November 24, 2017

Thought and action by Gary Rose


Yesterday, Linda and I had thanksgiving dinner with our youngest daughter's family-the Merwins. Wonderful meal and good time all around. After the meal, the conversation somehow migrated to a description of a two-handed sword that they had recently purchased at an auction (for a ridiculously low price, I might add). It is made of solid steel and appeared to be approximately five foot long; in short - a beast!!!

Later on, my son-in-law, Mike, sent me these pictures of our granddaughter Elizabeth (Lizzy) carving the turkey. For those of you who do not know her, she is a quiet and reserved person, with a pleasant sort of impish humor. If you look closely at her face in the pictures, I think you will see what I mean! First, the idea and then its execution, WOW!!!

Being a day of Thanksgiving, I couldn't help but think about what I should be thankful for, so this passage from Paul's letter to the Ephesians came to mind.....


Ephesians, Chapter 1 (World English Bible)
 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,  4 even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love,  5 having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire,(emphasis added vss. 3-5) 6 to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favor in the Beloved,  7 in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace,  8 which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,  9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him 10 to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him.  


God chose us "before the foundation of the world". We have always been wanted and God's plan has always been to have us as HIS CHILDREN. This says a lot about HIM!!! I just can't help but wonder what sort of expression was on HIS face when HE first thought about all this and when the plan was completed?

Bible Reading November 24-26 by Gary Rose

Bible Reading November 24-26
(World English Bible)


Nov. 24
Jeremiah 46-49

Jer 46:1 The word of Yahweh which came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the nations.
Jer 46:2 Of Egypt: concerning the army of Pharaoh Necoh king of Egypt, which was by the river Euphrates in Carchemish, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah.
Jer 46:3 Prepare you the buckler and shield, and draw near to battle.
Jer 46:4 Harness the horses, and get up, you horsemen, and stand forth with your helmets; furbish the spears, put on the coats of mail.
Jer 46:5 Why have I seen it? they are dismayed and are turned backward; and their mighty ones are beaten down, and have fled apace, and don't look back: terror is on every side, says Yahweh.
Jer 46:6 Don't let the swift flee away, nor the mighty man escape; in the north by the river Euphrates have they stumbled and fallen.
Jer 46:7 Who is this who rises up like the Nile, whose waters toss themselves like the rivers?
Jer 46:8 Egypt rises up like the Nile, and his waters toss themselves like the rivers: and he says, I will rise up, I will cover the earth; I will destroy cities and its inhabitants.
Jer 46:9 Go up, you horses; and rage, you chariots; and let the mighty men go forth: Cush and Put, who handle the shield; and the Ludim, who handle and bend the bow.
Jer 46:10 For that day is a day of the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, a day of vengeance, that he may avenge him of his adversaries: and the sword shall devour and be satiate, and shall drink its fill of their blood; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a sacrifice in the north country by the river Euphrates.
Jer 46:11 Go up into Gilead, and take balm, virgin daughter of Egypt: in vain do you use many medicines; there is no healing for you.
Jer 46:12 The nations have heard of your shame, and the earth is full of your cry; for the mighty man has stumbled against the mighty, they are fallen both of them together.
Jer 46:13 The word that Yahweh spoke to Jeremiah the prophet, how that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon should come and strike the land of Egypt.
Jer 46:14 Declare you in Egypt, and publish in Migdol, and publish in Memphis and in Tahpanhes: say you, Stand forth, and prepare you; for the sword has devoured around you.
Jer 46:15 Why are your strong ones swept away? they didn't stand, because Yahweh did drive them.
Jer 46:16 He made many to stumble, yes, they fell one on another: and they said, Arise, and let us go again to our own people, and to the land of our birth, from the oppressing sword.
Jer 46:17 They cried there, Pharaoh king of Egypt is but a noise; he has let the appointed time pass by.
Jer 46:18 As I live, says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies, surely like Tabor among the mountains, and like Carmel by the sea, so shall he come.
Jer 46:19 You daughter who dwell in Egypt, furnish yourself to go into captivity; for Memphis shall become a desolation, and shall be burnt up, without inhabitant.
Jer 46:20 Egypt is a very beautiful heifer; but destruction out of the north is come, it is come.
Jer 46:21 Also her hired men in the midst of her are like calves of the stall; for they also are turned back, they are fled away together, they didn't stand: for the day of their calamity is come on them, the time of their visitation.
Jer 46:22 The sound of it shall go like the serpent; for they shall march with an army, and come against her with axes, as wood cutters.
Jer 46:23 They shall cut down her forest, says Yahweh, though it can't be searched; because they are more than the locusts, and are innumerable.
Jer 46:24 The daughter of Egypt shall be disappointed; she shall be delivered into the hand of the people of the north.
Jer 46:25 Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Behold, I will punish Amon of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with her gods, and her kings; even Pharaoh, and those who trust in him:
Jer 46:26 and I will deliver them into the hand of those who seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants; and afterwards it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, says Yahweh.
Jer 46:27 But don't be afraid you, Jacob my servant, neither be dismayed, Israel: for, behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.
Jer 46:28 Don't be afraid you, O Jacob my servant, says Yahweh; for I am with you: for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have driven you; but I will not make a full end of you, but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished.

Jer 47:1 The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning the Philistines, before that Pharaoh struck Gaza.
Jer 47:2 Thus says Yahweh: Behold, waters rise up out of the north, and shall become an overflowing stream, and shall overflow the land and all that is therein, the city and those who dwell therein; and the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall wail.
Jer 47:3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong ones, at the rushing of his chariots, at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers don't look back to their children for feebleness of hands;
Jer 47:4 because of the day that comes to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains: for Yahweh will destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Caphtor.
Jer 47:5 Baldness is come on Gaza; Ashkelon is brought to nothing, the remnant of their valley: how long will you cut yourself?
Jer 47:6 You sword of Yahweh, how long will it be before you be quiet? put up yourself into your scabbard; rest, and be still.
Jer 47:7 How can you be quiet, seeing Yahweh has given you a command? Against Ashkelon, and against the seashore, there has he appointed it.

