221 This is what the Lord has said: Go down to the house of the king of Judah and there give him this word, 2 And say, Give ear to the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, seated on the seat of David, you and your servants and your people who come in by these doors. 3 This is what the Lord has said: Do what is right, judging uprightly, and make free from the hands of the cruel one him whose goods have been violently taken away: do no wrong and be not violent to the man from a strange country and the child without a father and the widow, and let not those who have done no wrong be put to death in this place. 4 For if you truly do this, then there will come in through the doors of this house kings seated on the seat of David, going in carriages and on horseback, he and his servants and his people 5 But if you do not give ear to these words, I give you my oath by myself, says the Lord, that this house will become a waste. 6 For this is what the Lord has said about the family of the king of Judah: You are Gilead to me, and the top of Lebanon: but, truly, I will make you waste, with towns unpeopled. 7 And I will make ready those who will send destruction on you, everyone armed for war: by them your best cedar-trees will be cut down and put in the fire. 8 And nations from all sides will go past this town, and every man will say to his neighbour, Why has the Lord done such things to this great town? 9 And they will say, Because they gave up the agreement of the Lord their God, and became worshippers and servants of other gods.
10 Let there be no weeping for the dead, and make no songs of grief for him: but make bitter weeping for him who has gone away, for he will never come back or see again the country of his birth. 11 For this is what the Lord has said about Shallum, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in place of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: He will never come back there again: 12 But death will come to him in the place where they have taken him away prisoner, and he will never see this land again. 13 A curse is on him who is building his house by wrongdoing, and his rooms by doing what is not right; who makes use of his neighbour without payment, and gives him nothing for his work; 14 Who says, I will make a wide house for myself, and rooms of great size, and has windows cut out, and has it roofed with cedar and painted with bright red. 15 Are you to be a king because you make more use of cedar than your father? did not your father take food and drink and do right, judging in righteousness, and then it was well for him? 16 He was judge in the cause of the poor and those in need; then it was well. Was not this to have knowledge of me? says the Lord. 17 But your eyes and your heart are fixed only on profit for yourself, on causing the death of him who has done no wrong, and on violent and cruel acts. 18 So this is what the Lord has said about Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah: They will make no weeping for him, saying, Ah my brother! or, Ah sister! they will make no weeping for him, saying, Ah lord! or, Ah his glory! 19 They will do to him what they do to the dead body of an ass; his body will be pulled out and placed on the earth outside the doors of Jerusalem.
20 Go up to Lebanon and give a cry; let your voice be loud in Bashan, crying out from Abarim; for all your lovers have come to destruction 21 My word came to you in the time of your well-being; but you said, I will not give ear. This has been your way from your earliest years, you did not give attention to my voice. 22 All the keepers of your sheep will be food for the wind, and your lovers will be taken away prisoners: truly, then you will be shamed and unhonoured because of all your evil-doing. 23 O you who are living in Lebanon, making your living-place in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied will you be when pains come on you, as on a woman in childbirth! 24 By my life, says the Lord, even if Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, was the ring on my right hand, even from there I would have you pulled off; 25 And I will give you into the hands of those desiring your death, and into the hands of those whom you are fearing, even into the hands of Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, and into the hands of the Chaldaeans. 26 I will send you out, and your mother who gave you birth, into another country not the land of your birth; and there death will come to you. 27 But to the land on which their soul's desire is fixed, they will never come back. 28 Is this man Coniah a broken vessel of no value? is he a vessel in which there is no pleasure? why are they violently sent out, he and his seed, into a land which is strange to them? 29 O earth, earth, earth, give ear to the word of the Lord! 30 The Lord has said, Let this man be recorded as having no children, a man who will not do well in all his life: for no man of his seed will do well, seated on the seat of the kingdom of David and ruling again in Judah.
231 A curse is on the keepers who are causing the destruction and loss of the sheep of my field, says the Lord. 2 So this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, has said against the keepers who have the care of my people: You have let my flock be broken up, driving them away and not caring for them; see, I will send on you the punishment for the evil of your doings, says the Lord. 3 And I will get the rest of my flock together from all the countries where I have sent them, and will make them come back again to their resting-place; and they will have offspring and be increased. 4 And I will put over them keepers who will take care of them: never again will they be overcome with fear or be troubled, and there will not be the loss of one of them, says the Lord. 5 See, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will give to David a true Branch, and he will be ruling as king, acting wisely, doing what is right, and judging uprightly in the land. 6 In his days Judah will have salvation and Israel will be living without fear: and this is the name by which he will be named, The Lord is our righteousness. 7 And so, truly, the days are coming when they will say no longer, By the living Lord, who took the children of Israel up out of the land of Egypt; 8 But, By the living Lord, who took up the seed of Israel, and made them come out of the north country, and from all the countries where I had sent them; and they will be living in the land which is theirs.
