Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 13

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 13

Philippians 1:27 – 2:18

Through My Bible – May 13

Philippians 1:27 – 2:18 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Philippians 1

Stand Firm

27 Just conduct yourselves in a way that is worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come to see you or am absent, I may hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, contending together with one soul for the faith of the gospel, 28 not frightened in any way by the adversaries. This is a sign for them of their destruction and of your salvation, and that from God. 29 For it has been graciously granted to you on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him, 30 having the same kind of struggle that you saw I was in, and that you now hear I am still experiencing.

Live in Harmony

Philippians 2

1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being united in spirit, and having one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility consider one another better than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look carefully not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Jesus Humbled Himself

5 Indeed, [1] let this attitude be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. 6 Though he was by nature God, [2] he did not consider equality with God as a prize to be displayed, [3] 7 but he emptied himself by taking the nature [4] of a servant. When he was born in human likeness, and his appearance was like that of any other man, [5] 8 he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death—even death on a cross. 9 Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Lights in the World

12 So then, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only when I was with you, but also now much more in my absence, continue to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 In fact, it is God who is working in you, both to will and to work, for the sake of his good pleasure. 14 Do everything without complaining and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God without blemish among a crooked and perverted generation. You shine among them like lights in the world, 16 as you hold on to [6] the word of life. Then I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. 17 But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I continue to be glad and rejoice with you all. 18 In the same way, also be glad and rejoice with me.

Footnotes

  1. Philippians 2:5 A few witnesses to the text omit Indeed.
  2. Philippians 2:6 Or in the form of God
  3. Philippians 2:6 Or something to be used for his own advantage, or something to cling to
  4. Philippians 2:7 Or form
  5. Philippians 2:7 Literally was found in appearance as a man
  6. Philippians 2:16 Or hold out




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 12

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 12

Philippians 1:12-26

Through My Bible – May 12

Philippians 1:12-26 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Philippians 1

Christ Is Proclaimed

12 I want you to know, brothers, [1] that the things which happened to me actually took place to advance the gospel. 13 And so it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard and to all the rest, that I am in chains because of Christ. [2] 14 And, through my chains, the majority of the brothers in the Lord have become much more confident about daring to speak the word of God [3] fearlessly. 15 Some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, and others out of good will. 16 The latter do so out of love, knowing that I am placed here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely, but thinking they can cause trouble for me while I am in chains. 18 What does it matter? Only this, that in every way, whether for outward appearance or for the truth, Christ is being proclaimed, and in this I rejoice.

To Live Is Christ, to Die Is Gain

Yes, and I will continue to rejoice, 19 because I know that this will turn out for my deliverance, through your prayer and the support of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. 20 This matches my earnest expectation and hope that I will in no way be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, so even now, Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death. 21 Yes, for me to live is Christ, and to die is gain. 22 But if I am to go on living in the flesh, that will mean fruitful labor for me. Yet which should I prefer? I do not know. 23 I am pulled in two directions, because I have the desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far. 24 But, it is more necessary for your sake that I remain in the flesh. 25 And since I am convinced of this, I know that I will remain and will continue with all of you, for your progress and joy in the faith. 26 And so by my coming to you again, my goal is to give you even more reason to boast in Christ Jesus.

Footnotes

  1. Philippians 1:12 When context indicates it, the Greek word for brothers may refer to all fellow believers, male and female.
  2. Philippians 1:13 Or my chains are in Christ
  3. Philippians 1:14 Some witnesses to the text omit of God. (“Witnesses to the text” mentioned in footnotes may include Greek manuscripts, lectionaries, translations, and quotations in the church fathers.)




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 11

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 11

Philippians 1:1-11

Through My Bible – May 11

Philippians 1:1-11 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Philippians 1

Greeting

1 Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus,

To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, together with the overseers and deacons:

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul’s Prayer for the Philippians

3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 Every time I pray for all of you, I always pray with joy, 5 because of your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now. 6 I am convinced of this very thing: that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 I am equally convinced that it is right for me to think this way about all of you, because I have you in my heart, for both in my chains and in my defense and confirmation of the gospel, you all share in this grace with me. 8 Yes, God is my witness of how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus.

9 And I pray that your love may still increase more and more in knowledge and every insight. 10 This will result in your approval of the things that really matter, so that you will be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 10

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 10

Lamentations 5

Through My Bible – May 10

Lamentations 5 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Remember, Lord [1]

1 Remember, Lord, what happened to us. Look and see our disgrace.

2 Our inheritance has been turned over to strangers, our houses to foreigners.
3 We have become orphans without a father. Our mothers are widows.
4 We pay money to drink our own water. We must buy firewood for a price.
5 Our pursuers are at our throat. We are exhausted. We are given no rest.
6 We have made a deal with Egypt and Assyria to have enough bread.
7 Our fathers sinned. They are no more, and we have borne their guilt.
8 Slaves rule over us. No one rescues us from their hand.
9 We get bread at the risk of our life because of the sword in the wilderness.
10 Our skin is as hot as an oven because of fever from hunger.
11 Women in Zion have been violated, virgins in the cities of Judah.
12 Officials have been hung up by their hands. The dignity of elders has not been respected.
13 The best young men must grind grain, and boys stumble under loads of wood. [2]
14 Elders are no longer seated in the city gate. The best young men no longer play music.
15 The joy of our hearts has ceased. Our dancing has turned into mourning.
16 The crown has fallen off our head. Woe to us, because we have sinned!
17 Our heart is sick over this. Over these things our eyes have grown dim—
18 over Mount Zion, which is devastated, so that jackals prowl on it.
19 You, Lord, remain forever. Your throne remains for generation after generation.
20 Why do you forget us completely? Why do you abandon us for so long?
21 Lord, turn us back to you, and we will return. Renew our days like long ago,
22 unless you have completely rejected us and you will be angry at us without limit. [3]

Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 5:1 This is the only chapter in the book that is not an alphabetic acrostic, but its 22 verses echo the length of the alphabetic acrostic. The literary touches that were added by the acrostic form fade away as the poet is exhausted by grief.
  2. Lamentations 5:13 The meaning of this verse is uncertain.
  3. Lamentations 5:22 Or forever




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 09

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 09

Lamentations 4

Through My Bible – May 09

Lamentations 4 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Gloom Settles on the City [1]

1 How dull the gold has become! How the fine gold has lost its shimmer!

Sacred stones are poured out at the corner of every street.
2 The precious sons of Zion, who were worth their weight in gold,
    now are treated like clay jars, the work of a potter’s hands!
3 Even jackals offer a breast and nurse their young,
    but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like an ostrich in the wilderness.
4 The baby’s tongue sticks to the roof of its mouth because of thirst.
    Children ask for bread, but no one shares with them.
5 Those who ate delicacies have become desolate in the streets.
    Those who were dressed in scarlet have embraced piles of trash.
6 The guilt of the daughter of my people was greater than the sin of Sodom,
    which was overthrown in a moment, though no hands turned against her.
7 Her consecrated ones [2] were brighter than snow. They were whiter than milk.
    Their bones were redder than rubies; their facets shined like sapphires.
8 Now their faces have become the darkest black. They cannot be recognized in the streets.
    Their skin has shriveled on their bones. It is as dry as a stick of wood.
9 Those cut down by the sword are better off than those cut down by hunger,
    those who waste away, pierced with pain, with no crops to eat from the field.
10 The hands of compassionate women boiled their children.
    Their children became their food when the daughter of my people was broken.
11 The Lord carried out his wrath. He poured out his burning anger.
    He kindled a fire in Zion, and it consumed her foundations.
12 The kings of the earth and the world’s inhabitants never believed
    that foe and enemy would enter the gates of Jerusalem.
13 The reason this happened was the sin of her prophets and the guilt of her priests,
    who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.
14 Those blind men staggered in the streets. They were defiled with blood,
    so people could not touch their garments.
15 “Go away! Unclean!” people shouted to them. “Go away! Go away! Do not touch us!”
    When they fled, when they staggered, people among the nations said,
    “They may not stay here anymore.”
16 The face of the Lord scattered them. He has no regard for them anymore.
    Priests were shown no consideration. Elders were shown no favor.
17 Our eyes are still worn out, looking in vain for our help.
    In our watchtowers we watched for a nation that could not save us.
18 They hunted our steps, preventing us from going into the public squares of our city.
    Our end has drawn near. Our days are finished, for our end has come.
19 Our pursuers were faster than eagles in the sky.
    On the mountains they were in hot pursuit of us. In the wilderness they waited to ambush us.
20 The life breath for our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, [3] was caught in their pits.
    We had said of him, “In his shadow we will live among the nations.”
21 Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, who dwells in the land of Uz.
    A cup will also come to you. You will become drunk and naked.
22 The punishment for your guilt is finished, daughter of Zion. He will not send you into exile again.
    Daughter of Edom, he punishes your guilt. He reveals your sins.

Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 4:1 This chapter is an alphabetic acrostic. There are 22 verses in the chapter, and there are 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet. Each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.
  2. Lamentations 4:7 Or Nazirites
  3. Lamentations 4:20 That is, the king




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 08

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 08

Lamentations 3

Through My Bible – May 08

Lamentations 3 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

A Ray of Hope in the Midst of Anguish [1]

1 I am the man who has experienced affliction under the rod of his fury.

2 He drove me off and brought me into darkness instead of light.
3 See how he turns against me. He turns his hand against me all day long.
4 He wore out my flesh and my skin. He shattered my bones.
5 He built siege works against me. He surrounded me with bitterness
    and hardship.
6 He made me dwell in dark places, like people who died long ago.
7 He walled me in, so I cannot leave. He made my chains heavy.
8 Even when I call and cry out, he shuts out my prayer.
9 He has blocked my way with a stone wall. He has made my paths crooked.
10 He is about to ambush me like a bear, like a lion lying in wait.
11 He diverted me off my path and tore me to pieces. He made
    me desolate.
12 He bent his bow and set me up as a target for the arrow.
13 He shot the arrows from his quiver into my heart. [2]
14 I was a laughingstock to all my people, the target of their song
    all day long.
15 He has made me eat bitter food and drink my fill of wormwood.
16 He broke my teeth with gravel. He pushed me down into [3] the ashes.
17 You deprived my soul of peace. I have forgotten what well-being [4] is.
18 I said, “My endurance has vanished, along with my hope from
    the Lord.”
19 Remember my affliction and my homeless wandering,
    the wormwood and bitterness.
20 My soul always remembers, and it has sunk within me.
21 Nevertheless, I keep this in my heart. This is the reason I have hope:
22 By the mercies of the Lord we are not consumed, for his compassions do not fail.
23 They are new every morning. Great is your faithfulness.
24 My soul says, “The Lord is my portion. Therefore, I will hope in him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good to hope quietly for the salvation of the Lord.
27 It is good for a man that he bears a yoke early in his life.
28 Let him sit alone and be silent, because the Lord has laid this upon him.
29 Let him stick his face in the dust. Perhaps there still is hope.
30 Let him turn his cheek toward the one who strikes him. Let him be filled with disgrace.
31 For the Lord will not push us away forever.
32 Even though he brings grief, he will show compassion on the basis of his great mercy.
33 Certainly it is not what his heart desires when he causes affliction,
    when he brings grief to the children of men.
34 To crush all the land’s prisoners under his feet,
35 to deny a man’s right before the face of the Most High,
36 to undermine a man in his legal dispute—
    the Lord does not look with favor on these things. [5]
37 Who can speak something and have it happen, unless the Lord commands it?
38 Don’t the bad things and the good both come from the mouth of the Most High?
39 How can any living man complain?
    How can someone complain about the consequences of his sins?
40 Let us explore and examine our ways, and let us return to the Lord.
41 Let us lift up our hearts and hands to God in heaven.
42 We were disobedient and rebelled, so you did not forgive.
43 You covered yourself with anger and pursued us. You killed and did not spare.
44 You covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer passes through.
45 You make us like scraps and garbage among the peoples.
46 All our enemies opened their mouth against us.
47 Panic and the pit were ours, devastation and destruction.
48 Streams of water run down from my eyes,
    because of the breaking of the daughter of my people.
49 My eye pours without stopping. It will not cease,
50 until the Lord looks down so that he sees from heaven.
51 What I see makes my soul ache for all the daughters of my city.
52 For no reason, my enemies hunted me like a bird.
53 They ended my life in the pit and threw stones at me.
54 Water flowed above my head, and I said, “I am cut off!”
55 I called on your name, Lord, from the deepest pit.
56 You heard my voice: “Do not hide your ear from my cry for relief!”
57 The day I called to you, you came near and said, “Do not fear.”
58 Lord, you pleaded my soul’s case. You redeemed my life.
59 Lord, you saw how I was wronged. Judge my case.
60 You saw all their vengeance, all their plans against me.
61 You heard their scorn, Lord, all their plans against me.
62 You heard the lips of those who rise up against me
    and their plots against me all day long.
63 Watch them when they sit down and when they get up.
    I am the target of their mocking song.
64 You will pay them back, Lord, according to what their hands have done.
65 You will give them a stubborn [6] heart. Your curse is on them.
66 You will pursue them in anger
    and destroy them from under the heavens of the Lord.

Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 3:1 This chapter is an alphabetic acrostic. The 66 verses in the chapter form 22 groups, with three verses in each group. All three lines of each group of verses begin with one of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet in alphabetic order. This chapter is the high point of the acrostic structure of Lamentations and includes most of the lines of bright hope contained in the five poems that make up the composition.
  2. Lamentations 3:13 Literally kidneys
  3. Lamentations 3:16 Or made me grovel in
  4. Lamentations 3:17 Or prosperity
  5. Lamentations 3:36 The Hebrew reads the Lord did not see.
  6. Lamentations 3:65 The meaning of this word is uncertain.