Jer 48:1 Of Moab. Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Woe to Nebo! for it is laid waste; Kiriathaim is disappointed, it is taken; Misgab is put to shame and broken down.
Jer 48:2 The praise of Moab is no more; in Heshbon they have devised evil against her: Come, and let us cut her off from being a nation. You also, Madmen, shall be brought to silence: the sword shall pursue you.
Jer 48:3 The sound of a cry from Horonaim, desolation and great destruction!
Jer 48:4 Moab is destroyed; her little ones have caused a cry to be heard.
Jer 48:5 For by the ascent of Luhith with continual weeping shall they go up; for at the descent of Horonaim they have heard the distress of the cry of destruction.
Jer 48:6 Flee, save your lives, and be like the heath in the wilderness.
Jer 48:7 For, because you have trusted in your works and in your treasures, you also shall be taken: and Chemosh shall go forth into captivity, his priests and his princes together.
Jer 48:8 The destroyer shall come on every city, and no city shall escape; the valley also shall perish, and the plain shall be destroyed; as Yahweh has spoken.
Jer 48:9 Give wings to Moab, that she may fly and get her away: and her cities shall become a desolation, without any to dwell therein.
Jer 48:10 Cursed be he who does the work of Yahweh negligently; and cursed be he who keeps back his sword from blood.
Jer 48:11 Moab has been at ease from his youth, and he has settled on his lees, and has not been emptied from vessel to vessel, neither has he gone into captivity: therefore his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed.
Jer 48:12 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will send to him those who pour off, and they shall pour him off; and they shall empty his vessels, and break their bottles in pieces.
Jer 48:13 Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel their confidence.
Jer 48:14 How say you, We are mighty men, and valiant men for the war?
Jer 48:15 Moab is laid waste, and they are gone up into his cities, and his chosen young men are gone down to the slaughter, says the King, whose name is Yahweh of Armies.
Jer 48:16 The calamity of Moab is near to come, and his affliction hurries fast.
Jer 48:17 All you who are around him, bemoan him, and all you who know his name; say, How is the strong staff broken, the beautiful rod!
Jer 48:18 You daughter who dwells in Dibon, come down from your glory, and sit in thirst; for the destroyer of Moab is come up against you, he has destroyed your strongholds.
Jer 48:19 Inhabitant of Aroer, stand by the way, and watch: ask him who flees, and her who escapes; say, What has been done?
Jer 48:20 Moab is disappointed; for it is broken down: wail and cry; tell you it by the Arnon, that Moab is laid waste.
Jer 48:21 Judgment is come on the plain country, on Holon, and on Jahzah, and on Mephaath,
Jer 48:22 and on Dibon, and on Nebo, and on Beth Diblathaim,
Jer 48:23 and on Kiriathaim, and on Beth Gamul, and on Beth Meon,
Jer 48:24 and on Kerioth, and on Bozrah, and on all the cities of the land of Moab, far or near.
Jer 48:25 The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, says Yahweh.
Jer 48:26 Make you him drunken; for he magnified himself against Yahweh: and Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he also shall be in derision.
Jer 48:27 For wasn't Israel a derision to you? was he found among thieves? for as often as you speak of him, you wag the head.
Jer 48:28 You inhabitants of Moab, leave the cities, and dwell in the rock; and be like the dove that makes her nest over the mouth of the abyss.
Jer 48:29 We have heard of the pride of Moab, that he is very proud; his loftiness, and his pride, and his arrogance, and the haughtiness of his heart.
Jer 48:30 I know his wrath, says Yahweh, that it is nothing; his boastings have worked nothing.
Jer 48:31 Therefore will I wail for Moab; yes, I will cry out for all Moab: for the men of Kir Heres shall they mourn.
Jer 48:32 With more than the weeping of Jazer will I weep for you, vine of Sibmah: your branches passed over the sea, they reached even to the sea of Jazer: on your summer fruits and on your vintage the destroyer is fallen.
Jer 48:33 Gladness and joy is taken away from the fruitful field and from the land of Moab; and I have caused wine to cease from the wine presses: none shall tread with shouting; the shouting shall be no shouting.
Jer 48:34 From the cry of Heshbon even to Elealeh, even to Jahaz have they uttered their voice, from Zoar even to Horonaim, to Eglath Shelishiyah: for the waters of Nimrim also shall become desolate.
Jer 48:35 Moreover I will cause to cease in Moab, says Yahweh, him who offers in the high place, and him who burns incense to his gods.
Jer 48:36 Therefore my heart sounds for Moab like pipes, and my heart sounds like pipes for the men of Kir Heres: therefore the abundance that he has gotten is perished.
Jer 48:37 For every head is bald, and every beard clipped: on all the hands are cuttings, and on the waist sackcloth.
Jer 48:38 On all the housetops of Moab and in its streets there is lamentation every where; for I have broken Moab like a vessel in which none delights, says Yahweh.
Jer 48:39 How is it broken down! how do they wail! how has Moab turned the back with shame! so shall Moab become a derision and a terror to all who are around him.
Jer 48:40 For thus says Yahweh: Behold, he shall fly as an eagle, and shall spread out his wings against Moab.
Jer 48:41 Kerioth is taken, and the strongholds are seized, and the heart of the mighty men of Moab at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
Jer 48:42 Moab shall be destroyed from being a people, because he has magnified himself against Yahweh.
Jer 48:43 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are on you, inhabitant of Moab, says Yahweh.
Jer 48:44 He who flees from the fear shall fall into the pit; and he who gets up out of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for I will bring on him, even on Moab, the year of their visitation, says Yahweh.
Jer 48:45 Those who fled stand without strength under the shadow of Heshbon; for a fire is gone forth out of Heshbon, and a flame from the midst of Sihon, and has devoured the corner of Moab, and the crown of the head of the tumultuous ones.
Jer 48:46 Woe to you, O Moab! the people of Chemosh is undone; for your sons are taken away captive, and your daughters into captivity.
Jer 48:47 Yet will I bring back the captivity of Moab in the latter days, says Yahweh. Thus far is the judgment of Moab.

