Bible Reading
November 23
The World English Bible
Nov. 23
Jeremiah 42-45
Jer 42:1 Then 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,
Jer 42:2 and said to Jeremiah the prophet, Let, we pray you, our supplication be presented before you, and pray for us to Yahweh your God, even for all this remnant; for we are left but a few of many, as your eyes do see us:
Jer 42:3 that Yahweh your God may show us the way in which we should walk, and the thing that we should do.
Jer 42:4 Then Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard you; behold, I will pray to Yahweh your God according to your words; and it shall happen that whatever thing Yahweh shall answer you, I will declare it to you; I will keep nothing back from you.
Jer 42:5 Then they said to Jeremiah, Yahweh be a true and faithful witness among us, if we don't do according to all the word with which Yahweh your God shall send you to us.
Jer 42:6 Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of Yahweh our God, to whom we send you; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of Yahweh our God.
Jer 42:7 It happened after ten days, that the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah.
Jer 42:8 Then 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,
Jer 42:9 and said to them, Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him:
Jer 42:10 If you will still abide 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.
Jer 42:11 Don't be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid; don't be afraid of him, says Yahweh: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.
Jer 42:12 I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you, and cause you to return to your own land.
Jer 42:13 But if you say, We will not dwell in this land; so that you don't obey the voice of Yahweh your God,
Jer 42:14 saying, 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:
Jer 42:15 now therefore hear you the word of Yahweh, O remnant of Judah: Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, If you indeed set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;
Jer 42:16 then 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 hard after you there in Egypt; and there you shall die.
Jer 42:17 So shall it be with all the men who set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn 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.
Jer 42:18 For thus says Yahweh of Armies, 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.
Jer 42:19 Yahweh has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah, Don't you go into Egypt: know certainly that I have testified to you this day.
Jer 42:20 For you have dealt deceitfully against your own souls; for you sent me to Yahweh your God, saying, Pray for us to Yahweh our God; and according to all that Yahweh our God shall say, so declare to us, and we will do it:
Jer 42:21 and I have this day declared it to you; but you have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh your God in anything for which he has sent me to you.
Jer 42:22 Now 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 sojourn there.
Jer 43:1 It happened that, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking to all the people all the words of Yahweh their God, with which Yahweh their God had sent him to them, even all these words,
Jer 43:2 then spoke Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the proud men, saying to Jeremiah, You speak falsely: Yahweh our God has not sent you to say, You shall not go into Egypt to sojourn there;
Jer 43:3 but 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.
Jer 43:4 So Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, and all the people, didn't obey the voice of Yahweh, to dwell in the land of Judah.
Jer 43:5 But 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 sojourn in the land of Judah;
Jer 43:6 the 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;
Jer 43:7 and they came into the land of Egypt; for they didn't obey the voice of Yahweh: and they came to Tahpanhes.
Jer 43:8 Then came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah in Tahpanhes, saying,
Jer 43:9 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;
Jer 43:10 and tell them, Thus says Yahweh of Armies, 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.
Jer 43:11 He shall come, and shall strike the land of Egypt; such as are for death shall be givento death, and such as are for captivity to captivity, and such as are for the sword to the sword.
Jer 43:12 I 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.
Jer 43:13 He 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.
Jer 44:1 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,
Jer 44:2 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: You have seen all the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, and on all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no man dwells therein,
Jer 44:3 because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense, and to serve other gods, that they didn't know, neither they, nor you, nor your fathers.
Jer 44:4 However I sent to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Oh, don't do this abominable thing that I hate.
Jer 44:5 But they didn't listen, nor inclined their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods.
Jer 44:6 Therefore my wrath and my anger was poured forth, and was kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.
Jer 44:7 Therefore now thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, the God of Israel: Why commit you this great evil against your own souls, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and suckling, out of the midst of Judah, to leave you none remaining;
Jer 44:8 in that you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you are gone to sojourn; that you may be cut off, and that you may be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth?
Jer 44:9 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 wives which they committed in the land of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem?
Jer 44:10 They are not humbled even to this day, neither have they feared, nor walked in my law, nor in my statutes, that I set before you and before your fathers.
Jer 44:11 Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Behold, I will set my face against you for evil, even to cut off all Judah.
Jer 44:12 I will take the remnant of Judah, that have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, and they shall all be consumed; in the land of Egypt shall they fall; they shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine; they shall die, from the least even to the greatest, by the sword and by the famine; and they shall be an object of horror, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach.
Jer 44:13 For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence;
Jer 44:14 so that none of the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall escape or be left, to return into the land of Judah, to which they have a desire to return to dwell there: for none shall return save such as shall escape.
Jer 44:15 Then all the men who knew that their wives burned incense to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, even all the people who lived in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 44:16 As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Yahweh, we will not listen to you.
Jer 44:17 But we will certainly perform every word that is gone forth out of our mouth, to burn incense to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers, our kings and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem; for then had we plenty of food, and were well, and saw no evil.
Jer 44:18 But since we left off burning incense to the queen of the sky, and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine.
Jer 44:19 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?
