8 “How can you say, ‘We are wise,
And the Law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
Has made it into a lie.
9 The wise men are put to shame,
They are dismayed and caught;
Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
So what kind of wisdom do they have?
10 Therefore I will give their wives to others,
Their fields to new owners;
Because from the least even to the greatest
Everyone is greedy for gain;
From the prophet even to the priest,
Everyone practices deceit.
11 They have healed the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done?
They were not ashamed at all,
And they did not know how to be ashamed;
Therefore they will fall among those who fall;
At the time of their punishment they will collapse,”
Says the Lord.
13 “I will certainly snatch them away,” declares the Lord.
“There will be no grapes on the vine
And no figs on the fig tree,
And the leaf will wither;
And what I have given them will pass away.”’”
14 Why are we sitting still?
Assemble yourselves, and let’s go into the fortified cities
And perish there,
For the Lord our God has doomed us
And given us poisoned water to drink,
Because we have sinned against the Lord.
15 We waited for peace, but no good came;
For a time of healing, but behold, terror!
16 From Dan there is heard the snorting of his horses;
At the sound of the neighing of his stallions
The whole land quakes;
For they come and devour the land and its fullness,
The city and its inhabitants.
17 “For behold, I am sending serpents among you,
Vipers for which there is no charm;
And they will bite you,” declares the Lord.
18 My sorrow is beyond healing,
My heart is faint within me!
19 Behold, listen! The cry of the daughter of my people from a distant land:
“Is the Lord not in Zion? Is her King not within her?”
“Why have they provoked Me with their carved images, with foreign idols?”
20 “Harvest is past, summer is over,
And we are not saved.”
21 I am broken over the brokenness of the daughter of my people.
I mourn, dismay has taken hold of me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people been restored?
1 Oh, that my head were waters
And my eyes a fountain of tears,
That I might weep day and night
For those slain of the daughter of my people!
2 Oh that I had in the desert
A travelers’ lodging place;
So that I might leave my people
And go away from them!
For all of them are adulterers,
An assembly of treacherous people.
3 “They bend their tongues like their bows;
Lies and not truth prevail in the land;
For they proceed from evil to evil,
And they do not know Me,” declares the Lord.
4 “Let everyone be on guard against his neighbor,
And do not trust any brother;
Because every brother utterly betrays,
And every neighbor goes about as a slanderer.
5 Everyone deceives his neighbor
And does not speak the truth.
They have taught their tongue to speak lies;
They weary themselves committing wrongdoing.
6 Your dwelling is in the midst of deceit;
Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” declares the Lord.
7 Therefore this is what the Lord of armies says:
“Behold, I will refine them and put them to the test;
For what else can I do, because of the daughter of My people?
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
It speaks deceit;
With his mouth one speaks peace to his neighbor,
But inwardly he sets an ambush for him.
9 Shall I not punish them for these things?” declares the Lord.
“Shall I not avenge Myself
On a nation such as this?
10 “I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains,
And for the pastures of the wilderness a song of mourning,
Because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,
And the sound of the livestock is not heard;
Both the birds of the sky and the animals have fled; they are gone.
11 I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
A haunt of jackals;
And I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.”
12 Who is the wise person who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the Lord has spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land destroyed, laid waste like the desert, so that no one passes through? 13 The Lord said, “Because they have abandoned My Law which I put before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, 14 but have followed the stubbornness of their heart and the Baals, as their fathers taught them,” 15 therefore this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I will feed this people wormwood; and I will give them poisoned water to drink. 16 I will also scatter them among the nations, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them until I have put an end to them.”
17 This is what the Lord of armies says:
“Consider and call for the mourning women, that they may come;
And send for the skillful women, that they may come!
18 Have them hurry and take up a wailing for us,
So that our eyes may shed tears,
And our eyelids flow with water.
19 For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion:
‘How devastated we are!
We are put to great shame,
For we have abandoned the land
Because they have torn down our homes.’”
20 Now hear the word of the Lord, you women,
And let your ears receive the word of His mouth;
Teach your daughters wailing,
And have every woman teach her neighbor a song of mourning.
21 For death has come up through our windows;
It has entered our palaces
To eliminate the children from the streets,
The young men from the public squares.
22 Speak, “This is what the Lord says:
‘The corpses of people will fall like dung on the open field,
And like the sheaf after the reaper,
But no one will gather them.’”
23 This is what the Lord says: “Let no wise man boast of his wisdom, nor let the mighty man boast of his might, nor a rich man boast of his riches; 24 but let the one who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises mercy, justice, and righteousness on the earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord.
25 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord, “that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised— 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all those inhabiting the desert who trim the hair on their temples; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.”
1 Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on the things that are above, not on the things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.
5 Therefore, treat the parts of your earthly body as dead to sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. 6 For it is because of these things that the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience, 7 and in them you also once walked, when you were living in them. 8 But now you also, rid yourselves of all of them: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene speech from your mouth. 9 Do not lie to one another, since you stripped off the old self with its evil practices, 10 and have put on the new self, which is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created it— 11 a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, and free, but Christ is all, and in all.
12 So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience; 13 bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so must you do also. 14 In addition to all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. 15 Let the peace of Christ, to which you were indeed called in one body, rule in your hearts; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 Whatever you do in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.
32 In spite of all this they still sinned
And did not believe in His wonderful works.
33 So He brought their days to an end in futility,
And their years to an end in sudden terror.
34 When He killed them, then they sought Him,
And they returned and searched diligently for God;
35 And they remembered that God was their rock,
And the Most High God their Redeemer.
36 But they flattered Him with their mouth
And lied to Him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not steadfast toward Him,
Nor were they faithful with His covenant.
38 But He, being compassionate, forgave their wrongdoing and did not destroy them;
And often He restrained His anger
And did not stir up all His wrath.
39 So He remembered that they were only flesh,
A wind that passes and does not return.
40 How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness
And grieved Him in the desert!
41 Again and again they tempted God,
And pained the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His power,
The day when He redeemed them from the enemy,
43 When He performed His signs in Egypt
And His marvels in the field of Zoan,
44 And turned their rivers to blood,
And their streams, so that they could not drink.
45 He sent swarms of flies among them that devoured them,
And frogs that destroyed them.
46 He also gave their crops to the grasshopper
And the product of their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hailstones
And their sycamore trees with frost.
48 He also turned their cattle over to the hailstones,
And their herds to bolts of lightning.
49 He sent His burning anger upon them,
Fury and indignation and trouble,
A band of destroying angels.
50 He leveled a path for His anger;
He did not spare their souls from death,
But turned their lives over to the plague,
51 And struck all the firstborn in Egypt,
The first and best of their vigor in the tents of Ham.
52 But He led His own people out like sheep,
And guided them in the wilderness like a flock;
53 He led them safely, so that they did not fear;
But the sea engulfed their enemies.
54 So He brought them to His holy land,
To this hill country which His right hand had gained.
55 He also drove out the nations from them
And apportioned them as an inheritance by measurement,
And had the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents.
27 Prepare your work outside,
And make it ready for yourself in the field;
Afterward, then, build your house.