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 07

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 07

Lamentations 2

Through My Bible – May 07

Lamentations 2 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Under the Wrath of the Lord [1]

1 How the Lord, in his anger, has covered the daughter of Zion with a dark cloud!

    He threw down the beauty of Israel from heaven to earth.
    He did not remember his footstool [2] in the day of his anger.
2 The Lord swallowed up and did not spare the pastures [3] of Jacob.
    In his fury he tore down the fortifications of the daughter of Judah.
    He brought them down to the ground. He brought dishonor to the kingdom and its officials.
3 He completely chopped off the horn [4] of Israel in burning anger.
    He withdrew his right hand in the presence of the enemy.
    He burned in Jacob like a flaming fire, which consumed all around.
4 He bent his bow like an enemy. His right hand was ready like a foe,
    and he killed everyone who was precious in his eyes.
    On the tent of the daughter of Zion, he poured out his wrath like fire.
5 The Lord was like an enemy. He swallowed up Israel.
    He swallowed up all her citadels. He left her fortresses in ruins.
    He increased mourning and lamenting for the daughter of Judah.
6 He dealt violently with his shelter like a shed in a garden. [5] He ruined his meeting place.
    The Lord has caused the appointed assembly and the Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion.
    In his indignation and anger he showed contempt for king and priest.
7 The Lord rejected his altar. He abandoned his holy place.
    He delivered her walls and palaces into the hand of the enemy.
    They gave a shout in the House of the Lord,
    like that on the day of an appointed assembly.
8 The Lord had in mind to ruin the wall of the daughter of Zion.
    He stretched out a measuring line. He did not restrain his hand from swallowing her up.
    He made its rampart and wall mourn. Together they became weak.
9 Her gates have sunk down to the ground. He destroyed and shattered her bars.
    Her king and her officials are exiled among the nations. There is no law.
    Even her prophets have not received a vision from the Lord.
10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground and are silent.
    They throw dust on their heads and put on sackcloth.
    The virgins of Jerusalem bow their heads to the ground.
11 My eyes are worn out with tears. I am troubled in my heart.
    I am emotionally drained [6] over the breaking of the daughter of my people,
    while children and infants grow weak in the public squares of the city.
12 They ask their mothers, “Where are the grain and wine?”
    while they faint in the public squares of the city, like someone wounded,
    while they take their last breath in their mothers’ laps.
13 What testimony can I give on your behalf?
    What can I compare to you, daughter of Jerusalem?
    What can I place next to you, so that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion?
    Your wound is as wide as the sea. Who can heal you?
14 Your prophets saw visions for you, but they were empty and worthless.
    They did not reveal your guilt, in order to turn away your captivity.
    They saw oracles for you that were empty and misleading.
15 All who passed by clapped their hands over you.
    They hissed and shook their head over the daughter of Jerusalem:
    “Is this the city that was said to be the perfection of beauty,
    the joy of the whole earth?”
16 All your enemies opened their mouth against you.
    They hissed and gnashed their teeth. They said, “We swallowed her up.
    Yes, this is the day we were waiting for. We found it. We saw it.”
17 The Lord has done what he planned. He carried out his word,
    which he commanded long ago. He tore down and did not spare.
    He let the enemy rejoice over you. He raised up the horn of your foes.
18 Their heart cried out to the Lord.
    O wall of the daughter of Zion,
    let your tears flow like a torrent, day and night.
    Do not let yourself become numb. Do not let your eye stop crying.
19 Get up! Shout out during the night, as the night watches begin!
    Pour out your heart like water before the Lord’s face.
    Lift up your hands to him to pray for the life of your children,
    who are faint with hunger at every street corner.
20 Look, Lord, and see! With whom have you dealt so harshly?
    Should women eat the children they produced,
    the children they played with on their knee?
    Should priest and prophet be killed in the Lord’s holy place?
21 In the streets young and old lie dead on the ground.
    My virgins and my best young men have fallen by the sword.
    You killed them on the day of your anger. You slaughtered and did not spare.
22 As you do on a day of assembly, you summoned from every side the things I dread.
    On the day of the Lord’s anger, there was no one who escaped or survived.
    The enemy destroyed the children I played with on my knee and raised. [7]

Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 2:1 This chapter is an alphabetic acrostic. The 22 successive verses begin with the 22 successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
  2. Lamentations 2:1 That is, the Ark of the Covenant
  3. Lamentations 2:2 Or dwelling places
  4. Lamentations 2:3 The horn is a symbol of power and often refers to the king.
  5. Lamentations 2:6 Literally like a garden
  6. Lamentations 2:11 The Hebrew reads my liver is poured out to the ground.
  7. Lamentations 2:22 The verse is difficult.




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 06

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 06

Lamentations 1

Through My Bible – May 06

Lamentations 1 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

The Humiliation of the Daughter of Zion [1]

1 How lonely the city sits, which once was full of people!
She, who was great among the nations, is now a widow.
    She, who was a princess among the provinces, now works as a slave.
2 At night she weeps bitterly, and her tears linger on her cheek.
    Not one of her lovers is there to comfort her.
    All her friends have betrayed her. They are now her enemies.
3 Judah has gone into exile. She endures affliction and harsh labor.
    She lives among the nations. She finds no rest.
    All her pursuers caught up with her when she was in great distress.
4 The roads to Zion are mourning,
    because there are no travelers going to the appointed assemblies.
    All her gates are deserted. Her priests groan.
    Her virgins grieve. Her grief is bitter.
5 Her foes have risen to the top. Her enemies prosper.
    Because of her many acts of rebellion, the Lord has brought grief to her.
    Her children have gone into captivity in the presence of the foe.
6 The daughter of Zion [2] has lost all her splendor.
    Her officials have become like deer that find no pasture.
    Powerless, they fled before [3] the pursuer.
7 Jerusalem remembers the days of her affliction and her homeless wandering.
    She remembers all her precious things which were hers from long ago.
    When her people fell under the hand of the foe, there was no one to help her.
    Foes saw her and laughed at the end she has come to.
8 Jerusalem has sinned terribly, so she is unclean. [4]
    All who once honored her now despise her, because they have seen her nakedness.
    She can only sigh and turn away.
9 Her flow of blood stains her skirt. She did not consider the outcome of her sin.
    Her collapse was astonishing. There was no one to comfort her.
    Look, Lord, at my affliction, for the enemy has done awful things.
10 The foe has laid hands on all her precious things.
    She has even seen nations enter her sanctuary,
    nations about whom you commanded, “They shall not enter your assembly.”
11 All her people are sighing as they search for bread.
    They traded their precious things for food in order to stay alive.
    Look, Lord, and see that I have become despised.
12 But nothing like this is happening to you, all you who pass me by. [5]
    Look and see if there is any pain like my pain, which was dealt out to me,
    which the Lord caused me to suffer on the day of his burning anger.
13 From on high he sent fire into my bones and overpowered [6] me.
    He spread a net for my feet. He turned me back.
    He made me desolate. I was sick all day long.
14 The yoke of my sinful rebellion is fastened to my neck.
    My sins are bound together by his hand.
    They have risen up as high as my neck. He has weakened my strength. [7]
    The Lord has given me into the hands of people I cannot resist.
15 The Lord has tossed aside all the strong men in my midst.
    He called an assembly against me to break my best young men.
    The Lord has trampled the virgin daughter of Judah in a winepress.
16 Because of these things, I am weeping. My eye, my eye flows with water,
    because the comforter, the one who restores my soul, is far away from me.
    My children have become desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.
17 Zion spreads out her hands, but there is no one to comfort her.
    The Lord has commanded those who surround Jacob to be his foes.
    Among them, Jerusalem has become an unclean thing.
18 The Lord is righteous. I am the one who rebelled against the word from his mouth.
    Please listen, all you peoples, and see my pain.
    My virgins and my best young men have gone into captivity.
19 I called to my lovers, but they deceived me.
    My priests and my elders perished in the city,
    as they sought food for themselves to restore their lives.
20 See, Lord, I am in distress. My emotions are in turmoil.
    My heart turns over inside me, because I have been very rebellious.
    Outside, the sword takes away my children.
    Inside, there is death.
21 People have heard that I am groaning. There is no one who comforts me.
    All my enemies have heard about my misery, and they rejoiced that you did this.
    Bring on the day that you have announced, so that they may become like me.
22 May all their wickedness come before you. Deal harshly with them,
    just as you dealt harshly with me because of all my rebellion.
    Yes, my groans are many, and my heart is sick.

Footnotes

  1. Lamentations 1:1 This chapter is an alphabetic acrostic. The 22 successive verses begin with the 22 successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
  2. Lamentations 1:6 The phrase daughter of Zion is a personification of Jerusalem and her people. Daughter of Jerusalem and daughter of Judah are the same figure of speech.
  3. Lamentations 1:6 Or they were too weak to escape from
  4. Lamentations 1:8 The Hebrew term refers to ceremonial impurity caused by blood. Compare verse 9.
  5. Lamentations 1:12 Or is all this nothing to you, all you who pass me by?
  6. Lamentations 1:13 Or it came down on
  7. Lamentations 1:14 This verse is difficult.




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 05

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 05

Jeremiah 51:59 – 52:34

Through My Bible – May 05

Jeremiah 51:59 – 52:34 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Jeremiah 51

Jeremiah’s Message Is Sent to Babylon

59 These are the instructions Jeremiah the prophet gave to 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. (Seraiah was Zedekiah’s personal aide. [1])

60 Jeremiah had written on a scroll about all the disaster that was coming to Babylon—all of these things that had been written about Babylon.

61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see to it that you read all these words aloud. 62 Say, ‘O Lord, you have spoken against this place, announcing that you would destroy it, that no one will live here anymore, neither man nor animal, and that it will be desolate forever.’ 63 When you finish reading this book, tie a stone to it and throw it in the middle of the Euphrates. 64 Then say, ‘In this same way, Babylon will sink and never rise again, because of the disaster that I will bring on her. And her people [2] will be worn out.’”

The words of Jeremiah end here.

The Fall of Jerusalem

Jeremiah 52

1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king. He ruled in Jerusalem for eleven years. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. 2 He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, just like everything that Jehoiakim had done. 3 All this took place in Jerusalem and Judah because of the anger of the Lord, until he cast them out of his presence.

Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon. 4 In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came against Jerusalem with his whole army. They set up camp around the city and built siege works all around it. 5 The city was under siege until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. 6 By the ninth day of the fourth month, the famine was so severe in the city that there was no bread for the people of the land. 7 Then a breach was made in the city wall, and all the men in the army fled. Since the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, the men left it at night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden. They fled toward the Arabah, 8 but the Chaldean army pursued the king. They caught up with King Zedekiah in the plain near Jericho, where his whole army was scattered, 9 and he was captured and taken to the king of Babylon at Riblah in Hamath. There the king of Babylon passed judgment on him. 10 The king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes. He also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah. 11 Then the king of Babylon put out the eyes of Zedekiah and put him in bronze shackles. He brought him to Babylon and put him in prison until the day he died.

12 On the tenth day of the fifth month, in the nineteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. 13 He burned the temple of the Lord, the king’s palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem. He burned down every important building. 14 The whole Chaldean army under his command broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. 15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried off some of the poorest of the people, some of the survivors left in the city, some of the people who had deserted to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. 16 But Nebuzaradan captain of the guard left some of the poorest people of the land to work the vineyards and farms.

17 The Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars that were in the Lord’s temple, along with the carts for water and the bronze Sea, and carried away all the bronze to Babylon. 18 They also took away the pots, the shovels, the snuffers, [3] the bowls, the dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. 19 The commander of the guard took away the bowls, fire pans, sprinkling bowls, pots, lampstands, dishes, and the drink offering bowls—the best of the gold and the best of the silver.

20 The two pillars, the Sea, and the twelve bronze bulls under the basins, which King Solomon had made for the temple of the Lord, were made of more bronze than could be weighed.

21 As for the pillars, each pillar was twenty-seven feet high and eighteen feet in circumference. Each was four fingers thick and hollow. 22 Each had a bronze capital, seven and a half feet high, with a network and pomegranate decorations on the capital all around, all of bronze. The other pillar with its pomegranates was just like it. 23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides. There was a total of one hundred pomegranates above the surrounding network.

24 The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the second priest, and the three doorkeepers. 25 From the people left in the city, he took the officer in charge of the fighting men and seven royal advisors he found in the city. He also took the scribe of the military officer who conscripted the people of the land, along with sixty of his men who were found in the city. 26 Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 The king of Babylon struck them down and executed them at Riblah in the land of Hamath.

So Judah was carried away into exile from its native soil.

28 This is a tally of people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away into exile:

In the seventh year, 3,023 Jews.

29 In the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, 832 people from Jerusalem.

30 In the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away 745 Jews into exile.

There were 4,600 people in all.

Jehoiachin Released

31 In the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the first year of the reign of Evil Merodak [4] king of Babylon, he elevated Jehoiachin king of Judah and released him from prison on the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month. 32 He spoke kindly to him and gave him a throne higher than the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 Jehoiachin changed from his prison clothes and ate his meals in the king’s presence continually all the days of his life. 34 For his provisions, a regular allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon, a set amount each day until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 51:59 Literally officer of rest
  2. Jeremiah 51:64 Hebrew they
  3. Jeremiah 52:18 The precise identification of some of these vessels and utensils is uncertain.
  4. Jeremiah 52:31 This seems to be a derogatory form of the name Amel Marduk.




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 04

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 04

Jeremiah 51:1-58

Through My Bible – May 04

Jeremiah 51:1-58 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Jeremiah 51

1 This is what the Lord says:

Watch, I will stir up a destroying wind against Babylon
and against the people who live in Leb Kamai. [1]
2 I will send foreigners to Babylon
    to winnow her and empty her land.
They will oppose her on every side in the day of trouble.
3 Bend your bow against anyone who bends a bow
and against anyone who stands in armor. [2]
Do not spare the young men.
Completely destroy her army.
4 They fall down, slain in the land of Chaldea,
mortally wounded in her streets.
5 Israel and Judah are not forsaken by God, the Lord of Armies,
though their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel.

6 Flee from the midst of Babylon!
Everyone, save your lives!
Do not be cut off because of her guilt,
for it is the time for the Lord’s vengeance.
He will punish them as they deserve.
7 Babylon was a golden cup in the Lord’s hand.
She made the whole world drunk.
The nations have drunk her wine,
and now they have gone mad.
8 Suddenly Babylon has fallen and is broken.
Wail for her.
Take balm to her for her pain.
Perhaps she can be healed.

9 We would have healed Babylon,
but she cannot be healed.
Leave her! Everyone go to his own land,
because her judgment reaches to the heavens.
It rises up to the clouds.
10 The Lord has brought our vindication.
Come, let us declare in Zion what the Lord our God has done.

11 Sharpen the arrows!
Hang on to the shields!
The Lord has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes,
because his purpose is to destroy Babylon.
This is the vengeance of the Lord,
vengeance for his temple.
12 Raise a signal flag against the walls of Babylon!
Strengthen the guard!
Set the watch,
and prepare an ambush!
The Lord has done what he said he would do
    against the inhabitants of Babylon.
13 You who live by many waters,
you who are rich in treasures,
your end has come,
the full measure [3] of your violence.
14 The Lord of Armies has sworn by himself:
Surely I will fill you with men,
as if I were filling you with locusts.
They will raise the shout of victory over you.

A Hymn of Praise

15 He is the One who made the earth by his power
and established the world by his wisdom.
By his understanding he stretched out the heavens.
16 He thunders, and the waters in the heavens roar.
He makes storm clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain,
and he brings the wind out from his warehouses.

17 But as for mankind, they are all stupid.
Their knowledge has dried up.
Every goldsmith is embarrassed by his idols.
The images he makes are false.
There is no breath in them.
18 They are worthless,
an achievement to be mocked.
At the time of their punishment, they will perish.
19 He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these,
because he is the Maker of all things,
including the tribe that is his possession.
The Lord of Armies is his name.

Babylon, the Hammer of the Lord

20 You are my hammer, my war weapon.
With you I shatter nations.
With you I destroy kingdoms.
21 With you I shatter horse and rider.
With you I shatter chariot and driver.
22 With you I shatter man and woman.
With you I shatter the old and the young.
With you I shatter the young man and the virgin.
23 With you I shatter the shepherd and his flock.
With you I shatter the plowman and the team in his yoke.
With you I shatter governors and officials.

24 Before your very eyes I will repay Babylon and everyone who lives in Chaldea for all the evil they have done in Zion, declares the Lord. 25 Look, I am against you, declares the Lord.

You destroying mountain,
you destroy the whole world.
I will stretch out my hand against you.
I will roll you off the cliffs,
and I will make you a burned-out volcano.
26 No rock will be taken from you for a cornerstone,
nor as a foundation stone.
You will be desolate forever, declares the Lord.

27 Raise a signal flag in the land!
Blow the ram’s horn among the nations!
Set apart the nations against her!
Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat,
    Minni, and Ashkenaz!
Appoint a field marshal against her!
Bring up horses like a thick swarm of locusts!
28 Consecrate the nations against her—
the kings of the Medes, their governors, all their officials,
and all the land under their dominion.

Babylon’s Punishment

29 The land trembles and writhes
because the Lord’s intentions against Babylon stand.
He will make the land of Babylon a desolation with no one living there.
30 The strong warriors of Babylon have stopped fighting.
They stay in their strongholds.
Their power has failed.
They have become as weak as women.
Her dwellings are set on fire.
The bars of the gates are broken.
31 Runner follows runner,
and messenger follows messenger
    to announce to the king of Babylon
    that his city is taken in every quarter.
32 The fords have been captured,
the marshes [4] are on fire,
and the soldiers are in a panic.
33 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says.
The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor when it is trampled.
In just a little while, the time of her harvest will come.

