Bible Reading November 16 (World English Bible)
Jeremiah
14-17
Jer
14:1 The word of Yahweh that came to Jeremiah concerning the
drought.
Jer
14:2 Judah mourns, and its gates languish, they sit in black on the
ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.
Jer
14:3 Their nobles send their little ones to the waters: they come to
the cisterns, and find no water; they return with their vessels
empty; they are disappointed and confounded, and cover their heads.
Jer
14:4 Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has
been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed, they cover their
heads.
Jer
14:5 Yes, the hind also in the field calves, and forsakes her
young, because there is no grass.
Jer
14:6 The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights, they pant for air
like jackals; their eyes fail, because there is no herbage.
Jer
14:7 Though our iniquities testify against us, work you for your
name's sake, Yahweh; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned
against you.
Jer
14:8 You hope of Israel, its Savior in the time of trouble, why
should you be as a foreigner in the land, and as a wayfaring man who
turns aside to stay for a night?
Jer
14:9 Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can't
save? yet you, Yahweh, are in the midst of us, and we are called by
your name; don't leave us.
Jer
14:10 Thus says Yahweh to this people, Even so have they loved to
wander; they have not refrained their feet: therefore Yahweh does not
accept them; now he will remember their iniquity, and visit their
sins.
Jer
14:11 Yahweh said to me, Don't pray for this people for their
good.
Jer
14:12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer
burnt offering and meal offering, I will not accept them; but I will
consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.
Jer
14:13 Then said I, Ah, Lord Yahweh! behold, the prophets tell them,
You shall not see the sword, neither shall you have famine; but I
will give you assured peace in this place.
Jer
14:14 Then Yahweh said to me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name;
I didn't send them, neither have I commanded them, neither spoke I to
them: they prophesy to you a lying vision, and divination, and a
thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart.
Jer
14:15 Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who
prophesy in my name, and I didn't send them, yet they say, Sword and
famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those
prophets be consumed.
Jer
14:16 The people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the
streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and they
shall have none to bury them--them, their wives, nor their sons, nor
their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness on them.
Jer
14:17 You shall say this word to them, Let my eyes run down with
tears night and day, and let them not cease; for the virgin daughter
of my people is broken with a great breach, with a very grievous
wound.
Jer
14:18 If I go forth into the field, then, behold, the slain with the
sword! and if I enter into the city, then, behold, those who are sick
with famine! for both the prophet and the priest go about in the
land, and have no knowledge.
Jer
14:19 Have you utterly rejected Judah? has your soul loathed Zion?
why have you struck us, and there is no healing for us? We looked for
peace, but no good came; and for a time of healing, and behold,
dismay!
Jer
14:20 We acknowledge, Yahweh, our wickedness, and the iniquity of
our fathers; for we have sinned against you.
Jer
14:21 Do not abhor us,
for your name's sake; do not disgrace the throne of your glory:
remember, don't break your covenant with us.
Jer
14:22 Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause
rain? or can the sky give showers? Aren't you he, Yahweh our God?
therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things.
Jer
15:1 Then said Yahweh to me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before
me, yet my mind would not be toward this people: cast them out of my
sight, and let them go forth.
Jer
15:2 It shall happen, when they tell you, Where shall we go forth?
then you shall tell them, Thus says Yahweh: Such as are for death, to
death; and such as are for the sword, to the sword; and such as are
for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to
captivity.
Jer
15:3 I will appoint over them four kinds, says Yahweh: the sword to
kill, and the dogs to tear, and the birds of the sky, and the animals
of the earth, to devour and to destroy.
Jer
15:4 I will cause them to be tossed back and forth among all the
kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king
of Judah, for that which he did in Jerusalem.
Jer
15:5 For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? or who will bemoan
you? or who will turn aside to ask of your welfare?
Jer
15:6 You have rejected me, says Yahweh, you are gone backward:
therefore have I stretched out my hand against you, and destroyed
you; I am weary with repenting.
Jer
15:7 I have winnowed them with a fan in the gates of the land; I
have bereaved them
of children, I have destroyed my people; they didn't return from
their ways.
Jer
15:8 Their widows are increased to me above the sand of the seas; I
have brought on them against the mother of the young men a destroyer
at noonday: I have caused anguish and terrors to fall on her
suddenly.
Jer
15:9 She who has borne seven languishes; she has given up the
spirit; her sun is gone down while it was yet day; she has been
disappointed and confounded: and the residue of them will I deliver
to the sword before their enemies, says Yahweh.
Jer
15:10 Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me a man of strife
and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have not lent, neither
have men lent to me; yet
everyone of them does curse me.
Jer
15:11 Yahweh said, Most certainly I will strengthen you for good;
most certainly I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you in
the time of evil and in the time of affliction.
