Day 289 of 365

¹Now it happened in the seventh month, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, the son of Elishama, of the royal family and one of the chief officers of the king, and ten men with him, came to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and there they ate bread together in Mizpah.

²Then arose Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men who were with him, and struck Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan with the sword, and killed him, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land.

³Ishmael also killed all the Jews who were with him, with Gedaliah, at Mizpah, and the Chaldeans who were found there, the men of war.

⁴It happened the second day after he had killed Gedaliah, and no man knew it,

⁵that there came men from Shechem, from Shiloh, and from Samaria, even eighty men, having their beards shaved and their clothes torn, and having cut themselves, with meal offerings and frankincense in their hand, to bring them to the house of the Lord.

⁶Ishmael the son of Nethaniah went forth from Mizpah to meet them, weeping all along as he went: and it happened, as he met them, he said to them, "Come to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam."

⁷It was so, when they came into the midst of the city, that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah killed them, and cast them into the midst of the pit, he, and the men who were with him.

⁸But ten men were found among those who said to Ishmael, "Do not kill us; for we have stores hidden in the field, of wheat, and of barley, and of oil, and of honey. So he stopped, and did not kill them among their brothers.

⁹Now the pit in which Ishmael cast all the dead bodies of the men whom he had killed, by the side of Gedaliah (the same was who which Asa the king had made for fear of Baasha king of Israel), Ishmael the son of Nethaniah filled it with those who were killed.

¹⁰Then Ishmael carried away captive all the residue of the people who were in Mizpah, even the king's daughters, and all the people who remained in Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had committed to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam; Ishmael the son of Nethaniah carried them away captive, and departed to go over to the children of Ammon.

¹¹But when Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, heard of all the evil that Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had done,

¹²then they took all the men, and went to fight with Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, and found him by the great waters that are in Gibeon.

¹³Now it happened that, when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, then they were glad.

¹⁴So all the people who Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned about and came back, and went to Johanan the son of Kareah.

¹⁵But Ishmael the son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men, and went to the children of Ammon.

¹⁶Then took Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael the son of Nethaniah, from Mizpah, after that he had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, the men of war, and the women, and the children, and the eunuchs, whom he had brought back from Gibeon:

¹⁷and they departed, and lived in Geruth Chimham, which is by Bethlehem, to go to enter into Egypt,

¹⁸because of the Chaldeans; for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had killed Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon made governor over the land.

¹Then all the captains of the forces, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and Jezaniah the son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least even to the greatest, came near,

²and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Please let our supplication be presented before you, and pray for us to the Lord your God, even for all this remnant; for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes do see us:

³that the Lord your God may show us the way in which we should walk, and the thing that we should do."

⁴Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, "I have heard you; behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your words; and it shall happen that whatever thing the Lord shall answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you."

⁵Then they said to Jeremiah, "The Lord be a true and faithful witness among us, if we do not do according to all the word with which the Lord your God shall send you to us.

⁶Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the Lord our God."

⁷It happened after ten days, that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah.

⁸Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,

⁹and said to them, "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him:

¹⁰'If you will still live in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up; for I grieve over the distress that I have brought on you.

¹¹Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; do not be afraid of him, says the Lord: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.

¹²I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you, and cause you to return to your own land.'

¹³But if you say, 'We will not dwell in this land'; so that you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God,

¹⁴saying, 'No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell':

¹⁵now therefore hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, 'If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to live there;

¹⁶then it shall happen, that the sword, which you fear, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are afraid, shall follow close behind you there in Egypt; and there you shall die.

¹⁷So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to live there: they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence; and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring on them.'

¹⁸For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: 'As my anger and my wrath has been poured forth on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so shall my wrath be poured forth on you, when you shall enter into Egypt; and you shall be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and you shall see this place no more.'

¹⁹The Lord has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, 'Do not go into Egypt': know certainly that I have testified to you this day.

²⁰For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to the Lord your God, saying, 'Pray for us to the Lord our God; and according to all that the Lord our God shall say, so declare to us, and we will do it':

²¹and I have this day declared it to you; but you have not obeyed the voice of the Lord your God in anything for which he has sent me to you.

²²Now therefore know certainly that you shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place where you desire to go to live there."

¹It happened that, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking to all the people all the words of the Lord their God, with which the Lord their God had sent him to them, even all these words,

²then spoke Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying to Jeremiah, "You speak falsely. The Lord our God has not sent you to say, 'You shall not go into Egypt to live there';

³but Baruch the son of Neriah sets you on against us, to deliver us into the hand of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death, and carry us away captive to Babylon."

⁴So 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.

