Bible Reading
November 14
The World English Bible
Nov.
14
Jeremiah
5-9
Jer
5:1 Run you back and forth through the streets of Jerusalem, and see
now, and know, and seek in the broad places of it, if you can find a
man, if there are any who does justly, who seeks truth; and I will
pardon her.
Jer
5:2 Though they say, As Yahweh lives; surely they swear falsely.
Jer
5:3 O Yahweh, don't your eyes look on truth? you have stricken them,
but they were not grieved; you have consumed them, but they have
refused to receive correction: they have made their faces harder than
a rock; they have refused to return.
Jer
5:4 Then I said, Surely these are poor; they are foolish; for they
don't know the way of Yahweh, nor the law of their God:
Jer
5:5 I will get me to the great men, and will speak to them; for they
know the way of Yahweh, and the law of their God. But these with one
accord have broken the yoke, and burst the bonds.
Jer
5:6 Therefore a lion out of the forest shall kill them, a wolf of
the evenings shall destroy them, a leopard shall watch against their
cities; everyone who goes out there shall be torn in pieces; because
their transgressions are many, and
their backsliding is increased.
Jer
5:7 How can I pardon you? your children have forsaken me, and sworn
by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they
committed adultery, and assembled themselves in troops at the
prostitutes' houses.
Jer
5:8 They were as fed horses roaming at large; everyone neighed after
his neighbor's wife.
Jer
5:9 Shall I not visit for these things? says Yahweh; and shall not
my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Jer
5:10 Go up on her walls, and destroy; but don't make a full end:
take away her branches; for they are not Yahweh's.
Jer
5:11 For the house of Israel and the house of Judah have dealt very
treacherously against me, says Yahweh.
Jer
5:12 They have denied Yahweh, and said, It is not he; neither shall
evil come on us; neither shall we see sword nor famine:
Jer
5:13 and the prophets shall become wind, and the word is not in
them: thus shall it be done to them.
Jer
5:14 Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, Because you
speak this word, behold, I will make my words in your mouth fire, and
this people wood, and it shall devour them.
Jer
5:15 Behold, I will bring a nation on you from far, house of Israel,
says Yahweh: it is a mighty nation, it is an ancient nation, a nation
whose language you don't know, neither understand what they say.
Jer
5:16 Their quiver is an open tomb, they are all mighty men.
Jer
5:17 They shall eat up your harvest, and your bread, which
your sons and your daughters should eat; they shall eat up your
flocks and your herds; they shall eat up your vines and your fig
trees; they shall beat down your fortified cities, in which you
trust, with the sword.
Jer
5:18 But even in those days, says Yahweh, I will not make a full end
with you.
Jer
5:19 It shall happen, when you shall say, Why has Yahweh our God
done all these things to us? then you shall say to them, Like as you
have forsaken me, and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall
serve strangers in a land that is not yours.
Jer
5:20 Declare you this in the house of Jacob, and publish it in
Judah, saying,
Jer
5:21 Hear now this, foolish people, and without understanding; who
have eyes, and don't see; who have ears, and don't hear:
Jer
5:22 Don't you fear me? says Yahweh: won't you tremble at my
presence, who have placed the sand for the bound of the sea, by a
perpetual decree, that it can't pass it? and though its waves toss
themselves, yet they can't prevail; though they roar, yet they can't
pass over it.
Jer
5:23 But this people has a revolting and a rebellious heart; they
are revolted and gone.
Jer
5:24 Neither say they in their heart, Let us now fear Yahweh our
God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season;
who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.
Jer
5:25 Your iniquities have turned away these things, and your sins
have withheld good from you.
Jer
5:26 For among my people are found wicked men: they watch, as
fowlers lie in wait; they set a trap, they catch men.
Jer
5:27 As a cage is full of birds, so are their houses full of deceit:
therefore they are become great, and grew rich.
Jer
5:28 They are grew fat, they shine: yes, they overpass in deeds of
wickedness; they don't plead the cause, the cause of the fatherless,
that they may prosper; and the right of the needy they don't judge.
Jer
5:29 Shall I not visit for these things? says Yahweh; shall not my
soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Jer
5:30 A wonderful and horrible thing is happen in the land:
Jer
5:31 the prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by
their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will you do
in the end of it?
Jer
6:1 Flee for safety, you children of Benjamin, out of the midst of
Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and raise up a signal on
Beth Haccherem; for evil looks forth from the north, and a great
destruction.
Jer
6:2 The comely and delicate one, the daughter of Zion, will I cut
off.
Jer
6:3 Shepherds with their flocks shall come to her; they shall pitch
their tents against her all around; they shall feed everyone in his
place.
Jer
6:4 Prepare you war against her; arise, and let us go up at noon.
Woe to us! for the day declines, for the shadows of the evening are
stretched out.
Jer
6:5 Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her
palaces.