Jer 44:20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men, and to the women, even to all the people who had given him an answer, saying,
Jer 44:21 The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, didn't Yahweh remember them, and didn't it come into his mind?
Jer 44:22 so that Yahweh could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which you have committed; therefore is your land become a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day.
Jer 44:23 Because you have burned incense, and because you have sinned against Yahweh, and have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil is happened to you, as it is this day.
Jer 44:24 Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people, and to all the women, Hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt:
Jer 44:25 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, saying, You and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and with your hands have fulfilled it, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to her: establish then your vows, and perform your vows.
Jer 44:26 Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says Yahweh, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, As the Lord Yahweh lives.
Jer 44:27 Behold, I watch over them for evil, and not for good; and all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by the famine, until there be an end of them.
Jer 44:28 Those who escape the sword shall return out of the land of Egypt into the land of Judah, few in number; and all the remnant of Judah, who have gone into the land of Egypt to sojourn there, shall know whose word shall stand, mine, or theirs.
Jer 44:29 This shall be the sign to you, says Yahweh, that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that my words shall surely stand against you for evil:
Jer 44:30 Thus says Yahweh, Behold, 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.
Jer 45:1 The message that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,
Jer 45:2 Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, to you, Baruch:
Jer 45:3 You did say, Woe is me now! for Yahweh has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.
Jer 45:4 You shall tell him, Thus says Yahweh: Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up; and this in the whole land.
Jer 45:5 Seek you great things for yourself? Don't seek them; for, behold, I will bring evil on all flesh, says Yahweh; but your life will I give to you for a prey in all places where you go.
Nov. 23
Hebrews 9
Heb 9:1 Now indeed even the first covenant had ordinances of divine service, and an earthly sanctuary.
Heb 9:2 For a tabernacle was prepared. In the first part were the lampstand, the table, and the show bread; which is called the Holy Place.
Heb 9:3 After the second veil was the tabernacle which is called the Holy of Holies,
Heb 9:4 having a golden altar of incense, and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which was a golden pot holding the manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;
Heb 9:5 and above it cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat, of which things we can't speak now in detail.
Heb 9:6 Now these things having been thus prepared, the priests go in continually into the first tabernacle, accomplishing the services,
Heb 9:7 but into the second the high priest alone, once in the year, not without blood, which he offers for himself, and for the errors of the people.
Heb 9:8 The Holy Spirit is indicating this, that the way into the Holy Place wasn't yet revealed while the first tabernacle was still standing;
Heb 9:9 which is a symbol of the present age, where gifts and sacrifices are offered that are incapable, concerning the conscience, of making the worshipper perfect;
Heb 9:10 being only (with meats and drinks and various washings) fleshly ordinances, imposed until a time of reformation.
Heb 9:11 But Christ having come as a high priest of the coming good things, through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation,
Heb 9:12 nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but through his own blood, entered in once for all into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption.
Heb 9:13 For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled, sanctify to the cleanness of the flesh:
Heb 9:14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Heb 9:15 For this reason he is the mediator of a new covenant, since a death has occurred for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first covenant, that those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.
Heb 9:16 For where a last will and testament is, there must of necessity be the death of him who made it.
Heb 9:17 For a will is in force where there has been death, for it is never in force while he who made it lives.
Heb 9:18 Therefore even the first covenant has not been dedicated without blood.
Heb 9:19 For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,
Heb 9:20 saying, "This is the blood of the covenant which God has commanded you."
Heb 9:21 Moreover he sprinkled the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry in like manner with the blood.
Heb 9:22 According to the law, nearly everything is cleansed with blood, and apart from shedding of blood there is no remission.
Heb 9:23 It was necessary therefore that the copies of the things in the heavens should be cleansed with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24 For Christ hasn't entered into holy places made with hands, which are representations of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;
Heb 9:25 nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters into the holy place year by year with blood not his own,
Heb 9:26 or else he must have suffered often since the foundation of the world. But now once at the end of the ages, he has been revealed to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Heb 9:27 Inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once, and after this, judgment,
Heb 9:28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, without sin, to those who are eagerly waiting for him for salvation.
After Cain killed his brother Abel, the Lord punished the first recorded murderer saying, “So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth” (Genesis 4:11-12, emp. added). Critics have accused God of error in His sentencing of Cain. According to Dennis McKinsey, Genesis 4:12 represents “one of the earliest false prophecies” in the Bible. “Instead of becoming a vagabond as was forecast, Cain took a wife, built a city, established a line of descendants and seems to have led a settled life” (McKinsey, 1995, p. 298). Skeptic Steve Wells contends Genesis 4:16-17 indicates that “Cain will settle down,” but “[t]his is not the activity one would expect from a fugitive and a vagabond” (2014, emp. added). So which is it? Did Cain become a wanderer or a settler?
It might be tempting to get the wrong impression and think that making assumptions in science is a bad practice, especially upon reading various writings from the creationist community. Creation scientists, for instance, correctly relate many of the problems inherent in the assumptions of evolutionary geologic dating techniques that tend to yield extremely old ages for the items they test. But do not fall victim to the same fallacy that the evolutionary community makes in assuming too much. As is the case with the fact that scientific theories can be good things (see