⁵But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, who were returned from all the nations where they had been driven, to live in the land of Judah;

⁶the men, and the women, and the children, and 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; and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah;

⁷and they came into the land of Egypt; for they did not obey the voice of the Lord: and they came to Tahpanhes.

⁸Then came the word of the Lord 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;

¹⁰and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and will set his throne on these stones that I have hidden; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.

¹¹He shall come, and shall strike the land of Egypt; such as are for death shall be put to death, and such as are for captivity to captivity, and such as are for the sword to the sword.

¹²I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captive: and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment; and he shall go forth from there in peace.

¹³He shall also break the pillars of Beth Shemesh, that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of Egypt shall he burn with fire."'"

¹Lord, you have searched me, and you know me.

²You know my sitting down and my rising up. You perceive my thoughts from afar.

³You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.

⁴For there is not a word on my tongue, but, behold, Lord, you know it altogether.

⁵You hem me in behind and before. You laid your hand on me.

⁶This knowledge is beyond me. It's lofty. I can't attain it.

⁷Where could I go from your Spirit? Or where could I flee from your presence?

⁸If I ascend up into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there!

⁹If I take the wings of the dawn, and settle in the uttermost parts of the sea;

¹⁰Even there your hand will lead me, and your right hand will hold me.

¹¹If I say, "Surely the darkness will overwhelm me; the light around me will be night;"

¹²even the darkness doesn't hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness is like light to you.

¹³For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb.

¹⁴I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well.

¹⁵My frame wasn't hidden from you, when I was made in secret, woven together in the depths of the earth.

¹⁶Your eyes saw my body. In your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there were none of them.

¹⁷How precious to me are your thoughts, God! How vast is the sum of them!

¹⁸If I would count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I wake up, I am still with you.

¹⁹If only you, God, would kill the wicked. Get away from me, you bloodthirsty men!

²⁰For they speak against you wickedly. Your enemies take your name in vain.

²¹Lord, do I not hate those who hate you? Am I not grieved with those who rise up against you?

²²I hate them with perfect hatred. They have become my enemies.

²³Search me, God, and know my heart. Try me, and know my thoughts.

²⁴See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way.

¹The proverbs of Solomon. A wise son makes a glad father; but a foolish son brings grief to his mother.

²Treasures of wickedness profit nothing, but righteousness delivers from death.

³The Lord will not allow the soul of the righteous to go hungry, but he thrusts away the desire of the wicked.

⁴He becomes poor who works with a lazy hand, but the hand of the diligent brings wealth.

⁵He who gathers in summer is a wise son, but he who sleeps during the harvest is a son who causes shame.

⁶Blessings are on the head of the righteous, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.

⁷The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.

⁸The wise in heart accept commandments, but a chattering fool will fall.

⁹He who walks blamelessly walks surely, but he who perverts his ways will be found out.

¹⁰One winking with the eye causes sorrow, but a chattering fool will fall.

¹¹The mouth of the righteous is a spring of life, but violence covers the mouth of the wicked.

¹²Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs.

¹³Wisdom is found on the lips of him who has discernment, but a rod is for the back of him who is void of understanding.

¹⁴Wise men lay up knowledge, but the mouth of the foolish is near ruin.

¹⁵The rich man's wealth is his strong city. The destruction of the poor is their poverty.

¹⁶The labor of the righteous leads to life. The increase of the wicked leads to sin.

¹⁷He is in the way of life who heeds correction, but he who forsakes reproof leads others astray.

¹⁸He who hides hatred has lying lips. He who utters a slander is a fool.

¹⁹In the multitude of words there is no lack of disobedience, but he who restrains his lips does wisely.

²⁰The tongue of the righteous is like choice silver. The heart of the wicked is of little worth.

²¹The lips of the righteous feed many, but the foolish die for lack of understanding.

²²The Lord's blessing brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it.

²³It is a fool's pleasure to do wickedness, but wisdom is a man of understanding's pleasure.

²⁴What the wicked fear, will overtake them, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.

²⁵When the whirlwind passes, the wicked is no more; but the righteous stand firm forever.

²⁶As vinegar to the teeth, and as smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him.

²⁷The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked shall be shortened.

²⁸The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hope of the wicked will perish.

²⁹The way of the Lord is a stronghold to the upright, but it is a destruction to the workers of iniquity.

³⁰The righteous will never be removed, but the wicked will not dwell in the land.

³¹The mouth of the righteous brings forth wisdom, but the perverse tongue will be cut off.

³²The lips of the righteous know what is acceptable, but the mouth of the wicked is perverse.