Jeremiah 14-16

New American Standard Bible

Drought and a Prayer for Mercy

14 That which came as the word of the Lord to Jeremiah regarding the ^(A)drought:

²“Judah mourns
And ^(B)her gates languish;
Her people sit on the ground ^(C)in mourning garments,
And the ^(D)cry of Jerusalem has ascended.
³Their nobles have ^(E)sent their ^[a]servants for water;
They have come to the ^(F)cisterns and found no water.
They have returned with their containers empty;
They have been ^(G)put to shame and humiliated,
And they ^(H)cover their heads,
⁴Because the ^(I)ground is ^[b]cracked,
For there has been ^(J)no rain on the land.
The ^(K)farmers have been put to shame,
They have covered their heads.
⁵For even the doe in the field has given birth only to abandon her young,
Because there is ^(L)no grass.
⁶The ^(M)wild donkeys stand on the bare heights;
They pant for air like jackals,
Their eyes fail
Because there is ^(N)no vegetation.
⁷Though our ^(O)wrongdoings testify against us,
Lord, act ^(P)for the sake of Your name!
Our ^(Q)apostasies have indeed been many,
We have ^(R)sinned against You.
⁸^(S)Hope of Israel,
Its ^(T)Savior in ^(U)time of distress,
Why are You like a stranger in the land,
Or like a traveler who has pitched his tent for the night?
⁹Why are You like a confused person,
Like a warrior who ^(V)cannot save?
Yet ^(W)You are in our midst, Lord,
And we are ^(X)called by Your name;
Do not leave us!”

¹⁰This is what the Lord says to this people: “So much they have ^(Y)loved to wander; they have not ^(Z)restrained their feet. Therefore the Lord does ^(AA)not accept them; now He will ^(AB)remember their wrongdoing and call their sins to account.” ¹¹So the Lord said to me, “^(AC)Do not pray for a good outcome on behalf of this people. ¹²When they fast, I am ^(AD)not going to listen to their cry; and when they offer ^(AE)burnt offering and grain offering, I am not going to accept them. Rather, I am going to ^(AF)put an end to them by the ^(AG)sword, famine, and plague.”

False Prophets

¹³But I said, “Oh, Lord ^[c]God! Behold, the prophets are telling them, ‘You ^(AH)will not see a sword, nor will you have famine; on the contrary, I will give you lasting ^(AI)peace in this place.’” ¹⁴Then the Lord said to me, “The ^(AJ)prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. ^(AK)I have neither sent them nor commanded them, nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a ^(AL)false vision, divination, futility, and the deception of their own ^[d]minds. ¹⁵Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them—yet they keep saying: ‘There will be no sword or famine in this land’—^(AM)by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end! ¹⁶And the people to whom they are prophesying will be ^(AN)thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to ^(AO)bury them—neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters. For I will ^(AP)pour out their own wickedness upon them.

¹⁷You will say this word to them,
‘^(AQ)Let my eyes stream down tears night and day,
And let them not cease;
For the virgin ^(AR)daughter of my people has been crushed with a mighty blow,
With a sorely ^(AS)infected wound.
¹⁸If I ^(AT)go out to the country,
There are those killed by the sword!
Or if I enter the city,
There are diseases from famine!
For ^(AU)both prophet and priest
Have wandered around in the land that they do not know.’”

¹⁹Have You completely ^(AV)rejected Judah?
Or have ^[e]You loathed Zion?
Why have You stricken us so that we ^(AW)are beyond healing?
We ^(AX)waited for peace, but nothing good came;
And for a time of healing, but behold, terror!
²⁰We ^(AY)know our wickedness, Lord,
The wrongdoing of our fathers, for ^(AZ)we have sinned against You.
²¹Do not despise us, ^(BA)for the sake of Your own name;
Do not disgrace the ^(BB)throne of Your glory.
Remember and do not annul Your covenant with us.
²²Are there any among the ^[f]^(BC)idols of the nations who ^(BD)give rain?
Or can the heavens grant showers?
Is it not You, Lord our God?
Therefore we ^(BE)wait for You,
For You are the one who has done all these things.

Judgment Must Come

15 Then the Lord said to me, “Even ^(BF)if ^(BG)Moses and ^(BH)Samuel were to ^(BI)stand before Me, My ^[g]heart would not be ^[h]with this people. ^(BJ)Send them away from My presence and have them go! ²And it shall be that when they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you are to tell them, ‘This is what the Lord says:

“Those destined ^(BK)for death, to death;
And those destined for the sword, to the sword;
And those destined for famine, to famine;
And those destined for captivity, to captivity.”’

