15-16; 25:10-12; Ezek. 25:8-11; Amos 2:1-3; Zeph. 2:8-11.]
2 The glory of Moab is no more; in Heshbon [a border town between Reuben and Gad, east of the Jordan River] they planned evil against her, saying, Come, let us cut her off from being a nation. You also, O [town of] Madmen, shall be brought to silence; the sword shall pursue you.
3 The sound of a cry from Horonaim, [a cry of] desolation and great destruction!
4 Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard [as far as Zoar].
5 For the ascent of Luhith will be climbed [by successive bands of fugitives] with continual weeping; for on the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distress of the cry of destruction.
6 Flee! Save your lives! But they shall be like a destitute and forsaken person in the wilderness.
7 For because you have trusted in your works [your bungling idol images] and in your treasures [instead of in God], you shall also be taken. And Chemosh [your god] shall go into captivity, his priests and his princes together.
8 And the destroyer shall come upon every city; no city shall escape. The [Jordan] valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be devastated, as the Lord has said.
9 Give wings to Moab, for [by that means only] she will flee and get away; her cities will be desolate, without any to dwell in them.
10 Cursed be he who does the work of the Lord negligently [with slackness, deceitfully]; and cursed be he who keeps back his sword from blood [in executing judgment pronounced by the Lord].
11 Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees [like wine] and has not been drawn off from one vessel to another, neither has he gone into exile. Therefore his taste remains in him, and his scent has not changed.
12 Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I shall send to [Moab] tilters who shall tilt him up and shall empty his vessels and break his bottles (earthenware) in pieces.
13 And Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh [his god], as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence. [I Kings 12:28, 29.]
14 How can you say, We are heroes and mighty men in the war?
15 Moab has been made desolate, and his cities have gone up [in smoke and flame]; and his chosen young men have gone down to the slaughter, says the King, Whose name is the Lord of hosts.
16 The destruction of Moab is coming near, and his calamity hastens swiftly.
17 Bemoan him, all you [nations] who are around him, and all you [nations more remote] who know his name; say, How broken is the mighty scepter [of national power] and the splendid rod [of glory]!
18 Come down from your glory, you inhabitant of the Daughter of Dibon, and sit on the ground among the thirsty! For the destroyer of Moab is advancing against you; he will destroy your strongholds.
19 O inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way and watch! Ask him who flees and her who escapes, What has happened?
20 Moab is put to shame, for she is broken down. Wail and cry out! Tell by [the banks of] the Arnon that Moab is laid waste (destroyed).
21 Judgment has come upon the land of the plain—upon Holon and Jahzah and Mephaath,
22 And upon Dibon and Nebo and Beth-diblathaim,
23 And upon Kiriathaim and Beth-gamul and Beth-meon,
24 And upon Kerioth and Bozrah—and all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near.
25 The horn (strength) of Moab is cut off, and his arm [of authority] is shattered, says the Lord.
26 Make him drunk, for he has magnified himself against the Lord [by resisting Reuben’s occupation of the land the Lord had assigned him]. Moab also shall splash in his vomit, and he too shall be held in derision. [Num. 22:1-7.]
27 For was not Israel [an object of] derision to you? Was he found among thieves—since whenever you speak of him you wag your head [in scorn]?
28 O you inhabitants of Moab, leave the cities and dwell among the rocks, and be like the dove that makes her nest in the walls of the yawning ravine.
29 We have heard of the [giddy] pride of Moab, the extremely proud one—his loftiness, his arrogance, his conceit, and the haughtiness of his heart.
30 I know his insolent wrath, says the Lord, and the nothingness of his boastings and his deeds; they are false and have accomplished nothing.
31 Therefore I will wail over Moab, and I will cry out over the whole of Moab. Over the men of Kir-heres (Kir-hareseth) there will be sighing and mourning. [Isa. 15:1; 16:7, 11.]
32 O vines of Sibmah, I weep for you more than the weeping of Jazer [over its ruins and wasted vineyards]. Your tendrils [of influence] have gone over the sea, reaching even to Jazer. The destroyer has fallen upon your summer fruit harvest and your [season’s] crop of grapes.
33 Joy and gladness are taken away from the fruitful orchards and fields and from the land of Moab. And I have made the juice [of the grape] to fail from what is pressed out in the vats; no one treads [the grapes] with shouting. Their shouting is no shouting [of joy, but is a battle cry].
34 From the cry of Heshbon even to Elealeh even to Jahaz have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah [like a three-year-old heifer], for even the waters of Nimrim have become desolations.
35 Moreover, I will cause to cease in Moab, says the Lord, the one who ascends and offers in the high place and the one who burns incense to his gods.
36 Therefore My heart moans and sighs for Moab like flutes, and My heart moans and sighs like flutes for the men of Kir-heres (Kir-hareseth); therefore [the remnant of] the abundant riches they gained has perished.
37 For every head is shaven bald and every beard cut off: upon all the hands are cuts (slashes) and upon the loins is sackcloth [all to express mourning]. [Isa. 15:2, 3.]
38 On all the housetops of Moab and in its streets there is lamentation everywhere, for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which there is no pleasure, says the Lord.
39 How it is broken down! How they wail! How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab has become [an object of] a derision and a [horrifying] terror to all who are round about him.
40 For thus says the Lord: Behold, he [Babylon] shall fly swiftly like an eagle and shall spread out his wings against Moab. [Ezek. 17:3.]
41 Kerioth [and the cities] shall be taken and the strongholds seized; and the hearts of the mighty warriors of Moab in that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs [in childbirth].
42 And Moab shall be destroyed from being a nation, because he has magnified himself against the Lord.
43 Terror and pit and snare are before you, O inhabitant of Moab, says the Lord. [Isa. 24:7.]
44 He who flees from the terror will fall into the pit, and he who gets up out of the pit will be taken and caught in the trap or snare; for I will bring upon it, even upon Moab, the year of their visitation (their inspection and infliction of punishment), says the Lord.
45 In the shadow of Heshbon the fugitives stand powerless (stopped in their tracks, helpless and without strength), for a fire has gone forth from Heshbon, a flame from the midst of Sihon; it has destroyed the corner of Moab and the crowns of the heads of the ones in tumult [the proud Moabites].
46 Woe to you, O Moab! The people of [the god] Chemosh are undone; for your sons are taken away captive and your daughters into captivity.
47 Yet will I reverse the captivity and restore the fortunes of Moab in the latter days, says the Lord. Thus far is the judgment on Moab.
Read Through the Bible in a Year / August
August 9Jeremiah 49:1–33 / Daniel Chapters 1–2
Jeremiah Chapter 49
CONCERNING and against the Ammonites: Thus says the Lord: Has Israel no sons [to return after their captivity and claim the territory of Gad east of the Jordan which the Ammonites have taken over]? Has [Israel’s Gad] no heir? Why then has Milcom [the god the Ammonites call their king] dispossessed and inherited Gad, and [why do] his people dwell in Gad’s cities?
2 Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will cause an alarm of war to be heard against Rabbah of the Ammonites; and it [the high ground on which it stands] will become a desolate heap, and its daughter [villages] will be burned with fire. Then will Israel dispossess those who dispossessed him, says the Lord. [Ezek. 21:28-32; 25:1-7, 11; Amos 1:13-15; Zeph. 2:8-11.]
3 Wail, O Heshbon [in Moab, just south of Ammon], for Ai [in Ammon] is laid waste! Cry out, you daughter [villages] of Rabbah! Gird yourselves with sackcloth, lament, and run to and fro inside the [sheepfold] enclosures; for Milcom [the god-king] shall go into exile, together with his priests and his princes.
4 Why do you boast of your valleys? Your valley flows away, O [Ammon] rebellious and faithless daughter, who trusted in her treasures, who said, Who can come against me?