Jer
6:6 For thus has Yahweh of Armies said, Cut down trees, and cast up
a mound against Jerusalem: this is the city to be visited; she is
wholly oppression in the midst of her.
Jer
6:7 As a well casts forth its waters, so she casts forth her
wickedness: violence and destruction is heard in her; before me
continually is sickness and wounds.
Jer
6:8 Be instructed, Jerusalem, lest my soul be alienated from you;
lest I make you a desolation, a land not inhabited.
Jer
6:9 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, They shall thoroughly glean the
remnant of Israel as a vine: turn again your hand as a grape gatherer
into the baskets.
Jer
6:10 To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? behold,
their ear is uncircumcised, and they can't listen: behold, the word
of Yahweh is become to them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
Jer
6:11 Therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh; I am weary with
holding in: pour it out on the children in the street, and on the
assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife
shall be taken, the aged with him who is full of days.
Jer
6:12 Their houses shall be turned to others, their fields and their
wives together; for I will stretch out my hand on the inhabitants of
the land, says Yahweh.
Jer
6:13 For from the least of them even to the greatest of them
everyone is given to covetousness; and from the prophet even to the
priest everyone deals falsely.
Jer
6:14 They have healed also the hurt of my people slightly, saying,
Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
Jer
6:15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay,
they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore
they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I visit them
they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
Jer
6:16 Thus says Yahweh, Stand you in the ways and see, and ask for
the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and you shall
find rest for your souls: but they said, We will not walk therein.
Jer
6:17 I set watchmen over you, saying,
Listen to the sound of the trumpet; but they said, We will not
listen.
Jer
6:18 Therefore hear, you nations, and know, congregation, what is
among them.
Jer
6:19 Hear, earth: behold, I will bring evil on this people, even the
fruit of their thoughts, because they have not listened to my words;
and as for my law, they have rejected it.
Jer
6:20 To what purpose comes there to me frankincense from Sheba, and
the sweet cane from a far country? your burnt offerings are not
acceptable, nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.
Jer
6:21 Therefore thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks
before this people; and the fathers and the sons together shall
stumble against them; the neighbor and his friend shall perish.
Jer
6:22 Thus says Yahweh, Behold, a people comes from the north
country; and a great nation shall be stirred up from the uttermost
parts of the earth.
Jer
6:23 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 Zion.
Jer
6:24 We have heard its report; our hands wax feeble: anguish has
taken hold of us, and
pangs as of a woman in travail.
Jer
6:25 Don't go forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the
sword of the enemy, and
terror, are on every side.
Jer
6:26 Daughter of my people, gird you with sackcloth, and wallow
yourself in ashes: make you mourning, as for an only son, most bitter
lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come on us.
Jer
6:27 I have made you a tester of metals and
a fortress among my people; that you may know and try their way.
Jer
6:28 They are all grievous rebels, going about with slanders; they
are brass and iron: they all of them deal corruptly.
Jer
6:29 The bellows blow fiercely; the lead is consumed of the fire: in
vain do they go on refining; for the wicked are not plucked away.
Jer
6:30 Men will call them rejected silver, because Yahweh has rejected
them.
Jer
7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying,
Jer
7:2 Stand in the gate of Yahweh's house, and proclaim there this
word, and say, Hear the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah, who enter
in at these gates to worship Yahweh.
Jer
7:3 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Amend your ways
and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
Jer
7:4 Don't you trust in lying words, saying, The temple of Yahweh,
the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, are these.
Jer
7:5 For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you
thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor;
Jer
7:6 if you don't oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the
widow, and don't shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk
after other gods to your own hurt:
Jer
7:7 then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I
gave to your fathers, from of old even forevermore.
Jer
7:8 Behold, you trust in lying words, that can't profit.
Jer
7:9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely,
and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not
known,
Jer
7:10 and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by
my name, and say, We are delivered; that you may do all these
abominations?
Jer
7:11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of
robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says Yahweh.
Jer
7:12 But go you now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused
my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the
wickedness of my people Israel.
Jer
7:13 Now, because you have done all these works, says Yahweh, and I
spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn't hear; and
I called you, but you didn't answer:
Jer
7:14 therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, in
which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your
fathers, as I did to Shiloh.
Jer
7:15 I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your
brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
Jer
7:16 Therefore don't you pray for this people, neither lift up a cry
nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not
hear you.
Jer
7:17 Don't you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the
streets of Jerusalem?
Jer
7:18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and
the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and
to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me
to anger.
Jer
7:19 Do they provoke me to anger? says Yahweh; do
they not provoke
themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?
Jer
7:20 Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, my anger and my
wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and
on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it
shall burn, and shall not be quenched.
Jer
7:21 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Add your burnt
offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat.