34 Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured us. [5]
He has crushed us
and made us like an empty jar.
Like a monster, he has swallowed us,
filled his stomach with our tastiest parts,
and spit out the rest.
35 “May the violence done to us and to our children [6] be upon Babylon,”
says she who dwells in Zion.
“May our blood be on those who live in Chaldea,” says Jerusalem.

36 Therefore this is what the Lord says:
Watch! I will defend your cause
and take revenge for you.
I will dry up her sea
and make her springs dry.
37 Babylon will become a heap of ruins,
a haunt for jackals,
a horror and a target of contempt, [7]
and no one will live there.
38 They will all roar together like young lions.
They will growl like lion cubs.
39 When they are ravenous, I will spread a feast.
I will make them drunk,
so that they will celebrate, [8]
and then they will go to sleep forever
and never wake up, declares the Lord.
40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams and goats.

41 How Sheshak [9] is captured!
The pride of the whole earth is seized!
Babylon has become an object of horror among the nations.
42 The sea has come all the way up to Babylon,
and she is covered with its rolling waves.
43 Her cities have become desolate,
a desert and a wasteland,
a land in which no one lives,
a land through which no man passes.
44 I will punish Bel in Babylon
and make his mouth spit out what he has swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him.
The wall of Babylon will fall.

45 Come out of her, my people!
Save yourselves, every one of you,
    from the Lord’s fierce anger.
46 Do not be faint of heart.
Do not fear the rumors you will hear in the land.
Rumors will come one year,
and the next year another rumor will come:
“Violence in the land!”
“Ruler against ruler!”
47 For the days are coming when I will punish the idols of Babylon.
Her whole land will be disgraced,
and all her slain will fall within her.
48 Then the heavens and the earth and all that is in them
    will rejoice over Babylon.
The destroyers will attack her from the north, declares the Lord.
49 Babylon must fall because of Israel’s slain,
just as the slain in all the earth have fallen because of Babylon.

A Message to the Israelites in Babylon
The Lord or the Prophet [10]

50 You who have escaped the sword, go!
Do not delay!
Remember the Lord from afar,
and think of Jerusalem.

The Exiles

51 We are disgraced,
because we have heard a taunt.
Dishonor covers our faces,
because strangers have come into the holy places of
        the House of the Lord.

The Lord

52 So keep watch. The days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will punish all her idols.
Through her whole land the wounded will groan.
53 Even if Babylon could reach the sky
and fortify the very heights of her stronghold,
I would still send destroyers to her, declares the Lord.

Further Destruction on Babylon

54 The sound of a cry comes from Babylon,
the sound of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans.
55 The Lord is destroying Babylon,
and he will silence her mighty voice.
Waves roar like many waters.
The sound of their noise rises!
56 The destroyer has come against her, against Babylon.
Her mighty warriors are captured.
Their bows are broken,
for the Lord is a God of retribution.
He will repay in full.

57 I will make her officials and her wise men drunk,
and her governors, officers, and strong warriors as well.
They will sleep for a long time,
and they will not wake up,
declares the King, whose name is the Lord of Armies.
58 This is what the Lord of Armies says.
The thick walls of Babylon will be leveled,
and her high gates will be set on fire.
The people will toil for nothing.
The work of the nations will be nothing but fuel for the fire.
They will be worn out.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 51:1 Leb Kamai seems to be a cryptogram for Chaldea. Taking the letters of the Hebrew word for Chaldeans and writing them in reverse alphabet (A=Z, B=Y, etc.) produces Leb Kamai, which means heart of my adversaries.
  2. Jeremiah 51:3 Or let no one bend a bow or stand up in armor. The Hebrew text and the meaning of these two lines are uncertain.
  3. Jeremiah 51:13 Literally the cubit
  4. Jeremiah 51:32 Or fortresses
  5. Jeremiah 51:34 Hebrew variant me. The same variant occurs throughout verse 34.
  6. Jeremiah 51:35 Or flesh
  7. Jeremiah 51:37 Literally hissing
  8. Jeremiah 51:39 The translation follows the Hebrew. The Greek and Latin read pass out.
  9. Jeremiah 51:41 Sheshak is a cypher or cryptogram for Babylon. It is written in reverse alphabet: A=Z, B=Y, etc. In the Hebrew alphabet, bbl reversed is shshk.
  10. Jeremiah 51:50 Because of the unannounced changes of speaker, the headings mark the speaker of each section.




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 03

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 03

Jeremiah 49:34 – 50:46

Through My Bible – May 03

Jeremiah 49:34 – 50:46 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Jeremiah 49

A Prophecy About Elam

34 This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, early in the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah:

35 This is what the Lord of Armies says.
Look, I will break the bow of Elam, [1]
the main source of its power.
36 I will bring against Elam the four winds,
from the four corners of the sky.
I will scatter its people to the four winds.
There will not be a nation
    where the outcasts of Elam do not go.
37 I will make Elam terrified of their enemies,
those who seek their lives.
I will bring disaster on them,
namely, my fierce anger, declares the Lord,
and I will send the sword after them,
until I have consumed them.
38 I will set up my throne in Elam,
and there I will destroy their king and officials,
declares the Lord.

39 Yet I will reverse the captivity of Elam in days to come,
declares the Lord.

A Prophecy About Babylon and Israel

Jeremiah 50

1 The word that the Lord spoke concerning Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through Jeremiah the prophet:

2 Declare and proclaim this among the nations.
Set up a signal flag.
Proclaim and do not hide it.
Say this:
Babylon has been taken.
Bel has been put to shame.
Marduk is terrified.
Babylon’s images have been put to shame.
Her filthy idols are terrified.
3 A nation has come up against her out of the north.
It will make her land desolate,
and no one will dwell in it.
Both man and animal have wandered away.
They are gone.

4 In those days, and in that time, declares the Lord,
the people of Israel will come,
they and the people of Judah together with them.
They will come weeping,
and they will seek the Lord their God.
5 They will ask the way to Zion and turn toward it,
saying, “Come, join yourselves to the Lord
    in an everlasting covenant that will not be forgotten.”
6 My people have been lost sheep.
Their shepherds have led them astray.
They have turned them aside on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill.
They have forgotten their resting place.
7 All who found them have devoured them.
Their enemies said, “We are not guilty,
because they sinned against the Lord,
who is their rightful pasture,
the Lord, the hope of their fathers.”

8 Flee from Babylon!
Leave the land of the Chaldeans.
Be like the male goats that lead the flock.
9 Watch, I will stir up and bring against Babylon
    an assembly of great nations from the land of the north.
They will array themselves against her,
and she will be taken away captive from there.
Their arrows will be like those of a skilled warrior
    who does not return empty-handed.
10 Chaldea will be plundered.
All who prey on her will have their fill, declares the Lord.

11 Because you are glad and rejoice,
you who plunder my inheritance,
because you leap like a heifer that treads out the grain,
and you neigh like strong horses,
12 your mother will be completely put to shame.
She who gave birth to you will be humiliated.
Watch, she will become the least of the nations,
a wilderness, a desert, a wasteland.
13 Because of the Lord’s wrath she will not be inhabited.
She will be completely desolate.
Everyone who passes by Babylon will be astonished.
Everyone will mock her because of all her wounds.
14 Line up for battle against Babylon and surround her.
All you who bend the bow, shoot at her.
Don’t save any arrows,
because she has sinned against the Lord.
15 Shout against her from all sides.
She surrenders!
Her fortifications [2] have fallen.
Her walls have been thrown down.
This is the vengeance of the Lord.
Take vengeance on her!
Do to her as she has done to others!
16 Cut off the sower from Babylon,
and the one who swings the sickle at harvest time.
They will each return to their own people.
They will each flee to their own land
    because they fear the sword of the oppressor.

17 Israel is a scattered flock of sheep that lions have chased away.
First, the king of Assyria devoured him.
Now, the last to crush his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
18 Therefore this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says:
I will certainly punish the king of Babylon and his land,
as I punished the king of Assyria.
19 I will restore Israel to his pasture.
He will feed on Carmel and in Bashan.
His soul will be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and Gilead.
20 In those days and at that time, declares the Lord,
the guilt of Israel will be sought,
but there will be none.
The sins of Judah will be sought,
but they will not be found,
for I will forgive the survivors whom I spare.

21 Go up against the land of Merathaim
and against those who live in Pekod.
Kill them and destroy them, declares the Lord.
Do everything I have commanded you.
22 The noise of battle is in the land,
the noise of great destruction.
23 How the hammer of the whole earth
    is smashed and broken to pieces!
How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
24 I set a trap for you, Babylon,
and you were caught before you knew it.
You were found and captured,
because you fought against the Lord.
25 The Lord has opened his arsenal
and brought out his weapons of wrath,
for the Lord God of Armies has work to do
    in the land of the Chaldeans.
26 Come against her from far away.
Open up her granaries,
and pile her up like heaps of grain.
Destroy her completely.
Let nothing be left.
27 Kill all her young bulls. [3]
Let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them, for their day has come,
the time for their punishment.
28 Listen to the fugitives and refugees from Babylon!
They proclaim in Zion the vengeance of the Lord our God,
vengeance for what was done to his temple.

29 Call the archers to Babylon,
all those who bend the bow.
Set up camp all around her.
Don’t let her escape.
Pay her back for her deeds.
Do to her what she has done,
because she has defied the Lord,
the Holy One of Israel.
30 Therefore her young men will fall in the streets.
All her soldiers will be silenced in that day, declares the Lord.
31 Look, I am against you, you proud one, declares the Lord God of Armies.
Your day has come,
the time for your punishment.
32 The proud king [4] will stumble and fall,
and no one will help him up.
In his cities I will start a fire
    that will consume everyone around him.

33 This is what the Lord of Armies says.
The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed.
All their captors hold them fast.
They refuse to let them go.
34 But their Redeemer is strong.
The Lord of Armies is his name.
He himself will take up their cause
    so that he may bring rest to the earth,
    and unrest to those who live in Babylon.

35 A sword against the Chaldeans, declares the Lord,
and against those who live in Babylon,
against her officials and her wise men!
36 A sword against her empty boasters!
They will become fools.
A sword against her strong warriors!
They will be filled with terror.
37 A sword against their horses and chariots!
All the foreigners in her ranks will become as weak as women.
A sword against her treasures!
They will be looted.
38 A sword against her waters!
They will be dried up,
because it is a land of idols,
and they are driven mad by those dreadful images.
39 That is why desert animals and hyenas [5] will live there,
and shrieking ostriches will dwell there.
It will never again be inhabited.
It will never be lived in from generation to generation.
40 Just as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah
and their neighboring cities, declares the Lord,
no one will dwell there.
No one will live there even as a temporary resident.

41 Look! A people comes from the north!
A great nation and many kings are being stirred up
    from the ends of the earth.
42 They take up bow and spear.
They are cruel and merciless.
Their roar sounds like the sea.
They ride on horses,
arrayed in battle formation against you, daughter of Babylon.
43 The king of Babylon has heard the report about them,
and his hands hang limp.
Anguish grips him,
pains like a woman in labor.
44 Watch this!
Like a lion coming out of the thickets of the Jordan
    into the pastures that are always green,
I will suddenly chase Babylon away from its land,
and I will appoint whomever I choose over it.
For who is like me?
Who can challenge me?
    What shepherd can stand before me?

45 Therefore hear what the Lord has planned for Babylon,
and what he intends to do against the land of the Chaldeans:
Even the little ones of the flock will be dragged away.
He will make their pasture desolate because of them.
46 The earth will tremble at the noise of Babylon’s fall.
Their cry will be heard among the nations.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 49:35 Elam is in present-day Iran. Here it probably refers to mercenaries in the Babylonian army.
  2. Jeremiah 50:15 The meaning of the Hebrew word translated fortifications is uncertain. The Greek reads battlements; the Latin reads foundations.
  3. Jeremiah 50:27 Perhaps a reference to young warriors
  4. Jeremiah 50:32 The Hebrew text does not contain the word king, but the pronouns shift from feminine to masculine, suggesting a reference to the king.
  5. Jeremiah 50:39 The meaning of this Hebrew term is uncertain.




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 02

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 02

Jeremiah 49:1-33

Through My Bible – May 02

Jeremiah 49:1-33 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Jeremiah 49

A Prophecy About Ammon

1 Concerning the people of Ammon, this is what the Lord says:

Has Israel no sons?
Has he no heir?
Why then does Milcom [1] possess Gad?
Why do his people live in Israel’s cities?
2 Watch, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will sound a battle cry against Rabbah of the Ammonites,
and it will become a desolate heap.
Her villages will be burned down,
and then Israel will possess those who possessed him,
declares the Lord.
3 Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste!
Cry, you daughters of Rabbah!
Put on sackcloth and mourn.
Run back and forth behind the walls,
because Milcom is about to go into captivity,
with his priests and his officials.
4 Why do you boast about your valleys,
your flowing valley, you backsliding daughter?
You trusted in your treasures, saying,
“Who will come against me?”
5 Look out! I will bring terror upon you,
says the Lord God of Armies,
terror from every side.
All of you will be completely driven out,
and there will be no one to gather together the fugitives.

6 But afterward I will restore the captives of the Ammonites,
declares the Lord.

A Prophecy Against Edom

7 Concerning Edom, this is what the Lord of Armies says:

Is there no more wisdom in Teman?
Has counsel perished from the prudent? [2]
Has their wisdom vanished?
8 Flee! Turn back!
Dwell in the depths, you who live in Dedan,
for I will bring the disaster of Esau on him when I punish him.
9 If grape pickers came to you,
wouldn’t they leave some grapes for gleaning?
If thieves came by night,
wouldn’t they stop when they had stolen enough?
10 But I have stripped Esau bare.
I have uncovered his secret places,
and he will not be able to hide himself.
His offspring are destroyed,
along with his brothers and his neighbors,
and he is no more.
11 Leave your fatherless children.
I will preserve their lives.
Let your widows trust in me.

12 For the Lord says: If those who did not deserve to drink from the cup must drink it, will you escape unpunished? No, you will not remain unpunished. You must drink. 13 For I have sworn by myself, declares the Lord, that Bozrah will become a horror, a disgrace, ruins, and a curse. All its cities will be perpetual ruins.

14 I have heard news from the Lord,
and a messenger has been sent to the nations:
“Gather yourselves together,
and come against her!
Rise up for the battle!”

15 Look, I have made you small among the nations
and despised among mankind.
16 The terror you instill has deceived you,
the pride of your heart.
You who dwell in the clefts of the rock,
who occupy the high point of the hill,
even though you make your nest as high as the eagle’s nest,
I will bring you down from there, declares the Lord.
17 Edom will become a horror.
Everyone who passes by it will be shocked,
and they will hiss because of all its disasters.
18 As Sodom and Gomorrah
and their neighboring cities were overthrown,
says the Lord,
no one will live there.
Not one person will dwell in it.

19 Watch this.
Like a lion coming out of the thickets of the Jordan
    into the pastures that are always green,
I will suddenly chase Edom away from its land,
and I will appoint whomever I choose over it.
For who is like me?
Who can challenge me?
What shepherd can stand before me?
20 Therefore, hear what the Lord has planned for Edom,
what he intends to do against the people of Teman.
Even the little ones of the flock will be dragged away.
He will make their pasture desolate because of them.
21 The earth will tremble at the noise of their fall.
Their cry will be heard all the way to the Red Sea.
22 Watch, he will come up and fly like an eagle.
He will spread out his wings against Bozrah.
In that day the hearts of the strong warriors of Edom
    will be like the heart of a woman during her labor pains.

