1 Righteous are You, Lord, when I plead my case with You;
Nevertheless I would discuss matters of justice with You:
Why has the way of the wicked prospered?
Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease?
2 You have planted them, they have also taken root;
They grow, they have also produced fruit.
You are near to their lips
But far from their mind.
3 But You know me, Lord;
You see me
And examine my heart’s attitude toward You.
Drag them off like sheep for the slaughter,
And set them apart for a day of slaughter!
4 How long is the land to mourn,
And the vegetation of the countryside to dry up?
Due to the wickedness of those who live in it,
Animals and birds have been snatched away,
Because people have said, “He will not see our final end.”
5 “If you have run with infantrymen and they have tired you out,
How can you compete with horses?
If you fall down in a land of peace,
How will you do in the thicket by the Jordan?
6 For even your brothers and the household of your father,
Even they have dealt treacherously with you,
Even they have called aloud after you.
Do not believe them, though they say nice things to you.”
7 “I have forsaken My house,
I have abandoned My inheritance;
I have handed the beloved of My soul
Over to her enemies.
8 My inheritance has become to Me
Like a lion in the forest;
She has roared against Me;
Therefore I have come to hate her.
9 Is My inheritance like a speckled bird of prey to Me?
Are the birds of prey against her on every side?
Go, gather all the animals of the field,
Bring them to devour!
10 Many shepherds have ruined My vineyard,
They have trampled down My field;
They have made My pleasant field
A desolate wilderness.
11 It has been made a desolation;
Desolate, it mourns before Me;
The whole land has been made desolate,
Because no one takes it to heart.
12 On all the bare heights in the wilderness
Destroyers have come,
For the sword of the Lord is devouring
From one end of the land even to the other;
There is no peace for anyone.
13 They have sown wheat but have harvested thorns,
They have strained themselves to no profit.
So be ashamed of your produce
Because of the fierce anger of the Lord.”
14 This is what the Lord says concerning all My wicked neighbors who do harm to the inheritance with which I have endowed My people Israel: “Behold, I am going to drive them out of their land, and I will drive the house of Judah out from among them. 15 And it will come about that after I have driven them out, I will again have compassion on them; and I will bring them back, each one to his inheritance and each one to his land. 16 Then, if they will really learn the ways of My people, to swear by My name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ just as they taught My people to swear by Baal, they will be built up in the midst of My people. 17 But if they do not listen, then I will drive out that nation, drive it out and destroy it,” declares the Lord.
1 This is what the Lord said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen undergarment and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water.” 2 So I bought the undergarment in accordance with the word of the Lord, and put it around my waist. 3 Then the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, 4 “Take the undergarment that you bought, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates and hide it there in a crevice of the rock.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord had commanded me. 6 After many days the Lord said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates and take from there the undergarment which I commanded you to hide there.” 7 Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the undergarment from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the undergarment was ruined, it was completely useless.
8 Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 9 “This is what the Lord says: ‘To the same extent I will destroy the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10 This wicked people, who refuse to listen to My words, who walk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have followed other gods to serve them and to bow down to them, let them be just like this undergarment which is completely useless. 11 For as the undergarment clings to the waist of a man, so I made the entire household of Israel and the entire household of Judah cling to Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘so that they might be My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they did not listen.’
12 “Therefore you are to speak this word to them. ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: “Every jug is to be filled with wine.”’ And when they say to you, ‘Do we not very well know that every jug is to be filled with wine?’ 13 then say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says: “Behold, I am going to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings who sit for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness! 14 Then I will smash them against each other, both the fathers and the sons together,” declares the Lord. “I will not have compassion nor be troubled nor take pity so as to keep from destroying them.”’”
15 Listen and pay attention, do not be haughty;
For the Lord has spoken.
16 Give glory to the Lord your God
Before He brings darkness
And before your feet stumble
On the mountains in the dark,
And while you are hoping for light
He makes it into gloom,
And turns it into thick darkness.
17 But if you do not listen to it,
My soul will weep in secret for such pride;
And my eyes will shed
And stream down tears,
Because the flock of the Lord has been taken captive.
18 Say to the king and the queen mother,
“Take a lowly seat,
For your beautiful crown
Has come down from your head.”
19 The cities of the Negev have been locked up,
And there is no one to open them;
All Judah has been taken into exile,
Wholly taken into exile.
20 “Raise your eyes and see
Those coming from the north.
Where is the flock that was given you,
Your beautiful sheep?
21 What will you say when He appoints over you—
And you yourself had taught them—
Former companions to be head over you?
Will sharp pains not take hold of you
Like a woman in childbirth?