5 Behold, I will bring terror upon you, says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, from all who are round about you; and you will be driven out, each man fleeing straight before him [without thought of his neighbor], and there will be no one to gather together the fugitives.
6 And afterward I will reverse the captivity of the children of Ammon and restore their fortunes, says the Lord.
7 Concerning and against Edom: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Is there no longer wisdom in Teman [a district in Edom]? Has counsel vanished from the intelligent and prudent? Is their wisdom all poured out and used up? [Isa. 34; 63:1-6; Ezek. 25:12-14; 35; Amos 1:11, 12; Obad. 1-16; Mal. 1:2-5.]
8 Flee, turn back, dwell deep [in the deserts to escape the Chaldeans], O inhabitants of Dedan [neighbor of Edom]! For I will bring the calamity and destruction of Esau upon him [Edom] when I inspect and punish him.
9 If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some ungleaned grapes? If thieves came by night, would they not destroy only what is enough [for them]?
10 But I have stripped Esau (Edom) bare; I have uncovered his hiding places, and he cannot hide himself. His offspring will be destroyed, with his brethren and his neighbors; and he will be no more.
11 Leave your fatherless children; I will [do what is necessary to] preserve them alive. And let [those who have been made] your widows trust and confide in Me.
12 For thus says the Lord: Behold, they [Israel] whose rule was not to drink the cup [of wrath] shall assuredly drink—and are you to remain unpunished? You shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink. [Jer. 25:28, 29.]
13 For I have sworn by Myself, says the Lord, that Bozrah [in Edom, between Petra and the Dead Sea] shall become a horror, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all its cities shall be perpetual wastes.
14 I have heard a report from the Lord, and a messenger is sent to the nations, saying, Gather together and come against her! And rise up for the battle.
15 For, behold, I will make you [Edom] small among the nations and despised among men. [Ezek. 35:9.]
16 Your [object of] horror (your idol) has deceived you, and the pride of your heart [has deceived you], O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock [Sela or Petra], who hold and occupy the height of the hill. Though you make your nest as high as the eagle’s, I will bring you down from there, says the Lord.
17 And Edom shall be an astonishment and a horror; everyone who goes by it shall be astonished and shall hiss with horror at all its plagues and disasters.
18 As [it was] in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, says the Lord, no man shall dwell there; neither shall a son of man live in it temporarily.
19 See, there comes up one [Nebuchadnezzar] like a lion from [lurking in] the jungles (the pride) of the Jordan against the strong habitation [of Edom] and into the permanent pastures; for in a twinkling I will drive him [Edom] from there. And I will appoint over him the one whom I choose. For who is like Me? And who will appoint for Me the time and prosecute Me for this proceeding? And what [earthly, national] shepherd can stand before Me and defy Me?
20 Therefore hear the plan of the Lord which He has made against Edom, and His purposes which He has formed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they shall be dragged away [by Nebuchadnezzar], even the little ones of the flock; surely He shall make their habitation desolate because of them and their fold shocked at their fate.
21 At the sound of their fall the earth shall tremble; at their crying the sound shall be heard at the Red Sea.
22 Behold, one will come up and fly swiftly like an eagle and spread his wings against [the Edomite city of] Bozrah; and in that day the hearts of the mighty warriors of Edom will be like the heart of a woman in her pangs [in childbirth]. [Jer. 48:41.]
23 Concerning and against Damascus [in Syria]: Hamath and Arpad are confounded and put to shame, for they have heard bad news; they are fainthearted and wasting away; there is trouble and anxiety [like] on a [storm-tossed] sea which cannot rest.
24 Damascus has become feeble; she has turned to flee, and terror and panic have seized her; anguish and sorrow have taken hold of her, like a woman in childbirth.
25 How [remarkable that] the renowned city is not deserted, the city of my joy! [exclaims one from Damascus].
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed in that day, says the Lord of hosts. [Isa. 17:1-3; Amos 1:3-5; Zech. 9:1.]
27 And I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it will consume the palaces of Ben-hadad [title of several kings of Syria].
28 Concerning Kedar [a tribe of nomad Arabs] and concerning the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon shall smite: Thus says the Lord [to him]: Arise, go up against Kedar and destroy the sons of the east.
29 Their tents and their flocks shall they [the Chaldeans] take—their tent hangings and all their utensils and their camels. And men shall cry to them, Terror on every side! [Ps. 31:13; Jer. 6:25; 20:3, 10; 46:5.]
30 Flee, wander far off, dwell deep [in the deserts], O you inhabitants of Hazor [in the Arabian Desert] says the Lord, for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has planned a course against you and has conceived a purpose against you.
31 Arise [Nebuchadrezzar], get up into a nation which is at ease, which dwells without care, says the Lord, [a nation] which has neither gates nor bars, which dwells apart and alone.
32 And their camels will be booty, and their herds of cattle a spoil; and I will scatter to all [the four] winds those who [as evidence of their idolatry] clip off the corners of their hair, and I will bring their calamity from every side, says the Lord. [Lev. 19:27.]
33 And Hazor shall become a dwelling place of jackals, a desolation forever; no man shall dwell there; neither shall a son of man live in it temporarily.
Daniel Chapters 1–2
IN THE third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it.
2 And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, along with a part of the vessels of the house of God; and he carried them into the land of Shinar [Babylonia] to the house of his god and placed the vessels in the treasury of his god. [II Chron. 36:5-7; Jer. 27:19, 20; Dan. 5:1-3.]
3 And the [Babylonian] king told Ashpenaz, the master of his eunuchs, to bring in some of the children of Israel, both of the royal family and of the nobility—[II Kings 20:17, 18.]
4 Youths without blemish, well-favored in appearance and skillful in all wisdom, discernment, and understanding, apt in learning knowledge, competent to stand and serve in the king’s palace—and to teach them the literature and language of the Chaldeans.
5 And the king assigned for them a daily portion of his own rich and dainty food and of the wine which he drank. They were to be so educated and so nourished for three years that at the end of that time they might stand before the king.
6 Among these were of the children of Judah: Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah.
7 The chief of the eunuchs gave them names: Daniel he called Belteshazzar [the king’s attendant], Hananiah he called Shadrach, Mishael he called Meshach, and Azariah he called Abednego.
8 But Daniel determined in his heart that he would not defile himself by [eating his portion of] the king’s rich and dainty food or by [drinking] the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might [be allowed] not to defile himself. [Num. 6:1-4; I Cor. 10:21.]
9 Now God made Daniel to find favor, compassion, and loving-kindness with the chief of the eunuchs.
10 And the chief of the eunuchs said to Daniel, I fear, lest my lord the king, who has appointed your food and your drink, should see your faces worse looking or more sad than the other youths of your age. Then you would endanger my head with the king.
11 Then said Daniel to the steward whom the chief of the eunuchs had set over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah,
12 Prove your servants, I beseech you, for ten days and let us be given a vegetable diet and water to drink.
13 Then let our appearance and the appearance of the youths who eat of the king’s [rich] dainties be observed and compared by you, and deal with us your servants according to what you see.
14 So [the man] consented to them in this matter and proved them ten days.
15 And at the end of ten days it was seen that they were looking better and had taken on more flesh than all the youths who ate of the king’s rich dainties.
16 So the steward took away their [rich] dainties and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables.
17 As for these four youths, God gave them knowledge and skill in all learning and wisdom, and Daniel had understanding in all [kinds of] visions and dreams. [Luke 21:15; James 1:5-7.]
18 Now at the end of the time which the king had set for bringing [all the young men in], the chief of the eunuchs brought them before Nebuchadnezzar.
19 And the king conversed with them, and among them all none was found like Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they were assigned to stand before the king.
20 And in all matters of wisdom and understanding con
cerning which the king asked them, he found them ten times better than all the [learned] magicians and enchanters who were in his whole realm.