Jer 49:1 Of the children of Ammon. Thus says Yahweh: Has Israel no sons? has he no heir? why then does Malcam possess Gad, and his people well in its cities?
Jer 49:2 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will cause an alarm of war to be heard against Rabbah of the children of Ammon; and it shall become a desolate heap, and her daughters shall be burned with fire: then shall Israel possess those who did possess him, says Yahweh.
Jer 49:3 Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is laid waste; cry, you daughters of Rabbah, gird you with sackcloth: lament, and run back and forth among the fences; for Malcam shall go into captivity, his priests and his princes together.
Jer 49:4 Why glory you in the valleys, your flowing valley, backsliding daughter? who trusted in her treasures, saying, Who shall come to me?
Jer 49:5 Behold, I will bring a fear on you, says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, from all who are around you; and you shall be driven out every man right forth, and there shall be none to gather together the fugitives.
Jer 49:6 But afterward I will bring back the captivity of the children of Ammon, says Yahweh.
Jer 49:7 Of Edom. Thus says Yahweh of Armies: Is wisdom no more in Teman? is counsel perished from the prudent? is their wisdom vanished?
Jer 49:8 Flee you, turn back, dwell in the depths, inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau on him, the time that I shall visit him.
Jer 49:9 If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? if thieves by night, wouldn't they destroy until they had enough?
Jer 49:10 But I have made Esau bare, I have uncovered his secret places, and he shall not be able to hide himself: his seed is destroyed, and his brothers, and his neighbors; and he is no more.
Jer 49:11 Leave your fatherless children, I will preserve them alive; and let your widows trust in me.
Jer 49:12 For thus says Yahweh: Behold, they to whom it didn't pertain to drink of the cup shall certainly drink; and are you he who shall altogether go unpunished? you shall not go unpunished, but you shall surely drink.
Jer 49:13 For I have sworn by myself, says Yahweh, that Bozrah shall become an astonishment, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all its cities shall be perpetual wastes.
Jer 49:14 I have heard news from Yahweh, and an ambassador is sent among the nations, saying, Gather yourselves together, and come against her, and rise up to the battle.
Jer 49:15 For, behold, I have made you small among the nations, and despised among men.
Jer 49:16 As for your terror, the pride of your heart has deceived you, O you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, who hold the height of the hill: though you should make your nest as high as the eagle, I will bring you down from there, says Yahweh.
Jer 49:17 Edom shall become an astonishment: everyone who passes by it shall be astonished, and shall hiss at all its plagues.
Jer 49:18 As in the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities of it, says Yahweh, no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.
Jer 49:19 Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd who will stand before me?
Jer 49:20 Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely they shall drag them away,even the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.
Jer 49:21 The earth trembles at the noise of their fall; there is a cry, the noise which is heard in the Red Sea.
Jer 49:22 Behold, he shall come up and fly as the eagle, and spread out his wings against Bozrah: and the heart of the mighty men of Edom at that day shall be as the heart of a woman in her pangs.
Jer 49:23 Of Damascus. Hamath is confounded, and Arpad; for they have heard evil news, they are melted away: there is sorrow on the sea; it can't be quiet.
Jer 49:24 Damascus has grown feeble, she turns herself to flee, and trembling has seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken hold of her, as of a woman in travail.
Jer 49:25 How is the city of praise not forsaken, the city of my joy?
Jer 49:26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, says Yahweh of Armies.
Jer 49:27 I will kindle a fire in the wall of Damascus, and it shall devour the palaces of Ben Hadad.
Jer 49:28 Of Kedar, and of the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck. Thus says Yahweh: Arise you, go up to Kedar, and destroy the children of the east.
Jer 49:29 Their tents and their flocks shall they take; they shall carry away for themselves their curtains, and all their vessels, and their camels; and they shall cry to them, Terror on every side!
Jer 49:30 Flee you, wander far off, dwell in the depths, you inhabitants of Hazor, says Yahweh; for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against you, and has conceived a purpose against you.
Jer 49:31 Arise, go up to a nation that is at ease, that dwells without care, says Yahweh; that have neither gates nor bars, that dwell alone.
Jer 49:32 Their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their livestock a spoil: and I will scatter to all winds those who have the corners of their hair cut off; and I will bring their calamity from every side of them, says Yahweh.
Jer 49:33 Hazor shall be a dwelling place of jackals, a desolation forever: no man shall dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.
Jer 49:34 The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah the prophet concerning Elam, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying,
Jer 49:35 Thus says Yahweh of Armies: Behold, I will break the bow of Elam, the chief of their might.
Jer 49:36 On Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of the sky, and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation where the outcasts of Elam shall not come.
Jer 49:37 I will cause Elam to be dismayed before their enemies, and before those who seek their life; and I will bring evil on them, even my fierce anger, says Yahweh; and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them;
Jer 49:38 and I will set my throne in Elam, and will destroy from there king and princes, says Yahweh.
Jer 49:39 But it shall happen in the latter days, that I will bring back the captivity of Elam, says Yahweh.

Nov. 25
Jeremiah 50-52

Jer 50:1 The word that Yahweh spoke concerning Babylon, concerning the land of the Chaldeans, by Jeremiah the prophet.
Jer 50:2 Declare you among the nations and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and don't conceal: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is disappointed, Merodach is dismayed; her images are disappointed, her idols are dismayed.
Jer 50:3 For out of the north there comes up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they are fled, they are gone, both man and animal.
Jer 50:4 In those days, and in that time, says Yahweh, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together; they shall go on their way weeping, and shall seek Yahweh their God.
Jer 50:5 They shall inquire concerning Zion with their faces turned toward it, saying, Come you, and join yourselves to Yahweh in an everlasting covenant that shall not be forgotten.
Jer 50:6 My people have been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray; they have turned them away on the mountains; they have gone from mountain to hill; they have forgotten their resting place.
Jer 50:7 All who found them have devoured them; and their adversaries said, We are not guilty, because they have sinned against Yahweh, the habitation of righteousness, even Yahweh, the hope of their fathers.
Jer 50:8 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the male goats before the flocks.
Jer 50:9 For, behold, I will stir up and cause to come up against Babylon a company of great nations from the north country; and they shall set themselves in array against her; from there she shall be taken: their arrows shall be as of an expert mighty man; none shall return in vain.
Jer 50:10 Chaldea shall be a prey: all who prey on her shall be satisfied, says Yahweh.
Jer 50:11 Because you are glad, because you rejoice, O you who plunder my heritage, because you are wanton as a heifer that treads out the grain, and neigh as strong horses;
Jer 50:12 your mother shall be utterly disappointed; she who bore you shall be confounded: behold, she shall be the least of the nations, a wilderness, a dry land, and a desert.
Jer 50:13 Because of the wrath of Yahweh she shall not be inhabited, but she shall be wholly desolate: everyone who goes by Babylon shall be astonished, and hiss at all her plagues.
Jer 50:14 Set yourselves in array against Babylon all around, all you who bend the bow; shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she has sinned against Yahweh.
Jer 50:15 Shout against her all around: she has submitted herself; her bulwarks are fallen, her walls are thrown down; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh: take vengeance on her; as she has done, do to her.
Jer 50:16 Cut off the sower from Babylon, and him who handles the sickle in the time of harvest: for fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn everyone to his people, and they shall flee everyone to his own land.
Jer 50:17 Israel is a hunted sheep; the lions have driven him away: first, the king of Assyria devoured him; and now at last Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has broken his bones.
Jer 50:18 Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Behold, I will punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of Assyria.
Jer 50:19 I will bring Israel again to his pasture, and he shall feed on Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied on the hills of Ephraim and in Gilead.
Jer 50:20 In those days, and in that time, says Yahweh, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I leave as a remnant.
Jer 50:21 Go up against the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod: kill and utterly destroy after them, says Yahweh, and do according to all that I have commanded you.
Jer 50:22 A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.
Jer 50:23 How is the hammer of the whole earth cut apart and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!
Jer 50:24 I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, Babylon, and you weren't aware: you are found, and also caught, because you have striven against Yahweh.
Jer 50:25 Yahweh has opened his armory, and has brought forth the weapons of his indignation; for the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, has a work to do in the land of the Chaldeans.
Jer 50:26 Come against her from the utmost border; open her storehouses; cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly; let nothing of her be left.
Jer 50:27 Kill all her bulls; let them go down to the slaughter: woe to them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation.
Jer 50:28 The voice of those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God, the vengeance of his temple.
Jer 50:29 Call together the archers against Babylon, all those who bend the bow; encamp against her all around; let none of it escape: recompense her according to her work; according to all that she has done, do to her; for she has been proud against Yahweh, against the Holy One of Israel.
Jer 50:30 Therefore shall her young men fall in her streets, and all her men of war shall be brought to silence in that day, says Yahweh.
Jer 50:31 Behold, I am against you, you proud one, says the Lord, Yahweh of Armies; for your day is come, the time that I will visit you.
Jer 50:32 The proud one shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him up; and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all who are around him.
Jer 50:33 Thus says Yahweh of Armies: The children of Israel and the children of Judah are oppressed together; and all who took them captive hold them fast; they refuse to let them go.
Jer 50:34 Their Redeemer is strong; Yahweh of Armies is his name: he will thoroughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the earth, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon.
Jer 50:35 A sword is on the Chaldeans, says Yahweh, and on the inhabitants of Babylon, and on her princes, and on her wise men.
Jer 50:36 A sword is on the boasters, and they shall become fools; a sword is on her mighty men, and they shall be dismayed.
Jer 50:37 A sword is on their horses, and on their chariots, and on all the mixed people who are in the midst of her; and they shall become as women: a sword is on her treasures, and they shall be robbed.
Jer 50:38 A drought is on her waters, and they shall be dried up; for it is a land of engraved images, and they are mad over idols.
Jer 50:39 Therefore the wild animals of the desert with the wolves shall dwell there, and the ostriches shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited forever; neither shall it be lived in from generation to generation.
Jer 50:40 As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbor cities of it, says Yahweh, so shall no man dwell there, neither shall any son of man sojourn therein.
Jer 50:41 Behold, a people comes from the north; and a great nation and many kings shall be stirred up from the uttermost parts of the earth.
Jer 50:42 They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and have no mercy; their voice roars like the sea; and they ride on horses, everyone set in array, as a man to the battle, against you, daughter of Babylon.
Jer 50:43 The king of Babylon has heard the news of them, and his hands wax feeble: anguish has taken hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail.
Jer 50:44 Behold, the enemy shall come up like a lion from the pride of the Jordan against the strong habitation: for I will suddenly make them run away from it; and whoever is chosen, him will I appoint over it: for who is like me? and who will appoint me a time? and who is the shepherd who can stand before me?
Jer 50:45 Therefore hear the counsel of Yahweh, that he has taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he has purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely they shall drag them away, even the little ones of the flock; surely he shall make their habitation desolate over them.
Jer 50:46 At the noise of the taking of Babylon the earth trembles, and the cry is heard among the nations.