Jer
7:22 For I didn't speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day
that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt
offerings or sacrifices:
Jer
7:23 but this thing I commanded them, saying, Listen to my voice,
and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk you in
all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.
Jer
7:24 But they didn't listen nor turn their ear, but walked in their
own counsels and
in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not
forward.
Jer
7:25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of
Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets,
daily rising up early and sending them:
Jer
7:26 yet they didn't listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made
their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers.
Jer
7:27 You shall speak all these words to them; but they will not
listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer
you.
Jer
7:28 You shall tell them, This is the nation that has not listened
to the voice of Yahweh their God, nor received instruction: truth is
perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
Jer
7:29 Cut off your hair, Jerusalem,
and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for
Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.
Jer
7:30 For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my
sight, says Yahweh: they have set their abominations in the house
which is called by my name, to defile it.
Jer
7:31 They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the
valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters
in the fire; which I didn't command, nor did it come into my mind.
Jer
7:32 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no
more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The
valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, until there be
no place to bury.
Jer
7:33 The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of
the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and none shall frighten
them away.
Jer
7:34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from
the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of
gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for
the land shall become a waste.
Jer
8:1 At that time, says Yahweh, they shall bring out the bones of the
kings of Judah, and the bones of his princes, and the bones of the
priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves;
Jer
8:2 and they shall spread them before the sun, and the moon, and all
the army of the sky, which they have loved, and which they have
served, and after which they have walked, and which they have sought,
and which they have worshiped: they shall not be gathered, nor be
buried, they shall be for dung on the surface of the earth.
Jer
8:3 Death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue that
remain of this evil family, that remain in all the places where I
have driven them, says Yahweh of Armies.
Jer
8:4 Moreover you shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh: Shall men fall,
and not rise up again? Shall one turn away, and not return?
Jer
8:5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slidden back by a perpetual
backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
Jer
8:6 I listened and heard, but they didn't speak aright: no man
repents him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? everyone
turns to his course, as a horse that rushes headlong in the battle.
Jer
8:7 Yes, the stork in the sky knows her appointed times; and the
turtledove and the swallow and the crane observe the time of their
coming; but my people don't know Yahweh's law.
Jer
8:8 How do you say, We are wise, and the law of Yahweh is with us?
But, behold, the false pen of the scribes has worked falsely.
Jer
8:9 The wise men are disappointed, they are dismayed and taken:
behold, they have rejected the word of Yahweh; and what manner of
wisdom is in them?
Jer
8:10 Therefore will I give their wives to others, and their fields
to those who shall possess them: for everyone from the least even to
the greatest is given to covetousness; from the prophet even to the
priest every one deals falsely.
Jer
8:11 They have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people
slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
Jer
8:12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay,
they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore
shall they fall among those who fall; in the time of their visitation
they shall be cast down, says Yahweh.
Jer
8:13 I will utterly consume them, says Yahweh: there shall be no
grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall
fade; and the things that
I have given them shall pass away from them.
Jer
8:14 Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into
the fortified cities, and let us be silent there; for Yahweh our God
has put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because
we have sinned against Yahweh.
Jer
8:15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and
for a time of healing, and behold, dismay!
Jer
8:16 The snorting of his horses is heard from Dan: at the sound of
the neighing of his strong ones the whole land trembles; for they are
come, and have devoured the land and all that is in it; the city and
those who dwell therein.
Jer
8:17 For, behold, I will send serpents, adders, among you, which
will not be charmed; and they shall bite you, says Yahweh.
Jer
8:18 Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is
faint within me.
Jer
8:19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from
a land that is very far off: isn't Yahweh in Zion? Isn't her King in
her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their engraved images,
and with foreign vanities?
Jer
8:20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
Jer
8:21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt: I mourn;
dismay has taken hold on me.
Jer
8:22 Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why
then isn't the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
Jer
9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that
I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my
people!
Jer
9:2 Oh that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring
men; that I might leave my people, and go from them! for they are all
adulterers, an assembly of treacherous men.
Jer
9:3 They bend their tongue, as it were
their bow, for falsehood; and they are grown strong in the land, but
not for truth: for they proceed from evil to evil, and they don't
know me, says Yahweh.
Jer
9:4 Take you heed everyone of his neighbor, and don't you trust in
any brother; for every brother will utterly supplant, and every
neighbor will go about with slanders.
Jer
9:5 They will deceive everyone his neighbor, and will not speak the
truth: they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary
themselves to commit iniquity.
Jer
9:6 Your habitation is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they
refuse to know me, says Yahweh.
Jer
9:7 Therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, Behold, I will melt them,
and try them; for how else
should I do, because of the daughter of my people?
Jer
9:8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceit: one speaks
peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart he lays
wait for him.
Jer
9:9 Shall I not visit them for these things? says Yahweh; shall not
my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?