9 About the prophets. My heart is broken in me, all my bones are shaking; I am like a man full of strong drink, like a man overcome by wine; because of the Lord, and because of his holy words. 10 For the land is full of men who are untrue to their wives; because of the curse the land is full of grief; the green fields of the waste land have become dry; and they are quick to do evil, their strength is for what is not right. 11 For the prophet as well as the priest is unclean; even in my house I have seen their evil-doing, says the Lord. 12 For this cause their steps will be slipping on their way: they will be forced on into the dark and have a fall there: for I will send evil on them in the year of their punishment, says the Lord. 13 And I have seen ways without sense in the prophets of Samaria; they became prophets of the Baal, causing my people Israel to go wrong. 14 And in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a shocking thing; they are untrue to their wives, walking in deceit, and they make strong the hands of evil-doers, so that a man may not be turned back from his evil-doing: they have all become like Sodom to me, and its people like Gomorrah. 15 So this is what the Lord of armies has said about the prophets: See, I will give them a bitter plant for their food, and bitter water for their drink: for from the prophets of Jerusalem unclean behaviour has gone out into all the land. 16 This is what the Lord of armies has said: Do not give ear to the words which the prophets say to you: they give you teaching of no value: it is from themselves that their vision comes, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. 17 They keep on saying to those who have no respect for the word of the Lord, You will have peace; and to everyone who goes on his way in the pride of his heart, they say, No evil will come to you. 18 For which of them has knowledge of the secret of the Lord, and has seen him, and given ear to his word? which of them has taken note of his word and given attention to it? 19 See, the storm-wind of the Lord, even the heat of his wrath, has gone out, a rolling storm, bursting on the heads of the evil-doers. 20 The wrath of the Lord will not be turned back till he has done, till he has put into effect, the purposes of his heart: in days to come you will have full knowledge of this. 21 I did not send these prophets, but they went running: I said nothing to them, but they gave out the prophet's word. 22 But if they had been in my secret, then they would have made my people give ear to my words, turning them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings. 23 Am I only a God who is near, says the Lord, and not a God at a distance? 24 In what secret place may a man take cover without my seeing him? says the Lord. Is there any place in heaven or earth where I am not? says the Lord. 25 My ears have been open to what the prophets have said, who say false words in my name, saying, I have had a dream, I have had a dream, I have had a dream, 26 Is (my word) in the hearts of the prophets who give out false words, even the prophets of the deceit of their hearts? 27 Whose purpose is to take away the memory of my name from my people by their dreams, of which every man is talking to his neighbour, as their fathers gave up the memory of my name for the Baal. 28 If a prophet has a dream, let him give out his dream; and he who has my word, let him give out my word in good faith. What has the dry stem to do with the grain? says the Lord. 29 Is not my word like fire? says the Lord; and like a hammer, smashing the rock to bits? 30 For this cause I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who take my words, every one from his neighbour. 31 See, I am against the prophets, says the Lord, who let their tongues say, He has said. 32 See, I am against the prophets of false dreams, says the Lord, who give them out and make my people go out of the way by their deceit and their uncontrolled words: but I did not send them or give them orders; and they will be of no profit to this people, says the Lord.
33 And if this people, or the prophet, or a priest, questioning you, says, What word of weight is there from the Lord? then you are to say to them, You are the word, for I will not be troubled with you any more, says the Lord. 34 And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, A word of weight from the Lord! I will send punishment on that man and on his house. 35 But this is what you are to say, every man to his neighbour and every man to his brother, What answer has the Lord given? and, What has the Lord said? 36 And you will no longer put people in mind of the word of weight of the Lord: for every man's word will be a weight on himself; for the words of the living God, of the Lord of armies, our God, have been twisted by you. 37 This is what you are to say to the prophet, What answer has the Lord given to you? and, What has the Lord said? 38 But if you say, The word of weight of the Lord; this is what the Lord has said: Because you say, The weight of the Lord, and I have sent to you, saying, You are not to say, The weight of the Lord; 39 For this reason, truly, I will put you completely out of my memory, and I will put you, and the town which I gave to you and to your fathers, away from before my face: 40 And I will give you a name without honour for ever, and unending shame which will never go from the memory of men.
11 Paul, a servant of God, and an Apostle of Jesus Christ, in agreement with the faith of the saints of God and the full knowledge of what is true in harmony with religion, 2 In the hope of eternal life, which was made certain before eternal time, by the word of God who is ever true; 3 Who, in his time, made clear his word in the good news, of which, by the order of God our Saviour, I became a preacher; 4 To Titus, my true child in our common faith: Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Saviour.
5 I did not take you with me when I went away from Crete, so that you might do what was necessary to put things in order there, placing men in authority over the churches in every town, as I said to you;
6 Men having a good record, husbands of one wife, whose children are of the faith, children of whom it may not be said that they are given to loose living or are uncontrolled. 7 For it is necessary for a Bishop to be a man of virtue, as God's servant; not pushing himself forward, not quickly moved to wrath or blows, not desiring profit for himself; 8 But opening his house freely to guests; a lover of what is good, serious-minded, upright, holy, self-controlled; 9 Keeping to the true word of the teaching, so that he may be able to give comfort by right teaching and overcome the arguments of the doubters. 10 For there are men who are not ruled by law; foolish talkers, false teachers, specially those of the circumcision, 11 By whom some families have been completely overturned; who take money for teaching things which are not right; these will have to be stopped. 12 One of their prophets has said, The men of Crete are ever false, evil beasts, lovers of food, hating work. 13 This witness is true. So say sharp words to them so that they may come to the right faith, 14 Giving no attention to the fictions of the Jews and the rules of men who have no true knowledge. 15 To the clean in heart all things are clean: but to those who are unclean and without faith nothing is clean; they become unclean in mind and in thought. 16 They say that they have knowledge of God, while by their acts they are turning their backs on him; they are hated by all, hard-hearted, and judged to be without value for any good work.
