151 Then the Lord said to me, "Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people ; send them away from My presence and let them go ! 2 "And it shall be that when they say to you, 'Where should we go ?' then you are to tell them, 'Thus says the Lord : "Those destined for death , to death ; And those destined for the sword , to the sword ; And those destined for famine , to famine ; And those destined for captivity , to captivity ."' 3 "I will appoint over them four kinds of doom," declares the Lord : "the sword to slay , the dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy . 4 "I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh , the son of Hezekiah , the king of Judah , for what he did in Jerusalem . 5 "Indeed , who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem , Or who will mourn for you, Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare ? 6 "You who have forsaken Me," declares the Lord , "You keep going backward . So I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am tired of relenting ! 7 "I will winnow them with a winnowing fork At the gates of the land ; I will bereave them of children , I will destroy My people ; They did not repent of their ways . 8 "Their widows will be more numerous before Me Than the sand of the seas ; I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man , A destroyer at noonday ; I will suddenly bring down on her Anguish and dismay . 9 "She who bore seven sons pines away ; Her breathing is labored . Her sun has set while it was yet day ; She has been shamed and humiliated . So I will give over their survivors to the sword Before their enemies ," declares the Lord .
10 Woe to me, my mother , that you have borne me As a man of strife and a man of contention to all the land ! I have not lent , nor have men lent money to me, Yet everyone curses me. 11 The Lord said , "Surely e I will set you free for purposes of good ; Surely e I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you In a time of disaster and a time of distress . 12 "Can anyone smash iron , Iron from the north , or bronze ? 13 "Your wealth and your treasures I will give for booty without cost , Even for all your sins And within all your borders . 14 "Then I will cause your enemies to bring it Into a land you do not know ; For a fire has been kindled in My anger , It will burn upon you."
15 You who know , O Lord , Remember me, take notice of me, And take vengeance for me on my persecutors . Do not, in view of Your patience , take me away; Know that for Your sake I endure reproach . 16 Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart ; For I have been called by Your name , O Lord God of hosts . 17 I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers , Nor did I exult . Because e of Your hand upon me I sat alone , For You filled me with indignation . 18 Why has my pain been perpetual And my wound incurable , refusing to be healed ? Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream With water that is unreliable e ? 19 Therefore , thus says the Lord , " If you return , then I will restore you- Before Me you will stand ; And if you extract the precious from the worthless , You will become My spokesman . They for their part may turn to you, But as for you, you must not turn to them. 20 "Then I will make you to this people A fortified wall of bronze ; And though they fight against you, They will not prevail over you; For I am with you to save you And deliver you," declares the Lord . 21 "So I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked , And I will redeem you from the grasp of the violent ."
161 The word of the Lord also came to me saying , 2 "You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place ." 3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters born in this place , and concerning their mothers who bear them, and their fathers who beget them in this land : 4 "They will die of deadly diseases , they will not be lamented or buried ; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine , and their carcasses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth ." 5 For thus says the Lord , "Do not enter a house of mourning , or go to lament or to console them; for I have withdrawn My peace from this people ," declares the Lord , "My lovingkindness and compassion . 6 "Both great men and small will die in this land ; they will not be buried , they will not be lamented , nor will anyone gash himself or shave his head for them. 7 "Men will not break bread in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead , nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone's father or mother . 8 "Moreover you shall not go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink ." 9 For thus says the Lord of hosts , the God of Israel : "Behold , I am going to eliminate from this place , before your eyes and in your time , the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness , the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride .
10 "Now when you tell this people all these words , they will say to you, ' For what reason e has the Lord declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity , or what is our sin which we have committed against the Lord our God ?' 11 "Then you are to say to them, 'It is because e your forefathers have forsaken Me,' declares the Lord , 'and have followed e other gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law . 12 'You too have done evil , even more than your forefathers ; for behold , you are each one walking according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart , without listening to Me. 13 'So I will hurl you out of this land into the land which you have not known , neither you nor your fathers ; and there you will serve other gods day and night , for I will grant you no favor .'
14 " Therefore behold , days are coming ," declares the Lord , "when it will no longer be said , 'As the Lord lives , who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt ,' 15 but, 'As the Lord lives , who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where e He had banished them.' For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers . 16 "Behold , I am going to send for many fishermen ," declares the Lord , "and they will fish for them; and afterwards e I will send for many hunters , and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks . 17 " For My eyes are on all their ways ; they are not hidden from My face , nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes . 18 "I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin , because they have polluted My land ; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations ." 19 O Lord , my strength and my stronghold , And my refuge in the day of distress , To You the nations will come From the ends of the earth and say , "Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood , Futility and things of no profit ." 20 Can man make gods for himself? Yet they are not gods ! 21 "Therefore behold , I am going to make them know - This time I will make them know My power and My might ; And they shall know that My name is the Lord ."