22 If you say in your heart,
‘Why have these things happened to me?’
Because of the magnitude of your wrongdoing
Your skirts have been removed
And your heels have suffered violence.
23 Can the Ethiopian change his skin,
Or the leopard his spots?
Then you as well can do good
Who are accustomed to doing evil.
24 Therefore I will scatter them like drifting straw
To the desert wind.
25 This is your lot, the portion measured to you
From Me,” declares the Lord,
“Because you have forgotten Me
And trusted in falsehood.
26 So I Myself have stripped your skirts off over your face,
So that your shame will be seen.
27 As for your adulteries and your lustful neighings,
The outrageous sin of your prostitution
On the hills in the field,
I have seen your abominations.
Woe to you, Jerusalem!
How long will you remain unclean?”
1 That which came as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah regarding the drought:
2 “Judah mourns
And her gates languish;
Her people sit on the ground in mourning garments,
And the cry of Jerusalem has ascended.
3 Their nobles have sent their servants for water;
They have come to the cisterns and found no water.
They have returned with their containers empty;
They have been put to shame and humiliated,
And they cover their heads,
4 Because the ground is cracked,
For there has been no rain on the land.
The farmers have been put to shame,
They have covered their heads.
5 For even the doe in the field has given birth only to abandon her young,
Because there is no grass.
6 The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights;
They pant for air like jackals,
Their eyes fail
Because there is no vegetation.
7 Though our wrongdoings testify against us,
Lord, act for the sake of Your name!
Our apostasies have indeed been many,
We have sinned against You.
8 Hope of Israel,
Its Savior in time of distress,
Why are You like a stranger in the land,
Or like a traveler who has pitched his tent for the night?
9 Why are You like a confused person,
Like a warrior who cannot save?
Yet You are in our midst, Lord,
And we are called by Your name;
Do not leave us!”
10 This is what the Lord says to this people: “So much they have loved to wander; they have not restrained their feet. Therefore the Lord does not accept them; now He will remember their wrongdoing and call their sins to account.”
1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy,
To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.
2 We always give thanks to God for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; 3 constantly keeping in mind your work of faith and labor of love and perseverance of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father, 4 knowing, brothers and sisters, beloved by God, His choice of you; 5 for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sakes. 6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word during great affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and Achaia. 8 For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but in every place the news of your faith toward God has gone out, so that we have no need to say anything. 9 For they themselves report about us as to the kind of reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is, Jesus who rescues us from the wrath to come.
1 For you yourselves know, brothers and sisters, that our reception among you was not in vain, 2 but after we had already suffered and been treated abusively in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much opposition. 3 For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit; 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not intending to please people, but to please God, who examines our hearts. 5 For we never came with flattering speech, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is our witness— 6 nor did we seek honor from people, either from you or from others, though we could have asserted our authority as apostles of Christ. 7 But we proved to be gentle among you. As a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children, 8 in the same way we had a fond affection for you and were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us.
1 God, the nations have invaded Your inheritance;
They have defiled Your holy temple;
They have laid Jerusalem in ruins.
2 They have given the dead bodies of Your servants to the birds of the sky as food,
The flesh of Your godly ones to the animals of the earth.
3 They have poured out their blood like water all around Jerusalem;
And there was no one to bury them.
4 We have become a disgrace before our neighbors,
An object of derision and ridicule to those around us.
5 How long, Lord? Will You be angry forever?
Will Your jealousy burn like fire?
6 Pour out Your wrath upon the nations which do not know You,
And upon the kingdoms which do not call upon Your name.
7 For they have devoured Jacob
And laid waste his settlement.
8 Do not hold us responsible for the guilty deeds of our forefathers;
Let Your compassion come quickly to meet us,
For we have become very low.
9 Help us, God of our salvation, for the glory of Your name;
And save us and forgive our sins for the sake of Your name.
10 Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?”
Let vengeance for the blood of Your servants which has been shed
Be known among the nations in our sight.
11 Let the groaning of the prisoner come before You;
According to the greatness of Your power, let those who are doomed to die remain.
12 And return to our neighbors seven times as much into their lap
Their taunts with which they have taunted You, Lord.
13 So we Your people and the sheep of Your pasture
Will give thanks to You forever;
To all generations we will tell of Your praise.
30 I passed by the field of a lazy one,
And by the vineyard of a person lacking sense,
31 And behold, it was completely overgrown with weeds;
Its surface was covered with weeds,
And its stone wall was broken down.
32 When I saw, I reflected upon it;
I looked, and received instruction.
33 “A little sleep, a little slumber,
A little folding of the hands to rest,”
34 Then your poverty will come like a drifter,
And your need like an armed man.
