Day 281 of 365

¹"The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of your altars;

²while their children remember their altars and their Asherim by the green trees on the high hills.

³My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures for a spoil, and your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.

⁴You, even of yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you do not know: for you have kindled a fire in my anger which shall burn forever."

⁵Thus says the Lord: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord.

⁶For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited.

⁷Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose trust the Lord is.

⁸For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?

¹⁰I, the Lord, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

¹¹As the partridge that sits on eggs which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right; in the midst of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool."

¹²"A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.

¹³Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be disappointed. Those who depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living waters.

¹⁴Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for you are my praise.

¹⁵Behold, they tell me, 'Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now.'

¹⁶As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you; neither have I desired the woeful day; you know: that which came out of my lips was before your face.

¹⁷Do not be a terror to me: you are my refuge in the day of evil.

¹⁸Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but let not me be disappointed; let them be dismayed, but do not let me be dismayed; bring on them the day of disaster, and destroy them with double destruction."

¹⁹Thus said the Lord to me: "Go, and stand in the gate of the children of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in, and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;

²⁰and tell them, 'Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:

²¹Thus says the Lord, "Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

²²neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day holy, neither do any work: but make the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.

²³But they did not listen, neither turn their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction.

²⁴It shall happen, if you diligently listen to me," says the Lord, "to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein;

²⁵then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever.

²⁶They shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the hill country, and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meal offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, to the house of the Lord.

²⁷But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched."'"

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

²"Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause you to hear my words."

³Then I went down to the potter's house, and behold, he was making a work on the wheels.

⁴When the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

⁶"'House of Israel, can't I do with you as this potter?' says the Lord. 'Behold, as the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.'

⁷At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;

⁸if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do to them.

⁹At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;

¹⁰if they do that which is evil in my sight, that they not obey my voice, then I will repent of the good, with which I said I would benefit them.

¹¹Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, 'Thus says the Lord: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return now everyone from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.'

¹²But they say, 'It is in vain; for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do everyone after the stubbornness of his evil heart.'"

¹³Therefore thus says the Lord: "Ask now among the nations, who has heard such things; the virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.

¹⁴Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? Shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?

¹⁵For my people have forgotten me, they have burned incense to false gods; and they have been made to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in byways, in a way not built up;

¹⁶to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

¹⁷I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity."

¹⁸Then they said, "Come, and let us make plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words."

¹⁹"Give heed to me, Lord, and listen to the voice of those who contend with me.

²⁰Shall evil be recompensed for good? For they have dug a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.

²¹Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, and their young men struck of the sword in battle.

²²Let a cry be heard from their houses, when you shall bring a troop suddenly on them; for they have dug a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

²³Yet, Lord, you know all their counsel against me to kill me; do not forgive their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be overthrown before you; deal you with them in the time of your anger."

¹Thus said the Lord, "Go, and buy a potter's earthen bottle, and take some of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests;

²and go forth to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell you;

³and say, 'Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, "Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which whoever hears, his ears shall tingle.

⁴Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it to other gods, that they did not know, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents,

⁵and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings to Baal; which I did not command, nor spoke it, neither came it into my mind:

⁶therefore, behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter.

⁷I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life: and their dead bodies will I give to be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth.

⁸I will make this city an astonishment, and a hissing; everyone who passes thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.

⁹I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters; and they shall eat everyone the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies, and those who seek their life, shall distress them."'

¹⁰Then you shall break the bottle in the sight of the men who go with you,

¹¹and shall tell them, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, that can't be made whole again; and they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury.

¹²Thus will I do to this place," says the Lord, "and to its inhabitants, even making this city as Topheth:

¹³and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the army of the sky, and have poured out drink offerings to other gods."'"

¹⁴Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord's house, and said to all the people:

¹⁵"Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Behold, I will bring on this city and on all its towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it; because they have made their neck stiff, that they may not hear my words.'"

¹Lord, my heart isn't haughty, nor my eyes lofty; nor do I concern myself with great matters, or things too wonderful for me.

²Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me.

³Israel, hope in the Lord, from this time forth and forevermore.

¹My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you;

²So as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

³Yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;

⁴If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures:

⁵then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

⁶For the Lord gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

⁷He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity;

⁸that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his holy ones.

⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.

¹⁰For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

¹¹Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,

¹²to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things;

¹³who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

¹⁴who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil;

¹⁵who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths:

¹⁶To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;

¹⁷who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God:

¹⁸for her house leads down to death, her paths to the dead.

¹⁹None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life:

²⁰that you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.

²²But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.