Jer
15:12 Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and brass?
Jer
15:13 Your substance and your treasures will I give for a spoil
without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders.
Jer
15:14 I will make them
to pass with your enemies into a land which you don't know; for a
fire is kindled in my anger, which shall burn on you.
Jer
15:15 Yahweh, you know; remember me, and visit me, and avenge me of
my persecutors; don't take me away in your longsuffering: know that
for your sake I have suffered reproach.
Jer
15:16 Your words were found, and I ate them; and your words were to
me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart: for I am called by your name,
Yahweh, God of Armies.
Jer
15:17 I didn't sit in the assembly of those who make merry, nor
rejoiced; I sat alone because of your hand; for you have filled me
with indignation.
Jer
15:18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which
refuses to be healed? will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook,
as waters that fail?
Jer
15:19 Therefore thus says Yahweh, If you return, then will I bring
you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take forth the
precious from the vile, you shall be as my mouth: they shall return
to you, but you shall not return to them.
Jer
15:20 I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; and
they shall fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you;
for I am with you to save you and to deliver you, says Yahweh.
Jer
15:21 I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked, and I will
redeem you out of the hand of the terrible.
Jer
16:1 The word of Yahweh came also to me, saying,
Jer
16:2 You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or
daughters, in this place.
Jer
16:3 For thus says Yahweh concerning the sons and concerning the
daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers
who bore them, and concerning their fathers who became the father of
them in this land:
Jer
16:4 They shall die grievous deaths: they shall not be lamented,
neither shall they be buried; they shall be as dung on the surface of
the ground; and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine;
and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for
the animals of the earth.
Jer
16:5 For thus says Yahweh, Don't enter into the house of mourning,
neither go to lament, neither bemoan them; for I have taken away my
peace from this people, says Yahweh, even loving kindness and tender
mercies.
Jer
16:6 Both great and small shall die in this land; they shall not be
buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor
make themselves bald for them;
Jer
16:7 neither shall men break bread
for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men
give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for
their mother.
Jer
16:8 You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them,
to eat and to drink.
Jer
16:9 For thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Behold, I
will cause to cease out of this place, before your eyes and in your
days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the
bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
Jer
16:10 It shall happen, when you shall show this people all these
words, and they shall tell you, Why has Yahweh pronounced all this
great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin
that we have committed against Yahweh our God?
Jer
16:11 Then you shall tell them, Because your fathers have forsaken
me, says Yahweh, and have walked after other gods, and have served
them, and have worshiped them, and have forsaken me, and have not
kept my law;
Jer
16:12 and you have done evil more than your fathers; for, behold,
you walk every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that
you don't listen to me:
Jer
16:13 therefore will I cast you forth out of this land into the land
that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you
shall serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favor.
Jer
16:14 Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall
no more be said, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of
Israel out of the land of Egypt;
Jer
16:15 but, As Yahweh lives, who brought up the children of Israel
from the land of the north, and from all the countries where he had
driven them. I will bring them again into their land that I gave to
their fathers.
Jer
16:16 Behold, I will send for many fishermen, says Yahweh, and they
shall fish them up; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and
they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and
out of the clefts of the rocks.
Jer
16:17 For my eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from my
face, neither is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.
Jer
16:18 First I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double,
because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their
detestable things, and have filled my inheritance with their
abominations.
Jer
16:19 Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the
day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the
earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
even vanity
and things in which there is no profit.
Jer
16:20 Shall a man make to himself gods, which yet are no gods?
Jer
16:21 Therefore, behold, I will cause them to know, this once will I
cause them to know my hand and my might; and they shall know that my
name is Yahweh.
Jer
17:1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and
with the point of a diamond: it is engraved on the tablet of their
heart, and on the horns of your altars;
Jer
17:2 while their children remember their altars and their Asherim by
the green trees on the high hills.
Jer
17:3 My mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all
your treasures for a spoil, and
your high places, because of sin, throughout all your borders.
Jer
17:4 You, even of yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage
that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the
land which you don't know: for you have kindled a fire in my anger
which shall burn forever.
Jer
17:5 Thus says Yahweh: Cursed is the man who trusts in man, and
makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from Yahweh.
Jer
17:6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see
when good comes, but shall inhabit the parched places in the
wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited.
Jer
17:7 Blessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh, and whose trust Yahweh
is.
Jer
17:8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, who spreads
out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes, but
its leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of
drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
Jer
17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly
corrupt: who can know it?
Jer
17:10 I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give
every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his
doings.
Jer
17:11 As the partridge that sits on eggs
which she has not laid, so is he who gets riches, and not by right;
in the midst of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he
shall be a fool.