21 And Daniel continued there even to the first year of King Cyrus [at the close of the seventy years’ exile of Judah in Babylonia, which Jeremiah had foretold]. [Ezra 1:1-3; Jer. 25:11, 12; 29:10.]
CHAPTER 2
IN THE second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams by which his spirit was troubled and agitated and his sleep went from him.
2 Then the king commanded to call the magicians, the enchanters or soothsayers, the sorcerers, and the Chaldeans [diviners], to tell the king his dreams. So they came and stood before the king.
3 And the king said to them, I had a dream and my spirit is troubled to know the dream.
4 Then said the Chaldeans [diviners] to the king in Aramaic [the Syrian language], O king, live forever! Tell your servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation.
5 The king answered the Chaldeans, The thing is gone from me! And the decree goes forth from me and I say it with all emphasis: if you do not make known to me the dream with its interpretation, you shall be cut in pieces and your houses shall be made a dunghill!
6 But if you show the dream and its interpretation, you shall receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So show me the dream and the interpretation of it.
7 They answered again, Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will show the interpretation of it.
8 The king answered, I know with certainty that you are trying to gain time, because you see the thing is gone from me and because you see that my word [against you] is sure:
9 If you will not make known to me the dream, there is but one sentence for you; for you have prepared lying and corrupt words to speak before me [hoping to delay your execution] until the time is changed. Therefore tell me the dream, and I will know that you can tell me the interpretation of it.
10 The Chaldeans [diviners] answered before the king and said, There is not a man on earth who can show the king this matter, for no king, lord, or ruler has [ever] asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or Chaldean.
11 A rare and weighty thing indeed the king requires! None except the gods can reveal it to the king, and their dwelling is not with [human] flesh.
12 For this cause the king was angry and very furious and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed.
13 So the decree went forth that the wise men were to be killed, and [the officers] sought Daniel and his companions to be slain.
14 Then Daniel returned an answer which was full of prudence and wisdom to Arioch the captain or executioner of the king’s guard, who had gone forth to slay the wise men of Babylon.
15 He said to Arioch, the king’s captain, Why is the decree so urgent and hasty from the king? Then Arioch explained the matter to Daniel.
16 And Daniel went in and desired of the king that he would set a date and give him time, and he would show the king the interpretation.
17 Then Daniel went to his house and made the thing known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions,
18 So that they would desire and request mercy of the God of heaven concerning this secret, that Daniel and his companions should not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon.
19 Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night, and Daniel blessed the God of heaven.
20 Daniel answered, Blessed be the name of God forever and ever! For wisdom and might are His!
21 He changes the times and the seasons; He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding! [Dan. 4:35.]
22 He reveals the deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with Him! [Job 15:8; Ps. 25:14; Matt. 6:6.]
23 I thank You and praise You, O God of my fathers, Who has given me wisdom and might and has made known to me now what we desired of You, for You have made known to us the solution to the king’s problem.
24 Therefore Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and said thus to him: Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon! Bring me in before the king, and I will show to the king the interpretation.
25 Then Arioch brought in Daniel before the king in haste and said thus to him: I have found a man of the captives of Judah who will make known to the king the interpretation [of his dream].
26 The king said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and the interpretation of it?
27 Daniel answered the king, The [mysterious] secret which the king has demanded neither the wise men, enchanters, magicians, nor astrologers can show the king,
28 But there is a God in heaven Who reveals secrets, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what it is that shall be in the latter days (at the end of days). Your dream and the visions in your head upon your bed are these:
29 As for you, O king, as you were lying upon your bed thoughts came into your mind about what should come to pass hereafter, and He Who reveals secrets was making known to you what shall come to pass.
30 But as for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have more than anyone else living, but in order that the interpretation may be made known to the king and that you may know the thoughts of your heart and mind.
31 You, O king, saw, and behold, [there was] a great image. This image which was mighty and of exceedingly great brightness stood before you, and the appearance of it was frightening and terrible.
32 As for this image, its head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of bronze,
33 Its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron and partly of clay [the baked clay of the potter].
34 As you looked, a Stone was cut out without human hands, which smote the image on its feet of iron and [baked] clay [of the potter] and broke them to pieces. [I Pet. 2:3–8.]
35 Then the iron, the [baked] clay [of the potter], the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken and crushed together and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors, and the wind carried them away so that not a trace of them could be found. And the Stone that smote the image became a great mountain or rock and filled the whole earth.
36 This was the dream, and we will tell the interpretation of it to the king.
37 You, O king, are king of the [earthly] kings to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the might, and the glory. [Jer. 25:9; 27:6; 28:14.]
38 And wherever the children of men dwell, and the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens—He has given them into your hand and has made you to rule over them all. You [king of Babylon] are the head of gold.
39 And after you shall arise another kingdom [the Medo-Persian], inferior to you, and still a third kingdom of bronze [Greece under Alexander the Great] which shall bear rule over all the earth.
40 And the fourth kingdom [Rome] shall be strong as iron, since iron breaks to pieces and subdues all things; and like iron which crushes, it shall break and crush all these. [Dan. 7:7, 23.]
41 And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of [baked] clay [of the potter] and partly of iron, it shall be a divided kingdom; but there shall be in it some of the firmness and strength of iron, just as you saw the iron mixed with miry [earthen] clay.
42 And as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of [baked] clay [of the potter], so the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly brittle and broken.
43 And as you saw the iron mixed with miry and earthen clay, so they shall mingle themselves in the seed of men [in marriage bonds]; but they will not hold together [for two such elements or ideologies can never harmonize], even as iron does not mingle itself with clay.
44 And in the days of these [final ten] kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed, nor shall its sovereignty be left to another people; but it shall break and crush and consume all these kingdoms and it shall stand forever. [Dan. 7:14-17; Luke 1:31-33; Rev. 11:15.]
45 Just as you saw that the Stone was cut out of the mountain without hands and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold, the great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. The dream is certain and the interpretation of it is sure.
46 Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and paid homage to Daniel [as a great prophet of the highest God] and ordered that an offering and incense should be offered up to him [in honor of his God].
47 The king answered Daniel, Of a truth your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a Revealer of secret mysteries, seeing that you could reveal this secret mystery! [Prov. 3:32; Rev. 19:16.]
48 Then the king made Daniel great and gave him many great gifts, and he made him to rule over the whole province of Babylon and to be chief governor over all the wise men of Babylon.
49 And Daniel requested of the king and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel remained in the gate of the king [at the king’s court].
Read Through the Bible in a Year / August
August 10Jeremiah 22:18–30; 2 Kings 24:5–20; 2 Chronicles 36:8–12; Jeremiah 37:1–2; Jeremiah 52:1–3; Jeremiah 52:24&29
Jeremiah 22:18–30
18 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: [Relatives] shall not lament for him, saying, Ah, my brother! or, Ah, sister, [how great our loss! Subjects] shall not lament for him saying, Ah, lord! or Ah, his majesty! or Ah, [how great was] his glory!
19 [No] he shall be buried with the burial of a donkey—dragged out and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20 Go up [north] to Lebanon and cry out, and raise your voice in [the hills] of Bashan [across the Jordan], and cry out from Abarim [a range of mountains southeast of Palestine], for all your lovers (the king’s chosen allies) are destroyed. [Jer. 27:6-7.]
21 I spoke to you in your [times of] prosperity, but you said, I will not listen! This has been your attitude from your youth; you have not obeyed My voice.
22 The wind [of adversity] shall pasture upon and consume all your shepherds (your princes and statesmen), and your lovers (allies) shall go into captivity. Surely then shall you be ashamed and confounded and dismayed because of all your wickedness.
23 O inhabitant of Lebanon [Jerusalem, whose palaces are made of Lebanon’s trees], you who make your nest among the cedars, how you will groan and how pitiable you will be when pangs come upon you, pain like that of a woman in childbirth! [I Kings 7:2.]
