The LORD's Unrepenting Anger with Judah

151 And Jehovah said unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, my soul [would] not [turn] toward this people. Send [them] out of my sight, and let them go forth. 2 And it shall come to pass, if they say unto thee, Whither shall we go forth? then thou shalt tell them, Thus saith Jehovah: Such as are for death, to death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity. 3 For I will visit them with four kinds [of punishments], saith Jehovah: the sword to slay, and dogs to tear, and the fowl of the heavens, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and to destroy. 4 And I will give them over to be driven hither and thither amongst all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem. 5 For who shall have pity upon thee, Jerusalem? and who shall bemoan thee? and who shall turn aside to ask after thy welfare? 6 Thou hast cast me off, saith Jehovah, thou art gone backward; and I have stretched out my hand against thee, and will destroy thee: I am become weary of repenting. 7 And I will fan them with a fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave of children [and] destroy my people: they have not returned from their ways. 8 Their widows are increased to me more than the sand of the seas; I have brought upon them, against the mother of the young men, a spoiler at noonday; I have caused anguish and terror to fall upon her suddenly. 9 She that hath borne seven languisheth, she hath given up the ghost; her sun is gone down while it is yet day; she is put to shame and confounded. And the residue of them will I give up to the sword before their enemies, saith Jehovah.

10 Woe is me, my mother, that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole land! I have not lent on usury, nor have they lent to me on usury; [yet] every one of them doth curse me. 11 Jehovah said, Verily I will set thee free for [thy] good; verily I will cause the enemy to meet thee kindly in the time of evil and in the time of affliction. 12 Will iron break? iron from the north? and bronze? 13 Thy substance and thy treasures will I give to the spoil without price, and that for all thy sins, and in all thy borders; 14 and I will make [them] to pass with thine enemies into a land that thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in mine anger; it shall burn upon you.

The LORD's Assurance to Jeremiah

15 Jehovah, thou knowest: remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; in thy long-suffering take me not away: know that for thy sake I bear reproach. 16 Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy words were unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; for I am called by thy name, O Jehovah, God of hosts. 17 I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor exulted: I sat alone because of thy hand; for thou hast filled me with indignation. 18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable? It refuseth to be healed. Wilt thou be altogether unto me as a treacherous [spring], [as] waters that fail? 19 Therefore thus saith Jehovah: If thou return, then will I bring thee again, thou shalt stand before me; and if thou take forth the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth. Let them return unto thee; but return not thou unto them. 20 And I will make thee unto this people a strong brazen wall; and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee: for I am with thee, to save thee and to deliver thee, saith Jehovah; 21 yea, I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible.

The LORD's Judgment on the People

161 And the word of Jehovah came to me, saying, 2 Thou shalt not take thee a wife, and thou shalt not have sons nor daughters in this place. 3 For thus saith Jehovah concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bear them, and concerning their fathers that beget them in this land: 4 They shall die of painful deaths; they shall not be lamented, neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung upon the face of the ground, and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine, and their carcases shall be food for the fowl of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth. 5 For thus saith Jehovah: Enter not into the house of wailing, neither go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith Jehovah, the loving-kindness and the tender mercies. 6 Both great and small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried; and none shall lament for them, or cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them. 7 Nor shall they break [bread] for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall they give them the cup of consolations to drink for their father or for their mother. 8 And thou shalt not go into the house of feasting, to sit with them, to eat and to drink. 9 For thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of joy, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

10 And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt declare unto this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath Jehovah pronounced all this great evil against us? and what is our iniquity? and what is our sin which we have committed against Jehovah our God? 11 then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith Jehovah, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; 12 and you, ye have done still worse than your fathers; and there ye are walking every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, not to hearken unto me: 13 and I will cast you forth out of this land, into a land that ye know not, ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night: because I will shew you no favour.

14 Therefore, behold, days are coming, saith Jehovah, that it shall no more be said, [As] Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 15 but, [As] Jehovah liveth, who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them. For I will bring them again into their land, which I gave unto their fathers. 16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith Jehovah, and they shall fish them; and afterwards will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them, from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks. 17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways; they are not concealed from my face, neither is their iniquity hidden from before mine eyes. 18 But first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double, because they have profaned my land with the carcases of their detestable things, and with their abominations have they filled mine inheritance. 19 Jehovah, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of distress, unto thee shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and they shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited falsehood [and] vanity; and in these things there is no profit. 20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no-gods? 21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is Jehovah.

