Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness. 2 Timothy 3:16

Jeremiah 43-44

Jeremiah 43

Jeremiah Taken to Egypt

¹ It happened that when Jeremiah had finished speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God, every word which the LORD had given him to tell them, ² then Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, “You are lying! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You shall not go into Egypt to live there,’ ³ but Baruch the son of Neriah has turned you against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans that they may put us to death and take us captive to Babylon.”

⁴ So Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces and all the people, did not obey the voice of the LORD, to dwell in the land of Judah. ⁵ But Johanan the son of Kareah and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, who had returned from all the nations where they had been driven, to live in the land of Judah; ⁶ the men, the women, the children, the king’s daughters, and every person who Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, along with Jeremiah the prophet and Baruch the son of Neriah. ⁷ They came into the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the LORD, and they came to Tahpanhes.

⁸ Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying, ⁹ “Take great stones in your hand and hide them in mortar in the brick work, which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah. ¹⁰ Tell them, the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says, ‘I will send for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon and take my servant. I will set his throne over these stones that I have hidden, and he will spread his royal pavilion over them. ¹¹ He will come and will strike the land of Egypt. Those destined for death will be put to death, and those destined for captivity to captivity, and those destined for the sword to the sword.

¹² I will set fire to the houses of the gods of Egypt. He will burn them down and take the people captive. He will array himself with the land of Egypt, like a shepherd puts on his garment, and he will leave there in peace. ¹³ He will also break the pillars of Beth Shemesh that is in the land of Egypt, and he will burn down the houses of the gods of Egypt.’ ”

Jeremiah 44

Judgment on the Jews in Egypt

¹ The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who lived in the land of Egypt, who lived at Migdol, and at Tahpanhes, and at Memphis, and in the country of Pathros, saying, ² “The LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel says, ‘You have seen all the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah. Today they are desolate, and no man dwells in them ³ because of their wickedness which they have committed, provoking me to anger by burning incense in service to other gods that they did not know, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers.

⁴ However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying: Oh, do not do this abominable thing that I hate.

⁵ But they did not listen and did not incline their ear. They did not turn from their wickedness and stop burning incense to other gods. ⁶ Therefore my wrath and my anger was poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, and they are wasted and desolate, as it is today.’

⁷ Therefore now the LORD, the God of Hosts, the God of Israel, says, ‘Why are you committing this great evil against your own souls, to cut off from yourselves man and woman, infant and nursing child from the midst of Judah, to leave yourselves without anyone remaining, ⁸ provoking me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to live, that you may be cut off and that you may be an object of cursing and reproach among all the nations of the earth?

⁹ Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers and the wickedness of the kings of Judah and the wickedness of their wives and your own wickedness and the wickedness of your own wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁰ They are not humbled even to this day, nor have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.’

¹¹ Therefore the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says, ‘I will set my face against you for disaster, to cut off all Judah. ¹² I will take the remnant of Judah, who are determined to go into the land of Egypt to live there, and they will all be consumed. They will fall in the land of Egypt. They will be consumed by sword and by famine. They will die, from the least to the greatest, by sword and by famine. They will be an object of horror, an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.

¹³ For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt as I have punished Jerusalem, by sword, famine, and pestilence, ¹⁴ so that not one from the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to live there, will escape or be left to return into the land of Judah, to which they desire to return and live, for no one will return except those who will escape.’ ”

The Stubbornness of the People

¹⁵ Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying, ¹⁶ “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you. ¹⁷ But we will certainly perform every word which has come from our mouths, burning incense to the queen of the sky and pouring out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our leaders, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then had we plenty of food, and we were well and saw no disaster. ¹⁸ But since we stopped burning incense to the queen of the sky and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by sword and by famine.

¹⁹ When we burned incense to the queen of the sky and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make her cakes to worship her and pour out drink offerings to her, without our husbands’ knowledge?”

The Final Judgment

²⁰ Then Jeremiah said to all the people; to the men, and to the women, to all the people who had given him an answer, saying, ²¹ “The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your leaders, and the people of the land, did God not remember this and bring it to mind? ²² Thus the LORD could no longer bear it, because of the wickedness of your deed and because of the abominations which you have committed. Therefore your land has become desolate and an astonishment and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is today. ²³ Because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against the LORD and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this disaster has happened to you, as it is today.”

²⁴ Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, “Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt! ²⁵ The LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says, ‘You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths and with your hands have fulfilled it, saying: We will surely perform the vows that we have made, burning incense to the queen of the sky and pouring out drink offerings to her.