Jer 51:1 Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against those who dwell in Lebkamai, a destroying wind.
Jer 51:2 I will send to Babylon strangers, who shall winnow her; and they shall empty her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her around.
Jer 51:3 Against him who bends let the archer bend his bow, and against him who lifts himself up in his coat of mail: and don't you spare her young men; destroy you utterly all her army.
Jer 51:4 They shall fall down slain in the land of the Chaldeans, and thrust through in her streets.
Jer 51:5 For Israel is not forsaken, nor Judah, of his God, of Yahweh of Armies; though their land is full of guilt against the Holy One of Israel.
Jer 51:6 Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; don't be cut off in her iniquity: for it is the time of Yahweh's vengeance; he will render to her a recompense.
Jer 51:7 Babylon has been a golden cup in Yahweh's hand, who made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
Jer 51:8 Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.
Jer 51:9 We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let us go everyone into his own country; for her judgment reaches to heaven, and is lifted up even to the skies.
Jer 51:10 Yahweh has brought forth our righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of Yahweh our God.
Jer 51:11 Make sharp the arrows; hold firm the shields: Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes; because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it: for it is the vengeance of Yahweh, the vengeance of his temple.
Jer 51:12 Set up a standard against the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set the watchmen, prepare the ambushes; for Yahweh has both purposed and done that which he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
Jer 51:13 You who dwell on many waters, abundant in treasures, your end is come, the measure of your covetousness.
Jer 51:14 Yahweh of Armies has sworn by himself, saying, Surely I will fill you with men, as with the canker worm; and they shall lift up a shout against you.
Jer 51:15 He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens:
Jer 51:16 when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightning for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries.
Jer 51:17 Every man is become brutish and is without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by his image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
Jer 51:18 They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
Jer 51:19 The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name.
Jer 51:20 You are my battle axe and weapons of war: and with you will I break in pieces the nations; and with you will I destroy kingdoms;
Jer 51:21 and with you will I break in pieces the horse and his rider;
Jer 51:22 and with you will I break in pieces the chariot and him who rides therein; and with you will I break in pieces man and woman; and with you will I break in pieces the old man and the youth; and with you will I break in pieces the young man and the virgin;
Jer 51:23 and with you will I break in pieces the shepherd and his flock; and with you will I break in pieces the farmer and his yoke of oxen; and with you will I break in pieces governors and deputies.
Jer 51:24 I will render to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have done in Zion in your sight, says Yahweh.
Jer 51:25 Behold, I am against you, destroying mountain, says Yahweh, which destroys all the earth; and I will stretch out my hand on you, and roll you down from the rocks, and will make you a burnt mountain.
Jer 51:26 They shall not take of you a stone for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but you shall be desolate for ever, says Yahweh.
Jer 51:27 Set up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz: appoint a marshal against her; cause the horses to come up as the rough canker worm.
Jer 51:28 Prepare against her the nations, the kings of the Medes, its governors, and all its deputies, and all the land of their dominion.
Jer 51:29 The land trembles and is in pain; for the purposes of Yahweh against Babylon do stand, to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
Jer 51:30 The mighty men of Babylon have forborne to fight, they remain in their strongholds; their might has failed; they are become as women: her dwelling places are set on fire; her bars are broken.
Jer 51:31 One runner will run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to show the king of Babylon that his city is taken on every quarter:
Jer 51:32 and the passages are seized, and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are frightened.
Jer 51:33 For thus says Yahweh of Armies, 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.
Jer 51:34 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.
Jer 51:35 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.
Jer 51:36 Therefore thus says Yahweh: Behold, I will plead your cause, and take vengeance for you; and I will dry up her sea, and make her fountain dry.
Jer 51:37 Babylon shall become heaps, a dwelling place for jackals, an astonishment, and a hissing, without inhabitant.
Jer 51:38 They shall roar together like young lions; they shall growl as lions' cubs.
Jer 51:39 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 Yahweh.
Jer 51:40 I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with male goats.
Jer 51:41 How is Sheshach taken! and the praise of the whole earth seized! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!
Jer 51:42 The sea is come up on Babylon; she is covered with the multitude of its waves.
Jer 51:43 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.
Jer 51:44 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.
Jer 51:45 My people, go you out of the midst of her, and save yourselves every man from the fierce anger of Yahweh.
Jer 51:46 Don't 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.
Jer 51:47 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.
Jer 51:48 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 Yahweh.
Jer 51:49 As Babylon has caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall fall the slain of all the land.
Jer 51:50 You who have escaped the sword, go you, don't stand still; remember Yahweh from afar, and let Jerusalem come into your mind.
Jer 51:51 We are confounded, because we have heard reproach; confusion has covered our faces: for strangers are come into the sanctuaries of Yahweh's house.
Jer 51:52 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will execute judgment on her engraved images; and through all her land the wounded shall groan.
Jer 51:53 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 Yahweh.
Jer 51:54 The sound of a cry from Babylon, and of great destruction from the land of the Chaldeans!
Jer 51:55 For Yahweh 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:
Jer 51:56 for the destroyer is come on her, even on Babylon, and her mighty men are taken, their bows are broken in pieces; for Yahweh is a God of recompenses, he will surely requite.
Jer 51:57 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 Yahweh of Armies.
Jer 51:58 Thus says Yahweh of Armies: 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.
Jer 51:59 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.
Jer 51:60 Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come on Babylon, even all these words that are written concerning Babylon.
Jer 51:61 Jeremiah said to Seraiah, When you come to Babylon, then see that you read all these words,
Jer 51:62 and say, Yahweh, 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.
Jer 51:63 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:
Jer 51:64 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.