Jer
17:12 A glorious throne, set
on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
Jer
17:13 Yahweh, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be
disappointed. Those who depart from me shall be written in the earth,
because they have forsaken Yahweh, the spring of living waters.
Jer
17:14 Heal me, O Yahweh, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall
be saved: for you are my praise.
Jer
17:15 Behold, they tell me, Where is the word of Yahweh? let it come
now.
Jer
17:16 As for me, I have not hurried from being a shepherd after you;
neither have I desired the woeful day; you know: that which came out
of my lips was before your face.
Jer
17:17 Don't be a terror to me: you are my refuge in the day of evil.
Jer
17:18 Let them be disappointed who persecute me, but let not me be
disappointed; let them be dismayed, but don't let me be dismayed;
bring on them the day of evil, and destroy them with double
destruction.
Jer
17:19 Thus said Yahweh to me: Go, and stand in the gate of the
children of the people, through which the kings of Judah come in, and
by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
Jer
17:20 and tell them, Hear you the word of Yahweh, you kings of
Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that
enter in by these gates:
Jer
17:21 Thus says Yahweh, Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden
on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
Jer
17:22 neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath
day holy, neither do any work: but make the Sabbath day, as I
commanded your fathers.
Jer
17:23 But they didn't listen, neither turn their ear, but made their
neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive
instruction.
Jer
17:24 It shall happen, if you diligently listen to me, says Yahweh,
to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath
day, but to make the Sabbath day holy, to do no work therein;
Jer
17:25 then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and
princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on
horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the
inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever.
Jer
17:26 They shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places
around Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the
lowland, and from the hill country, and from the South, bringing
burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meal offerings, and
frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of
thanksgiving, to the house of Yahweh.
Jer
17:27 But if you will not listen to me to make the Sabbath day holy,
and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on
the Sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall
devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
Hebrews 2
Heb 2:1
Therefore we ought to pay greater attention to the things that were
heard, lest perhaps we drift away.
Heb 2:2
For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every
transgression and disobedience received a just recompense;
Heb 2:3
how will we escape if we neglect so great a salvation--which at the
first having been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed to us by
those who heard;
Heb 2:4
God also testifying with them, both by signs and wonders, by various
works of power, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own
will?
Heb 2:5
For he didn't subject the world to come, of which we speak, to
angels.
Heb 2:6
But one has somewhere testified, saying, "What is man, that you
think of him? Or the son of man, that you care for him?
Heb 2:7
You made him a little lower than the angels. You crowned him with
glory and honor.
Heb 2:8
You have put all things in subjection under his feet." For in
that he subjected all things to him, he left nothing that is not
subject to him. But now we don't see all things subjected to him,
yet.
Heb 2:9
But we see him who has been made a little lower than the angels,
Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and
honor, that by the grace of God he should taste of death for
everyone.
Heb 2:10
For it became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all
things, in bringing many children to glory, to make the author of
their salvation perfect through sufferings.
Heb 2:11
For both he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all from
one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brothers,
Heb 2:12
saying, "I will declare your name to my brothers. In the midst
of the congregation I will sing your praise."
Heb 2:13
Again, "I will put my trust in him." Again, "Behold,
here I am with the children whom God has given me."
Heb 2:14
Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also
himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death he
might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the
devil,
Heb 2:15
and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all
their lifetime subject to bondage.
Heb 2:16
For most certainly, he doesn't give help to angels, but he gives help
to the seed of Abraham.
Heb 2:17
Therefore he was obligated in all things to be made like his
brothers, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in
things pertaining to God, to make atonement for the sins of the
people.
Heb 2:18
For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to help
those who are tempted.
One
common misconception regarding the behavior of Jesus is that, on
occasion, in healing the sick and performing other benevolent actions,
He broke the Sabbath in order to accommodate the higher law of love.
This viewpoint leaves the impression that law is sometimes, if not
frequently, antithetical to being loving. It implies that sometimes
breaking God’s laws is necessary in order to be loving. This notion, of
course, is flawed and contrary to Bible teaching. As Paul explained to
the Romans: “he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the
commandments…are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore
love is the fulfillment of the law” (Romans 13:8-10). Paul meant that
when you obey the law’s directives concerning how to conduct yourself
toward your neighbor, you will be engaging in loving behavior. To love,
one must enact God’s laws.
If
you do not want to accept that God exists, you have to be able to
explain the existence of the Universe without Him creating it. If He is
not in the equation, then either the Universe created itself or is
eternal—there are no other options (Spencer, 1882). The popular theory
today, of course, is the Big Bang Theory, which posits that the Universe
created itself. Recall that in 2014, science magazines, journals, and
media hailed the discovery of gravitational waves that supposedly proved
Big Bang inflation (