Go ahead, then. and confirm your vows and do them.’

²⁶ Nevertheless, hear the word the LORD, all Judah who lives in the land of Egypt, ‘I have sworn by my great name,’ says the LORD, ‘that my name will no longer be proclaimed by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying: As the LORD God lives.

²⁷ I am watching over them for disaster and not for good, and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt will be consumed by sword and by famine until they are all gone. ²⁸ Those who escape sword will return from the land of Egypt into the land of Judah few in number. All the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to live there, will know whose word will stand, mine or theirs.

²⁹ This will be the sign to you,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that my words will surely stand against you for disaster.’ ³⁰ The LORD says, ‘I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, who was his enemy and sought his life.’ ”

2 Timothy 3

Evil in the Last Days

¹ But know this, that in the last days, grievous times will come. ² For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, ³ without natural affection, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, fierce, not lovers of good, ⁴ traitors, headstrong, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ holding a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Turn away from these people!

⁶ For some of these are people who creep into houses and take captive gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts, ⁷ always learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind, reprobates concerning the faith. ⁹ But they will proceed no further. For their folly will be evident to all men, as theirs also came to be.

All Scripture is God-Breathed

¹⁰ But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, steadfastness, ¹¹ persecutions, and suffering, the things that happened to me at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. I endured those persecutions, and the Lord delivered me from all of it. ¹² Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. ¹³ But evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.

¹⁴ But you remain in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them. ¹⁵ From infancy, you have known the holy Scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. ¹⁶ Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, ¹⁷ that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Psalm 93-94

Psalm 93

The LORD Reigns

¹ The LORD reigns!
He is clothed with majesty!
The LORD is armed with strength.
The world also is firmly established.
It cannot be moved.
² Your throne is established from long ago.
You are from everlasting.

³ The floods have risen, O LORD.
The floods have raised their voice.
The floods lift up their waves.
⁴ Above the voices of many waters,
the mighty breakers of the sea,
the LORD on high is mighty.
⁵ Your statutes stand firm.
Holiness adorns your house, O LORD,
forevermore.

Psalm 94

The LORD Remembers His People

¹ O LORD, God, to whom vengeance belongs,
you God, to whom vengeance belongs, shine out.
² Rise up. Judge of the earth.
Pay back the proud what they deserve.
³ O LORD, how long will the wicked,
how long will the wicked triumph?

⁴ They pour out arrogant words.
All the evildoers boast.
⁵ They break your people in pieces, LORD,
and afflict your heritage.
⁶ They kill the widow and the alien,
and murder the fatherless.
⁷ They say, “The LORD will not see,
nor will the God of Jacob regard it.”

⁸ Take heed, you senseless among the people,
you fools. When will you be wise?
⁹ He who implanted the ear, will he not hear?
He who formed the eye, will he not see?
¹⁰ He who disciplines the nations, will he not punish?
He who teaches man knows.
¹¹ The LORD knows the thoughts of man,
that they are futile.

¹² Blessed is the man whom you discipline, O LORD,
and teach from your law,
¹³ that you may give him rest from the days of adversity,
until the pit is dug for the wicked.
¹⁴ For the LORD will not reject his people,
nor will he forsake his inheritance.
¹⁵ For judgment will return to righteousness.
All the upright in heart shall follow it.

¹⁶ Who will rise up for me against the wicked?
Who will stand up for me against those who do evil?
¹⁷ Unless the LORD had been my help,
my soul would have soon dwelt in the silence of the grave.
¹⁸ When I said, “My foot is slipping!”
Your loving kindness, O LORD, held me up.
¹⁹ In the multitude of my thoughts within me,
your comforts delight my soul.

²⁰ Shall the throne of wickedness have fellowship with you,
which, by its own statute, brings about mischief?
²¹ They gather themselves together against the the righteous,
and condemn the innocent blood.
²² But the LORD has been my high tower,
my God, the rock of my refuge.
²³ He has brought on them their own iniquity
and will cut them off in their own wickedness.
The LORD, our God, will cut them off.

Proverbs 26:6-8

⁶ One who sends a message by the hand of a fool
is cutting off feet and drinking violence.
⁷ Like the legs of the lame that hang loose,
so is a parable in the mouth of fools.
⁸ As one who binds a stone in a sling,
so is he who gives honor to a fool.

«       »