24 As I live, says the Lord, though Coniah [also called Jeconiah and Jehoiachin] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet [ring] upon My right hand, yet would I tear you off.
25 And I will give you into the hands of those who seek your life and into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon and into the hands of the Chaldeans.
26 And I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you will die.
27 But to the land to which they will yearn to return, there they will not return.
28 Is this man [King] Coniah a despised, broken pot? Is he a vessel in which no one takes pleasure? Why are they hurled out, he and his royal offspring, and cast into a land which they do not know, understand, or recognize?
29 O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord!
30 Thus says the Lord: Write this man [Coniah] down as childless, a man who shall not prosper in his days, for no man of his offspring shall succeed in sitting upon the throne of David and ruling any more in Judah.
2 Kings 24:5–20
5 The rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of Judah’s Kings?
6 So Jehoiakim slept with his fathers. Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
7 The king of Egypt came no more out of his land, for the king of Babylon had taken all that belonged to Egypt’s king, from the River of Egypt to the river Euphrates.
8 Jehoiachin was eighteen years old when he began his three-month reign in Jerusalem. His mother was Nehushta daughter of Elnathan of Jerusalem.
9 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, in keeping with all his father had done.
10 At that time the servants of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up to Jerusalem, and the city was besieged.
11 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to the city while his servants were besieging it.
12 Jehoiachin king of Judah surrendered to the king of Babylon, he, his mother, his servants, princes, and palace officials. The king of Babylon took him prisoner in the eighth year of Nebuchadnezzar’s reign.
13 He carried off all the treasures of the Lord’s house and the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold in the temple of the Lord, which Solomon king of Israel had made, as the Lord had said.
14 He carried away all Jerusalem, all the princes, all the mighty men of valor, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths. None remained except the poorest of the land.
15 Nebuchadnezzar took captive to Babylon King Jehoiachin; his mother, his wives, his officials, and the chief and mighty men of the land [the prophet Ezekiel included] he took from Jerusalem to Babylon into exile. [Ezek. 1:1.]
16 And the king of Babylon brought captive to Babylon all the men of valor, 7,000, and craftsmen and smiths, 1,000, all strong and fit for war.
17 And the king of Babylon made Mattaniah, Jehoiachin’s uncle, king in his stead and changed his name to Zedekiah.
18 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began his eleven-year reign in Jerusalem. His mother was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
19 He did evil in the sight of the Lord, in keeping with all Jehoiakim had done.
20 For because of the anger of the Lord it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that He cast them out of His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon
2 Chronicles 36:8–12
8 Now the rest of the acts of Jehoiakim, and the abominations which he did, and what was found against him, behold, they are written in the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah. And Jehoiachin his son reigned in his stead.
9 Jehoiachin was eight[een] years old then; he reigned three months and ten days in Jerusalem. He did evil in the Lord’s sight. [II Kings 24:8.]
10 In the spring, King Nebuchadnezzar sent and brought him to Babylon, with the precious vessels of the house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah the [boy’s] brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.
11 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.
12 He did evil in the sight of the Lord his God and did not humble himself before Jeremiah the prophet, who spoke at the dictation of the Lord.
Jeremiah 37:1–2
AND ZEDEKIAH son of Josiah, whom Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon made king in the land of Judah, reigned instead of Coniah [also called Jeconiah and Jehoiachin] son of Jehoiakim.
2 But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to and obeyed the words of the Lord which He spoke through the prophet Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 52:1–3
ZEDEKIAH WAS twenty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah [not the prophet] of Libnah. [II Kings 24:18-25:21.]
2 And he did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
3 For all this came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah because of the anger of the Lord, and [in the end] He cast them out from His presence. And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Jeremiah 52:24
24 And the captain of the guard took [as prisoners] Seraiah the chief priest and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the door.
Jeremiah 52:29
29 In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar, he carried away captive from Jerusalem 832 persons;
Read Through the Bible in a Year / August
August 11Jeremiah 27–28, Jeremiah 23
Jeremiah Chapter 27
IN THE beginning of the reign of Zedekiah son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord:
2 Thus says the Lord to me: Make for yourself thongs and yoke bars and put them on your neck,
3 And send them to the king of Edom, to the king of Moab, to the king of the Ammonites, to the king of Tyre, and to the king of Sidon by the hand of the messengers who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.
4 And command them to say to their masters, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Thus shall you say to your masters:
5 I have made the earth, the men, and the beasts that are upon the face of the earth by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and I give it to whomever it seems right and suitable to Me.
6 And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant and instrument, and the beasts of the field also I have given him to serve him.
7 And all nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson until the [God-appointed] time [of punishment] of his own land comes; and then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave.
8 But any nation or kingdom that will not serve this same Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation will I punish, says the Lord, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, until I have consumed it by [Nebuchadnezzar’s] hand.
9 So do not listen to your [false] prophets, your diviners, your dreamers [and your dreams, whether your own or others’], your soothsayers, your sorcerers, who say to you, You shall not serve the king of Babylon.
10 For they prophesy a lie to you which will cause you to be removed far from your land; and I will drive you out, and you will perish.
11 But any nation that brings its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, that nation will I let remain on its own land, says the Lord, to cultivate it and dwell in it.
12 I spoke also to Zedekiah king of Judah in the same way: Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.
13 Why will you and your people die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the Lord has spoken concerning any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?
14 Do not listen to and believe the words of the [false] prophets who are saying to you, You shall not serve the king of Babylon, for it is a lie that they prophesy to you.
15 For I have not sent them, says the Lord; but they are prophesying falsely in My name. [It will only end when] I will drive you out to perish together with the [false] prophets who prophesy to you.
16 Also I said to the priests and to all these people, Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your [false] prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, Behold, the vessels of the Lord’s house shall now shortly be brought back from Babylon; for they are prophesying a lie to you.
17 Do not listen to them or heed them; serve the king of Babylon, and live. Why should this city be laid waste?
18 But if they are true prophets and if the word of the Lord is really spoken by them, let them now make intercession to the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which are [still] left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon.
19 For thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the [bronze] pillars [each twenty-seven feet high], the [bronze] Sea [the laver at which the priests cleansed their hands and feet before ministering at the altar], the [bronze] bases [of the ten lavers in Solomon’s temple used for washing animals to be offered as sacrifices], and the remainder of the vessels which are left in this city [Jerusalem], [I Kings 7:23-37; II Chron. 4:6; Jer. 52:17.]
20 Which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take when he carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon Jeconiah [also called Coniah and Jehoiachin] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem—
21 Yes, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels which [still] remain in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem:
22 They will be carried to Babylon and there will they be until the day that I visit them [with My favor], says the Lord. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.
Jeremiah Chapter 28
IN THAT same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year and the fifth month, Hananiah son of Azzur, the [false] prophet, who was from Gibeon [one of the priests’ cities], said [falsely] to me in the house of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people:
2 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
3 Within two [full] years will I bring back into this place all the vessels of the Lord’s house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon.
4 And I will also bring back to this place Jeconiah [also called Coniah and Jehoiachin] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon, says the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon. [Jer. 22:10, 24-27; 52:34]
5 Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who stood in the house of the Lord.
6 The prophet Jeremiah said, Amen! May the Lord do so; may the Lord perform your words which you have prophesied to bring back to this place from Babylon the vessels of the Lord’s house and all who were carried away captive.
7 Nevertheless, listen now to and hear this word which I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people:
8 The prophets who were before me and before you from of old prophesied against many countries and against great kingdoms, of war, of evil, and of pestilence.
9 But as for the prophet who [on the contrary] prophesies of peace, when that prophet’s word comes to pass, [only] then will it be known that the Lord has truly sent him.
10 Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke bar off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck and smashed it.