A Prophecy Against Damascus

23 Concerning Damascus:

Hamath and Arpad are troubled,
for they have heard bad news.
They melt in fear.
Like a troubled sea,
they cannot find rest.
24 Damascus has become feeble.
She turns to flee.
Panic has seized her.
Anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her,
    like those of a woman in labor.
25 Why is this famous city not yet forsaken, [3]
the joyful city? [4]
26 Therefore, her young men will fall in her streets,
and all her warriors will be destroyed on that day,
declares the Lord of Armies.
27 I will set fire to the walls of Damascus,
and it will devour the citadels of Ben Hadad.

A Prophecy Against Kedar and Hazor

28 Concerning Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck, this is what the Lord says:

Arise, go up to Kedar,
and destroy the people of the East.
29 Their tents and their flocks will be taken,
their tent curtains and everything in their tents.
Their camels will be taken away from them,
and men will shout to them, “Terror on every side!”
30 Quick, fly away!
Hide in deep caves, you who live in Hazor,
declares the Lord,
because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has plotted against you,
and he has made plans to defeat you.
31 Arise! Attack a nation at ease, that lives without care,
declares the Lord,
a nation that has neither gates nor bars, that lives by itself.
32 Their camels will be plunder,
and their vast herds of livestock a prize.
I will scatter to all the winds those who live in distant places, [5]
and I will bring disaster on them from every side,
declares the Lord.
33 Hazor will be a place where jackals live,
a desolate place forever.
No man will live there.
No one will live in that place even as a temporary resident.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 49:1 Or their king. Milcom may have been the Ammonite name for Molek. See also verse 3.
  2. Jeremiah 49:7 Or sensible
  3. Jeremiah 49:25 Hebrew and Greek read not forsaken. The Latin reads why is the famous city forsaken?
  4. Jeremiah 49:25 Or, following a Hebrew variant, my joyful city
  5. Jeremiah 49:32 Or who have trimmed the corners of their hair. The uncertainty is whether the Hebrew term for cutting edges refers to borders or hair.




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 01

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – May 01

Jeremiah 48

Through My Bible – May 01

Jeremiah 48 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

A Prophecy Against Moab

1 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says.

Woe to Nebo! It will be destroyed.
Kiriathaim will be disgraced and captured.
The stronghold will be disgraced and broken down.
2 There will no longer be any praise for Moab.
They have plotted evil against her in Heshbon:
“Come, let us destroy that nation!”
You will be silenced, O Madmen. [1]
The sword will pursue you.
3 The sound of a cry from Horonaim,
desolation and great destruction!
4 Moab is destroyed.
Her little ones will cry out.
5 Now they go up the ascent to Luhith,
    weeping continually.
And on the descent of Horonaim
they have heard the cry of distress
    caused by the destruction.
6 Flee! Save your lives!
Be like a juniper bush [2] in the wilderness.
7 Because you trusted in your works and treasures,
you too will be taken.
Chemosh will go into exile,
together with his priests and officials.
8 The destroyer will come against every city,
and no city will escape.
The valley will also perish,
and the tableland will be destroyed, as the Lord has spoken.
9 Give Moab a blossom, but it will blow away completely. [3]
Her cities will become desolate
with no one to live in them.

10 Cursed is the one who is negligent in doing the Lord’s work.
Cursed is the one who holds back his sword from bloodshed.

11 Moab has been at peace since its youth,
undisturbed, like wine on its dregs,
never poured from one vessel to another.
It has never gone into captivity.
That is why it tastes the same as it always did,
and its aroma is unchanged.
12 Therefore, know this: the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will send to Moab people who pour,
and they will pour it out.
They will drain its containers
and smash its jars.
13 Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh,
as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, in which they trusted.

14 How can you say, “We are mighty warriors,
courageous soldiers?”
15 Moab is laid waste,
and they have gone up into its cities.
Its finest young men have gone down to be slaughtered.

The declaration of the King,
whose name is the Lord of Armies:
16 The destruction of Moab is approaching,
and its disaster hurries swiftly.
17 Mourn for it, all you surrounding nations.
All you who know its name say,
“How the mighty scepter is broken,
the glorious staff!”

18 Come down from your glory,
and sit on the parched ground,
you [4] who dwell in Dibon.
Moab’s destroyer has come up against you.
He has destroyed your strongholds.
19 Stand beside the road and watch,
you [5] who dwell in Aroer.
Ask him who flees, ask her who escapes,
“What has happened?”

20 Moab is withered,
for it is broken down.
Wail and cry!
Tell it by the Arnon, that Moab has been destroyed.

21 Judgment has come upon the tableland, on Holon, on Jahzah, on Mepha’ath, 22 on Dibon, on Nebo, on Beth Diblathaim, 23 on Kiriathaim, on Beth Gamul, on Beth Meon, 24 on Kerioth, on Bozrah, and on all the towns of the land of Moab, far and near.

25 The horn of Moab is cut off,
and his arm is broken, declares the Lord.

26 Make him drunk,
because he exalted himself against the Lord.
Moab will wallow in his vomit,
and he will be ridiculed.
27 Was not Israel ridiculed by you?
Was Israel caught among thieves,
so that whenever you speak of him,
you shake your head?
28 You who live in Moab, abandon the cities and dwell in the rocks.
Be like a dove that makes her nest over the mouth of a chasm.

29 We have heard about the pride of Moab.
He is very arrogant.
He is smug, he is conceited,
he is proud, and his heart is haughty.
30 I know his insolence, says the Lord.
It is empty, and so are his deeds.
31 Therefore I will wail for Moab.
I will cry out for all of Moab.
I will mourn for the men of Kir Hareseth.

32 I will weep for you, vine of Sibmah,
more than Jazer.
Your branches passed over the sea.
They reached to the Sea of [6] Jazer.
The destroyer has fallen on your summer fruit
and on your grapes.
33 Gladness and joy have been taken from the fertile field
and from the land of Moab.
I have stopped the flow of wine from the winepresses.
No one will tread them with shouts of joy.
The shouting is not shouting for joy.
34 There is an outcry from Heshbon to Elealeh.
They raise their voices as far as Jahaz,
from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath Shelishiyah,
and even the waters of Nimrim have dried up.
35 In Moab, declares the Lord,
I will stop the one who presents offerings on the high places
and burns incense to his gods.

36 Therefore, my heart wails like a flute for Moab,
and for the men of Kir Hareseth my heart wails like a flute.
Even the wealth they have acquired is gone.
37 Every head is shaved, and every beard is clipped.
Every hand is cut, and there is sackcloth around their waists.
38 On all the rooftops of Moab
and in its streets there is wailing,
because I have broken Moab like an unwanted jar,
declares the Lord.

39 How broken she is!
How they wail!
How Moab turns her back in shame!
So Moab will be ridiculed
and be a horror to all around.
40 For the Lord says:
Watch, he will fly like an eagle,
and he will spread his wings against Moab.
41 Kerioth is taken,
and the strongholds are seized.
On that day the hearts of Moab’s strong warriors
    will be like the heart of a woman in labor.
42 Moab will be destroyed as a nation
because he has defied the Lord.
43 Panic, pit, and peril [7] are before you,
you who live in Moab, declares the Lord.
44 Whoever flees from the panic will fall into the pit.
Whoever gets out of the pit will be trapped in the snare,
for I will bring on Moab the year of their punishment,
says the Lord.

45 Those who fled stand helpless under the shadow of Heshbon,
because a fire has gone out from Heshbon,
and a flame from the midst of Sihon.
It has burned the foreheads of Moab,
and the tops of the heads of those who boast. [8]
46 Woe to you, O Moab!
The people of Chemosh are destroyed,
for your sons are taken away captive,
and your daughters go into exile.

47 Nevertheless, I will reverse the captivity of Moab in days to come,
    declares the Lord.

This is the conclusion of the judgment against Moab.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 48:2 The Moabite place name Madmen has nothing to do with the English expression madman or its plural.
  2. Jeremiah 48:6 Or like Aroer. The Greek reads like a wild donkey.
  3. Jeremiah 48:9 Or put salt on Moab, for it will be laid waste. The meaning of some of the Hebrew words in this verse are uncertain, and, as a result, there are many interpretations.
  4. Jeremiah 48:18 The Hebrew is feminine singular, referring to Moab as a nation.
  5. Jeremiah 48:19 The Hebrew is feminine singular.
  6. Jeremiah 48:32 Or as far as
  7. Jeremiah 48:43 The Hebrew words pahad, pahat, and pah sound similar and are used for poetic effect. A bit of literalness is sacrificed in the rendering of pah to retain the effect. Pah is more literally trap.
  8. Jeremiah 48:45 Or it has burned Moab from its borders to the highest heights of those who boast




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 30

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 30

Jeremiah 46 – 47

Through My Bible – April 30

Jeremiah 46 – 47 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

A Prophecy About Egypt

Jeremiah 46

1 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations:

2 Concerning Egypt:

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

3 Arrange your shields, both large and small,
and march out for battle!
4 Harness the horses!
Mount up, you horsemen!
Take up your stations with your helmets on.
Polish your spears.
Put on your armor!

5 But what do I see?
They are terrified.
They are turning back.
Their warriors are beaten.
They are fleeing without looking back.
There is terror on every side! declares the Lord.
6 There is no chance for the swift to flee.
There is no escape for the strong.
In the north, near the River Euphrates,
they stumble and fall.
7 Who is this, rising like the Nile,
like rivers with surging waters?
8 It is Egypt that rises like the Nile,
like rivers with surging waters.
Egypt said, “I will rise.
I will cover the earth.
I will destroy cities
and those who live in them.”

9 Horses, charge!
Charioteers, drive like madmen!
Forward, you warriors,
you men of Cush and Put who carry the shield,
you men of Lud who grasp and bend the bow! [1]
10 That day is the day of the Lord, the God of Armies.
It is a day of vengeance,
when he will take vengeance on his foes.

11 Go up to Gilead and get balm,
    virgin daughter of Egypt!
You have tried many medicines with no results.
There is no healing for you.
12 The nations have heard of your shame,
and your cry fills the earth.
Warrior stumbles against warrior,
and the two of them fall together.

Nebuchadnezzar Will Attack Egypt

13 This is the word the Lord spoke to Jeremiah the prophet about the coming of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to strike the land of Egypt.

14 Declare this in Egypt. Proclaim it in Migdol.
Proclaim it in Memphis [2] and Tahpanhes.
Say, “Take your positions and get ready.
The sword is going to devour those around you.”
15 Why are your mighty ones laid low? [3]
They cannot stand, for the Lord has pushed them down.
16 He made many stumble.
They fall against each other.
They say, “Get up! Let’s go back to our people
and to the land of our birth,
away from the sword of our oppressor.”
17 There they will cry out,
“Pharaoh king of Egypt is only a loud noise.
He has missed his opportunity.”
18 As surely as I live, declares the King,
whose name is the Lord of Armies,
someone is coming who is like Tabor among the mountains,
and like Carmel by the sea. [4]
19 Get your bags ready to go into exile,
    you daughter who dwells in Egypt,
for Memphis will become a desolation
and lie in ruins without an inhabitant.

20 Egypt is a lovely heifer,
but a horsefly has come against her out of the north.
21 The mercenaries in her ranks are like fattened calves.
They will turn and flee together.
They will not stand,
for the day of disaster has come upon them,
the time for their punishment.

22 Egypt will hiss like a snake,
because the enemy will advance as an army.
It will come against her with axes,
like men who cut down trees.
23 They will cut down her forest, declares the Lord,
though it is impenetrable,
even though they are more numerous than locusts,
even though they are too many to count.

24 The daughter of Egypt will be put to shame,
handed over to the people from the north.

25 The Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Watch, I will punish Amon god of Thebes, along with Pharaoh, with Egypt, her gods, and her kings—Pharaoh and those who trust in him. 26 I will hand them over to those who seek their lives, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and his officers.

But afterward Egypt will be inhabited as in former days, declares the Lord.

27 But do not be afraid, my servant Jacob.
Do not be terrified, Israel,
because I will save you from a faraway place,
and I will rescue your descendants from the land where
        they are captives.
Jacob will return.
He will enjoy quiet and be at ease,
and no one will make him afraid.
28 Do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, declares the Lord,
for I am with you.
I will completely destroy all the nations
    among which I have scattered you,
but I will not completely destroy you.
I will discipline you with justice,
and I will not regard you as entirely innocent.

A Prophecy Against Philistia

Jeremiah 47

1 This is the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before Pharaoh struck Gaza.

2 This is what the Lord says.
See, waters rise up out of the north,
and they will become an overflowing stream.
They will overflow the land and everything in it,
the cities and those who live there.
The people will cry out,
and everyone who lives in the land will wail
3     at the sound of the stamping hoofs of his steeds,
    at the rumbling of his chariots,
    at the roar of his wheels.
Fathers will not turn back for their sons,
because their hands will hang limp,
4 on account of the day that is coming to destroy all the Philistines,
to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who survives.
For the Lord will destroy the Philistines,
the surviving remnant from the shores of Caphtor. [5]

5 Baldness is coming to Gaza.
Ashkelon will be destroyed.
You survivors left on the plain,
how long will you cut yourselves?

6 O sword of the Lord!
How long until you rest?
Return to your scabbard.
Rest and be still.

7 How can you rest since the Lord has commanded this?
Against Ashkelon and against the shore of the sea,
        he has assigned the sword.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 46:9 Men from these nations served as mercenaries in the Egyptian army. Cush is in Sudan. Put is in Libya. Lud is either Lydia in present-day Turkey or another region in Libya.
  2. Jeremiah 46:14 Hebrew Noph. English commonly uses the Greek forms of the names of Egyptian cities. Also in verse 19.
  3. Jeremiah 46:15 The translation follows the Hebrew. The Greek reads why has Apis fled? Apis was an Egyptian sacred bull.
  4. Jeremiah 46:18 Tabor and Carmel are two notable mountains in Israel.
  5. Jeremiah 47:4 Perhaps Crete or another location in the Mediterranean




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 29

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 29

Jeremiah 44 – 45

Through My Bible – April 29

Jeremiah 44 – 45 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

The Lord’s Message to the Jews in Egypt

Jeremiah 44

1 The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who lived in the land of Egypt—in Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis, [1] and also in Upper Egypt: [2]

2 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says. You have seen the disaster I brought on Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah. You see that today they are desolate and no one lives there 3 because they committed evil and provoked me to anger. They burned incense to serve other gods that neither they, nor you, nor your fathers knew. 4 I kept sending my servants the prophets to you again and again, saying, “Do not do this detestable thing that I hate.” 5 But they did not listen or pay attention. They did not turn away from their wickedness or stop burning incense to other gods. 6 Therefore, my wrath and anger were poured out and ignited against the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they were laid waste and desolate, as they are this day.

7 Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says. Why are you doing such an evil thing to yourselves? You are cutting off from Judah man and woman, children and infants, leaving no one remaining. 8 Why are you provoking me to anger with the idols your hands have made? Why are you burning incense to other gods in Egypt where you have gone to live? You will cut yourselves off, making yourselves an object of cursing and ridicule among all the nations of the earth. 9 Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the king of Judah, the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 They have not humbled themselves even to this day. They have not feared me or walked in my law or in my statutes that I set before you and your fathers.

11 Therefore the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will certainly set my face against you to bring disaster, to cut off all Judah. 12 I will remove the survivors of Judah who are determined to go to Egypt and settle there, and they will be consumed. In the land of Egypt they will fall. They will be consumed by sword and famine. They will die, from the least to the greatest, by sword and famine. They will become an object of horror and derision, an object of cursing and ridicule. 13 I will punish those who go to live in the land of Egypt as I punished Jerusalem—with the sword, famine, and plague— 14 so that none of the survivors of Judah who have gone to live in Egypt will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah, to which they long to return in order to live there, because none of them will return, except a few refugees.

