Day 306 of 365

Jer 51:33–64

33 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time when it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest shall come for her.

34 'Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me, he has crushed me, he has made me an empty vessel, he has, like a monster, swallowed me up, he has filled his maw with my delicacies; he has cast me out.

35 The violence done to me and to my flesh be on Babylon,' shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and, 'My blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea,' shall Jerusalem say.

36 Therefore thus says the Lord: "Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.

37 Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.

38 They shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl as lions' cubs.

39 When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake," says the Lord.

40 "I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.

41 How is Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! How is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!

42 The sea has come up on Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of its waves.

43 Her cities are become a desolation, a dry land, and a desert, a land in which no man dwells, neither does any son of man pass thereby.

44 I will execute judgment on Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he has swallowed up; and the nations shall not flow any more to him: yes, the wall of Babylon shall fall."

45 "My people, go away from the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of the Lord.

46 Do not let your heart faint, neither fear for the news that shall be heard in the land; for news shall come one year, and after that in another year shall come news, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.

47 Therefore behold, the days come, that I will execute judgment on the engraved images of Babylon; and her whole land shall be confounded; and all her slain shall fall in the midst of her.

48 Then the heavens and the earth, and all that is therein, shall sing for joy over Babylon; for the destroyers shall come to her from the north," says the Lord.

49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land.

50 You who have escaped the sword, go, do not stand still; remember the Lord from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.

51 "We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; confusion has covered our faces: for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the Lord's house."

52 "Therefore behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that I will execute judgment on her engraved images; and through all her land the wounded shall groan.

53 Though Babylon should mount up to the sky, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, yet from me shall destroyers come to her," says the Lord.

54 "The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!"

55 For the Lord lays Babylon waste, and destroys out of her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters; the noise of their voice is uttered:

56 for the destroyer has come on her, even on Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for the Lord is a God of recompenses, he will surely requite.

57 "I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her deputies, and her mighty men; and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up," says the King, whose name is the Lord of hosts.

58 Thus says the Lord of hosts: "The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly overthrown, and her high gates shall be burned with fire; and the peoples shall labor for vanity, and the nations for the fire; and they shall be weary."

59 The word which Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, when he went with Zedekiah the king of Judah to Babylon in the fourth year of his reign. Now Seraiah was chief quartermaster.

60 Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.

61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, "When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words,

62 and say, 'Lord, you have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, that none shall dwell therein, neither man nor animal, but that it shall be desolate forever.'

63 It shall be, when you have made an end of reading this book, that you shall bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of the Euphrates:

64 and you shall say, 'Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise again because of the evil that I will bring on her; and they shall be weary.'" Thus far are the words of Jeremiah.

Col 1:1–29

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, and Timothy our brother,

2 to the saints and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.

3 We give thanks to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you,

4 having heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and of the love which you have toward all the saints,

5 because of the hope which is laid up for you in the heavens, of which you heard before in the word of the truth of the Good News,

6 which has come to you; even as it is in all the world and is bearing fruit and growing, as it does in you also, since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth;

7 even as you learned of Epaphras our beloved fellow servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf,

8 who also declared to us your love in the Spirit.

9 For this cause, we also, since the day we heard this, do not cease praying and making requests for you, that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,

10 that you may walk worthily of the Lord, to please him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;

11 strengthened with all power, according to the might of his glory, for all endurance and perseverance with joy;

12 giving thanks to the Father, who made you fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light;

13 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love;

14 in whom we have our redemption, the forgiveness of our sins;

15 who is the image of the invisible God, existing before all creation.

16 For by him all things were created, in the heavens and on the earth, things visible and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers; all things have been created through him, and for him.

17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together.

18 He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.

19 For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him;

20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself, by him, whether things on the earth, or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

21 You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works,

22 yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without blemish and blameless before him,

23 if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the Good News which you heard, which is being proclaimed in all creation under heaven; of which I, Paul, was made a servant.

24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and fill up on my part that which is lacking of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church;

25 of which I was made a servant, according to the stewardship of God which was given me toward you, to fulfill the word of God,

26 the mystery which has been hidden for ages and generations. But now it has been revealed to his saints,

27 to them God was pleased to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory;

28 whom we proclaim, admonishing every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus;

29 for which I also labor, striving according to his working, which works in me mightily.

Ps 127:1–5

1 Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchman guards it in vain.

2 It is vain for you to rise up early, to stay up late, eating the bread of toil; for he gives sleep to his loved ones.

3 Behold, children are a heritage of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is his reward.

4 As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of youth.

5 Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. They won't be disappointed when they speak with their enemies in the gate.