11 And Hananiah said in the presence of all the people, Thus says the Lord: Even so will I break the yoke bars of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all the nations within the space of two [full] years. But the prophet Jeremiah went his way.
12 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet [some time] after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke bar from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah:
13 Go, tell Hananiah, Thus says the Lord: You have broken yoke bars of wood, but you have made in their stead bars of iron.
14 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put upon the neck of all these nations the iron yoke of servitude of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him. For I have given him even the beasts of the field. [Jer. 27:6-7.]
15 Then said the prophet Jeremiah to Hananiah the prophet, Listen now, Hananiah, The Lord has not sent you, but you have made this people trust in a lie.
16 Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will cast you from the face of the earth. This year you will die, because you have uttered and taught rebellion against the Lord.
17 So Hananiah the prophet died [two months later], the same year, in the seventh month.
Jeremiah Chapter 23
WOE TO the shepherds (the civil leaders) who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasturing! says the Lord.
2 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for and feed My people: You have scattered My flock and driven them away and have not visited and attended to them; behold, I will visit and attend to you for the evil of your doings, says the Lord.
3 And I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries to which I have driven them and will bring them again to their folds and pastures; and they will be fruitful and multiply.
4 And I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them. And they will fear no more nor be dismayed, neither will any be missing or lost, says the Lord.
5 Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous Branch (Sprout), and He will reign as King and do wisely and will execute justice and righteousness in the land.
6 In 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. [Matt. 1:21-23; Rom. 3:22.]
7 Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when they shall no more say, As the Lord lives, Who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt,
8 But, As the Lord lives, Who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries to which I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land. [Jer. 16:14-15].
9 Concerning the prophets: My heart [says Jeremiah] is broken within me, all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, a man whom wine has overcome, because of the Lord and because of His holy words [which He has pronounced against unfaithful leaders].
10 For the land is full of adulterers (forsakers of God, Israel’s true Husband). Because of the curse [of God upon it] the land mourns, the pastures of the wilderness are dried up. They [both false prophets and people] rush into wickedness; and their course is evil, their might is not right.
11 For both [false] prophet and priest are ungodly and profane; even in My house have I found their wickedness, says the Lord.
12 Therefore their way will be to them like slippery paths in the dark; they will be driven on and fall into them. For I will bring evil upon them in the year of their punishment, says the Lord.
13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: they prophesied by Baal and caused My people Israel to err and go astray.
14 I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem a horrible thing: they commit adultery and walk in lies; they encourage and strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that none returns from his wickedness. They have all of them become to Me like Sodom, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
15 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets: Behold, I will feed them with [the bitterness of] wormwood and make them drink the [poisonous] water of gall, for from the [false] prophets of Jerusalem profaneness and ungodliness have gone forth into all the land.
16 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Do not listen to the words of the [false] prophets who prophesy to you. They teach you vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility) and fill you with vain hopes; they speak a vision of their own minds and not from the mouth of the Lord.
17 They are continually saying to those who despise Me and the word of the Lord, The Lord has said: You shall have peace; and they say to everyone who walks after the stubbornness of his own mind and heart, No evil shall come upon you.
18 For who among them has stood in the council of the Lord, that he should perceive and hear His word? Who has marked His word [noticing and observing and giving attention to it] and has [actually] heard it?
19 Behold, the tempest of the Lord has gone forth in wrath, a whirling tempest; it shall whirl and burst upon the heads of the wicked.
20 The anger of the Lord shall not turn back until He has executed and accomplished the thoughts and intents of His mind and heart. In the latter days you shall consider and understand it perfectly.
21 I did not send these [false] prophets, yet they ran; I did not speak to them, yet they prophesied.
22 But if they had stood in My council, then they would have caused My people to hear My words, then they would have turned them [My people] from their evil way and from the evil of their doings.
23 Am I a God at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar off?
24 Can anyone hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? says the Lord. Do not I 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 [visions on my bed at night].
26 [How long shall this state of things continue?] How long yet shall it be in the minds of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even the prophets of the deceit of their own hearts,
27 Who think that they can cause My people to forget My name by their dreams which every man tells to his neighbor, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?
28 The prophet who has a dream, let him tell his dream; but he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat [for nourishment]? says the Lord.
29 Is not My word like fire [that consumes all that cannot endure the test]? says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks in pieces the rock [of most stubborn resistance]?
30 Therefore behold, I am against the [false] prophets, says the Lord, [I am even now descending upon them with punishment, these prophets] who steal My words from one another [imitating the phrases of the true prophets].
31 Behold, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who use their [own deceitful] tongues and say, Thus says the Lord.
32 Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, says the Lord, and tell them and cause My people to err and go astray by their lies and by their vain boasting and recklessness—when I did not send them or command them; nor do they profit these people at all, says the Lord.
33 And when these people, or a prophet or a priest, ask you, What is the burden of the Lord [the thing to be lifted up now]? then you shall say to them, What burden [indeed]! [You are the burden!] And I will disburden Myself of you and I will cast you off, says the Lord.
34 And as for the prophet, the priest, or [any of these] the people, whoever [in mockery calls the word of the Lord a burden and] says, The burden of the Lord, I will even visit in wrath and punish that man and his house.
35 [For the future, in speaking of the utterances of the Lord] thus shall you say every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother: What has the Lord answered? or, What has the Lord spoken?
36 But the burden of the Lord you must mention no more, for every man’s burden is his own response and word [for as they mockingly call all prophecies burdens, whether good or bad, so will it prove to be to them; God will take them at their own word]; for you pervert the words [not of a lifeless idol, but] of the living God, the Lord of hosts, our God!
37 Thus shall you [reverently] say to the prophet: What has the Lord answered you? Or, What has the Lord spoken?
38 But if you say, The burden of the Lord, therefore thus says the Lord: Because you said these words, The burden of the Lord, when I sent to you, saying, You shall not say, The burden of the Lord,
39 Therefore behold, I, even I, will assuredly take you up and cast you away from My presence, you and the city [Jerusalem] which I gave to you and to your fathers.
40 And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you and a perpetual shame which will not be forgotten.
Read Through the Bible in a Year / August
August 12Jeremiah Chapters 50&51
THE WORD that the Lord spoke concerning and against Babylon and concerning and against the land of the Chaldeans through Jeremiah the prophet: [Isa. 13:1-14:23; 47; Hab. 1, 2.]
2 Declare it among the nations and publish it and set up a signal [to spread the news]—publish and conceal it not; say, Babylon has been taken; Bel [the patron god] is put to shame, Merodach (Bel) is dismayed and broken down. [Babylon’s] images are put to shame, her [senseless] idols are thrown down!
3 For out of the north there has come up a nation [Media] against her which will make her land desolate, and none will dwell there. They will have fled, they will be gone—from man even to beast.
4 In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall come up weeping as they come and seek the Lord their God [inquiring for and of Him and requiring Him, both by right of necessity and of the promises of God’s Word].
5 They shall ask the way to Zion, with their faces in that direction, saying, Come, let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.
6 My people have been lost sheep; their shepherds have led them astray [to favorite places of idolatry] on mountains [that seduce]. They have gone from [one sin to another] mountain to hill; they have forgotten their [own] resting-place. [Isa. 53:6; I Pet. 2:25.]
7 All who found them devoured them; and their adversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against the Lord [and are no longer holy to Him], their true habitation of righteousness and justice, even the Lord, the hope of their fathers.
8 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans; and be as the he-goats [who serve as examples and as leaders in the flight] before the flocks. [Jer. 51:6, 9, 45; II Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4.]
9 For behold, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country. They will equip and set themselves against her; from there she will be taken. Their arrows will be like [both] an expert, mighty warrior and like his arrows—none [of them] will return in vain.