15 Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, and all the women who were standing there—a large crowd—and all the people living in Lower Egypt and Upper Egypt [3] answered Jeremiah: 16 “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, 17 but instead we will continue doing everything that we said we would do. We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven, and we will pour out drink offerings to her, just as we and our ancestors, our kings, and our officials used to do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of food. We were prosperous, and we had no troubles. 18 But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and stopped pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing at all, and we have been consumed by sword and famine.”

19 Then the women said, “When we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make the cakes in her image and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands’ approval?”

20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, both men and women, who were answering him, 21 “Do you think the Lord did not remember the incense you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem—you, your ancestors, your kings and officials, and the people of the land? Do you think this did not enter his mind? 22 When the Lord could no longer bear your evil acts and the disgusting things you did, your land became a desolate wasteland, a cursed land, with no one living there to this day. 23 It is because you have burned incense and sinned against the Lord, because you have not obeyed him or walked in his law, his statutes, and his decrees, that this disaster has come upon you now.”

24 Jeremiah then said to all the people, including the women, “Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah in Egypt.”

25 The Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says this. You and your wives have declared with your words and your actions that you will keep the vows you made to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her. Do what you promised! By all means, fulfill your vows!

26 But hear the word of the Lord, all you Jews living in Egypt. Listen! I swear by my great name, declares the Lord, that my name will no longer be spoken by anyone from Judah living anywhere in Egypt, nor will they swear, “As surely as the Lord God lives.” 27 Look at this! I am watching over them to bring disaster, not good, and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be consumed by sword and famine until they are all gone. 28 Those who escape the sword and return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah will be very few. Then all the remnant of Judah who entered Egypt to live there will know whose word will stand—mine or theirs.

29 This will be a sign to you, declares the Lord. I will punish you in this place. Then you will know that my warnings to bring disaster upon you will stand. 30 This is what the Lord says. Watch me. I am handing Pharaoh Hophra, king of Egypt, over to his enemies who seek his life, just as I handed Zedekiah king of Judah over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, the enemy who sought his life.

A Message for Baruch

Jeremiah 45

1 This is the message that Jeremiah the prophet gave to Baruch son of Neriah when he was writing down on a scroll the words that Jeremiah was dictating. This was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah.

2 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch.

3 You said, “Woe is me! The Lord has added sorrow to my pain. I am worn out with groaning and I have found no rest.”

4 This is what the Lord says. Tell him that I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted throughout the whole world. 5 So should you then be seeking great things for yourself? Stop seeking them. I will certainly bring disaster on every living thing, declares the Lord. But in every place you go, I will let you hang on to your life like a prize of war.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 44:1 Hebrew Noph. English usually uses the Greek forms of the names of Egyptian cities.
  2. Jeremiah 44:1 Hebrew Pathros, the southern part of Egypt
  3. Jeremiah 44:15 Hebrew in Egypt and Pathros




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 28

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 28

Jeremiah 42 – 43

Through My Bible – April 28

Jeremiah 42 – 43 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

The People Ask Jeremiah to Pray for Them

Jeremiah 42

1 Then all the army officers, including Johanan son of Kareah and Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest approached Jeremiah. 2 They said to him, “Please hear our request and pray to the Lord your God for us, for this group of survivors. As you can see, only a few of us are left, though once there were many. 3 Pray that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go and what we should do.”

4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, “I have heard you. Certainly, I will pray to the Lord your God as you have asked. I will tell you whatever the Lord answers. I will keep nothing back from you.”

5 Then they said to Jeremiah, “May the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us if we do not do everything the Lord your God directs you to tell us. 6 Whether it is good or bad, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, of whom you are inquiring for us. May it go well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God.”

7 Ten days later, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. 8 He called Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers with him, along with all of the people from the least to the greatest, 9 and he reported this to them:

The Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your request, says this: 10 If you stay in this land, I will build you up and not tear you down. I will plant you and not uproot you, for I am grieving over the disaster I brought upon you. 11 Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you now fear. Do not be afraid of him, declares the Lord, for I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand. 12 I will be merciful to you so that he will be merciful to you and will send you back to your own land.

13 But if you say, “We will not remain in this land,” and if you disobey the voice of the Lord your God, 14 and if you say, “No, we will go into the land of Egypt, where we will see no war, hear no battle signal from the ram’s horn, and experience no hunger for bread, and we will live there,” 15 then hear the word of the Lord, you survivors from Judah. This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says. If you are determined to go and live in Egypt, 16 then the sword you fear will overtake you in Egypt, the famine you dread will follow you there in Egypt, and you will die there. 17 This is what will happen to everyone who is determined to go into Egypt. All of them will die by the sword, famine, and plague. None of them will survive or escape from the disaster I am going to bring on them. 18 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says. As my anger and my wrath have been poured out on those who live in Jerusalem, so will my wrath be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You will be an object of horror and derision, an object of cursing and ridicule. You will never see this place again.

19 This is what the Lord says concerning you, you remaining survivors from Judah: Do not go to Egypt. You can be certain about this. I am warning you today 20 that you have put your own souls [1] in danger by sending me to the Lord your God and saying, “Pray to the Lord our God for us. Tell us everything the Lord our God says, and we will do it.” 21 I have told you this today, but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything he sent me to tell you. 22 Therefore, be certain about this. You will die by the sword, famine, and plague in the place where you want to go and live.

Jeremiah Is Taken to Egypt

Jeremiah 43

1 When Jeremiah finished telling the people all the words of the Lord their God (everything the Lord had sent him to tell them), 2 Azariah son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, “You are lying. The Lord our God did not send you to tell us, ‘Do not go to Egypt to settle there.’ 3 Baruch son of Neriah has turned you against us, in order to hand us over to the Chaldeans, so that they may kill us or carry us away to Babylon as captives.”

4 So Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers disobeyed the voice of the Lord, who was commanding them to remain in the land of Judah. 5 Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers took away everyone who remained in Judah, everyone who had returned to live in the land of Judah from the nations where they had been driven: 6 the men, women, and children, the king’s daughters, and everyone else that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, and also Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch son of Neriah. 7 They entered the land of Egypt, disobeying the voice of the Lord, and they went as far as Tahpanhes.

8 In Tahpanhes the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. The Lord said, 9 “Take some large stones in your hand while the men of Judah are watching, and bury them in the mudbrick pavement at the entrance of Pharaoh’s palace at Tahpanhes. 10 Tell them that this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says. Be sure of this. I will send for my servant, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I [2] will set his throne on these stones that I [3] have hidden, and he will spread his royal canopy over them. 11 He will come and attack Egypt, bringing death to those doomed to death, captivity to those doomed to captivity, and the sword to those doomed to the sword. 12 I [4] will set fire to the temples of the gods of Egypt. He will burn them—or carry them away to captivity. He will wrap Egypt around himself as a shepherd wraps a cloak around himself. [5] Then he will go away in peace. 13 He will smash the sacred obelisks in the temple of the sun [6] in the land of Egypt, and he will burn down the temples of the Egyptian gods.”

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 42:20 Or lives
  2. Jeremiah 43:10 Hebrew I; some ancient translations read he.
  3. Jeremiah 43:10 Hebrew I; some ancient translations read you.
  4. Jeremiah 43:12 Hebrew I; some ancient translations read he.
  5. Jeremiah 43:12 Or he will pick Egypt clean as a shepherd picks lice from his clothing
  6. Jeremiah 43:13 Or in Heliopolis, the city of the sun




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 27

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 27

Jeremiah 39 – 41

Through My Bible – April 27

Jeremiah 39 – 41 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

The Fall of Jerusalem

Jeremiah 39

1 In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to it. 2 In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, a breach was made in the city wall. 3 All the officers of the king of Babylon entered and sat down in the middle gate: Nergal Sharezer the staff officer, [1] Nebo Sarsekim a chief officer, [2] Nergal Sharezer a high official, [3] and all the other officials of the king of Babylon. 4 When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled and left the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the gate between the two walls. Then they went toward the Arabah.

5 But the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains by Jericho. After they had captured him, they brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath and passed judgment on him. 6 The king of Babylon killed Zedekiah’s sons in front of his eyes at Riblah, and he also killed the nobles of Judah. 7 Then he put out Zedekiah’s eyes and bound him with bronze shackles and sent him to Babylon. 8 The Chaldeans burned down the king’s palace and the houses of the people. They also broke down the walls of Jerusalem. 9 Then Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, [4] carried into exile the rest of the people who remained in the city, along with those who had deserted, as well as the rest of the people. 10 But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people, who owned nothing, and he then gave them vineyards and fields.

Jeremiah Is Released

11 Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon gave orders to Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, concerning Jeremiah. He said, 12 “Take him, look after him, and do him no harm. Do for him whatever he wants.”

13 So Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, Nebushazban the chief officer, [5] Nergal Sharezer a high official, [6] and all the other officials of the king of Babylon 14 sent for Jeremiah and had him taken out of the courtyard of the guard. They entrusted him to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, to take him to his house. So he remained among his people.

15 While Jeremiah had still been imprisoned in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the Lord had come to him: 16 “Go and tell Ebed Melek the Cushite that this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says. Watch, I am going to fulfill my words against this city for evil and not for good. They are going to be fulfilled before your eyes. 17 But I will deliver you on that day, declares the Lord, and you will not be handed over to those you fear. 18 I will certainly save you. You will not fall by the sword. You will escape with your life, because you have put your trust in me, declares the Lord.”

Jeremiah Is Set Free

Jeremiah 40

1 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah after Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had released him at Ramah. Jeremiah had been captured and bound in chains with all the captives of Jerusalem and Judah who were being carried into exile in Babylon. 2 When the captain of the guard found Jeremiah, he said to him, “The Lord your God pronounced this disaster on this place, 3 and the Lord has brought it about and has done what he said he would do. This took place because you people [7] sinned against the Lord and did not obey him. 4 But now, today, I am removing the chains from your wrists. If you wish, come with me to Babylon. I will take care of you. But if this does not seem good to you, then don’t come. The whole land is before you. If there is a place that seems good and right to you, go there.” 5 But before Jeremiah turned away, he added, “Or you can go to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan. The king of Babylon has made him governor over the cities of Judah. You can live with him among the people. Go wherever it seems right for you to go.”

Then the commander of the guard gave him a gift and some food and released him. 6 Jeremiah went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah and lived with him among the people who had been left behind in the land.

Gedaliah Is Assassinated

7 All the army officers who were still in the field and all their men heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam to be governor of the land, and that he had given him authority over the men, women, children, and over the poorest people of the land—those who were not carried away into exile in Babylon. 8 They and their men went to Gedaliah at Mizpah—Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Ja’azaniah [8] the son of the Ma’acathite. 9 Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, swore an oath in the presence of them and their men. He said, “Do not be afraid of the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well with you. 10 As for me, I will certainly stay at Mizpah to represent you before the Chaldeans who come to us. As for you, store up wine, summer fruit, and oil, put it into your jars, and live in the towns you have taken over.”

11 When all the Jews who were in Moab, among the Ammonites, in Edom, and in other lands heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah, and that he had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, over them, 12 all those Jews returned from all the places they had been scattered. They returned to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah. There they stored up a large amount of wine and summer fruit.

13 Then Johanan son of Kareah and the army officers who were still in the field came to Gedaliah at Mizpah 14 and said to him, “Do you know that Baalis king of the Ammonites has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to assassinate you?” But Gedaliah son of Ahikam did not believe them.

15 Then Johanan son of Kareah spoke secretly to Gedaliah at Mizpah, “I urge you, let me go and kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah. No one will know. Why should he assassinate you and cause all the Jews who are gathered around you to be scattered and the remnant of Judah to perish?”

16 But Gedaliah son of Ahikam said to Johanan son of Kareah, “Do not do this! What you are saying about Ishmael is false.”

Jeremiah 41

1 In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, a descendant of the royal family and one of the chief officers of the king, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. While they were eating a meal together there, 2 Ishmael son of Nethaniah got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, with a sword, killing the man the king of Babylon had appointed as governor over the land. 3 Ishmael also struck down all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah and also the Chaldean soldiers they found there.

4 The next day, the day after Gedaliah was assassinated, before anyone knew about it, 5 men came from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria—eighty men in all—with their beards shaved, their clothing torn, and their bodies gashed. [9] They came bringing grain offerings and incense to the House of the Lord. 6 Ishmael son of Nethaniah went out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he came. As he met them he said, “Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam.” 7 When they got to the middle of the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men with him began to kill them, throwing their bodies into a cistern. 8 But ten of them said to Ishmael, “Don’t kill us! We have food hidden in the countryside: wheat, barley, oil, and honey!”

So he stopped and did not murder them along with the others. 9 Now the cistern into which Ishmael threw all the dead bodies of the murdered men was a large one, [10] which had been built by King Asa to defend against Ba’asha king of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with the murdered men.

10 Then Ishmael made prisoners of all the people who were left in Mizpah, including the king’s daughters and the others who were left there in Mizpah—people whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had placed under the care of Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael son of Nethaniah took them as prisoners and set out to cross over to the Ammonites.

11 But when Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers with him heard about all the crimes that Ishmael son of Nethaniah had committed, 12 they took all of their men and went to attack Ishmael son of Nethaniah. They caught up with him by the great pool at Gibeon. 13 When all the people with Ishmael saw Johanan son of Kareah and all the army officers who were with him, they were glad. 14 All of the people whom Ishmael had taken prisoner turned back and went to Johanan son of Kareah. 15 But Ishmael son of Nethaniah and eight of his men escaped from Johanan and went over to the Ammonites.

16 Then Johanan son of Kareah and the army officers with him took all the survivors from Mizpah, whom he had recovered from Ishmael son of Nethaniah after Ishmael had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam—the soldiers, the women, the children, and the court officials that Johanan had brought back from Gibeon. 17 They left there and stayed at Geruth Kimham near Bethlehem. They were on the way to Egypt 18 because they were afraid of the Chaldeans, since Ishmael son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed as governor over the land.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 39:3 Hebrew samgar, or in Akkadian sin magir. Samgar may be a title or a title based on a place name.
  2. Jeremiah 39:3 Hebrew rab saris
  3. Jeremiah 39:3 Hebrew rab mag. Jeremiah uses accurate Akkadian titles and personal names that have been found in Babylonian cuneiform tablets. This demonstrates that Jeremiah had firsthand knowledge about the Babylonian personnel involved in the destruction of Jerusalem.
  4. Jeremiah 39:9 Or the chief executioner
  5. Jeremiah 39:13 Hebrew rab saris
  6. Jeremiah 39:13 Hebrew rab mag
  7. Jeremiah 40:3 You people is used to indicate that the pronoun is plural.
  8. Jeremiah 40:8 Hebrew Jezaniah, another form of Ja’azaniah
  9. Jeremiah 41:5 All these actions were signs of mourning.
  10. Jeremiah 41:9 The translation was a large one follows the Greek reading. The Hebrew reading by the hand of Gedaliah does not seem to fit the context.




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 26

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 26

Jeremiah 37 – 38

Through My Bible – April 26

Jeremiah 37 – 38 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

King Zedekiah’s Request to Jeremiah

Jeremiah 37

1 King Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, made Zedekiah son of Josiah king in place of Jehoiachin [1] son of Jehoiakim. 2 But neither Zedekiah nor his attendants nor the people of the land obeyed the word of the Lord that he spoke through the prophet Jeremiah.

3 Nevertheless, King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah with Zephaniah son of Ma’aseiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah to request, “Please pray to the Lord our God for us.”