Jer 52:1 Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he began to reign; and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem: and his mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
Jer 52:2 He did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, according to all that Jehoiakim had done.
Jer 52:3 For through the anger of Yahweh did it happen in Jerusalem and Judah, until he had cast them out from his presence. Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
Jer 52:4 It happened in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he and all his army, against Jerusalem, and encamped against it; and they built forts against it round about.
Jer 52:5 So the city was besieged to the eleventh year of king Zedekiah.
Jer 52:6 In the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land.
Jer 52:7 Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's garden; (now the Chaldeans were against the city all around;) and they went toward the Arabah.
Jer 52:8 But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king, and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered from him.
Jer 52:9 Then they took the king, and carried him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; and he gave judgment on him.
Jer 52:10 The king of Babylon killed the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he killed also all the princes of Judah in Riblah.
Jer 52:11 He put out the eyes of Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in fetters, and carried him to Babylon, and put him in prison until the day of his death.
Jer 52:12 Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard, who stood before the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem:
Jer 52:13 and he burned the house of Yahweh, and the king's house; and all the houses of Jerusalem, even every great house, burned he with fire.
Jer 52:14 All the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls of Jerusalem all around.
Jer 52:15 Then Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the poorest of the people, and the residue of the people who were left in the city, and those who fell away, who fell to the king of Babylon, and the residue of the multitude.
Jer 52:16 But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left of the poorest of the land to be vineyard keepers and farmers.
Jer 52:17 The pillars of brass that were in the house of Yahweh, and the bases and the bronze sea that were in the house of Yahweh, did the Chaldeans break in pieces, and carried all the brass of them to Babylon.
Jer 52:18 The pots also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the basins, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass with which they ministered, took they away.
Jer 52:19 The cups, and the fire pans, and the basins, and the pots, and the lampstands, and the spoons, and the bowls--that which was of gold, in gold, and that which was of silver, in silver,--the captain of the guard took away.
Jer 52:20 The two pillars, the one sea, and the twelve bronze bulls that were under the bases, which king Solomon had made for the house of Yahweh. The brass of all these vessels was without weight.
Jer 52:21 As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a line of twelve cubits did compass it; and its thickness was four fingers: it was hollow.
Jer 52:22 A capital of brass was on it; and the height of the one capital was five cubits, with network and pomegranates on the capital all around, all of brass: and the second pillar also had like these, and pomegranates.
Jer 52:23 There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates were one hundred on the network all around.
Jer 52:24 The captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest, and the three keepers of the threshold:
Jer 52:25 and out of the city he took an officer who was set over the men of war; and seven men of those who saw the king's face, who were found in the city; and the scribe of the captain of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city.
Jer 52:26 Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to the king of Babylon to Riblah.
Jer 52:27 The king of Babylon struck them, and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was carried away captive out of his land.
Jer 52:28 This is the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year three thousand twenty-three Jews;
Jer 52:29 in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred thirty-two persons;
Jer 52:30 in the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadnezzar Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven hundred forty-five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six hundred.
Jer 52:31 It happened in the seven and thirtieth year of the captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and twentieth day of the month, that Evilmerodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought him forth out of prison;
Jer 52:32 and he spoke kindly to him, and set his throne above the throne of the kings who were with him in Babylon,
Jer 52:33 and changed his prison garments. Jehoiachin ate bread before him continually all the days of his life:
Jer 52:34 and for his allowance, there was a continual allowance given him by the king of Babylon, every day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.

Nov. 26
Lamentations 1-5

Lam 1:1 How the city sits solitary, that was full of people! She has become as a widow, who was great among the nations! She who was a princess among the provinces is become tributary!
Lam 1:2 She weeps sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks; among all her lovers she has none to comfort her: All her friends have dealt treacherously with her; they are become her enemies.
Lam 1:3 Judah is gone into captivity because of affliction, and because of great servitude; she dwells among the nations, she finds no rest: all her persecutors overtook her within the straits.
Lam 1:4 The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn assembly; all her gates are desolate, her priests do sigh: her virgins are afflicted, and she herself is in bitterness.
Lam 1:5 Her adversaries are become the head, her enemies prosper; for Yahweh has afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her young children are gone into captivity before the adversary.
Lam 1:6 From the daughter of Zion all her majesty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
Lam 1:7 Jerusalem remembers in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that were from the days of old: when her people fell into the hand of the adversary, and none did help her, The adversaries saw her, they did mock at her desolations.
Lam 1:8 Jerusalem has grievously sinned; therefore she is become as an unclean thing; all who honored her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yes, she sighs, and turns backward.
Lam 1:9 Her filthiness was in her skirts; she didn't remember her latter end; therefore is she come down wonderfully; she has no comforter: see, Yahweh, my affliction; for the enemy has magnified himself.
Lam 1:10 The adversary has spread out his hand on all her pleasant things: for she has seen that the nations are entered into her sanctuary, concerning whom you did command that they should not enter into your assembly.
Lam 1:11 All her people sigh, they seek bread; they have given their pleasant things for food to refresh the soul: look, Yahweh, and see; for I am become abject.
Lam 1:12 Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look, and see if there be any sorrow like my sorrow, which is brought on me, With which Yahweh has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.
Lam 1:13 From on high has he sent fire into my bones, and it prevails against them; He has spread a net for my feet, he has turned me back: He has made me desolate and faint all the day.
Lam 1:14 The yoke of my transgressions is bound by his hand; They are knit together, they are come up on my neck; he has made my strength to fail: The Lord has delivered me into their hands, against whom I am not able to stand.
Lam 1:15 The Lord has set at nothing all my mighty men in the midst of me; He has called a solemn assembly against me to crush my young men: The Lord has trodden as in a winepress the virgin daughter of Judah.
Lam 1:16 For these things I weep; my eye, my eye runs down with water; Because the comforter who should refresh my soul is far from me: My children are desolate, because the enemy has prevailed.
Lam 1:17 Zion spreads forth her hands; there is none to comfort her; Yahweh has commanded concerning Jacob, that those who are around him should be his adversaries: Jerusalem is among them as an unclean thing.
Lam 1:18 Yahweh is righteous; for I have rebelled against his commandment: Please hear all you peoples, and see my sorrow: My virgins and my young men are gone into captivity.
Lam 1:19 I called for my lovers, but they deceived me: My priests and my elders gave up the spirit in the city, While they sought them food to refresh their souls.
Lam 1:20 See, Yahweh; for I am in distress; my heart is troubled; My heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: Abroad the sword bereaves, at home there is as death.
Lam 1:21 They have heard that I sigh; there is none to comfort me; All my enemies have heard of my trouble; they are glad that you have done it: You will bring the day that you have proclaimed, and they shall be like me.
Lam 1:22 Let all their wickedness come before you; Do to them, as you have done to me for all my transgressions: For my sighs are many, and my heart is faint.