10 And Chaldea shall become plunder; all who plunder her shall be satisfied, says the Lord.
11 Though you are glad, though you rejoice, O you who plunder My heritage, though you are wanton and skip about like a heifer at grass and neigh like strong stallions,
12 Your mother [Babylon] shall be put to great shame; she who bore you shall blush and be disgraced. Behold, she shall be at the rear of the nations [least of the nations]—a wilderness, waste, and desert.
13 Because of the wrath of the Lord she shall not be inhabited but shall be wholly desolate; everyone who goes by Babylon shall be appalled and hiss and mock at all her wounds and plagues.
14 Set yourselves in array against Babylon round about, all you archers. Shoot at her! Spare not the arrows, for she has sinned against the Lord.
15 Raise the battle cry against her round about! She gives her hand [in agreement] and surrenders; her supports and battlements fall, her walls are thrown down. For this is the vengeance of the Lord: take vengeance on her; as she has done [to others], do to her.
16 Exterminate the sower from Babylon, and the one who handles the sickle in the time of harvest. For fear of the sword of the oppressor everyone shall return to his people, and everyone shall flee to his own land.
17 Israel is a hunted and scattered sheep [driven hither and thither and preyed upon by savage beasts]; the lions have chased him. First the king of Assyria devoured him, and now at last Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has broken and gnawed his bones.
18 Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will visit and punish the king of Babylon and his land, just as I visited and punished the king of Assyria.
19 And I will bring Israel [home] again to his fold and pasturage, and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan [in the most fertile districts both west and east], and his soul will be satisfied upon the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.
20 In those days and at that time, says the Lord, the iniquity of Israel will be sought, but there will be none, and the sins of Judah [will be sought], but none will be found, for I will pardon those whom I cause to remain as a remnant (the preserved ones who come forth after a long tribulation). [Isa. 1:9; 43:25; Jer. 31:34; 33:8; Rom. 9:27.]
21 Go up against [Babylon] the land of Merathaim [two rebellions, double or intense defiance], even against it and against the inhabitants of Pekod [visitation and punishment]. Slay and utterly destroy them, says the Lord, and do according to all that I have commanded you.
22 The cry and noise of battle is in the land, and [the noise] of great destruction.
23 How the hammer of the whole earth is crushed and broken! How Babylon has become a horror of desolation among the nations!
24 I set a trap for you, and you also were taken, O Babylon, and you did not know it; you were found and also caught because you have struggled and contended against the Lord.
25 The Lord has opened His armory and has brought forth [the nations who unknowingly are] the weapons of His indignation and wrath, for the Lord God of hosts has work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come against her from every quarter and from the utmost border. Open her granaries and storehouses; pile up [their contents] like heaps of rubbish. Burn and destroy her utterly; let nothing be left of her.
27 Slay all her bullocks (her choice youths, the strength of her army); let them go down to the slaughter! Woe to [the Chaldeans]! For their day has come, the time of their visitation (their inspection and punishment).
28 Listen! The voice of those [Jews] who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon proclaiming in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God, the vengeance [of the Lord upon the Chaldeans] for [the plundering and destruction of] His temple.
29 Call together [many] archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow. Encamp against her round about; let none from there escape. Recompense her according to her deeds; just as she has done, do to her. For against the Lord, against the Holy One of Israel, has she been proudly defiant and presumptuous.
30 Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets and squares, and all her soldiers shall be destroyed on that day, says the Lord.
31 Behold, I am against you, O Babylon [you who are pride and presumption personified], says the Lord, the Lord of hosts, for your day has come, the time when I will visit and punish you.
32 And Pride (the arrogant one) shall stumble (totter) and fall, and none shall raise him up. And I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all who are round about him.
33 Thus says the Lord of hosts: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together; all who took them captive have held them fast; they refuse to let them go.
34 Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is His name. He will surely and thoroughly plead their case and defend their cause, that He may give rest to [the land of Israel and to the Babylonian-enslaved nations of] the earth, but unrest to the inhabitants of Babylon.
35 A sword upon the Chaldeans, says the Lord—upon the inhabitants of Babylon and upon her princes (rulers in civic matters) and upon her wise men (the astrologers and rulers in religious affairs)!
36 A sword upon the babbling liars (the diviners), that they may become fools! A sword upon her mighty warriors, that they may be dismayed and destroyed!
37 A sword upon their horses and upon their chariots and upon all the mixed foreign troops that are in the midst of her, that they may become [as weak and defenseless as] women! A sword upon her treasures, that they may be plundered!
38 A sword and a drought upon her waters, that they may be dried up! For it is a land of images, and they are mad over idols (objects of terror in which they foolishly trust).
39 Therefore wild beasts of the desert shall dwell [in Babylon] with the jackals, and ostriches shall dwell there. And it shall never again be inhabited with people, even from generation to generation. [Isa. 13:20–22.]
40 As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities, says the Lord, so no man shall dwell there; neither shall any son of man live there temporarily. [Jer. 49:18.]
41 Behold, a people is coming from the north; and a great nation and many kings are stirring from the uttermost parts of the earth.
42 They lay hold of bow, lance, and spear; they are cruel and have no mercy or compassion. They sound like the roaring of the sea; they ride upon horses, every man equipped like a man [ready] for the battle against you, O Daughter of Babylon!
43 The king of Babylon has heard the news about them, and his hands fall feeble and helpless; anguish has seized him, and pangs like that of a woman in childbirth.
44 See, there comes up one like a lion from the jungles (the pride) of the Jordan against the strong habitation [of Babylon] and into the permanent pasturage and sheepfold; for in a twinkling I will drive him [Babylon] from there. And I will appoint over him the one whom I choose. For who is like Me? And who will challenge Me and prosecute Me for this proceeding? And what [earthly, national] shepherd can stand before Me and defy Me? [Jer. 49:19.]
45 Therefore hear the plan of the Lord which He has made against Babylon, and His purposes which He has formed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they shall be dragged away, even the little ones of the flock; surely He shall make their habitation desolate because of them and their fold amazed and appalled at their fate.
46 At the cry, Babylon has been taken! the earth shall tremble, and the cry shall be heard among the nations.
CHAPTER 51
THUS SAYS the Lord: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon and against those who dwell among those rebelling against Me a destroying wind and spirit;
2 And I will send to Babylon strangers or winnowers who will winnow her and will empty her land; for in the day of calamity they will be against her on every side.
3 Against him who bends let the archer bend his bow, and against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail. And spare not her young men; devote [to God] and utterly destroy her entire host.
4 Thus they shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and wounded in her streets.
5 For Israel has not been widowed and forsaken, nor has Judah, by his God, the Lord of hosts, though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.
6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon! Let every man save his life! Let not destruction come upon you through her [punishment for] sin and guilt. For it is the time of the Lord’s vengeance; He will render to her a recompense. [Jer. 50:28; II Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4.]
7 Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand, making all the earth drunken. The nations drank of her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad. [Rev. 14:8; 17:4.]
8 Babylon has suddenly fallen and is shattered (destroyed)! Wail for her [if you care to]! Get balm for her [incurable] pain; if [you do] so she may [possibly] be healed! [Jer. 25:15; Rev. 14:8-10; 16:19; 18:2, 3.]
9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed. Forsake her and let us each go to his own country, for her guilt and the judgment against her reach to heaven and are lifted even to the skies. [Gen. 18:20, 21.]
10 The Lord has brought forth and made known the righteousness [of our cause]; come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God.
11 Make clean and sharp the arrows, take up the shields or coats of armor [and cover your bodies with them]! The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes [who with the Persians will destroy the Babylonian Empire], for His purpose concerning Babylon is to destroy it; for that is the vengeance of the Lord, the vengeance [upon Babylon for the plundering and destruction] of His temple.