4 Jeremiah was still moving about freely among the people, for they had not yet put him into prison. 5 Pharaoh’s army had come out of Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.

6 Then the word of the Lord came to the prophet Jeremiah.

7 The Lord, the God of Israel, says to tell this to the king of Judah, who sent you to me to inquire of me. Be warned. Pharaoh’s army, which has come out to help you, will go back to Egypt, to their own land. 8 Then the Chaldeans will return and attack this city. They will capture it and burn it down.

9 The Lord says: “Do not deceive yourselves by saying, ‘The Chaldeans will surely leave us.’ They will not. 10 For even if you would defeat the whole Chaldean army attacking you, and there were only wounded men left who were confined to their tents, they would still get up and burn this city down.”

11 When the Chaldean army had withdrawn from Jerusalem to face Pharaoh’s army, 12 Jeremiah left Jerusalem to go to the territory of Benjamin to claim his share of the property among the people there. 13 But as he arrived at the Benjamin Gate, the sentry who was in charge there, named Irijah son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah, seized Jeremiah the prophet. He said, “You are deserting to the Chaldeans!”

14 But Jeremiah said, “That is false! I am not deserting to the Chaldeans.”

But Irijah did not listen to him. He seized Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. 15 Angry with Jeremiah, they beat him, and they imprisoned him in the house of Jonathan the scribe, because they were using that house as a prison.

16 Jeremiah was kept in a vaulted cistern [2] for a long time. 17 Then King Zedekiah sent for him and had him brought out. The king asked him secretly in his house, “Is there any word from the Lord?”

Jeremiah answered, “There is. He said, ‘You will be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.’”

18 Jeremiah also said to King Zedekiah, “How have I sinned against you, against your servants, or against this people, that you have put me in prison? 19 Where are your prophets now, who prophesied to you, ‘The king of Babylon will not attack you or this land’? 20 Now, my lord the king, please listen to me. Let my petition come before you: Please do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, or I will die there.”

21 Then Zedekiah the king ordered that Jeremiah be placed in the courtyard of the guard. Every day they gave him a loaf of bread from the street of the bakers until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

Jeremiah Is Imprisoned in a Cistern

Jeremiah 38

1 Shephatiah son of Mattah, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehucal [3] son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah had told the people when he said, 2 “This is what the Lord says. Whoever remains in this city will die by sword, famine, and plague, but whoever goes over to the Chaldeans will live. He will escape with his life, and he will live. 3 This is what the Lord says. This city will surely be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon, and he will capture it.”

4 Then the officials said to the king, “This man should be put to death because he is demoralizing the soldiers who are left in the city. He is demoralizing all the people by saying these things to them. This man is not seeking the welfare of the people. He wants to hurt them.”

5 King Zedekiah answered, “Very well. He is in your hands. The king cannot do anything to stop you.”

6 So they took Jeremiah and threw him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They let Jeremiah down by ropes. There was no water in the cistern, but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

7 Ebed Melek the Cushite, [4] an official in the king’s house, heard that they had put Jeremiah in the cistern. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate, 8 Ebed Melek left the palace and said to the king, 9 “My lord the king, everything that these men have done to Jeremiah the prophet is evil. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he is likely to die because of the famine, for there is no more bread in the city.”

10 Then the king gave orders to Ebed Melek the Cushite: “Take thirty men from here under your command and lift Jeremiah the prophet up out of the cistern before he dies.”

11 So Ebed Melek took command of the men and entered a room under the treasury in the palace. He took some old rags and worn-out clothing from there, and he lowered them with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. 12 Ebed Melek the Cushite said to Jeremiah, “Put these rags and worn-out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.” After Jeremiah did that, 13 they lifted him up with the ropes and pulled him out of the cistern. After this Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.

14 King Zedekiah then sent for Jeremiah and brought him to the third entrance of the temple of the Lord. He said to Jeremiah, “I am going to ask you something. Do not hide anything from me.”

15 Jeremiah replied, “Won’t you put me to death if I tell you the truth? If I give you advice, you won’t listen to me.”

16 So King Zedekiah swore a secret oath to Jeremiah: “As surely as the Lord lives, who gave us our lives, I will not put you to death, and I will not hand you over to the men who seek your life.”

17 Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “The Lord, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says: If you surrender to the Babylonian king’s officials, your life will be spared, and this city will not be burned. You will live, and your family will live. 18 But if you will not surrender to the Babylonian king’s officials, then this city will be handed over to the Chaldeans. They will burn it down, and you will not escape from their hands.”

19 King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid of the Jews who have defected to the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans may turn me over to them, and they will torture me.”

20 But Jeremiah said, “They will not turn you over to them. Please obey the Lord by doing what I tell you. It will go well with you, and your life will be spared. 21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the Lord has revealed to me. 22 All the women who are left in the palace of the king of Judah will certainly be brought out to the officials of the Babylonian king. Those women will say to you, ‘Those trusted friends of yours misled you and led you to defeat. Your feet have sunk down into the mud, and they all have deserted you.’ 23 They will bring all your wives and children to the Chaldeans. You yourself will not escape their grasp. You will be seized by the king of Babylon, and this city will be burned down.”

24 Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “If you do not let anyone know about this conversation, you will not die. 25 But if the officials hear that I have spoken with you, they will come and ask you, ‘Tell us what you said to the king. Do not hide it from us, and we will not put you to death—just tell us what the king said to you.’ 26 Tell them, ‘I was humbly begging the king not to return me to the house of Jonathan to die there.’”

27 All the officials then came to Jeremiah. When they began to question him, he said everything just the way the king had commanded. Then they stopped questioning him, since no one had heard the conversation.

28 So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured. He was still there when Jerusalem fell.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 37:1 Hebrew Coniah
  2. Jeremiah 37:16 An underground chamber for storing rainwater, which was roofed over to prevent evaporation
  3. Jeremiah 38:1 Hebrew Jucal, a form of Jehucal. See 37:3.
  4. Jeremiah 38:7 Cush is the upper Nile region, roughly corresponding to present-day Sudan.




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 25

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 25

Jeremiah 36

Through My Bible – April 25

Jeremiah 36 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Jehoiakim Burns Jeremiah’s Scroll

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

2 Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, concerning Judah and all the other nations, from the day I began speaking to you in the days of Josiah until now. 3 Perhaps when the house of Judah hears about all the disaster I am planning for them, each of them will turn from his evil ways. Then I will forgive their guilt and their sin.

4 So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah. While Jeremiah dictated all the words that the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll. 5 Then Jeremiah gave an order to Baruch, saying, “I am restricted from going into the House of the Lord, 6 so you will have to go. Read from the scroll you have written at my dictation. Read it in the hearing of all the people of Judah who have come from their cities on a day of fasting. 7 Perhaps they will make a request to the Lord, and each of them will turn from his evil ways, for the Lord has planned great anger and wrath against this people.”

8 Baruch son of Neriah did everything that Jeremiah the prophet had commanded him. He read the words of the Lord from the scroll in the House of the Lord.

9 Later, in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, all the people of Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah proclaimed a fast before the Lord. 10 Then Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll in the House of the Lord, in the hearing of all the people. This was at the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan, the secretary, which was in the upper courtyard at the entrance of the New Gate of the House of the Lord.

11 When Micaiah son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll, 12 he went into the secretary’s room in the king’s palace. All the officials happened to be sitting there: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Akbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials. 13 Micaiah reported to them all the words he had heard when Baruch read the scroll in the hearing of the people. 14 Then all the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to tell Baruch, “Bring the scroll you have read in the hearing of the people, and come here.”

So Baruch son of Neriah brought the scroll in his hand and went to them. 15 They said, “Please sit down and read it to us.” So Baruch read it to them.

16 When they had heard everything, they turned to one another in fear. They said to Baruch, “We have to report all of these things to the king.” 17 They asked Baruch, “Tell us, how did you come to write all of this? Did Jeremiah dictate this to you?”

18 Baruch answered, “He dictated [1] all of these things to me, and I wrote them with ink on the scroll.”

19 Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah go and hide. Do not let anyone know where you are.”

20 They put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, and then they went to the king in the court. They repeated all of these words to the king. 21 Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. After he took it from the room of Elishama the secretary, Jehudi read it to the king in the hearing of all the officials who stood beside the king. 22 Now the king was sitting in the winter house (it was the ninth month), [2] and there was a metal heating pan with a fire of burning coals in front of him. 23 Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king would cut it off with a scribe’s knife and throw it into the fire until the entire scroll was burned up in the fire. 24 Neither the king nor his attendants who heard all these words were afraid. They did not tear their clothing. 25 Even when Elnathan and Delaiah pleaded with the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. 26 Instead, the king commanded Jerahme’el the king’s son, along with Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abde’el, to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the Lord hid them.

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

28 Take another scroll, and write all the earlier words on it that were on the first scroll, the one that Jehoiakim king of Judah burned.

29 Concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah, say: This is what the Lord says. You yourself have burned this scroll. You asked, “Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon would certainly come and destroy the land and cut off both men and animals?” 30 That is why the Lord says this about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on David’s throne. His dead body will be thrown out and exposed to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. 31 I will punish him, his offspring, and his servants for their guilt. I will bring on them and on everyone who lives in Jerusalem and the men of Judah every disaster I have pronounced against them, because they did not listen.

32 Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to his scribe Baruch son of Neriah, who wrote on it all the same words that had been on the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 36:18 Literally he said from his mouth
  2. Jeremiah 36:22 That is, the month of Kislev, late November/early December




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 24

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 24

Jeremiah 35

Through My Bible – April 24

Jeremiah 35 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

The Example of the Rekabites

1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah. 2 “Go to the house of the Rekabites, and bring them into one of the rooms in the House of the Lord, and give them wine to drink.”

3 So I took Ja’azaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, along with his brothers and all his sons—the whole house of the Rekabites— 4 and I brought them into the House of the Lord, into the room of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, the man of God. It was next to the room of the officials that was above the room of Ma’asaiah son of Shallum, the doorkeeper. 5 I set bowls of wine and some cups before the men of the house of the Rekabites, and I said to them, “Drink some wine.”

6 But they said, “We do not drink wine. Our ancestor Jonadab son of Rekab commanded us: ‘You are not to drink wine, neither you nor your descendants, not ever. 7 Also, you are not to build houses, sow seed, plant vineyards, or own any of these things. You must always live in tents. Then you will live a long time on the land where you live as nomads.’ 8 We have obeyed what Jonadab son of Rekab, our ancestor, commanded us. We have never drunk wine—we, our wives, our sons, and our daughters. 9 We have never built houses to live in. We have no vineyards, fields, or crops. 10 We have lived in tents, and we have obeyed everything that Jonadab our ancestor commanded us. 11 But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded the land, we said, ‘Come on, we have to go to Jerusalem to escape the armies of the Chaldeans and the Arameans.’ That is why we are living in Jerusalem.”

12 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

13 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says. Go ask the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem: Will you learn a lesson and obey my words? declares the Lord. 14 Jonadab son of Rekab commanded his sons not to drink wine, and this command has been kept. To this day they drink no wine, for they have obeyed their ancestor’s command. But I keep speaking to you, again and again, and you have not obeyed me. 15 I have sent my servants the prophets to you again and again. They told you to turn from your evil ways, to reform your actions, and to stop following other gods in order to serve them. Then you would live on the land I have given to you and your fathers. But you have not paid attention or listened to me. 16 The sons of Jonadab son of Rekab have kept this command which their father gave them, but these people have not obeyed me.

17 Therefore this is what the Lord, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says. Watch this. I am going to bring down on Judah and everyone who lives in Jerusalem every disaster I have pronounced against them. I have spoken to them, but they have not listened. I have called them, but they have not answered.

18 Jeremiah said to the house of the Rekabites, “The Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says this. Because you have obeyed the command of Jonadab your father and kept all his instructions and done everything he commanded you, 19 the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says that Jonadab will never fail to have a man to serve me.”




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 23

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 23

Jeremiah 34

Through My Bible – April 23

Jeremiah 34 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

A Message for Zedekiah

1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, along with all his army, all the kingdoms of the earth, and all the peoples that were subject to him were fighting against Jerusalem and against all its cities.

2 The Lord, the God of Israel, says:

Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him this is what the Lord says. I certainly am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it. 3 You will not escape his grasp. You will surely be taken and handed over to him. You will see the king of Babylon eye-to-eye, and he will speak with you face-to-face. You will go to Babylon.

4 Even so, hear the word of the Lord, Zedekiah king of Judah.

The Lord says concerning you: You will not die by the sword. 5 You will die in peace. Just as people made a funeral fire in honor of your fathers who were kings before you, so they will make a fire for you. They will lament for you, saying, “Alas, master!” This is my word, declares the Lord.

6 Jeremiah the prophet said all these things to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem 7 when the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and against the cities of Judah that still remained, namely, Lachish and Azekah (for these alone remained from all of Judah’s fortified cities).

8 The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem proclaiming freedom for the slaves. 9 Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, male and female. No one was to keep a fellow Jew in slavery. 10 All the officials and all the people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would set their male and female slaves free, and that no one would keep them in slavery anymore. They obeyed the agreement and set them free. 11 But after this they changed their minds. They took back the slaves they had set free, and they made them serve as male and female slaves once again.

12 It was after this that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

13 This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. I made a covenant with your fathers on the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of slavery. I said that 14 every seven years you are to set free any fellow Hebrew who has sold himself to you. After he has served you six years, you are to set him free. [1] But your fathers did not listen to me or pay attention to me. 15 Now, after you repented and did what is right in my sight, each of you proclaimed freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before me in the house that bears my name, 16 but you have turned around and profaned my name. Each of you has taken back and enslaved his male and female slaves, whom you had set free to go where they wished. You forced them back into slavery, to serve as your male and female slaves.

17 Therefore this is what the Lord says. You have not listened to me by proclaiming freedom for your brothers and your neighbors. So I am proclaiming freedom to you, says the Lord. Freedom to fall by the sword, plague, and famine! I will make you a horror among all the kingdoms of the earth. 18 I am going to make the men who walked between the covenant pieces, [2] but who did not keep the terms of the covenant that they had made in my presence, just like the calf they cut in two and then walk between its pieces. 19 The officials of Judah and the officials of Jerusalem, the government ministers, [3] the priests, and all the people of the land who walked between the parts of the calf, 20 I will hand over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives. Their corpses will be food for the birds in the sky and the wild animals in the land.

21 I will hand over Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials to those who seek their lives and to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. Watch, I will give a command, says the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it down. I will make the cities of Judah desolate so that no one can live there.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 34:14 Deuteronomy 15:12
  2. Jeremiah 34:18 See Genesis 15:17 for an example of making a covenant by cutting a sacrificial animal into pieces and then walking between the two rows of pieces as a way of invoking a curse on anyone who broke the covenant.
  3. Jeremiah 34:19 Or perhaps eunuchs




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 22

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 22

Jeremiah 32 – 33

Through My Bible – April 22

Jeremiah 32 – 33 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Jeremiah Is Imprisoned

Jeremiah 32

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

2 At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem. Jeremiah the prophet was confined in the courtyard of the guard in the palace of the king of Judah. 3 Zedekiah king of Judah had confined him there.

Zedekiah had said, “Why do you prophesy and say that the Lord says that he will certainly give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and that he will capture it? 4 Why do you say that Zedekiah king of Judah will not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but will surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and that he will speak with him face-to-face and see him eye-to-eye? 5 Why do you say that he will bring Zedekiah to Babylon, to remain there until the Lord deals with him? declares the Lord. And that even though I fight with the Chaldeans, I will not succeed?”