³And I will ^(BL)appoint over them four kinds of doom,” declares the Lord: “the sword to kill, the ^(BM)dogs to drag away, and the ^(BN)birds of the sky and the animals of the earth to devour and destroy. ⁴I will ^(BO)make them an object of terror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of ^(BP)Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

⁵“Indeed, who will have ^(BQ)pity on you, Jerusalem,
Or who will ^(BR)mourn for you,
Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?
⁶You who have ^(BS)forsaken Me,” declares the Lord,
“You keep ^(BT)going backward.
So I will ^(BU)stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;
I am ^(BV)tired of relenting!
⁷I will ^(BW)winnow them with a winnowing fork
At the gates of the land;
I will ^(BX)bereave them of children, I will destroy My people;
^(BY)They did not ^[i]repent of their ways.
⁸Their ^(BZ)widows will be more numerous before Me
Than the sand of the seas;
I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man,
A ^(CA)destroyer at noon;
I will suddenly bring down on her
Shock and horror.
⁹She who ^(CB)gave birth to seven sons withers away;
^[j]Her breathing is labored.
Her ^(CC)sun has set while it was still day;
She has been ^(CD)shamed and humiliated.
So I will ^(CE)turn over their survivors to the sword
Before their enemies,” declares the Lord.

¹⁰^(CF)Woe to me, my mother, that you have given birth to me
As a ^(CG)man of strife and a man of contention to all the land!
I have not ^(CH)lent, nor have people lent money to me,
Yet everyone curses me.
¹¹The Lord said, “I will certainly ^(CI)set you free for purposes of good;
I will certainly make the ^(CJ)enemy plead with you
In a time of disaster and a time of distress.

¹²“Can anyone smash iron,
^(CK)Iron from the north, or bronze?
¹³I will give your ^(CL)wealth and your treasures
As plunder ^(CM)without cost,
For all your sins
And within all your borders.
¹⁴Then I will make your enemies bring your possessions
Into a ^(CN)land that you do not know;
For a ^(CO)fire has been kindled in My anger,
And it will burn upon you.”

Jeremiah’s Prayer and God’s Answer

¹⁵^(CP)You know, Lord;
Remember me, take notice of me,
And ^(CQ)take vengeance for me on my persecutors.
Do not, in view of Your patience, take me away;
Know that ^(CR)for Your sake I endure reproach.
¹⁶Your words were found and I ^(CS)ate them,
And Your ^(CT)words became a joy to me and the delight of my heart;
For I have been ^(CU)called by Your name,
Lord God of armies.
¹⁷I ^(CV)did not sit in a circle of revelers and celebrate.
Because of Your hand upon me I sat ^(CW)alone,
For You ^(CX)filled me with indignation.
¹⁸Why has my pain been endless
And my ^(CY)wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Will You indeed be to me ^(CZ)like a deceptive stream
With water that is unreliable?

¹⁹Therefore, this is what the Lord says:
“^(DA)If you return, then I will restore you—
^(DB)You will stand before Me;
And ^(DC)if you extract the precious from the worthless,
You will become ^[k]My spokesman.
They, for their part, may turn to you,
But as for you, you are not to turn to them.
²⁰Then I will ^(DD)make you to this people
A fortified wall of bronze;
And though they fight against you,
They will not prevail over you;
For ^(DE)I am with you to save you
And rescue you,” declares the Lord.
²¹“So I will ^(DF)rescue you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will ^(DG)redeem you from the ^[l]grasp of the violent.”

Distresses Foretold

16 The word of the Lord also came to me, saying, ²“You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place.” ³For this is what the Lord says concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their ^(DH)mothers who give birth to them, and their ^(DI)fathers who father them in this land: ⁴“They will ^(DJ)die of deadly diseases, they ^(DK)will not be mourned or buried; they will be like ^(DL)dung on the surface of the ground. And they will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the ^(DM)birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth.”

⁵For this is what the Lord says: “Do not enter a house of ^(DN)mourning, or go to mourn or to console them; for I have ^(DO)withdrawn My peace from this people,” declares the Lord, “and My ^(DP)favor and compassion. ⁶Both ^(DQ)great people and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, people will not mourn for them, nor will anyone ^(DR)make cuts on himself or have his head ^(DS)shaved for them. ⁷People will not ^(DT)break bread in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead, nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone’s father or mother. ⁸Moreover, you shall ^(DU)not go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink.” ⁹For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: “Behold, I am going to ^(DV)eliminate from this place, before your eyes and in your time, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of joy, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰“Now it will happen that, when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘^(DW)For what reason has the Lord declared all this great disaster against us? And what is our wrongdoing, or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ ¹¹Then you are to say to them, ‘It is ^(DX)because your forefathers have abandoned Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and have followed ^(DY)other gods, and served and worshiped them; but they have abandoned Me and have not kept My Law. ¹²You too have done evil, even ^(DZ)more than your forefathers; for behold, each one of you is following the ^(EA)stubbornness of his own ^(EB)evil heart, without listening to Me. ¹³So I will ^(EC)hurl you off this land to the ^(ED)land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will ^(EE)serve other gods day and night, because I will show you no compassion.’

God Will Restore Them

¹⁴“^(EF)Therefore behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who ^(EG)brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ¹⁵but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the ^(EH)land of the north and from all the lands where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶“Behold, I am going to send for many ^(EI)fishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will fish for them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will ^(EJ)hunt them ^(EK)from every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks. ¹⁷^(EL)For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, ^(EM)nor is their wrongdoing concealed from My eyes. ¹⁸I will first repay them ^(EN)double for their wrongdoing and their sin, because they have ^(EO)defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their ^(EP)detestable idols and their abominations.”

