Day 222 of 364

¹The LORD says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build to me? Where will I rest? ²For my hand has made all these things, and so all these things came to be,” says the LORD: “but I will look to this man, even to he who is poor and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at my word. ³He who kills an ox is as he who kills a man; he who sacrifices a lamb, as he who breaks a dog’s neck; he who offers an offering, as he who offers pig’s blood; he who burns frankincense, as he who blesses an idol. Yes, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delights in their abominations. ⁴I also will choose their delusions, and will bring their fears on them, because when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they didn’t listen, but they did that which was evil in my eyes, and chose that in which I didn’t delight.” ⁵Hear the LORD’s word, you who tremble at his word: “Your brothers who hate you, who cast you out for my name’s sake, have said, ‘Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy;’ but it is those who shall be disappointed. ⁶A voice of tumult from the city, a voice from the temple, a voice of the LORD that repays his enemies what they deserve. ⁷“Before she travailed, she gave birth. Before her pain came, she delivered a son. ⁸Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be born at once? For as soon as Zion travailed, she gave birth to her children. ⁹Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to be delivered?” says the LORD. “Shall I who cause to give birth shut the womb?” says your God. ¹⁰“Rejoice with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all you who love her. Rejoice for joy with her, all you who mourn over her; ¹¹that you may nurse and be satisfied at the comforting breasts; that you may drink deeply, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory.” ¹²For the LORD says, “Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream, and you will nurse. You will be carried on her side, and will be dandled on her knees. ¹³As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you. You will be comforted in Jerusalem.” ¹⁴You will see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones will flourish like the tender grass. The LORD’s hand will be known among his servants; and he will have indignation against his enemies. ¹⁵For, behold, the LORD will come with fire, and his chariots will be like the whirlwind; to give his anger with fierceness, and his rebuke with flames of fire. ¹⁶For the LORD will execute judgment by fire and by his sword on all flesh; and those slain by the LORD will be many. ¹⁷“Those who sanctify themselves and purify themselves to go to the gardens, following one in the middle, eating pig’s meat, abominable things, and the mouse, they shall come to an end together,” says the LORD. ¹⁸“For I know their works and their thoughts. The time comes that I will gather all nations and languages, and they will come, and will see my glory. ¹⁹“I will set a sign among them, and I will send those who escape of them to the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, who draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to far-away islands, who have not heard my fame, nor have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the nations. ²⁰They shall bring all your brothers out of all the nations for an offering to the LORD, on horses, in chariots, in litters, on mules, and on camels, to my holy mountain Jerusalem, says the LORD, as the children of Israel bring their offering in a clean vessel into the LORD’s house. ²¹Of them I will also select priests and Levites,” says the LORD. ²²“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,” says the LORD, “so your offspring and your name shall remain. ²³It shall happen that from one new moon to another, and from one Sabbath to another, all flesh will come to worship before me,” says the LORD. ²⁴“They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their fire be quenched, and they will be loathsome to all mankind.”