Lam 2:1 How has the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger! He has cast down from heaven to the earth the beauty of Israel, And hasn't remembered his footstool in the day of his anger.
Lam 2:2 The Lord has swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and has not pitied: He has thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; He has brought them down to the ground; he has profaned the kingdom and its princes.
Lam 2:3 He has cut off in fierce anger all the horn of Israel; He has drawn back his right hand from before the enemy: He has burned up Jacob like a flaming fire, which devours all around.
Lam 2:4 He has bent his bow like an enemy, he has stood with his right hand as an adversary, Has killed all that were pleasant to the eye: In the tent of the daughter of Zion he has poured out his wrath like fire.
Lam 2:5 The Lord is become as an enemy, he has swallowed up Israel; He has swallowed up all her palaces, he has destroyed his strongholds; He has multiplied in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.
Lam 2:6 He has violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden; he has destroyed his place of assembly: Yahweh has caused solemn assembly and Sabbath to be forgotten in Zion, Has despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.
Lam 2:7 The Lord has cast off his altar, he has abhorred his sanctuary; He has given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces: They have made a noise in the house of Yahweh, as in the day of a solemn assembly.
Lam 2:8 Yahweh has purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion; He has stretched out the line, he has not withdrawn his hand from destroying; He has made the rampart and wall to lament; they languish together.
Lam 2:9 Her gates are sunk into the ground; he has destroyed and broken her bars: Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not; Yes, her prophets find no vision from Yahweh.
Lam 2:10 The elders of the daughter of Zion sit on the ground, they keep silence; They have cast up dust on their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: The virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.
Lam 2:11 My eyes do fail with tears, my heart is troubled; My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, Because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.
Lam 2:12 They tell their mothers, Where is grain and wine? When they swoon as the wounded in the streets of the city, When their soul is poured out into their mothers' bosom.
Lam 2:13 What shall I testify to you? what shall I liken to you, daughter of Jerusalem? What shall I compare to you, that I may comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For your breach is great like the sea: who can heal you?
Lam 2:14 Your prophets have seen for you false and foolish visions; They have not uncovered your iniquity, to bring back your captivity, But have seen for you false oracles and causes of banishment.
Lam 2:15 All that pass by clap their hands at you; They hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men called The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?
Lam 2:16 All your enemies have opened their mouth wide against you; They hiss and gnash the teeth; they say, We have swallowed her up; Certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.
Lam 2:17 Yahweh has done that which he purposed; he has fulfilled his word that he commanded in the days of old; He has thrown down, and has not pitied: He has caused the enemy to rejoice over you; he has exalted the horn of your adversaries.
Lam 2:18 Their heart cried to the Lord: wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night; Give yourself no respite; don't let the apple of your eye cease.
Lam 2:19 Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord: Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.
Lam 2:20 Look, Yahweh, and see to whom you have done thus! Shall the women eat their fruit, the children that are dandled in the hands? Shall the priest and the prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord?
Lam 2:21 The youth and the old man lie on the ground in the streets; My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword: You have killed them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered, andnot pitied.
Lam 2:22 You have called, as in the day of a solemn assembly, my terrors on every side; There was none that escaped or remained in the day of Yahweh's anger: Those that I have dandled and brought up has my enemy consumed.

Lam 3:1 I am the man that has seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.
Lam 3:2 He has led me and caused me to walk in darkness, and not in light.
Lam 3:3 Surely against me he turns his hand again and again all the day.
Lam 3:4 My flesh and my skin has he made old; he has broken my bones.
Lam 3:5 He has built against me, and surrounded me with gall and travail.
Lam 3:6 He has made me to dwell in dark places, as those that have been long dead.
Lam 3:7 He has walled me about, that I can't go forth; he has made my chain heavy.
Lam 3:8 Yes, when I cry, and call for help, he shuts out my prayer.
Lam 3:9 He has walled up my ways with cut stone; he has made my paths crooked.
Lam 3:10 He is to me as a bear lying in wait, as a lion in secret places.
Lam 3:11 He has turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces; he has made me desolate.
Lam 3:12 He has bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.
Lam 3:13 He has caused the shafts of his quiver to enter into my kidneys.
Lam 3:14 I am become a derision to all my people, and their song all the day.
Lam 3:15 He has filled me with bitterness, he has sated me with wormwood.
Lam 3:16 He has also broken my teeth with gravel stones; he has covered me with ashes.
Lam 3:17 You have removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.
Lam 3:18 I said, My strength is perished, and my expectation from Yahweh.
Lam 3:19 Remember my affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
Lam 3:20 My soul still remembers them, and is bowed down within me.
Lam 3:21 This I recall to my mind; therefore have I hope.
Lam 3:22 It is of Yahweh's loving kindnesses that we are not consumed, because his compassion doesn't fail.
Lam 3:23 They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.
Lam 3:24 Yahweh is my portion, says my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
Lam 3:25 Yahweh is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
Lam 3:26 It is good that a man should hope and quietly wait for the salvation of Yahweh.
Lam 3:27 It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.
Lam 3:28 Let him sit alone and keep silence, because he has laid it on him.
Lam 3:29 Let him put his mouth in the dust, if so be there may be hope.
Lam 3:30 Let him give his cheek to him who strikes him; let him be filled full with reproach.
Lam 3:31 For the Lord will not cast off forever.
Lam 3:32 For though he cause grief, yet he will have compassion according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses.
Lam 3:33 For he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.
Lam 3:34 To crush under foot all the prisoners of the earth,
Lam 3:35 To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the Most High,
Lam 3:36 To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord doesn't approve.
Lam 3:37 Who is he who says, and it comes to pass, when the Lord doesn't command it?
Lam 3:38 Doesn't evil and good come out of the mouth of the Most High?
Lam 3:39 Why does a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?
Lam 3:40 Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to Yahweh.
Lam 3:41 Let us lift up our heart with our hands to God in the heavens.
Lam 3:42 We have transgressed and have rebelled; you have not pardoned.
Lam 3:43 You have covered with anger and pursued us; you have killed, you have not pitied.
Lam 3:44 You have covered yourself with a cloud, so that no prayer can pass through.
Lam 3:45 You have made us an off-scouring and refuse in the midst of the peoples.
Lam 3:46 All our enemies have opened their mouth wide against us.
Lam 3:47 Fear and the pit are come on us, devastation and destruction.
Lam 3:48 My eye runs down with streams of water, for the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Lam 3:49 My eye pours down, and doesn't cease, without any intermission,
Lam 3:50 Until Yahweh look down, and see from heaven.
Lam 3:51 My eye affects my soul, because of all the daughters of my city.
Lam 3:52 They have chased me sore like a bird, those who are my enemies without cause.
Lam 3:53 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me.
Lam 3:54 Waters flowed over my head; I said, I am cut off.
Lam 3:55 I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
Lam 3:56 You heard my voice; don't hide your ear at my breathing, at my cry.
Lam 3:57 You drew near in the day that I called on you; you said, Don't be afraid.
Lam 3:58 Lord, you have pleaded the causes of my soul; you have redeemed my life.
Lam 3:59 Yahweh, you have seen my wrong; judge you my cause.
Lam 3:60 You have seen all their vengeance and all their devices against me.
Lam 3:61 You have heard their reproach, Yahweh, and all their devices against me,
Lam 3:62 The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.
Lam 3:63 See you their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their song.
Lam 3:64 You will render to them a recompense, Yahweh, according to the work of their hands.
Lam 3:65 You will give them hardness of heart, your curse to them.
Lam 3:66 You will pursue them in anger, and destroy them from under the heavens of Yahweh.