Jer
9:10 For the mountains will I take up a weeping and wailing, and for
the pastures of the wilderness a lamentation, because they are burned
up, so that none passes through; neither can men hear the voice of
the livestock; both the birds of the sky and the animals are fled,
they are gone.
Jer
9:11 I will make Jerusalem heaps, a dwelling place of jackals; and I
will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.
Jer
9:12 Who is the wise man, that may understand this? and who
is he to whom the mouth of Yahweh has
spoken, that he may declare it? why is the land perished and burned
up like a wilderness, so that none passes through?
Jer
9:13 Yahweh says, Because they have forsaken my law which I set
before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein,
Jer
9:14 but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and
after the Baals, which their fathers taught them;
Jer
9:15 therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel,
Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give
them water of gall to drink.
Jer
9:16 I will scatter them also among the nations, whom neither they
nor their fathers have known; and I will send the sword after them,
until I have consumed them.
Jer
9:17 Thus says Yahweh of Armies, Consider you, and call for the
mourning women, that they may come; and send for the skillful women,
that they may come:
Jer
9:18 and let them make haste, and take up a wailing for us, that our
eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids gush out with waters.
Jer
9:19 For a voice of wailing is heard out of Zion, How are we ruined!
we are greatly confounded, because we have forsaken the land, because
they have cast down our dwellings.
Jer
9:20 Yet hear the word of Yahweh, you women, and let your ear
receive the word of his mouth; and teach your daughters wailing, and
everyone her neighbor lamentation.
Jer
9:21 For death is come up into our windows, it is entered into our
palaces; to cut off the children from outside, and
the young men from the streets.
Jer
9:22 Speak, Thus says Yahweh, The dead bodies of men shall fall as
dung on the open field, and as the handful after the harvester; and
none shall gather them.
Jer
9:23 Thus says Yahweh, Don't let the wise man glory in his wisdom,
neither let the mighty man glory in his might, don't let the rich man
glory in his riches;
Jer
9:24 but let him who glories glory in this, that he has
understanding, and knows me, that I am Yahweh who exercises loving
kindness, justice, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these
things I delight, says Yahweh.
Jer
9:25 Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will punish all
those who are circumcised in their
uncircumcision:
Jer
9:26 Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and
Moab, and all that have the corners of
their hair cut off, who dwell in the
wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house
of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.
Nov.
14
Philemon
Phm
1:1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, to
Philemon, our beloved fellow worker,
Phm
1:2 to the beloved Apphia, to Archippus, our fellow soldier, and to
the assembly in your house:
Phm
1:3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ.
Phm
1:4 I thank my God always, making mention of you in my prayers,
Phm
1:5 hearing of your love, and of the faith which you have toward the
Lord Jesus, and toward all the saints;
Phm
1:6 that the fellowship of your faith may become effective, in the
knowledge of every good thing which is in us in Christ Jesus.
Phm
1:7 For we have much joy and comfort in your love, because the
hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.
Phm
1:8 Therefore, though I have all boldness in Christ to command you
that which is appropriate,
Phm
1:9 yet for love's sake I rather beg, being such a one as Paul, the
aged, but also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
Phm
1:10 I beg you for my child, whom I have become the father of in my
chains, Onesimus,
Phm
1:11 who once was useless to you, but now is useful to you and to
me.
Phm
1:12 I am sending him back. Therefore receive him, that is, my own
heart,
Phm
1:13 whom I desired to keep with me, that on your behalf he might
serve me in my chains for the Good News.
Phm
1:14 But I was willing to do nothing without your consent, that your
goodness would not be as of necessity, but of free will.
Phm
1:15 For perhaps he was therefore separated from you for a while,
that you would have him forever,
Phm
1:16 no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother,
especially to me, but how much rather to you, both in the flesh and
in the Lord.
Phm
1:17 If then you count me a partner, receive him as you would
receive me.
Phm
1:18 But if he has wronged you at all, or owes you anything, put
that to my account.
Phm
1:19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it (not to
mention to you that you owe to me even your own self besides).
Phm
1:20 Yes, brother, let me have joy from you in the Lord. Refresh my
heart in the Lord.
Phm
1:21 Having confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing
that you will do even beyond what I say.
Phm
1:22 Also, prepare a guest room for me, for I hope that through your
prayers I will be restored to you.
Phm
1:23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you,
Phm
1:24 as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my fellow workers.
Phm
1:25 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
As
legislators are fighting over the legitimacy of same-sex marriages,
activist judges are claiming constitutional sanction in their redefining
of marriage, and the rank and file citizens of these United States are
embroiled in a polarizing culture war, it is nevertheless unthinkable
that the President of these United States has announced his approval of
homosexuality. If God exists and the Bible is His revealed Word, then
America is facing imminent peril. The evaporation of Christian
principles from American civilization will lead to the extinction of
civility, freedom, and morality.