Judah's Heart Engraved with Sin

171 The sin of Judah is written with a style of iron, with the point of a diamond, engraven upon the tablet of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars; 2 whilst their children remember their altars and their Asherahs, by the green trees, upon the high hills. 3 My mountain in the field, thy substance, all thy treasures will I give for a spoil,—thy high places, because of sin throughout thy borders. 4 And of thyself thou shalt let go thine inheritance which I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in a land that thou knowest not; for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger,—it shall burn for ever.

5 Thus saith Jehovah: Cursed is the man that confideth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from Jehovah. 6 And he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but he shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited. 7 Blessed is the man that confideth in Jehovah, and whose confidence Jehovah is. 8 For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out its roots by the stream, and he shall not see when heat cometh, but his leaf shall be green; and in the year of drought he shall not be careful, neither shall he cease to yield fruit. 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and incurable; who can know it? 10 I Jehovah search the heart, I try the reins, even to give each one according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings. 11 [As] the partridge sitteth on [eggs] it hath not laid, [so] is he that getteth riches and not by right: in the midst of his days shall he leave them, and at his end shall be a fool.

12 A throne of glory, [set] on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary. 13 Thou hope of Israel, Jehovah! all that forsake thee shall be ashamed. They that depart from me shall be written in the earth; because they have forsaken Jehovah, the fountain of living waters. 14 Heal me, Jehovah, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise. 15 Behold, these say unto me, Where is the word of Jehovah? let it then come! 16 But as for me, I have not hastened from being a shepherd in following thee, neither have I desired the fatal day, thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was before thy face. 17 Be not a terror unto me: thou art my refuge in the day of evil. 18 Let them be ashamed that persecute me, but let not me be ashamed; let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed; bring upon them the day of evil, and break them with a double breaking.

The Sabbath Must Be Hallowed

19 Thus hath Jehovah said unto me: Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; 20 and say unto them, Hear the word of Jehovah, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates; 21 thus saith Jehovah: Take heed to your souls, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, and bring nothing in through the gates of Jerusalem; 22 and carry forth no burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do any work; but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers, 23 but they hearkened not, neither inclined their ear, but hardened their neck, that they might not hear nor receive instruction. 24 And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith Jehovah, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, and to hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein; 25 then shall there enter in, through the gates of this city, kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall be inhabited for ever. 26 And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the hill-country, and from the south, bringing burnt-offerings, and sacrifices, and oblations, and incense, and bringing thanksgiving unto the house of Jehovah. 27 But if ye will not hearken unto me, to hallow the sabbath day and not to bear a burden and enter in through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

A Good Soldier of Jesus Christ

21 Thou therefore, my child, be strong in the grace which [is] in Christ Jesus. 2 And the things thou hast heard of me in the presence of many witnesses, these entrust to faithful men, such as shall be competent to instruct others also. 3 Take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 4 No one going as a soldier entangles himself with the affairs of life, that he may please him who has enlisted him as a soldier. 5 And if also any one contend [in the games], he is not crowned unless he contend lawfully. 6 The husbandman must labour before partaking of the fruits. 7 Think of what I say, for the Lord will give thee understanding in all things.

8 Remember Jesus Christ raised from among [the] dead, of [the] seed of David, according to my glad tidings, 9 in which I suffer even unto bonds as an evil-doer: but the word of God is not bound. 10 For this cause I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which [is] in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11 The word [is] faithful; for if we have died together with [him], we shall also live together; 12 if we endure, we shall also reign together; if we deny, he also will deny us; 13 if we are unfaithful, he abides faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

An Approved Workman

14 Of these things put in remembrance, testifying earnestly before the Lord not to have disputes of words, profitable for nothing, to the subversion of the hearers. 15 Strive diligently to present thyself approved to God, a workman that has not to be ashamed, cutting in a straight line the word of truth. 16 But profane, vain babblings shun, for they will advance to greater impiety, 17 and their word will spread as a gangrene; of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; 18 [men] who as to the truth have gone astray, saying that the resurrection has taken place already; and overthrow the faith of some.

19 Yet the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal, [The] Lord knows those that are his; and, Let every one who names the name of [the] Lord withdraw from iniquity. 20 But in a great house there are not only gold and silver vessels, but also wooden and earthen; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. 21 If therefore one shall have purified himself from these, [in separating himself from them], he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work.

22 But youthful lusts flee, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. 23 But foolish and senseless questionings avoid, knowing that they beget contentions. 24 And a bondman of [the] Lord ought not to contend, but be gentle towards all; apt to teach; forbearing; 25 in meekness setting right those who oppose, if God perhaps may sometime give them repentance to acknowledgment of [the] truth, 26 and that they may awake up out of the snare of the devil, [who are] taken by him, for his will.