Lam 4:1 How is the gold become dim! how is the most pure gold changed! The stones of the sanctuary are poured out at the head of every street.
Lam 4:2 The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, How are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!
Lam 4:3 Even the jackals draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: The daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.
Lam 4:4 The tongue of the sucking child cleaves to the roof of his mouth for thirst: The young children ask bread, and no man breaks it to them.
Lam 4:5 Those who did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: Those who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.
Lam 4:6 For the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the sin of Sodom, That was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands were laid on her.
Lam 4:7 Her nobles were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk; They were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was as of sapphire.
Lam 4:8 Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: Their skin cleaves to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.
Lam 4:9 Those who are killed with the sword are better than those who are killed with hunger; For these pine away, stricken through, for want of the fruits of the field.
Lam 4:10 The hands of the pitiful women have boiled their own children; They were their food in the destruction of the daughter of my people.
Lam 4:11 Yahweh has accomplished his wrath, he has poured out his fierce anger; He has kindled a fire in Zion, which has devoured its foundations.
Lam 4:12 The kings of the earth didn't believe, neither all the inhabitants of the world, That the adversary and the enemy would enter into the gates of Jerusalem.
Lam 4:13 It is because of the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, That have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her.
Lam 4:14 They wander as blind men in the streets, they are polluted with blood, So that men can't touch their garments.
Lam 4:15 Depart you, they cried to them, Unclean! depart, depart, don't touch! When they fled away and wandered, men said among the nations, They shall no more sojourn here.
Lam 4:16 The anger of Yahweh has scattered them; he will no more regard them: They didn't respect the persons of the priests, they didn't favor the elders.
Lam 4:17 Our eyes do yet fail in looking for our vain help: In our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save.
Lam 4:18 They hunt our steps, so that we can't go in our streets: Our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.
Lam 4:19 Our pursuers were swifter than the eagles of the sky: They chased us on the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.
Lam 4:20 The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of Yahweh, was taken in their pits; Of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the nations.
Lam 4:21 Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwell in the land of Uz: The cup shall pass through to you also; you shall be drunken, and shall make yourself naked.
Lam 4:22 The punishment of your iniquity is accomplished, daughter of Zion; he will no more carry you away into captivity: He will visit your iniquity, daughter of Edom; he will uncover your sins.

Lam 5:1 Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us: Look, and see our reproach.
Lam 5:2 Our inheritance is turned to strangers, Our houses to aliens.
Lam 5:3 We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows.
Lam 5:4 We have drunken our water for money; Our wood is sold to us.
Lam 5:5 Our pursuers are on our necks: We are weary, and have no rest.
Lam 5:6 We have given the hand to the Egyptians, To the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.
Lam 5:7 Our fathers sinned, and are no more; We have borne their iniquities.
Lam 5:8 Servants rule over us: There is none to deliver us out of their hand.
Lam 5:9 We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness.
Lam 5:10 Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine.
Lam 5:11 They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah.
Lam 5:12 Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored.
Lam 5:13 The young men bare the mill; The children stumbled under the wood.
Lam 5:14 The elders have ceased from the gate, The young men from their music.
Lam 5:15 The joy of our heart is ceased; Our dance is turned into mourning.
Lam 5:16 The crown is fallen from our head: Woe to us! for we have sinned.
Lam 5:17 For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim;
Lam 5:18 For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: The foxes walk on it.
Lam 5:19 You, Yahweh, abide forever; Your throne is from generation to generation.
Lam 5:20 Why do you forget us forever, And forsake us so long time?
Lam 5:21 Turn you us to you, Yahweh, and we shall be turned; Renew our days as of old.

Lam 5:22 But you have utterly rejected us; You are very angry against us. 