Jeremiah Redeems a Field

6 Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me. 7 Watch for this. Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, will come to you and tell you to buy his field in Anathoth, because the right of redemption is yours. So buy it.”

8 Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in the courtyard of the guard, just as the Lord had said, and he told me to buy his field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, because the right to redeem it and take possession of it was mine. He told me to buy it for myself.

Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. 9 I purchased the field in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel. I weighed out for him seventeen shekels [1] of silver. 10 I signed the deed, sealed it, called witnesses, and weighed out the silver on the scales. 11 Then I took the deed of the purchase containing the terms and conditions, both the sealed copy and an unsealed copy, 12 and I gave them to Baruch son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, and in the presence of the witnesses who had signed the deed, and in the presence of all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard.

13 I gave Baruch instructions in their presence. I told him 14 that this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, said: “Take these deeds, the sealed deed of purchase and the unsealed copy, and put them in a clay jar so that they will be preserved for a long time. 15 For the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says this: Houses and fields and vineyards will again be purchased in this land.”

16 After I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord:

17 Ah, Lord God! You are the one who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. There is nothing that is too difficult for you. 18 You show mercy to thousands, but you repay the guilt of the fathers into the laps of their children after them. Great and powerful God, the Lord of Armies is your name! 19 You give sound guidance, and your deeds are mighty. Your eyes are open to all the ways of mankind. You reward everyone according to what he has done, according to what his deeds deserve. 20 Up to this day you have performed signs and wonders—in the land of Egypt, in Israel, and even among all mankind—and you made a name for yourself as it is today.

21 You brought your people Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror. 22 You gave them this land that you swore to give to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. 23 They came in and took possession of it, but they did not obey you or follow your law. They have not done everything that you commanded them to do. Therefore you have brought all this disaster upon them.

24 You see that the siege ramps have come up to the city to capture it. The city will be handed over to the Chaldeans, who fight against it by means of sword, famine, and plague. What you said has taken place, as you see. 25 Lord God, you said to me, “Buy the field with silver and call witnesses,” even though the city was being handed over to the Chaldeans.

26 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

27 Listen to me. I am the Lord, the God who rules over all flesh. Is there anything that is too difficult for me? 28 Therefore, this is what the Lord says. Watch, I am going to hand over this city to the Chaldeans and to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will capture it. 29 The Chaldeans who attack this city will come and set fire to it. They will burn it, along with the houses. People offered incense to Baal on those rooftops, and they poured out drink offerings to other gods there, and they provoked me to anger.

30 For the people of Israel and the people of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight ever since their youth. The people of Israel have committed only evil with what their hands have made, declares the Lord. 31 Because this city has aroused my anger and wrath from the day it was built until now, I will remove it from my sight. 32 The people of Israel and the people of Judah have provoked me by all the evil they have done—they, their kings, their officials, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the people of Jerusalem. 33 They have turned their backs to me and not their faces. Though I taught them again and again, they did not listen to me or accept correction. 34 They set up their disgusting things in the house that bears my name, and they defiled it. 35 They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire to Molek, something I did not command them to do. It did not enter my mind that they would do such a disgusting thing and cause Judah to sin.

36 About this city, you have been saying, “It will be handed over to the king of Babylon by sword, famine, and plague.” But now this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 37 Watch, I will gather them from all the lands where I have driven them in my furious anger and great wrath. Then I will bring them back again to this place. I will let them live in safety. 38 Then they will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them one heart and direct them in one way, so that they always fear me. This will be for their good and for the good of their children after them. 40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will never stop doing good for them. I will put this fear in their hearts so that they will not turn away from me. 41 I will rejoice in doing good for them. I will plant them in this land with all my heart and all my soul.

42 This is what the Lord says. Just as surely as I brought this great catastrophe on this people, so I will be the one to bring them all the good that I have promised them. 43 Once again fields will be purchased in this land, which you say is desolate, without man or animal, and which you say is handed over to the Chaldeans. 44 Men will buy fields for silver, sign the deeds, seal them, and call witnesses in the land of Benjamin and in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negev. I will restore them from their captivity, declares the Lord.

Jeremiah 33

1 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time. This was while he was still locked up in the courtyard of the guard.

2 This is what the Lord, who made the earth, [2] says, the Lord who formed it and who established it—the Lord is his name. 3 Call on me and I will answer you. I will show you great and mysterious things you did not know. 4 For the Lord, the God of Israel, says this concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of the kings of Judah (which were being torn down to build up defenses against the siege ramps and the sword 5 during the fight against the Chaldeans): I will fill them with the corpses of men whom I have killed in my anger and my wrath. I will hide my face from this city because of all its wickedness.

6 But watch! I will bring it health and healing. I will heal them and reveal an abundance of peace and truth to them. 7 I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return, and I will build them up as they were in the beginning. 8 I will cleanse them from all the guilt they incurred by sinning against me. I will pardon all the guilt they incurred by sinning against me and by their rebellion against me. 9 This will provide a name of joy, praise, and glory for me, in the presence of all the nations of the earth. They will hear about all the good that I do for this city, and they will tremble in awe because of the good and because of the peace I provide for it.

10 This is what the Lord says. You say that this place is a wasteland, without man or animal, and that there is no man living in the cities of Judah or in the desolate streets of Jerusalem, not even an animal. 11 But the sound of joy, the sound of gladness, and the voice of the bride and groom will be heard there once again. A voice will again be heard that says, “Give thanks to the Lord of Armies, for the Lord is good, and his mercy endures forever,” as they bring thank offerings into the House of the Lord. For I will restore the fortunes of the lands as they were in the beginning, says the Lord.

12 This is what the Lord of Armies says. In this place, which is desolate, without man and without animal, in all its cities there will once again be pastures for shepherds to rest their flocks. 13 In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, in the cities of the Negev, in the land of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, flocks will once again pass under the hand of the one who counts them, says the Lord.

14 Listen, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the good promises that I have spoken to the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah.

15 In those days and at that time,
I will cause a righteous Branch to grow up from David’s line.
He will establish justice and righteousness on earth.
16 In those days Judah will be saved,
and Jerusalem will dwell securely.
This is what she [3] will be called:
The Lord Our Righteousness.

17 This is what the Lord says.

David will never fail to have a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel. 18 Neither will the priests, who are Levites, fail to have a man to stand before me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to offer sacrifices continually.

19 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

20 This is what the Lord says. If you could break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that there would no longer be day or night at their appointed times, 21 only then could my covenant with my servant David be broken, so that he would not have a son to reign on his throne. Only then could my covenant with the priests who are Levites, my ministers, be broken. 22 Just as the stars of the sky cannot be counted and the sand of the seashore cannot be measured, in the same way I will multiply the offspring [4] of my servant David and the Levites who minister before me.

23 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

24 Have you not considered what these people are saying—that the Lord rejected the two families that he chose? They despise my people in this way, and they do not consider them a nation. 25 The Lord says: If I have not established my covenant with day and night, or the ordinances of heaven and earth, 26 only then will I reject the offspring of Jacob and of my servant David, and only then will I fail to choose one of his sons to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So I will restore them from captivity, and I will have mercy on them.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 32:9 That is, about 7 ounces
  2. Jeremiah 33:2 The translation follows the Greek Old Testament. The Hebrew reads who made it.
  3. Jeremiah 33:16 That is, Jerusalem
  4. Jeremiah 33:22 Literally seed




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 21

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 21

Jeremiah 31:27-40

Through My Bible – April 21

Jeremiah 31:27-40 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Jeremiah 31

27 Look, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of animal. 28 Just as I have watched over them to uproot and to tear down, to overthrow, destroy, and afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, declares the Lord.

29 In those days they will no longer say,
“The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.”
30 But everyone will die for his own guilt.
Everyone who eats sour grapes—
his own teeth will be set on edge.

The New Covenant

31 Yes, the days are coming, declares the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers,
when I took them by the hand
and led them out of the land of Egypt.
They broke that covenant of mine,
although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord.
33 But this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel
        after those days,
declares the Lord.
I will put my law [1] in their minds,
and I will write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
34 No longer will each one teach his neighbor,
or each one teach his brother, saying, “Know the Lord,”
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord,
for I will forgive their guilt,
and I will remember their sins no more.

35 This is what the Lord says,
the Lord, who gives the sun for light by day,
who regulates the moon and stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar,
whose name is the Lord of Armies:
36     Only if these ordinances could vanish from my sight,
    only then could the seed of Israel cease to be a nation before me,
    declares the Lord.
37 This is what the Lord says:
    Only if someone could measure what is above the sky,
    only if someone could explore what is below the foundations
            of the earth,
    only then would I reject all the seed of Israel
    for all that they have done, declares the Lord.

38 Look, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city will be rebuilt for the Lord from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate. 39 The measuring line will stretch from there straight out to the Hill of Gareb and turn toward Goah. 40 The whole valley with the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields out to the Kidron Valley, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, will be holy to the Lord. It will not be uprooted or torn down ever again.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 31:33 The term law here refers to the whole word of God. As verse 34 demonstrates, here the term law does not refer to the natural knowledge of the law written in our hearts, but rather to our knowledge of the gospel.




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 20

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 20

Jeremiah 30:1 – 31:26

Through My Bible – April 20

Jeremiah 30:1 – 31:26 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

The Lord Will Restore Israel

Jeremiah 30

1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord. 2 The Lord, the God of Israel, says,

Write all the words that I have spoken to you in a book. 3 Look, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will bring my people Israel and Judah back from captivity. I will restore them to the land I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it, says the Lord.

4 These are words the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah. 5 This is what the Lord says.

“We have heard cries of fear,
of terror, and not of peace.”
6 Ask and see.
Can a man give birth to a child?
Why then do I see every strong man
    with his hands on his belly like a woman in labor?
Why has every face turned pale?
7 That day is so terrible that there is none like it!
It will be a time of trouble for Jacob,
but he will be saved out of it.

8 In that day, declares the Lord of Armies,
I will break the yoke off your neck.
I will tear away your bonds.
Strangers will no longer enslave Israel,
9 but they will serve the Lord their God
and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.
10 Therefore do not be afraid, my servant Jacob, declares the Lord.
Do not be terrified, Israel,
because I will certainly save you from a faraway place.
I will save your descendants from the land where they are captive.
Jacob will return.
He will enjoy quiet and be at ease,
and no one will make him afraid.
11 I am with you to save you, declares the Lord.
I will completely destroy all the nations
    among which I have scattered you,
but I will not completely destroy you.
I will discipline you with justice, [1]
yet I will not regard you as entirely innocent.

12 So this is what the Lord says.
Your wound is incurable.
Your injury is severe.
13 There is no one to plead your cause,
no one to bind your wounds.
There are no healing medicines.
14 All who loved you have forgotten you.
They do not ask about you.
I have wounded you as an enemy would.
I have punished you as the cruel would,
because your guilt is so great,
because your sins are so many.

15 Why are you crying over your injury,
over your incurable wound?
It is because of your great guilt,
because of your many sins,
that I have done these things to you.
16 Yet all who devour you will be devoured.
All your enemies, every one of them, will go into captivity.
Those who plunder you will be plundered.
All who prey on you will become prey.
17 For I will restore your health,
and I will heal your wounds, declares the Lord,
because they have called you an outcast,
saying, “It is Zion—for whom no one cares.”

18 This is what the Lord says.
Look, I will end the captivity [2] of Jacob’s tents
and have compassion on his dwellings.
The city will be rebuilt on the mound of its ruins,
and the citadel will stand in its rightful place.
19 Thanksgiving will come out of them,
    along with the sound of rejoicing.
I will multiply them,
and they will not decrease in number.
I will glorify them,
and they will not be insignificant.
20 Their children will be as they were long ago,
and their community will be established in my presence.
I will punish all who oppress them.
21 Their strong leader will be one of their own,
and their ruler will arise from among them.
I will summon him to come near,
and he will approach me,
for who would be bold enough to approach me?
says the Lord.
22 You shall be my people,
and I will be your God.
23 Look, a storm is coming from the Lord!
His wrath has gone out,
like a whirlwind twisting down,
whirling over the heads of the wicked.
24 The Lord’s anger will not turn back
until he has completely fulfilled the purposes of his heart.
In later days you will understand it.

The Lord’s Love for Israel

Jeremiah 31

1 At that time, declares the Lord,

I will be the God of all the families of Israel,
and they will be my people.

2 This is what the Lord says.
The people who survived the sword found grace in the wilderness.
Israel had continual rest.

3 The Lord appeared to me [3] from a distance, saying:
I have loved you with an everlasting love.
I have drawn you with mercy.
4 I will build you up again,
and you will be built up, O Virgin Israel.
You will pick up your drums again,
and you will go out to dance with those who are joyful.
5 Again you will plant vineyards on the mountains of Samaria.
The planters will plant and will enjoy its fruit.
6 For there will be a day
when the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim cry out,
“Come, let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.”
7 This is what the Lord says.
Sing with joy for Jacob,
and shout for the greatest of the nations.
Make your praises heard and say,
“Lord, save your people,
the remnant of Israel!”
8 Watch, I will bring them from a land in the north
and gather them from the ends of the earth.
The blind and the lame will be there,
the pregnant woman together with the woman in labor.
They will return as a huge community.
9 They will come weeping.
They will pray as I bring them back.
I will lead them beside streams of water,
on a level path where they will not stumble.
For I am a father to Israel.
Ephraim is my firstborn.

10 Hear the word of the Lord, you nations.
Declare it in the distant islands.
Say that he who scattered Israel will gather him
and watch over him like a shepherd watching his flock.
11 For the Lord will ransom Jacob
and redeem him from the hand of the one who is stronger than him.
12 They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion,
and they will rejoice in the goodness of the Lord,
for the grain, the new wine, the oil,
and the young of the flocks and herds.
Their lives will thrive like a well-watered garden.
They will not grow weak anymore.
13 Then the virgin will rejoice and dance.
The young men and the old will be glad together,
for I will turn their mourning into joy.
I will comfort them
and give them joy instead of sorrow.
14 I will satisfy the priests with abundance,
and my people will be filled with my goodness,
declares the Lord.

15 This is what the Lord says.
A voice is heard in Ramah,
weeping and great mourning.
Rachel is weeping for her children.
She refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.

16 This is what the Lord says.
Stop your crying.
Do not shed tears,
because your work will be rewarded, declares the Lord.
They will return from the land of the enemy.
17 There is hope for your future, declares the Lord.
Your children will return to their own borders.

Interjection by Israel

18 I have certainly heard Ephraim grieving:
“You have disciplined me.
I was disciplined like an untrained calf.
Cause me to turn, and I will turn,
because you are the Lord my God.
19 After I turned away, I was sorry.
After I was instructed, I slapped my thigh in grief.
I was ashamed and humiliated,
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.”

The Lord Speaks Again

20 Isn’t Ephraim my dear son?
Isn’t he my darling child?
I often speak against him,
but I still remember him.
My heart longs for him.
I will certainly be compassionate to him, declares the Lord.

21 Set up road signs.
Make guideposts.
Direct your attention toward the highway,
toward the way by which you came.
Turn back, Virgin Israel.
Turn back to your cities.
22 How long will you turn away,
you unfaithful daughter?
The Lord has created a new thing on the earth:
A female will surround a man. [4]

God’s People Will Prosper Once Again

23 This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says.
When I bring them back from captivity,
they will once again say in the land of Judah and in its cities:
“The Lord bless you, you righteous dwelling place,
        you holy mountain.”
24 Judah and all its cities will live there together,
the farmers and those who follow their flocks.
25 I will satisfy the thirsty,
and I will give rest to everyone who is weary.