12 Set up a standard or signal [to spread the news] upon the walls of Babylon! Make the watch and blockade strong, set the guards, prepare the ambushes! For the Lord has both purposed and done that which He spoke against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 O [Babylon] you who dwell by many waters, rich in treasures, your end has come, and the line measuring your life is cut. [Rev. 17:1-6.]
14 The Lord of hosts has sworn by Himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men, as with [a swarm of] locusts [who strip a land clean], and they will lift up a song and shout [of victory] over you.
15 He made the earth by His power; He established the world by His wisdom and stretched out the heavens by His understanding.
16 When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightnings for the rain and brings forth the wind from His treasuries.
17 Every man has become stupid and brutelike, without knowledge [of God]; every goldsmith is put to shame by the images he has made; for his molten idols are a lie, and there is no breath [of life] in them.
18 They are worthless (emptiness, falsity, futility), a work of delusion and worthy of derision; in the time of their inspection and punishment they shall [helplessly] perish.
19 Not like these [gods] is He Who is the Portion of Jacob [the true God on Whom Israel has a claim], for He is the One Who formed all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance—the Lord of hosts is His name. [Jer. 10:12-16.]
20 You [Cyrus of Persia, soon to conquer Babylon] are My battle-ax or maul and weapon of war—for with you I break nations in pieces, with you I destroy kingdoms,
21 With you I break in pieces the horse and his rider, with you I break in pieces the chariot and the charioteer,
22 With you I break in pieces man and woman, with you I break in pieces old man and youth, with you I break in pieces young man and maiden,
23 With you I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock, with you I break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen, and with you I break in pieces governors and commanders.
24 And I will [completely] repay Babylon and all the inhabitants of Chaldea for all the evil that they have done in Zion—before your very eyes [I will do it], says the Lord.
25 Behold, I am against you, says the Lord, O destroying mountain [which is burning out, you who will be as barren and desolate as an extinct volcano], you who [would] destroy the whole earth. I will stretch out My hand over and against you and roll you down from the [burnt] crags and will make you a burnt-out mountain [of combustive fires].
26 And [O Babylon] they shall not take your cracked stones for a cornerstone, or any stone for foundations, but you shall be waste and desolate forever, says the Lord.
27 Set up a standard or signal in the land [to spread the news]! Blow the trumpet among the nations! Prepare and dedicate the nations for war against her; call against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up like [a swarm of] locusts [when their wings are not yet released from their horny cases].
28 Prepare and dedicate the nations for war against her—the kings of Media, with their governors and commanders (deputies), and every land of their dominion.
29 [I foresee this:] The land trembles and writhes in pain and sorrow, for the purposes of the Lord against Babylon stand—to make the land of Babylon a desolation without inhabitant.
30 The mighty warriors of Babylon have ceased to fight; they have remained in their holds. Their might has failed; they have become [weak and helpless] like women. Her dwelling places are burned up; her bars [and defenses generally] are broken.
31 One post shall run to meet another and one messenger to meet another to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every side and to its farthest end,
32 And that the passages [or ferries across the Euphrates] are stopped, and the great marshes they [the Medes] have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened.
33 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: The Daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is [being prepared]; yet a little while and the time of harvest shall come to her.
34 [The inhabitants of Zion say] Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon has devoured us, he has crushed us, he has made us an empty vessel. Like a monster he has swallowed us up, he has filled his belly with our delicacies; he has rinsed us out and cast us away.
35 May the violence done to me and to my flesh and blood be upon Babylon, will the inhabitant of Zion say; and, May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea, will Jerusalem say.
36 Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will plead your cause and take vengeance for you. I will dry up her lake or great reservoir and make her fountain dry.
37 And Babylon shall become heaps [of ruins], a dwelling place of jackals, a horror (an astonishing desolation) and a hissing [of amazement], without inhabitant.
38 They [the Chaldean lords] shall be roaring together [before their sudden capture] like young lions [over their prey], they [the princes] shall be growling like lions’ whelps.
39 When the revelers are inflamed [with wine and lust during their drinking bouts], I will prepare them a feast [of My wrath] and make them drunk, that they may rejoice and fall asleep to a perpetual sleep and not waken, says the Lord.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams together with he-goats.
41 How Sheshach [Babylon] is taken! And the praise of the whole earth is surprised and seized! How Babylon has become an astonishing desolation and a horror among the nations!
42 The sea has come up upon Babylon; she is covered with the tumult and multitude of its waves.
43 Her cities have become a desolation and a horror, a land of drought and a wilderness, a land in which no one lives, nor does any son of man pass through it.
44 And I will punish and execute judgment upon Bel [the god] in Babylon and take out of his mouth what he has swallowed up [the sacred vessels and the people of Judah and elsewhere who were taken captive]. The nations will not flow any more to him. Yes, the wall of Babylon has fallen!
45 My people, come out of the midst of her! And let every man save his life from the fierce anger of the Lord! [Jer. 50:8; II Cor. 6:17; Rev. 18:4.]
46 And beware, lest your heart faint and you be afraid at the report (rumor) heard in the land; for in one year shall one report come and in another year another report, and violence shall be in the land, ruler against ruler.
47 Therefore behold, the days will come when I will execute judgment and punishment upon the idols of Babylon; her whole land will be confounded and put to shame, and all her slain will fall in the midst of her.
48 Then heaven and earth and all that is in them shall sing for joy over Babylon, for the [Median] destroyers shall come against her from the north, says the Lord. [Isa. 44:23; Jer. 51:11; Rev. 12:12; 18:20.]
49 As Babylon caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all [her] land.
50 You who have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still! [Seriously and earnestly] remember the Lord from afar [Babylon], and let [desolate] Jerusalem come into your mind.
51 We are confounded and ashamed, for we have heard reproach; confusion and shame have covered our faces, for strangers have come into the [most] sacred parts of the sanctuary of the Lord [even those forbidden for entrance by all but the high priest or the appointed priests].
52 Therefore behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will execute judgment upon [Babylon’s] idols and images, and throughout all her land the wounded will groan.
53 Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify her strong height (her lofty stronghold), yet destroyers will come upon her from Me, says the Lord.
54 The sound of a cry [comes] from Babylon, and [the sound of] great destruction and ruin from the land of the Chaldeans!
55 For the Lord is destroying Babylon and laying her waste and stilling her great voice [the hum of the city’s life]. And the waves [of her conquerors] roar like great waters, the noise of their voices is raised up [like the tramping of an army].
56 For the destroyer is coming upon her, upon Babylon; and her mighty warriors are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for the Lord is a God of recompense; He will surely requite.
57 And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her commanders (deputies) and her mighty warriors; and they will sleep a perpetual sleep and not waken, says the King—the Lord of hosts is His name.
58 Thus says the Lord of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown and [the foundations] made bare, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; the peoples shall labor in vain, and the nations [only] to satisfy the fire, and they shall be weary. [Hab. 2:13.]
59 The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now this Seraiah was chief chamberlain or quartermaster [and brother of Baruch].
60 So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that would come upon Babylon—even all these words that are written against Babylon.
61 And Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, see to it that you read all these words.
62 Then say, O Lord, You have spoken concerning this place that it shall be cut off, so that nothing shall remain and dwell in it, neither man nor beast; but it shall be desolate forever.
63 And it shall be that when you have finished reading this book, you shall bind a stone to it and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates.
64 Then say, Thus will Babylon sink and not rise because of the evil that I will bring upon her; and [the Babylonians] will be weary (hopelessly exhausted). Thus far are the words of Jeremiah. [Rev. 18:21.]
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Read Through the Bible in a Year / August
August 13Jeremiah 49:34–39; Ezek. 1–3
Jeremiah 49:34–39
34 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning and against Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,
35 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief [weapon and part] of their strength.
36 And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four corners of heaven; and I will scatter them toward all those winds, and there will be no nation to which the outcasts of Elam will not come.
