Day 226 of 364

^13:1The LORD said to me, “Go, and buy yourself a linen belt, and put it on your waist, and don’t put it in water.” ^13:2So I bought a belt according to the LORD’s word, and put it on my waist. ^13:3The LORD’s word came to me the second time, saying, ^13:4“Take the belt that you have bought, which is on your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.” ^13:5So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me. ^13:6After many days, the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take the belt from there, which I commanded you to hide there.” ^13:7Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and took the belt from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the belt was ruined. It was profitable for nothing. ^13:8Then the LORD’s word came to me, saying, ^13:9“The LORD says, ‘In this way I will ruin the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem. ^13:10This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who walk in the stubbornness of their heart, and have gone after other gods to serve them and to worship them, will even be as this belt, which is profitable for nothing. ^13:11For as the belt clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to me,’ says the LORD; ‘that they may be to me for a people, for a name, for praise, and for glory; but they would not hear.’ ^13:12“Therefore you shall speak to them this word: ‘The LORD, the God of Israel says, “Every container should be filled with wine.”’ They will tell you, ‘Do we not certainly know that every container should be filled with wine?’ ^13:13Then tell them, ‘The LORD says, “Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. ^13:14I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,” says the LORD: “I will not pity, spare, or have compassion, that I should not destroy them.”’” ^13:15Hear, and give ear. Don’t be proud, for the LORD has spoken. ^13:16Give glory to the LORD your God, before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and while you look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and makes it deep darkness. ^13:17But if you will not hear it, my soul will weep in secret for your pride. My eye will weep bitterly, and run down with tears, because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive. ^13:18Say to the king and to the queen mother, “Humble yourselves. Sit down, for your crowns have come down, even the crown of your glory. ^13:19The cities of the South are shut up, and there is no one to open them. Judah is carried away captive: all of them. They are wholly carried away captive. ^13:20Lift up your eyes, and see those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful flock? ^13:21What will you say when he sets over you as head those whom you have yourself taught to be friends to you? Won’t sorrows take hold of you, as of a woman in travail? ^13:22If you say in your heart, “Why have these things come on me?” Your skirts are uncovered because of the greatness of your iniquity, and your heels suffer violence. ^13:23Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may you also do good, who are accustomed to do evil. ^13:24“Therefore I will scatter them as the stubble that passes away by the wind of the wilderness. ^13:25This is your lot, the portion measured to you from me,” says the LORD, “because you have forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood.” ^13:26Therefore I will also uncover your skirts on your face, and your shame will appear. ^13:27I have seen your abominations, even your adulteries and your neighing, the lewdness of your prostitution, on the hills in the field. Woe to you, Jerusalem! You will not be made clean. How long will it yet be?” ^14:1This is the LORD’s word that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought: ^14:2“Judah mourns, and its gates languish. They sit in black on the ground. The cry of Jerusalem goes up. ^14:3Their 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. ^14:4Because of the ground which is cracked, because no rain has been in the land, the plowmen are disappointed. They cover their heads. ^14:5Yes, the doe in the field also calves and forsakes her young, because there is no grass. ^14:6The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights. They pant for air like jackals. Their eyes fail, because there is no vegetation. ^14:7Though our iniquities testify against us, work for your name’s sake, LORD; for our rebellions are many. We have sinned against you. ^14:8You 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? ^14:9Why should you be like a scared man, as a mighty man who can’t save? Yet you, LORD, are in the middle of us, and we are called by your name. Don’t leave us. ^14:10The LORD says to this people: “Even so they have loved to wander. They have not restrained their feet. Therefore the LORD does not accept them. Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish them for their sins.” ^14:11The LORD said to me, “Don’t pray for this people for their good. ^14:12When 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, by famine, and by pestilence.” ^14:13Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, the prophets tell them, ‘You will not see the sword, neither will you have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place.’” ^14:14Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in my name. I didn’t send them. I didn’t command them. I didn’t speak to them. They prophesy to you a lying vision, divination, and a thing of nothing, and the deceit of their own heart. ^14:15Therefore the LORD says concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, but I didn’t send them, yet they say, ‘Sword and famine will not be in this land.’ Those prophets will be consumed by sword and famine. ^14:16The people to whom they prophesy will be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. They will have no one to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, or their daughters, for I will pour their wickedness on them. ^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. ^14:18If I go out into the field, then behold, the slain with the sword! 