¹⁹Lord, my ^(EQ)strength and my stronghold,
And my ^(ER)refuge in the day of distress,
To You the ^(ES)nations will come
From the ends of the earth and say,
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but ^(ET)falsehood,
Futility, and ^[m]^(EU)things of no benefit.”
²⁰Can a person make gods for himself?
But they are ^(EV)not gods!

²¹“Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—
This time I will ^(EW)make them know
My ^[n]power and My might;
And they will ^(EX)know that My name is the Lord.”

Footnotes

Jeremiah 14:3 Lit little ones
Jeremiah 14:4 Lit shattered
Jeremiah 14:13 Heb YHWH, usually rendered Lord
Jeremiah 14:14 Lit heart
Jeremiah 14:19 Lit Your soul
Jeremiah 14:22 Lit futilities
Jeremiah 15:1 Lit soul
Jeremiah 15:1 Lit toward
Jeremiah 15:7 Lit turn back from
Jeremiah 15:9 Or She has breathed out her soul
Jeremiah 15:19 Lit as My mouth
Jeremiah 15:21 Lit palm
Jeremiah 16:19 Lit there is nothing profitable in them
Jeremiah 16:21 Lit hand

Romans 1

New American Standard Bible

The Gospel Exalted

1 Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, ^[a]^(A)called as an apostle, ^(B)set apart for ^(C)the gospel of God, ²which He ^(D)promised beforehand through His ^(E)prophets in the holy Scriptures, ³concerning His Son, who was born ^(F)of a ^[b]descendant of David ^(G)according to the flesh, ⁴who was declared ^(H)the Son of God with power according to the ^[c]Spirit of holiness ^[d]by the resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, ⁵through whom we have received grace and ^(I)apostleship ^[e]to bring about the ^(J)obedience of faith among ^(K)all the Gentiles in behalf of His name, ⁶among whom you also are the ^(L)called of Jesus Christ;

⁷to all who are ^(M)beloved of God in Rome, called as ^[f]^(N)saints: ^(O)Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

⁸First, ^(P)I thank my God through Jesus Christ ^[g]for you all, because ^(Q)your faith is being proclaimed throughout the world. ⁹For ^(R)God, whom I ^(S)serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly ^(T)I make mention of you, ¹⁰always in my prayers requesting if perhaps now, at last by ^(U)the will of God, I will succeed in coming to you. ¹¹For ^(V)I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be ^[h]established; ¹²that is, that I may be encouraged together with you while among you, each of us by the other’s faith, both yours and mine. ¹³^(W)I do not want you to be unaware, ^(X)brothers and sisters, that often I ^(Y)have planned to come to you (and have been prevented so far) so that I may obtain some ^(Z)fruit among you also just as among the rest of the Gentiles. ¹⁴^(AA)I am ^[i]under obligation both to Greeks and to the ^[j]^(AB)uncultured, both to the wise and to the foolish. ¹⁵So, for my part, I am eager to ^(AC)preach the gospel to you also who are in Rome.

¹⁶For I am not ^(AD)ashamed of the gospel, for ^(AE)it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the ^(AF)Jew first and also to ^(AG)the Greek. ¹⁷For in it ^(AH)the righteousness of God is revealed ^[k]from faith to faith; as it is written: “^[l]^(AI)But the righteous one will live by faith.”

Unbelief and Its Consequences

¹⁸For ^(AJ)the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who ^(AK)suppress the truth ^[m]in unrighteousness, ¹⁹because ^(AL)that which is known about God is evident ^[n]within them; for God made it evident to them. ²⁰For ^(AM)since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ^(AN)being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse. ²¹For even though they knew God, they did not ^[o]honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became ^(AO)futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened. ²²^(AP)Claiming to be wise, they became fools, ²³and they ^(AQ)exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible mankind, of birds, four-footed animals, and ^[p]crawling creatures.

²⁴Therefore ^(AR)God gave them up to vile impurity in the lusts of their hearts, so that their bodies would be ^(AS)dishonored among them. ²⁵For they exchanged the truth of God for ^[q]^(AT)falsehood, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, ^(AU)who is blessed ^[r]forever. Amen.

²⁶For this reason ^(AV)God gave them over to ^(AW)degrading passions; for their women exchanged natural relations for that which is contrary to nature, ²⁷and likewise the men, too, abandoned natural relations ^[s]with women and burned in their desire toward one another, ^(AX)males with males committing ^[t]shameful acts and receiving in ^[u]their own persons the due penalty of their error.

²⁸And just as they did not see fit ^[v]to acknowledge God, ^(AY)God gave them up to a depraved mind, to do those things that are not proper, ²⁹people having been filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, and evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice; they are ^(AZ)gossips, ³⁰slanderers, ^[w]^(BA)haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, ^(BB)disobedient to parents, ³¹without understanding, untrustworthy, ^(BC)unfeeling, and unmerciful; ³²and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of ^(BD)death, they not only do the same, but also ^(BE)approve of those who practice them.