171 The sin of Judah is written down with an iron stylus ; With a diamond point it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart And on the horns of their altars , 2 As they remember their children , So they remember their altars and their Asherim By green trees on the high hills . 3 O mountain of Mine in the countryside , I will give over your wealth and all your treasures for booty , Your high places for sin throughout your borders . 4 And you will, even of yourself, let go of your inheritance That I gave you; And I will make you serve your enemies In the land which you do not know ; For you have kindled a fire in My anger Which will burn forever e .
5 Thus says the Lord , " Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength , And whose heart turns away from the Lord . 6 "For he will be like a bush in the desert And will not see when prosperity comes , But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness , A land of salt without inhabitant . 7 " Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord And whose trust is the Lord . 8 "For he will be like a tree planted by the water , That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes ; But its leaves will be green , And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit . 9 "The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick ; Who can understand it? 10 "I, the Lord , search the heart , I test the mind , Even to give to each man according to his ways , According to the results of his deeds . 11 "As a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid , So is he who makes a fortune , but unjustly e ; In the midst of his days it will forsake him, And in the end he will be a fool ."
12 A glorious throne on high from the beginning Is the place of our sanctuary . 13 O Lord , the hope of Israel , All who forsake You will be put to shame . Those who turn away on earth will be written down , Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water , even the Lord . 14 Heal me, O Lord , and I will be healed ; Save me and I will be saved , For You are my praise . 15 Look , they keep saying to me, "Where is the word of the Lord ? Let it come now !" 16 But as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after You, Nor have I longed for the woeful day ; You Yourself know that the utterance of my lips Was in Your presence . 17 Do not be a terror to me; You are my refuge in the day of disaster . 18 Let those who persecute me be put to shame , but as for me, let me not be put to shame ; Let them be dismayed , but let me not be dismayed . Bring on them a day of disaster , And crush them with twofold destruction !
19 Thus the Lord said to me, "Go and stand in the public gate , through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, as well as in all the gates of Jerusalem ; 20 and say to them, ' Listen to the word of the Lord , kings of Judah , and all Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem who come in through these gates : 21 'Thus says the Lord , " Take heed for yourselves , and do not carry any load on the sabbath day or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem . 22 "You shall not bring a load out of your houses on the sabbath day nor do any work , but keep the sabbath day holy , as I commanded your forefathers . 23 "Yet they did not listen or incline their ears , but stiffened their necks in order not to listen or take correction . 24 "But it will come about, if you listen attentively to Me," declares the Lord , "to bring no load in through the gates of this city on the sabbath day , but to keep the sabbath day holy by doing no e work on it, 25 then there will come in through the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on 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 will be inhabited forever . 26 "They will come in from the cities of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem , from the land of Benjamin , from the lowland , from the hill country and from the Negev , bringing burnt offerings , sacrifices , grain offerings and incense , and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the Lord . 27 "But if you do not listen to Me to keep the sabbath day holy by not carrying a load and coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day , then I will kindle a fire in its gates and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and not be quenched .""'
21 You therefore , my son , be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus . 2 The things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses , entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also . 3 Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus . 4 No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life , so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier . 5 Also if anyone competes as an athlete , he does not win the prize unless e he competes according to the rules . 6 The hard-working farmer ought to be the first to receive his share of the crops . 7 Consider what I say , for the Lord will give you understanding in everything .
8 Remember Jesus Christ , risen from the dead , descendant of David , according to my gospel , 9 for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal ; but the word of God is not imprisoned . 10 For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen , so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory . 11 It is a trustworthy statement : For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; 12 If we endure , we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; 13 If we are faithless , He remains faithful , for He cannot e deny Himself .
14 Remind them of these things , and solemnly charge them in the presence of God not to wrangle about words , which is useless e and leads to the ruin of the hearers . 15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed , accurately handling the word of truth . 16 But avoid worldly and empty chatter , for it will lead to further ungodliness , 17 and their talk will spread like gangrene . Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus , 18 men who have gone astray from the truth saying that the resurrection has already taken place , and they upset the faith of some .
19 Nevertheless , the firm foundation of God stands , having this seal , " The Lord knows those who are His," and, " Everyone who names the name of the Lord is to abstain from wickedness ." 20 Now in a large house there are not only gold and silver vessels , but also vessels of wood and of earthenware , and some to honor and some to dishonor . 21 Therefore , if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a vessel for honor , sanctified , useful to the Master , prepared for every good work .
22 Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness , faith , love and peace , with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart . 23 But refuse foolish and ignorant speculations , knowing that they produce quarrels . 24 The Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome , but be kind to all , able to teach , patient when wronged , 25 with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition , if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth , 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil , having been held captive by him to do his will .
