Day 279 of 365

Jer 2:1–3:25

2:1 The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

2:2 "Go, and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the Lord, "I remember you, the devotion of your youth, the love of your weddings; how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

2:3 Israel was holiness to the Lord, the first fruits of his increase. All who devour him shall be held guilty. Evil shall come on them,"' says the Lord."

2:4 Hear the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel!

2:5 Thus says the Lord, "What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?

2:6 Neither did they say, 'Where is the Lord who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that none passed through, and where no man lived?'

2:7 I brought you into a plentiful land, to eat its fruit and its goodness; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination.

2:8 The priests did not say, 'Where is the Lord?' And those who handle the law did not know me. The rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit.

2:9 "Therefore I will yet contend with you," says the Lord, "and I will contend with your children's children.

2:10 For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see; and send to Kedar, and consider diligently; and see if there has been such a thing.

2:11 Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which does not profit.

2:12 "Be astonished, you heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid. Be very desolate," says the Lord.

2:13 "For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

2:14 Is Israel a servant? Is he a native-born slave? Why has he become a prey?

2:15 The young lions have roared at him, and yelled. They have made his land waste. His cities are burned up, without inhabitant.

2:16 The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of your head.

2:17 "Haven't you brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken the Lord your God, when he led you by the way?

2:18 Now what have you to do in the way to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? Or what have you to do in the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River?

2:19 "Your own wickedness shall correct you, and your backsliding shall reprove you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter that you have forsaken the Lord your God, and that my fear is not in you," says the Lord, God of Hosts.

2:20 "For of old time I have broken your yoke, and burst your bonds; and you said, 'I will not serve;' for on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed yourself, playing the prostitute.

2:21 Yet I had planted you a noble vine, wholly a right seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me?

2:22 For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me," says the Lord God.

2:23 "How can you say, 'I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Baals'? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways;

2:24 a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that snuffs up the wind in her desire. When she is in heat, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month, they will find her.

2:25 "Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst. But you said, 'It is in vain. No, for I have loved strangers, and I will go after them.'

2:26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets;

2:27 who tell wood, 'You are my father;' and a stone, 'You have brought me out:' for they have turned their back to me, and not their face; but in the time of their trouble they will say, 'Arise, and save us.'

2:28 "But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble: for according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah.

2:29 "Why will you contend with me? You all have transgressed against me," says the Lord.

2:30 "I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion.

2:31 Generation, consider the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do my people say, 'We have broken loose. We will come to you no more?'

2:32 "Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number.

2:33 How well you prepare your way to seek love! Therefore you have taught even the wicked women your ways.

2:34 Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found in your skirts. You did not find them breaking in; but it is because of all these things.

2:35 "Yet you said, 'I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.' "Behold, I will judge you, because you say, 'I have not sinned.'

2:36 Why do you go about so much to change your way? You will be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria.

2:37 From there also you shall go forth, with your hands on your head; for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust, and you shall not prosper with them.

3:1 "They say, 'If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and become another man's, will he return to her again?' Wouldn't that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me," says the Lord.

3:2 "Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat for them by the ways, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness.

3:3 Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute's forehead, you refused to be ashamed.

3:4 Will you not from this time cry to me, 'My Father, you are the guide of my youth?'

3:5 "'Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end?' Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way."

3:6 Moreover, the Lord said to me in the days of Josiah the king, "Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the prostitute.

3:7 I said after she had done all these things, 'She will return to me;' but she did not return; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

3:8 I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, did not fear; but she also went and played the prostitute.

3:9 It happened through the lightness of her prostitution, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks.

3:10 Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense," says the Lord.

3:11 The Lord said to me, "Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

3:12 Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, 'Return, you backsliding Israel,' says the Lord; 'I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful,' says the Lord. 'I will not keep anger forever.

3:13 Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against the Lord your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,'" says the Lord.

3:14 "Return, backsliding children," says the Lord; "for I am a husband to you. I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

3:15 I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

3:16 It shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days," says the Lord, "they shall say no more, 'The ark of the covenant of the Lord!' neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more.

3:17 At that time they shall call Jerusalem 'The throne of the Lord;' and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. Neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart.

3:18 In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.

3:19 "But I said, 'How I would put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!' and I said, 'You shall call me "My Father," and shall not turn away from following me.'

3:20 "Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel," says the Lord.

3:21 A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten the Lord their God.

3:22 "Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding." "Behold, we have come to you; for you are the Lord our God.

3:23 Truly in vain is help from the hills, the tumult on the mountains. Truly the salvation of Israel is in the Lord our God.

3:24 But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters.

3:25 Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God."

2 Cor 4:1–18

1 Therefore seeing we have this ministry, even as we obtained mercy, we do not faint.

2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by the manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God.

3 Even if our Good News is veiled, it is veiled in those who perish;

4 in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, to prevent the light shining from the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

5 For we do not proclaim ourselves, but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake;

6 seeing it is God who said, "Light will shine out of darkness," who has shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

7 But we have this treasure in clay vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.

8 We are pressed on every side, yet not crushed; perplexed, yet not to despair;

9 pursued, yet not forsaken; struck down, yet not destroyed;

10 always carrying in the body the putting to death of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be revealed in our mortal flesh.

12 So then death works in us, but life in you.

13 But having the same spirit of faith, according to that which is written, "I believed, and therefore I spoke." We also believe, and therefore also we speak;

14 knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus, and will present us with you.

15 For all things are for your sakes, that the grace, being multiplied through the many, may cause the thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God.

16 Therefore we do not faint, but though our outward man is decaying, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.

17 For our light affliction, which is for the moment, works for us more and more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory;

18 while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Job 20:1–8

1 Then Zophar the Naamathite answered,

2 "Therefore do my thoughts give answer to me, even by reason of my haste that is in me.

3 I have heard the reproof which puts me to shame. The spirit of my understanding answers me.

4 Do you not know this from old time, since man was placed on earth,

5 that the triumphing of the wicked is short, the joy of the godless but for a moment?

6 Though his height mount up to the heavens, and his head reach to the clouds,

7 yet he shall perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him shall say, 'Where is he?'

8 He shall fly away as a dream, and shall not be found. Yes, he shall be chased away like a vision of the night.