37 And I will cause Elam to be dismayed and terrified before their enemies and before those who seek and demand their lives; and I will bring evil and disaster upon them, even My fierce anger, says the Lord. And I will send the sword after them until I have consumed them.
38 And I will set My throne [of judgment] in Elam [whose capital city was Shushan, from which God wrought wonders through Nehemiah, Esther, and Daniel]; and I will destroy from their king and princes, says the Lord. [Neh. 1:1; Esth. 1:2; Dan. 8:1, 2.]
39 But it shall be in the latter days (the end of days) that I will reverse the captivity and restore the fortunes of Elam, says the Lord.
Ezekiel Chapters 1–3
CHAPTER 1
NOW [when I was] in [my] thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was in the midst of captivity beside the river Chebar [in Babylonia], the heavens were opened and I saw visions of God.
2 On the fifth day of the month, which was in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s captivity,
3 The word of the Lord came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and the hand of the Lord was there upon him. [I Kings 18:46; II Kings 3:15.]
4 As I looked, behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, and a great cloud with a fire enveloping it and flashing continually; a brightness was about it and out of the midst of it there seemed to glow amber metal, out of the midst of the fire.
5 And out of the midst of it came the likeness of four living creatures [or cherubim]. And this was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man,
6 But each one had four faces and each one had four wings.
7 And their legs were straight legs, and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot, and they sparkled like burnished bronze.
8 And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides. And the four of them had their faces and their wings thus:
9 Their wings touched one another; they turned not when they went but went every one straight forward.
10 As for the likeness of their faces, they each had the face of a man [in front], and each had the face of a lion on the right side and the face of an ox on the left side; the four also had the face of an eagle [at the back of their heads]. [Rev. 4:7.]
11 Such were their faces. And their wings were stretched out upward [each creature had four wings]; two wings of each one were touching the [adjacent] wing of the creatures on either side of it, and [the remaining] two wings of each creature covered its body.
12 And they went every one straight forward; wherever the spirit would go, they went, and they turned not when they went.
13 In the midst of the living creatures there was what looked like burning coals of fire, like torches moving to and fro among the living creatures; the fire was bright and out of the fire went forth lightning.
14 And the living creatures darted back and forth like a flash of lightning.
15 Now as I was still looking at the living creatures, I saw one wheel upon the ground beside each of the living creatures with its four faces.
16 As to the appearance of the wheels and their construction: in appearance they gleamed like chrysolite; and the four were formed alike, and their construction work was as it were a wheel within a wheel.
17 When they went, they went in one of their four directions without turning [for they were faced that way].
18 As for their rims, they were so high that they were dreadful, and the four had their rims full of eyes round about.
19 And when the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up.
20 Wherever the spirit went, the creatures went and the wheels rose along with them, for the spirit or life of the [four living creatures acting as one] living creature was in the wheels.
21 When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up high beside them, for the spirit or life of the [combined] living creature was in the wheels.
22 Over the head of the [combined] living creature there was the likeness of a firmament, looking like the terrible and awesome [dazzling of shining] crystal or ice stretched across the expanse of sky over their heads.
23 And under the firmament their wings were stretched out straight, one toward another. Every living creature had two wings which covered its body on this side and two which covered it on that side.
24 And when they went, I heard the sound of their wings like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, the sound of tumult like the noise of a host. When they stood, they let down their wings.
25 And there was a voice above the firmament that was over their heads; when they stood, they let down their wings.
26 And above the firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne in appearance like a sapphire stone, and seated above the likeness of a throne was a likeness with the appearance of a Man. [Phil. 2:5-8.]
27 From what had the appearance of His waist upward, I saw a lustre as it were glowing metal with the appearance of fire enclosed round about within it; and from the appearance of His waist downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness [of a halo] round about Him.
28 Like the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud on the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face and I heard a voice of One speaking. [Rev. 4:3.]
Ezekiel Chapter 2
AND HE said to me [Ezekiel], Son of man, stand upon your feet and I will speak to you.
2 And the Spirit entered into me when He spoke to me and set me upon my feet, and I heard Him speaking to me.
3 And He said to me, I send you, son of man, to the children of Israel, two rebellious nations that have rebelled against Me. They and their fathers have transgressed against Me even to this very day.
4 And the children are impudent and hard of heart. I send you to them and you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord God.
5 And they, whether they will hear or refuse to hear—for they are a rebellious house—yet shall they know and realize that there has been a prophet among them.
6 And you, son of man, be not afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words; though briers and thorns are all around you and you dwell and sit among scorpions, be not afraid of their words nor be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house.
7 And you shall speak My words to them whether they will hear or refuse to hear, for they are most rebellious.
8 As for you, son of man, hear what I say to you; be not rebellious like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you.
9 And when I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me and behold, a scroll of a book was in it.
10 And He spread it before me and it was written within and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.
Ezekiel Chapter 3
HE SAID to me, Son of man, eat what you find [in this book]; eat this scroll; then go and speak to the house of Israel.
2 So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat the scroll.
3 And He said to me, Son of man, eat this scroll that I give you and fill your stomach with it. Then I ate it, and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.
4 And He said to me, Son of man, go, get you to the house of Israel and speak to them with My words.
5 For you are not sent to a people of a foreign speech and of a difficult language but to the house of Israel;
6 Not to many peoples of foreign speech and of a hard language, whose words you cannot understand. Surely, had I sent you to such people, they would have listened to you and heeded My words.
7 But the house of Israel will not listen to you and obey you since they will not listen to Me and obey Me, for all the house of Israel are impudent and stubborn of heart.
8 Behold, I have made your face strong and hard against their faces and your forehead strong and hard against their foreheads.
9 Like an adamant harder than flint or a diamond point have I made your forehead; fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, for they are a rebellious house. [Isa. 50:7; Jer. 1:18; 15:20; Mic. 3:8.]
10 Moreover, He said to me, Son of man, all My words that I shall speak to you, receive in your heart and hear with your ears.
11 And go, get you to the [Jewish] captives [in Babylon], to the children of your people, and speak to them and tell them, Thus says the Lord God, whether they will hear or refuse to hear.
12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me a voice of a great rushing [saying], Blessed be the glory of the Lord from His place [above the firmament].
13 I heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched and joined each one the other [its sister wing], and I heard the noise of the wheels beside them and the noise of a great rushing.
14 So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away [in the vision], and I went in bitterness [of discouragement] in the heat of my spirit; and the hand of the Lord was strong upon me.
15 Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, who sat and dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat and remained there among them seven days, overwhelmed with astonishment and silent.
16 And at the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me:
17 Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at My mouth and give them warning from Me. [Isa. 52:8; 56:10; 62:6; Jer. 6:17.]
18 If I say to the wicked, You shall surely die, and you do not give him warning or speak to warn the wicked to turn from his wicked way, to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your hand.
19 Yet if you warn the wicked and he turn not from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered yourself.
20 Again, if a righteous man turns from his righteousness (right doing and right standing with God) and some gift or providence which I lay before him he perverts into an occasion to sin and he commits iniquity, he shall die; because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered, but his blood will I require at your hand.
21 Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man not to sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he is warned; also you have delivered yourself from guilt.
22 And the hand of the Lord was there upon me, and He said to me, Arise, go forth into the plain and I will talk with you there.
23 Then I arose and went forth into the plain, and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory I had seen by the river Chebar, and I fell on my face.
24 Then the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet; He spoke and said to me, Go, shut yourself up in your house.
25 But you, O son of man, behold, ropes will be put upon you and you will be bound with them, and you cannot go out among people.
26 And I will make your tongue cleave to the roof of your mouth so that you cannot talk and be a reprover of the people, for they are a rebellious house.
27 But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to the people, Thus says the Lord God; he who hears, let him hear, and he who refuses to hear, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.
