Day 286 of 365

Jer 14:1–15:21

14:1 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.

14:2 "Judah mourns, and its gates languish, they sit in black on the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

14:3 Their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels empty; they are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads.

14:4 Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed, they cover their heads.

14:5 Yes, the hind also in the field calves, and forsakes her young, because there is no grass.

14:6 The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights, they pant for air like jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no herbage."

14:7 "Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name's sake, Lord; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.

14:8 You hope of Israel, its Savior in the time of trouble, why should you be as a foreigner in the land, and as a wayfaring man who turns aside to stay for a night?

14:9 Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can't save? Yet you, Lord, are in the midst of us, and we are called by your name; do not leave us."

14:10 Thus says the Lord to this people, "Even so have they loved to wander; they have not refrained their feet: therefore the Lord does not accept them; now he will remember their iniquity, and visit their sins."

14:11 The Lord said to me, "Do not pray for this people for their good.

14:12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence."

14:13 Then I said, "Ah, Lord God! Behold, the prophets tell them, 'You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.'"

14:14 Then the Lord said to me, "The prophets prophesy lies in my name; I did not send them, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke I to them: they prophesy to you a lying vision, and divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart.

14:15 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, and I did not send them, yet they say, 'Sword and famine shall not be in this land:' 'By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.'

14:16 The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they shall have none to bury them-them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness on them."

14:17 "You shall say this word to them, 'Let my eyes run down with tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous wound.

14:18 If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the sword! and if I enter into the city, then, behold, those who are sick with famine! For both the prophet and the priest go about in the land, and have no knowledge.'"

14:19 "Have you utterly rejected Judah? Has your soul loathed Zion? Why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!

14:20 We acknowledge, Lord, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you.

14:21 Do not abhor us, for your name's sake; do not disgrace the throne of your glory: remember, do not break your covenant with us.

14:22 Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren't you he, Lord our God? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things."

15:1 Then the Lord said to me, "Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

15:2 It shall happen, when they tell you, 'Where shall we go forth?' Then you shall tell them, 'Thus says the Lord: "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.

15:3 I will appoint over them four kinds, says the Lord: the sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy.

15:4 I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.

15:5 For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask of your welfare?

15:6 'You have rejected me,' says the Lord, 'you have gone backward:' therefore have I stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed you; I am weary with repenting.

15:7 I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land; I have bereaved them of children, I have destroyed my people; they did not return from their ways.

15:8 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her suddenly.

15:9 She who has borne seven languishes; she has given up the spirit; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been disappointed and confounded: and their residue will I deliver to the sword before their enemies," says the Lord.

15:10 "Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither have men lent to me; yet everyone of them curses me."

15:11 The Lord said, "Most certainly I will strengthen you for good; most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in the time of evil and in the time of distress.

15:12 Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and bronze?

15:13 Your substance and your treasures will I give for a spoil without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.

15:14 I will make them to pass with your enemies into a land which you do not know; for a fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn on you."

15:15 "Lord, you know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors; do not take me away in your longsuffering: know that for your sake I have suffered reproach.

15:16 Your words were found, and I ate them; and your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name, Lord, God of Hosts.

15:17 I did not sit in the assembly of those who make merry, nor rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand; for you have filled me with indignation.

15:18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, as waters that fail?"

15:19 Therefore thus says the Lord, "If you return, then will I bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take forth the precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: they shall return to you, but you shall not return to them.

15:20 I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you," says the Lord.

15:21 "I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem you out of the hand of the terrible."

2 Cor 11:17–32

17 That which I speak, I do not speak according to the Lord, but as in foolishness, in this confidence of boasting.

18 Seeing that many boast after the flesh, I will also boast.

19 For you bear with the foolish gladly, being wise.

20 For you bear with a man, if he brings you into bondage, if he devours you, if he takes you captive, if he exalts himself, if he strikes you on the face.

21 I speak by way of disparagement, as though we had been weak. Yet however any is bold (I speak in foolishness), I am bold also.

22 Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they the seed of Abraham? So am I.

23 Are they servants of Christ? (I speak as one beside himself) I am more so; in labors more abundantly, in prisons more abundantly, in stripes above measure, in deaths often.

24 Five times from the Jews I received forty stripes minus one.

25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I suffered shipwreck. I have been a night and a day in the deep.

26 I have been in travels often, perils of rivers, perils of robbers, perils from my countrymen, perils from the Gentiles, perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, perils in the sea, perils among false brothers;

27 in labor and travail, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, and in cold and nakedness.

28 Besides those things that are outside, there is that which presses on me daily, anxiety for all the churches.

29 Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is caused to stumble, and I do not burn with indignation?

30 If I must boast, I will boast of the things that concern my weakness.

31 The God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, he who is blessed forevermore, knows that I do not lie.

32–33 In Damascus the governor under Aretas the king guarded the city of the Damascenes to arrest me. Through a window I was let down in a basket by the wall, and escaped his hands.

Job 21:18–34

18 How often is it that they are as stubble before the wind, as chaff that the storm carries away?

19 You say, 'God lays up his iniquity for his children.' Let him recompense it to himself, that he may know it.

20 Let his own eyes see his destruction. Let him drink of the wrath of the Almighty.

21 For what does he care for his house after him, when the number of his months is cut off?

22 "Shall any teach God knowledge, seeing he judges those who are high?

23 One dies in his full strength, being wholly at ease and quiet.

24 His pails are full of milk. The marrow of his bones is moistened.

25 Another dies in bitterness of soul, and never tastes of good.

26 They lie down alike in the dust. The worm covers them.

27 "Behold, I know your thoughts, the devices with which you would wrong me.

28 For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince? Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?'

29 Haven't you asked wayfaring men? Do you not know their evidences,

30 that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, That they are led forth to the day of wrath?

31 Who shall declare his way to his face? Who shall repay him what he has done?

32 Yet he will be borne to the grave. Men shall keep watch over the tomb.

33 The clods of the valley shall be sweet to him. All men shall draw after him, as there were innumerable before him.

34 So how can you comfort me with nonsense, seeing that in your answers there remains only falsehood?"