Jeremiah 22–24
22:1Thus says the LORD: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, 2and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. 3Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. 5But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the LORD, that this house shall become a desolation. 6For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah:
“‘You are like Gilead to me,like the summit of Lebanon,yet surely I will make you a desert,an uninhabited city.7I will prepare destroyers against you,each with his weapons,and they shall cut down your choicest cedarsand cast them into the fire.
8“‘And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, “Why has the LORD dealt thus with this great city?” 9And they will answer, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”’”
10Weep not for him who is dead,nor grieve for him,but weep bitterly for him who goes away,for he shall return no moreto see his native land.
11For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went away from this place: “He shall return here no more, 12but in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again.”
13“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness,and his upper rooms by injustice,who makes his neighbor serve him for nothingand does not give him his wages,14who says, ‘I will build myself a great housewith spacious upper rooms,’who cuts out windows for it,paneling it with cedarand painting it with vermilion.15Do you think you are a kingbecause you compete in cedar?Did not your father eat and drinkand do justice and righteousness?Then it was well with him.16He judged the cause of the poor and needy;then it was well.Is not this to know me?declares the LORD.17But you have eyes and heartonly for your dishonest gain,for shedding innocent blood,and for practicing oppression and violence.”
18Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:
“They shall not lament for him, saying,‘Ah, my brother!’ or ‘Ah, sister!’They shall not lament for him, saying,‘Ah, lord!’ or ‘Ah, his majesty!’19With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried,dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.” 20“Go up to Lebanon, and cry out,and lift up your voice in Bashan;cry out from Abarim,for all your lovers are destroyed.21I spoke to you in your prosperity,but you said, ‘I will not listen.’This has been your way from your youth,that you have not obeyed my voice.22The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds,and your lovers shall go into captivity;then you will be ashamed and confoundedbecause of all your evil.23O inhabitant of Lebanon,nested among the cedars,how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you,pain as of a woman in labor!”
24“As I live, declares the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off 25and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. 27But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.”
28Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot,a vessel no one cares for?Why are he and his children hurled and castinto a land that they do not know?29O land, land, land,hear the word of the LORD!30Thus says the LORD:“Write this man down as childless,a man who shall not succeed in his days,for none of his offspring shall succeedin sitting on the throne of Davidand ruling again in Judah.”
23:1“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. 2Therefore thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the shepherds who care for my people: “You have scattered my flock and have driven them away, and you have not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for your evil deeds, declares the LORD. 3Then I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their fold, and they shall be fruitful and multiply. 4I will set shepherds over them who will care for them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, neither shall any be missing, declares the LORD.
5“Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. 6In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: ‘The LORD is our righteousness.’
7“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ 8but ‘As the LORD lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they shall dwell in their own land.”
9Concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken within me;all my bones shake;I am like a drunken man,like a man overcome by wine,because of the LORDand because of his holy words.10For the land is full of adulterers;because of the curse the land mourns,and the pastures of the wilderness are dried up.Their course is evil,and their might is not right.11“Both prophet and priest are ungodly;even in my house I have found their evil,declares the LORD.12Therefore their way shall be to themlike slippery paths in the darkness,into which they shall be driven and fall,for I will bring disaster upon themin the year of their punishment,declares the LORD.13In the prophets of SamariaI saw an unsavory thing:they prophesied by Baaland led my people Israel astray.14But in the prophets of JerusalemI have seen a horrible thing:they commit adultery and walk in lies;they strengthen the hands of evildoers,so that no one turns from his evil;all of them have become like Sodom to me,and its inhabitants like Gomorrah.”15Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets:“Behold, I will feed them with bitter foodand give them poisoned water to drink,for from the prophets of Jerusalemungodliness has gone out into all the land.”
16Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you, filling you with vain hopes. They speak visions of their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD. 17They say continually to those who despise the word of the LORD, ‘It shall be well with you’; and to everyone who stubbornly follows his own heart, they say, ‘No disaster shall come upon you.’”