Nov. 24
Hebrews 10

Heb 10:1 For the law, having a shadow of the good to come, not the very image of the things, can never with the same sacrifices year by year, which they offer continually, make perfect those who draw near.
Heb 10:2 Or else wouldn't they have ceased to be offered, because the worshippers, having been once cleansed, would have had no more consciousness of sins?
Heb 10:3 But in those sacrifices there is yearly reminder of sins.
Heb 10:4 For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.
Heb 10:5 Therefore when he comes into the world, he says, "Sacrifice and offering you didn't desire, but you prepared a body for me;
Heb 10:6 You had no pleasure in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin.
Heb 10:7 Then I said, 'Behold, I have come (in the scroll of the book it is written of me) to do your will, O God.' "
Heb 10:8 Previously saying, "Sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn't desire, neither had pleasure in them" (those which are offered according to the law),
Heb 10:9 then he has said, "Behold, I have come to do your will." He takes away the first, that he may establish the second,
Heb 10:10 by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Heb 10:11 Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and often offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins,
Heb 10:12 but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God;
Heb 10:13 from that time waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet.
Heb 10:14 For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
Heb 10:15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,
Heb 10:16 "This is the covenant that I will make with them: 'After those days,' says the Lord, 'I will put my laws on their heart, I will also write them on their mind;' " then he says,
Heb 10:17 "I will remember their sins and their iniquities no more."
Heb 10:18 Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Heb 10:19 Having therefore, brothers, boldness to enter into the holy place by the blood of Jesus,
Heb 10:20 by the way which he dedicated for us, a new and living way, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Heb 10:21 and having a great priest over the house of God,
Heb 10:22 let's draw near with a true heart in fullness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and having our body washed with pure water,
Heb 10:23 let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering; for he who promised is faithful.
Heb 10:24 Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good works,
Heb 10:25 not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as you see the Day approaching.
Heb 10:26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remains no more a sacrifice for sins,
Heb 10:27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and a fierceness of fire which will devour the adversaries.
Heb 10:28 A man who disregards Moses' law dies without compassion on the word of two or three witnesses.
Heb 10:29 How much worse punishment, do you think, will he be judged worthy of, who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the blood of the covenant with which he was sanctified an unholy thing, and has insulted the Spirit of grace?
Heb 10:30 For we know him who said, "Vengeance belongs to me," says the Lord, "I will repay." Again, "The Lord will judge his people."
Heb 10:31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Heb 10:32 But remember the former days, in which, after you were enlightened, you endured a great struggle with sufferings;
Heb 10:33 partly, being exposed to both reproaches and oppressions; and partly, becoming partakers with those who were treated so.
Heb 10:34 For you both had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your possessions, knowing that you have for yourselves a better possession and an enduring one in the heavens.
Heb 10:35 Therefore don't throw away your boldness, which has a great reward.
Heb 10:36 For you need endurance so that, having done the will of God, you may receive the promise.
Heb 10:37 "In a very little while, he who comes will come, and will not wait.
Heb 10:38 But the righteous will live by faith. If he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him."
Heb 10:39 But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the saving of the soul.

Nov. 25
Hebrews 11

Heb 11:1 Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen.
Heb 11:2 For by this, the elders obtained testimony.
Heb 11:3 By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.
Heb 11:4 By faith, Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he had testimony given to him that he was righteous, God testifying with respect to his gifts; and through it he, being dead, still speaks.
Heb 11:5 By faith, Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn't see death, and he was not found, because God translated him. For he has had testimony given to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God.
Heb 11:6 Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him.
Heb 11:7 By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Heb 11:8 By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went.
Heb 11:9 By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents, with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise.
Heb 11:10 For he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Heb 11:11 By faith, even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised.
Heb 11:12 Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore, were fathered by one man, and him as good as dead.
Heb 11:13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Heb 11:14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.
Heb 11:15 If indeed they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had enough time to return.
Heb 11:16 But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
Heb 11:17 By faith, Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac. Yes, he who had gladly received the promises was offering up his one and only son;
Heb 11:18 even he to whom it was said, "In Isaac will your seed be called;"
Heb 11:19 concluding that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Figuratively speaking, he also did receive him back from the dead.
Heb 11:20 By faith, Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau, even concerning things to come.
Heb 11:21 By faith, Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.
Heb 11:22 By faith, Joseph, when his end was near, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel; and gave instructions concerning his bones.
Heb 11:23 By faith, Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw that he was a beautiful child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment.
Heb 11:24 By faith, Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter,
Heb 11:25 choosing rather to share ill treatment with God's people, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a time;
Heb 11:26 accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
Heb 11:27 By faith, he left Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
Heb 11:28 By faith, he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of the blood, that the destroyer of the firstborn should not touch them.
Heb 11:29 By faith, they passed through the Red Sea as on dry land. When the Egyptians tried to do so, they were swallowed up.
Heb 11:30 By faith, the walls of Jericho fell down, after they had been encircled for seven days.
Heb 11:31 By faith, Rahab the prostitute, didn't perish with those who were disobedient, having received the spies in peace.
Heb 11:32 What more shall I say? For the time would fail me if I told of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and the prophets;
Heb 11:33 who, through faith subdued kingdoms, worked out righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
Heb 11:34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, rom weakness were made strong, grew mighty in war, and caused foreign armies to flee.
Heb 11:35 Women received their dead by resurrection. Others were tortured, not accepting their deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection.
Heb 11:36 Others were tried by mocking and scourging, yes, moreover by bonds and imprisonment.
Heb 11:37 They were stoned. They were sawn apart. They were tempted. They were slain with the sword. They went around in sheep skins and in goat skins; being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated
Heb 11:38 (of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts, mountains, caves, and the holes of the earth.
Heb 11:39 These all, having had testimony given to them through their faith, didn't receive the promise,
Heb 11:40 God having provided some better thing concerning us, so that apart from us they should not be made perfect.

Nov. 26
Hebrews 12

Heb 12:1 Therefore let us also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2 looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Heb 12:3 For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don't grow weary, fainting in your souls.
Heb 12:4 You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin;
Heb 12:5 and you have forgotten the exhortation which reasons with you as with children, "My son, don't take lightly the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved by him;
Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loves, he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives."
Heb 12:7 It is for discipline that you endure. God deals with you as with children, for what son is there whom his father doesn't discipline?
Heb 12:8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have been made partakers, then are you illegitimate, and not children.
Heb 12:9 Furthermore, we had the fathers of our flesh to chasten us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and live?
Heb 12:10 For they indeed, for a few days, punished us as seemed good to them; but he for our profit, that we may be partakers of his holiness.
Heb 12:11 All chastening seems for the present to be not joyous but grievous; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been exercised thereby.
Heb 12:12 Therefore, lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees,
Heb 12:13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that which is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.
Heb 12:14 Follow after peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no man will see the Lord,
Heb 12:15 looking carefully lest there be any man who falls short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and many be defiled by it;
Heb 12:16 lest there be any sexually immoral person, or profane person, like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal.
Heb 12:17 For you know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind though he sought it diligently with tears.
Heb 12:18 For you have not come to a mountain that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and to blackness, darkness, storm,
Heb 12:19 the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which those who heard it begged that not one more word should be spoken to them,
Heb 12:20 for they could not stand that which was commanded, "If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned;"
Heb 12:21 and so fearful was the appearance, that Moses said, "I am terrified and trembling."
Heb 12:22 But you have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable multitudes of angels,
Heb 12:23 to the general assembly and assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Heb 12:24 to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better than that of Abel.
Heb 12:25 See that you don't refuse him who speaks. For if they didn't escape when they refused him who warned on the Earth, how much more will we not escape who turn away from him who warns from heaven,
Heb 12:26 whose voice shook the earth then, but now he has promised, saying, "Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens."
Heb 12:27 This phrase, "Yet once more," signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that have been made, that those things which are not shaken may remain.
Heb 12:28 Therefore, receiving a Kingdom that can't be shaken, let us have grace, through which we serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe,
Heb 12:29 for our God is a consuming fire.