Day 296 of 365

Jer 33:1–34:22

33:1 Moreover the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the guard, saying,

33:2 "Thus says the Lord who does it, the Lord who forms it to establish it; the Lord is his name:

33:3 'Call to me, and I will answer you, and will show you great things, and difficult, which you do not know.'

33:4 For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city, and concerning the houses of the kings of Judah, which are broken down to make a defense against the mounds and against the sword;

33:5 while men come to fight with the Chaldeans, and to fill them with the dead bodies of men, whom I have killed in my anger and in my wrath, and for all whose wickedness I have hidden my face from this city:

33:6 'Behold, I will bring it health and cure, and I will cure them; and I will reveal to them abundance of peace and truth.

33:7 I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.

33:8 I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, by which they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, by which they have sinned against me, and by which they have transgressed against me.

33:9 This city shall be to me for a name of joy, for a praise and for a glory, before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do to them, and shall fear and tremble for all the good and for all the peace that I procure to it.'

33:10 "Thus says the Lord: 'Yet again there shall be heard in this place, about which you say, "It is waste, without man and without animal," even in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without animal,

33:11 the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, "Give thanks to the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for his loving kindness endures forever; who bring thanksgiving into the house of the Lord." For I will cause the captivity of the land to return as at the first,' says the Lord.

33:12 Thus says the Lord of hosts: 'Yet again shall there be in this place, which is waste, without man and without animal, and in all its cities, a habitation of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.

33:13 In the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the south, and in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, shall the flocks again pass under the hands of him who numbers them,' says the Lord.

33:14 'Behold, the days come,' says the Lord, 'that I will perform that good word which I have spoken concerning the house of Israel and concerning the house of Judah.

33:15 In those days, and at that time, will I cause a Branch of righteousness to grow up to David; and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.

33:16 In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely; and this is the name by which she shall be called: "The Lord our righteousness."

33:17 For thus says the Lord: "David shall never want a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel;

33:18 neither shall the priests the Levites want a man before me to offer burnt offerings, and to burn meal offerings, and to do sacrifice continually."'"

33:19 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

33:20 "Thus says the Lord: 'If you can break my covenant of the day, and my covenant of the night, so that there shall not be day and night in their season;

33:21 then may also my covenant be broken with David my servant, that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne; and with the Levites the priests, my ministers.

33:22 As the army of the sky can't be numbered, neither the sand of the sea measured; so will I multiply the seed of David my servant, and the Levites who minister to me.'"

33:23 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying,

33:24 "Do not consider what this people has spoken, saying, 'The two families which the Lord chose, he has cast them off?' Thus do they despise my people, that they should be no more a nation before them.

33:25 Thus says the Lord: 'If my covenant of day and night fails, if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth;

33:26 then will I also cast away the seed of Jacob, and of David my servant, so that I will not take of his seed to be rulers over the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: for I will cause their captivity to return, and will have mercy on them.'"

34:1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of it, saying:

34:2 "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'Go, and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, "Thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire:

34:3 and you shall not escape out of his hand, but shall surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and your eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with you mouth to mouth, and you shall go to Babylon.'

34:4 Yet hear the word of the Lord, O Zedekiah king of Judah: thus says the Lord concerning you, 'You shall not die by the sword;

34:5 you shall die in peace; and with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so shall they make a burning for you; and they shall lament you, saying, "Ah Lord!" for I have spoken the word,' says the Lord."'"

34:6 Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem,

34:7 when the king of Babylon's army was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah; for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities.

34:8 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them;

34:9 that every man should let his male servant, and every man his female servant, who is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that none should make bondservants of them, of a Jew his brother.

34:10 All the princes and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant, that everyone should let his male servant, and everyone his female servant, go free, that none should make bondservants of them any more; they obeyed, and let them go:

34:11 but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

34:12 Therefore the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

34:13 "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: 'I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying,

34:14 "At the end of seven years you shall let go every man his brother who is a Hebrew, who has been sold to you, and has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you": but your fathers did not listen to me, neither inclined their ear.

34:15 You had now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:

34:16 but you turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their pleasure, to return; and you brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids.

34:17 Therefore thus says the Lord: "You have not listened to me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim to you a liberty, says the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.

34:18 I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts;

34:19 the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf;

34:20 I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and their dead bodies shall be for food to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth.

34:21 Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, who have gone away from you.

34:22 Behold, I will command, says the Lord, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant."'"

Eph 2:1–22

1 You were made alive when you were dead in your transgressions and sins,

2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience;

3 among whom we also all once lived in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

4 But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love with which he loved us,

5 even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

6 and raised us up with him, and made us to sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

7 that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus;

8 for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,

9 not of works, that no one would boast.

10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared before that we would walk in them.

11 Therefore remember that once you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called "uncircumcision" by that which is called "circumcision," (in the flesh, made by hands);

12 that you were at that time separate from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off are made near in the blood of Christ.

14 For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition,

15 having abolished in the flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace;

16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having killed the hostility thereby.

17 He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near.

18 For through him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father.

19 So then you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,

20 being built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief cornerstone;

21 in whom the whole building, fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord;

22 in whom you also are built together for a habitation of God in the Spirit.

Ps 123:1–4

1 To you I do lift up my eyes, you who sit in the heavens.

2 Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress; so our eyes look to the Lord, our God, until he has mercy on us.

3 Have mercy on us, Lord, have mercy on us, for we have endured much contempt.

4 Our soul is exceedingly filled with the scoffing of those who are at ease, with the contempt of the proud.