^1:1The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin. ^1:2The LORD’s word came to him in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. ^1:3It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, to the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month. ^1:4Now the LORD’s word came to me, saying, ^1:5“Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I sanctified you. I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” ^1:6Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I don’t know how to speak; for I am a child.” ^1:7But the LORD said to me, “Don’t say, ‘I am a child;’ for you must go to whomever I send you, and you must say whatever I command you. ^1:8Don’t be afraid because of them, for I am with you to rescue you,” says the LORD. ^1:9Then the LORD stretched out his hand and touched my mouth. Then the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have put my words in your mouth. ^1:10Behold, I have today set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant.” ^1:11Moreover the LORD’s word came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.” ^1:12Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well; for I watch over my word to perform it.” ^1:13The LORD’s word came to me the second time, saying, “What do you see?” I said, “I see a boiling cauldron; and it is tipping away from the north.” ^1:14Then the LORD said to me, “Out of the north, evil will break out on all the inhabitants of the land. ^1:15For behold, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north,” says the LORD. “They will come, and they will each set his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all its walls all around, and against all the cities of Judah. ^1:16I will utter my judgments against them concerning all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense to other gods, and worshiped the works of their own hands. ^1:17“You therefore put your belt on your waist, arise, and say to them all that I command you. Don’t be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them. ^1:18For behold, I have made you today a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, against its princes, against its priests, and against the people of the land. ^1:19They will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you”, says the LORD, “to rescue you.” ^2:1The LORD’s word came to me, saying, ^2:2“Go and proclaim in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, ‘The LORD says, “I remember for you the kindness of your youth, your love as a bride, how you went after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown. ^2:3Israel was holiness to the LORD, the first fruits of his increase. All who devour him will be held guilty. Evil will come on them,”’ says the LORD.” ^2:4Hear the LORD’s word, O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel! ^2:5The LORD says, “What unrighteousness have your fathers found in me, that they have gone far from me, and have walked after worthless vanity, and have become worthless? ^2:6They didn’t say, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of drought and of the shadow of death, through a land that no one passed through, and where no man lived?’ ^2:7I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruit and its goodness; but when you entered, you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination. ^2:8The priests didn’t say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ and those who handle the law didn’t know me. The rulers also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal and followed things that do not profit. ^2:9“Therefore I will yet contend with you,” says the LORD, “and I will contend with your children’s children. ^2:10For pass over to the islands of Kittim, and see. Send to Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there has been such a thing. ^2:11Has a nation changed its gods, which really are no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doesn’t profit. ^2:12“Be astonished, you heavens, at this and be horribly afraid. Be very desolate,” says the LORD. ^2:13“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water. ^2:14Is Israel a slave? Is he born into slavery? Why has he become a captive? ^2:15The young lions have roared at him and raised their voices. They have made his land waste. His cities are burned up, without inhabitant. ^2:16The children also of Memphis and Tahpanhes have broken the crown of your head. ^2:17“Haven’t you brought this on yourself, in that you have forsaken the LORD your God, when he led you by the way? ^2:18Now what do you gain by going to Egypt, to drink the waters of the Shihor? Or why do you go on the way to Assyria, to drink the waters of the River? ^2:19“Your own wickedness will correct you, and your backsliding will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing, that you have forsaken the LORD your God, and that my fear is not in you,” says the Lord, GOD of Armies. ^2:20“For long ago I broke off your yoke, and burst your bonds. You said, ‘I will not serve;’ for on every high hill and under every green tree you bowed yourself, playing the prostitute. ^2:21Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a pure and faithful seed. How then have you turned into the degenerate branches of a foreign vine to me? ^2:22For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, yet your iniquity is marked before me,” says the Lord GOD. ^2:23“How can you say, ‘I am not defiled. I have not gone after the Baals’? See your way in the valley. Know what you have done. You are a swift dromedary traversing her ways, ^2:24a wild donkey used to the wilderness, that sniffs the wind in her craving. When she is in heat, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary themselves. In her month, they will find her. ^2:25“Keep your feet from being bare, and your throat from thirst. But you said, ‘It is in vain. No, for I have loved strangers, and I will go after them.’ ^2:26As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so the house of Israel is ashamed— they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, ^2:27who tell wood, ‘You are my father,’ and a stone, ‘You have given birth to me,’ for they have turned their back to me, and not their face, but in the time of their trouble they will say, ‘Arise, and save us!’ ^2:28“But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, if they can save you in the time of your trouble, for you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah. ^2:29“Why will you contend with me? You all have transgressed against me,” says the LORD. ^2:30“I have struck your children in vain. They received no correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. ^2:31Generation, consider the LORD’s word. Have I been a wilderness to Israel? Or a land of thick darkness? Why do my people say, ‘We have broken loose. We will come to you no more’? ^2:32“Can a virgin forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? Yet my people have forgotten me for days without number. ^2:33How well you prepare your way to seek love! Therefore you have even taught the wicked women your ways. ^2:34Also the blood of the souls of the innocent poor is found in your skirts. You didn’t find them breaking in, but it is because of all these things. ^2:35“Yet you said, ‘I am innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.’ “Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’ ^2:36Why do you go about so much to change your ways? You will be ashamed of Egypt also, as you were ashamed of Assyria. ^2:37You will also leave that place with your hands on your head; for the LORD has rejected those in whom you trust, and you won’t prosper with them.