18For who among them has stood in the council of the LORDto see and to hear his word,or who has paid attention to his word and listened?19Behold, the storm of the LORD!Wrath has gone forth,a whirling tempest;it will burst upon the head of the wicked.20The anger of the LORD will not turn backuntil he has executed and accomplishedthe intents of his heart.In the latter days you will understand it clearly. 21“I did not send the prophets,yet they ran;I did not speak to them,yet they prophesied.22But if they had stood in my council,then they would have proclaimed my words to my people,and they would have turned them from their evil way,and from the evil of their deeds.
23“Am I a God at hand, declares the LORD, and not a God far away? 24Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the LORD. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the LORD. 25I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in my name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’ 26How long shall there be lies in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies, and who prophesy the deceit of their own heart, 27who think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another, even as their fathers forgot my name for Baal? 28Let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my word speak my word faithfully. What has straw in common with wheat? declares the LORD. 29Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces? 30Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who steal my words from one another. 31Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, who use their tongues and declare, ‘declares the LORD.’ 32Behold, I am against those who prophesy lying dreams, declares the LORD, and who tell them and lead my people astray by their lies and their recklessness, when I did not send them or charge them. So they do not profit this people at all, declares the LORD.
33“When one of this people, or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden of the LORD?’ you shall say to them, ‘You are the burden, and I will cast you off, declares the LORD.’ 34And as for the prophet, priest, or one of the people who says, ‘The burden of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household. 35Thus shall you say, every one to his neighbor and every one to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ 36But ‘the burden of the LORD’ you shall mention no more, for the burden is every man’s own word, and you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God. 37Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ 38But if you say, ‘The burden of the LORD,’ thus says the LORD, ‘Because you have said these words, “The burden of the LORD,” when I sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The burden of the LORD,’” 39therefore, behold, I will surely lift you up and cast you away from my presence, you and the city that I gave to you and your fathers. 40And I will bring upon you everlasting reproach and perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’”
24:1After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken into exile from Jerusalem Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, together with the officials of Judah, the craftsmen, and the metal workers, and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me this vision: behold, two baskets of figs placed before the temple of the LORD. 2One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, but the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they could not be eaten. 3And the LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” I said, “Figs, the good figs very good, and the bad figs very bad, so bad that they cannot be eaten.”
4Then the word of the LORD came to me: 5“Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Like these good figs, so I will regard as good the exiles from Judah, whom I have sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6I will set my eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land. I will build them up, and not tear them down; I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.
8“But thus says the LORD: Like the bad figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten, so will I treat Zedekiah the king of Judah, his officials, the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt. 9I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, to be a reproach, a byword, a taunt, and a curse in all the places where I shall drive them. 10And I will send sword, famine, and pestilence upon them, until they shall be utterly destroyed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.”
Matthew 2:1–15
2:1Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, 2saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” 3When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him; 4and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. 5They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:
6“‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;for from you shall come a rulerwho will shepherd my people Israel.’”
7Then Herod summoned the wise men secretly and ascertained from them what time the star had appeared. 8And he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child, and when you have found him, bring me word, that I too may come and worship him.” 9After listening to the king, they went on their way. And behold, the star that they had seen when it rose went before them until it came to rest over the place where the child was. 10When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. 11And going into the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Then, opening their treasures, they offered him gifts, gold and frankincense and myrrh. 12And being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed to their own country by another way.
13Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
Psalm 59:9–17
9O my Strength, I will watch for you,for you, O God, are my fortress.10My God in his steadfast love will meet me;God will let me look in triumph on my enemies. 11Kill them not, lest my people forget;make them totter by your power and bring them down,O Lord, our shield!12For the sin of their mouths, the words of their lips,let them be trapped in their pride.For the cursing and lies that they utter,13consume them in wrath;consume them till they are no more,that they may know that God rules over Jacobto the ends of the earth. Selah 14Each evening they come back,howling like dogsand prowling about the city.15They wander about for foodand growl if they do not get their fill. 16But I will sing of your strength;I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.For you have been to me a fortressand a refuge in the day of my distress.17O my Strength, I will sing praises to you,for you, O God, are my fortress,the God who shows me steadfast love.
Proverbs 14:23–24
23In all toil there is profit,but mere talk tends only to poverty.24The crown of the wise is their wealth,but the folly of fools brings folly.