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.’” ^14:19Have 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! ^14:20We acknowledge, LORD, our wickedness, and the iniquity of our fathers; for we have sinned against you. ^14:21Do not abhor us, for your name’s sake. Do not disgrace the throne of your glory. Remember, and don’t break your covenant with us. ^14:22Are there any among the vanities of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the sky give showers? Aren’t you he, the LORD our God? Therefore we will wait for you; for you have made all these things. ^15:1Then the LORD said to me, “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind would not turn toward this people. Cast them out of my sight, and let them go out! ^15:2It will happen when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go out?’ then you shall tell them, ‘The LORD says: “Such as are for death, to death; such as are for the sword, to the sword; such as are for the famine, to the famine; and such as are for captivity, to captivity.”’ ^15:3“I will appoint over them four kinds,” says the LORD: “the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, the birds of the sky, and the animals of the earth, to devour and to destroy. ^15:4I 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. ^15:5For who will have pity on you, Jerusalem? Who will mourn you? Who will come to ask of your welfare? ^15:6You have rejected me,” says the LORD. “You have gone backward. Therefore I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you. I am weary of showing compassion. ^15:7I 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. ^15:8Their widows are increased more than 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. ^15:9She who has borne seven languishes. She has given up the spirit. Her sun has gone down while it was yet day. She has been disappointed and confounded. I will deliver their residue to the sword before their enemies,” says the LORD. ^15:10Woe 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 every one of them curses me. ^15:11The LORD 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. ^15:12Can one break iron, even iron from the north, and bronze? ^15:13I will give your substance and your treasures for a plunder without price, and that for all your sins, even in all your borders. ^15:14I 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 will burn on you.” ^15:15LORD, you know. Remember me, visit me, and avenge me of my persecutors. You are patient, so don’t take me away. Know that for your sake I have suffered reproach. ^15:16Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words were to me a joy and the rejoicing of my heart, for I am called by your name, LORD, God of Armies. ^15:17I didn’t sit in the assembly of those who make merry and rejoice. I sat alone because of your hand, for you have filled me with indignation. ^15:18Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will you indeed be to me as a deceitful brook, like waters that fail? ^15:19Therefore the LORD says, “If you return, then I will bring you again, that you may stand before me; and if you take out the precious from the vile, you will be as my mouth. They will return to you, but you will not return to them. ^15:20I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall. They will fight against you, but they will not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and to deliver you,” says the LORD. ^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.” ^16:1Then the LORD’s word came to me, saying, ^16:2“You shall not take a wife, neither shall you have sons or daughters, in this place.” ^16:3For the LORD says 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 their father in this land: ^16:4“They will die grievous deaths. They will not be lamented, neither will they be buried. They will be as dung on the surface of the ground. They will be consumed by the sword and by famine. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth.” ^16:5For the LORD says, “Don’t enter into the house of mourning. Don’t go to lament. Don’t bemoan them, for I have taken away my peace from this people,” says the LORD, “even loving kindness and tender mercies. ^16:6Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried. Men won’t lament for them, cut themselves, or make themselves bald for them. ^16:7Men won’t break bread for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead. Men won’t give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother. ^16:8“You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and to drink.” ^16:9For the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says: “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. ^16:10It will happen, when you tell this people all these words, and they ask you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great evil against us?’ or ‘What is our iniquity?’ or ‘What is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’ ^16:11then you shall tell them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me,’ says the LORD, ‘and have walked after other gods, have served them, have worshiped them, have forsaken me, and have not kept my law. ^16:12You have done evil more than your fathers, for behold, you each walk after the stubbornness of his evil heart, so that you don’t listen to me. ^16:13Therefore I will cast you out of this land into the land that you have not known, neither you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’ ^16:14“Therefore behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that it will no more be said, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;’ ^16:15but, ‘As the LORD 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. ^16:16“Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the LORD, “and they will fish them up. Afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain, from every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks. ^16:17For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from my face. Their iniquity isn’t concealed from my eyes. ^16:18First 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.” ^16:19LORD, my strength, my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, and will say, “Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, vanity and things in which there is no profit. ^16:20Should a man make to himself gods which yet are no gods?” ^16:21“Therefore behold, I will cause them to know, this once I will cause them to know my hand and my might. Then they will know that my name is the LORD.”