26 Just after this I woke up and looked around.
My sleep had been pleasant for me.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 30:11 Or in just measure or as you deserve
  2. Jeremiah 30:18 Or restore the fortunes
  3. Jeremiah 31:3 The Greek Old Testament reads him.
  4. Jeremiah 31:22 Or will embrace a man or will shelter a man. The church fathers understood this as an allusion to the virgin birth, but in the context it seems to refer to Judah’s future faithfulness to her husband, the Lord.




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 19

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 19

Jeremiah 29

Through My Bible – April 19

Jeremiah 29 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

A Letter to the Exiles

1 This is the text of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remnant of the elders in exile, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 (This was after Jeconiah, [1] the queen mother, the secretaries, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metalworkers had gone into exile from Jerusalem.) 3 The letter was delivered by Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemaraiah son of Hilkiah when Zedekiah king of Judah sent them to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. The letter said:

4 The Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says this to all the exiles whom I have deported from Jerusalem to Babylon.

5 Build houses and settle in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit. 6 Get married and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there, and do not decrease in number. 7 Seek the peace of the city where I have exiled you. Pray to the Lord for that city, because when it has peace and prosperity, you will have peace and prosperity.

8 The Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says this. Do not let the prophets and fortune tellers who are among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams they dream for you. 9 For they prophesy falsely in my name, but I did not send them, declares the Lord.

10 This is what the Lord says. After seventy years have passed in Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious word to bring you back to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to give you peace, not disaster, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come to pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 When you seek me, you will find me, when you will seek me with all your heart. 14 I will let you find me, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back from your exile. I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have sent you as exiles, declares the Lord. I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.

15 Because you say, “The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon,” 16 this is what the Lord says concerning the king who sits on David’s throne and concerning all the people who remain in this city, your brothers who were not carried away into exile with you. 17 Yes, this is what the Lord says. Watch, I am going to send sword, famine, and plague against them, and I will make them like rotten figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. 18 I will pursue them with sword, famine, and plague, and I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse, a terror, a thing to be hissed at, and a disgrace among all the nations where I have driven them, 19 because they have not obeyed my words, declares the Lord, words I sent them again and again through my servants the prophets. And you have not listened, either, declares the Lord.

Two Men Roasted in the Fire

20 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles whom I sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. 21 The Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says this about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Ma’aseiah, who are prophesying a lie in my name: Watch, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will put them to death before your eyes. 22 All the exiles from Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse because of them:

May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and like Ahab,

whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire.

23 This is because they have done sinful things in Israel. They have committed adultery with their neighbor’s wives, and they have spoken lies in my name, things I did not tell them to do. I am the one who knows. I am the witness, declares the Lord.

The Lord’s Response to Shemaiah’s Letter

24 Tell Shemaiah the Nehelamite 25 that this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says.

You have sent letters in your own name to all the people who are in Jerusalem, to Zephaniah son of Ma’aseiah, the priest, and to all the priests, and you told them the following:

26 The Lord has made you priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, so that there will be officers [2] in the Lord’s house who can deal with every crazy man who calls himself a prophet. You should put him in the stocks and in shackles. 27 So why have you not rebuked Jeremiah from Anathoth, who makes himself out to be a prophet among you?

28 Jeremiah sent this message to us in Babylon: It will be a long time. Build houses and settle in them. Plant gardens and eat their fruit.

29 Zephaniah the priest read this letter so that Jeremiah the prophet could hear the reading.

30 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

31 Send the following message to all the exiles.

This is what the Lord says about Shemaiah the Nehelamite. Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, but I did not send him, and he has led you to trust in a lie, 32 the Lord says this. Watch, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will have no one left to live among this people. He will never see the good things I will do for my people, declares the Lord, because he has preached rebellion against the Lord.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 29:2 That is, Jehoiachin
  2. Jeremiah 29:26 Or an officer




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 18

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 18

Jeremiah 27 – 28

Through My Bible – April 18

Jeremiah 27 – 28 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

The Yoke of Babylon

Jeremiah 27

1 Early in the reign of Zedekiah [1] son of Josiah, king of Judah, this message came to Jeremiah from the Lord.

2 This is what the Lord said to me.

Make a yoke and straps and put them on your neck. 3 Then send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, the Ammonites, Tyre, and Sidon, through the messengers who came to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah. 4 Give them a message for their masters. Tell them the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “Tell your masters: 5 By my great power I made the earth, the people, and the animals that are on it. I give it to anyone I please. 6 Now I will give all these lands to my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I will even make the wild animals serve him. 7 All the nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson, until the time for his own land comes. Then he will serve many nations and great kings.”

8 The Lord also said:

I will punish any nation or kingdom that will not submit to this Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, that will not put their necks under the yoke of Babylon’s king. I will punish that nation with sword, famine, and plague, until I have consumed them by his hand. 9 So do not listen to your prophets, to your omen readers, to your dream interpreters, to your mediums, or to those who cast spells for you. Do not listen to those who tell you, “You will not serve the king of Babylon,” 10 because they are prophesying lies to you in order to remove you from your land. I will drive you out, and you will perish. 11 But if a nation bows its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serves him, I will let that nation remain on its own land. They will plow the soil and live on it, declares the Lord.

12 I also said all these things to Zedekiah king of Judah.

Bow your neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon. Serve him and his people, and you will live. 13 Why do you and your people want to die by sword, famine, and plague, as the Lord said would come upon any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon? 14 Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are telling you not to serve the king of Babylon. They are prophesying a lie to you, 15 for I have not sent them, declares the Lord. They are prophesying falsely in my name, so I will drive you out, and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.

16 I also spoke to the priests and to all of the people.

The Lord says this. Do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you that the vessels of the Lord’s house will soon be brought back again from Babylon, because they are prophesying a lie to you. 17 Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a ruin? 18 If they really are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is with them, then let them intercede with the Lord of Armies, so that the vessels which are left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem, will not go to Babylon. 19 For this is what the Lord of Armies says about the pillars, the Sea, the carts for water, and the rest of the vessels that are left in the city, 20 which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had not taken away when he exiled Jeconiah [2] son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem— 21 yes, this is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says concerning the vessels that are still in the house of the Lord and in the house of the king of Judah in Jerusalem: 22 They will be taken to Babylon, and there they will remain until the day I come for them, declares the Lord. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place.

The False Prophet Hananiah

Jeremiah 28

1 That same year, in the fifth month of the fourth year (early in the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah), the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the House of the Lord in the presence of the priests and all the people. He said, 2 “The Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says this. I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 When two full years have passed, I will bring back all the vessels of the Lord’s house that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried off to Babylon. 4 I will also bring back Jeconiah [3] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah along with all the exiles of Judah who went to Babylon, declares the Lord, for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.”

5 Then the prophet Jeremiah replied to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the House of the Lord. 6 He said, “Amen! May the Lord do that! May the Lord fulfill the words you have prophesied and bring back the vessels of the Lord’s house, and may he bring all the exiles back from Babylon to this place. 7 Nevertheless, listen now to what I have to say in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. 8 The prophets from ancient times, who came before you and me, prophesied war, famine, [4] and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. 9 As for the prophet who prophesies peace, only when the word of the prophet actually comes true will that prophet become known as someone whom the Lord has truly sent.”

10 Then the prophet Hananiah took the yoke off the neck of Jeremiah the prophet and broke it. 11 In the presence of all the people, Hananiah said, “This is what the Lord says. This is how I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from off the neck of all the nations within two full years.” So the prophet Jeremiah went on his way.

12 After the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke off the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 13 “Go and tell Hananiah that this is what the Lord says. You have broken a wooden yoke, but in its place you will receive an iron yoke. 14 For the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says, I will put an iron yoke on the neck of all these nations so that they will serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. Yes, they will certainly serve him. I have even given him the wild animals.”

15 Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord has not sent you, yet you are making this people trust in a lie. 16 Therefore this is what the Lord says. Watch, I will remove you from the face of the earth. This very year you will die, because you have preached rebellion against the Lord.”

17 In the seventh month of that same year, Hananiah the prophet died.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 27:1 The Hebrew reads Jehoiakim. The translation follows an alternate Hebrew reading. See also verse 3 and 28:1.
  2. Jeremiah 27:20 That is, Jehoiachin
  3. Jeremiah 28:4 That is, Jehoiachin
  4. Jeremiah 28:8 The translation follows an alternate Hebrew reading. The main Hebrew text reads disaster.




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 17

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 17

Jeremiah 26

Through My Bible – April 17

Jeremiah 26 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Jeremiah Is Threatened

1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, the following word came from the Lord.

2 This is what the Lord says. Stand in the courtyard of the Lord’s house, and speak to people from the cities and towns of Judah who have come to worship at the House of the Lord. Tell them everything I have commanded you to tell them. Do not hold back a single word. 3 Maybe they will listen, and everyone will turn from his evil way. Then I will relent and not bring about the disaster that I was planning because of the evil things they have done.

4 You are also to say this to him.

This is what the Lord says. If you will not listen to me and follow my law, which I have set before you, 5 and if you do not listen to the words of my servants the prophets, whom I have sent to you again and again (but you have not listened), 6 then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make the name of this city a curse word for all the nations of the earth.

7 The priests, the prophets, and all the people listened as Jeremiah spoke these words at the House of the Lord. 8 When Jeremiah had finished saying everything the Lord had commanded him to say to all the people, then the priests, the prophets, and all the people seized him and said, “You must die! 9 Why do you prophesy in the name of the Lord that this house will be like Shiloh and that this city will be desolate with no one living here?” All the people crowded around Jeremiah in the House of the Lord.

10 When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they came up from the king’s house to the House of the Lord and sat in the entrance of the New Gate of the Lord’s house.

11 Then the priests and the prophets said to the officials and to all the people, “This man deserves the sentence of death because he has been prophesying against this city, as you heard with your own ears.”

12 Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and to all the people, “The Lord sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the things that you have heard. 13 Now reform your ways and your actions, and obey the Lord your God. Then the Lord will relent and not bring about the disaster he has pronounced against you. 14 But as for me, look, I am in your hands. Do with me whatever seems good and right in your eyes. 15 But you can be certain of this. If you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves and on this city and on those who live here, for it is true that the Lord has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.”

16 Then the officials and the people said to the priests and to the prophets, “This man does not deserve to die. He has spoken in the name of the Lord our God.”

17 Some of the elders of the land got up and spoke to all the assembled people.

18 Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah. He proclaimed this to all the people of Judah.

This is what the Lord of Armies says.
Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become a ruin,
and the temple mount will be a high place overgrown with trees. [1]

19 Did Hezekiah king of Judah or anyone at all in Judah put him to death? Didn’t he fear the Lord and seek his favor? And didn’t the Lord relent from the disaster he had pronounced against them? We would be committing a great evil against our own souls [2] that way!

20 (There had also been another man who prophesied in the name of the Lord, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim. He prophesied against this city and against the land the same things that Jeremiah did. 21 When King Jehoiakim, all his strong warriors, and all his officials heard his words, the king wanted to put him to death. But Uriah heard about it and fled in fear to Egypt. 22 Then King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Akbor and some other men to Egypt. 23 They brought Uriah out of Egypt and took him to King Jehoiakim, who had him put to death with a sword and had his body thrown into the grave of the common people.)

24 But Ahikam son of Shaphan used his authority to protect Jeremiah, who was not handed over to the people to be put to death.

Footnotes

  1. Jeremiah 26:18 Micah 3:12
  2. Jeremiah 26:19 Or lives




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 16

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 16

Matthew 28:1-20

Through My Bible – April 16

Matthew 28:1-20 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Matthew 28

Jesus’ Resurrection

1 After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb. 2 Suddenly, there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, and going to the tomb, he rolled away the stone and was sitting on it. 3 His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. 4 The guards were so terrified of him that they shook and became like dead men. 5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He is not here. He has risen, just as he said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay. 7 Go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has risen from the dead! And look, he is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see him.’ See, I have told you!”

8 They hurried away from the tomb, with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. 9 Suddenly [1] Jesus met them and said, “Greetings!”

They approached, took hold of his feet, and worshipped him.

10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go, tell my brothers that they should go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”

The Guards’ Report

11 As they were on their way, there were some members of the guard who went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 After the chief priests had assembled with the elders and had reached a decision, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers 13 and said, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came at night and stole him away while we were sleeping.’ 14 If the governor hears about it, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” 15 After the soldiers took the money, they did as they were instructed. And this story has been repeated among the Jews until this day.

“Go and Gather Disciples”

16 The eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had directed them. 17 When they saw him, they worshipped him, but some hesitated because they were uncertain. [2] 18 Jesus approached and spoke to them saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and gather disciples from all nations by baptizing them in [3] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and by teaching them to keep all the instructions I have given you. And surely I am with you always until the end of the age.”

Footnotes

  1. Matthew 28:9 Some witnesses to the text add As they were on their way to report to the disciples, suddenly. . ..
  2. Matthew 28:17 Or some doubted
  3. Matthew 28:19 Or into




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 15

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 15

Matthew 27:51-66

Through My Bible – April 15

Matthew 27:51-66 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Matthew 27

51 Suddenly, the temple curtain was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and rocks were split. 52 Tombs were opened, and many bodies of saints who had fallen asleep were raised to life. 53 Those who came out of the tombs went into the holy city after Jesus’ resurrection and appeared to many people. 54 When the centurion and those who were guarding Jesus with him saw the earthquake and the things that had happened, they were terrified and said, “Truly this was the Son of God.”

55 Many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and who had served him were there, watching from a distance. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

Jesus’ Burial

57 When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who was also a disciple of Jesus. 58 He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered that it be given to him. 59 Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, 60 and laid it in his own new tomb that he had cut in the rock. He rolled a large stone over the tomb’s entrance and left. 61 Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there sitting opposite the tomb.

The Guard

62 On the next day, which was the day after the Preparation Day, the chief priests and Pharisees gathered in the presence of Pilate 63 and said, “Sir, we remembered what that deceiver said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will rise again.’ 64 So give a command that the tomb be made secure until the third day. Otherwise his disciples might steal his body and tell the people, ‘He is risen from the dead.’ And this last deception will be worse than the first.”

65 Pilate said to them, “You have a guard. Go, make it as secure as you know how.” 66 So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and posting a guard.




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.



Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 14

/in

Through My Bible Yr 02 – April 14

Matthew 27:32-50

Through My Bible – April 14

Matthew 27:32-50 (EHV)

See series: Through My Bible

Matthew 27

32 As they were going out of the city, they found a man of Cyrene named Simon. They forced him to carry Jesus’ cross. 33 They came to a place called Golgotha, which means “The place of the skull.” 34 They offered Jesus wine to drink, mixed with gall; but when he tasted it, he would not drink it. 35 After they had crucified him, they divided his clothing among themselves by casting lots. 36 Then they sat down and were keeping watch over him there. 37 Above his head they posted the written charge against him: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.”

38 At the same time two criminals were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. 39 People who passed by kept insulting him, shaking their heads, 40 and saying, “You who were going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!”

41 In the same way the chief priests, experts in the law, and elders kept mocking him. They said, 42 “He saved others, but he cannot save himself. If he’s the King of Israel, let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. 43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now, if he wants him, because he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 In the same way even the criminals who were crucified with him kept insulting him.

Jesus’ Death

45 From the sixth hour until the ninth hour, [1] there was darkness over all the land. 46 About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” [2]

47 When some of those standing there heard this, they said, “This fellow is calling for Elijah.”

48 Immediately one of them ran, took a sponge, and soaked it with sour wine. Then he put it on a stick and gave him a drink. 49 The rest said, “Leave him alone. Let’s see if Elijah comes to save him.”

50 After Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.

Footnotes

  1. Matthew 27:45 From noon to 3 pm
  2. Matthew 27:46 Psalm 22:1




The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.