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Jeremiah 22

Judgment Against Evil Kings

 ⁶ For this is what the LORD says about the palace of the king of Judah:
       "Though you are like Gilead to me,
       like the summit of Lebanon,
       I will surely make you like a desert,
       like towns not inhabited.

 ⁷ I will send destroyers against you,
       each man with his weapons,
       and they will cut up your fine cedar beams
       and throw them into the fire.

 ⁸ "People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, 'Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?' ⁹ And the answer will be: 'Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have worshiped and served other gods.' "

 ¹⁰ Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss;
       rather, weep bitterly for him who is exiled,
       because he will never return
       nor see his native land again.

 ¹¹ For this is what the LORD says about Shallum ^[a] son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah but has gone from this place: "He will never return. ¹² He will die in the place where they have led him captive; he will not see this land again."

 ¹³ "Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness,
       his upper rooms by injustice,
       making his countrymen work for nothing,
       not paying them for their labor.

 ¹⁴ He says, 'I will build myself a great palace
       with spacious upper rooms.'
       So he makes large windows in it,
       panels it with cedar
       and decorates it in red.

 ¹⁵ "Does it make you a king
       to have more and more cedar?
       Did not your father have food and drink?
       He did what was right and just,
       so all went well with him.

 ¹⁶ He defended the cause of the poor and needy,
       and so all went well.
       Is that not what it means to know me?"
       declares the LORD.

 ¹⁷ "But your eyes and your heart
       are set only on dishonest gain,
       on shedding innocent blood
       and on oppression and extortion."

 ¹⁸ Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:
       "They will not mourn for him:
       'Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!'
       They will not mourn for him:
       'Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!'

 ¹⁹ He will have the burial of a donkey—
       dragged away and thrown
       outside the gates of Jerusalem."

 ²⁰ "Go up to Lebanon and cry out,
       let your voice be heard in Bashan,
       cry out from Abarim,
       for all your allies are crushed.

 ²¹ I warned you when you felt secure,
       but you said, 'I will not listen!'
       This has been your way from your youth;
       you have not obeyed me.

 ²² The wind will drive all your shepherds away,
       and your allies will go into exile.
       Then you will be ashamed and disgraced
       because of all your wickedness.

 ²³ You who live in 'Lebanon, ^[b] '
       who are nestled in cedar buildings,
       how you will groan when pangs come upon you,
       pain like that of a woman in labor!

 ²⁴ "As surely as I live," declares the LORD, "even if you, Jehoiachin ^[c] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. ²⁵ I will hand you over to those who seek your life, those you fear—to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to the Babylonians. ^{[d] 26} I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die. ²⁷ You will never come back to the land you long to return to."

 ²⁸ Is this man Jehoiachin a despised, broken pot,
       an object no one wants?
       Why will he and his children be hurled out,
       cast into a land they do not know?

 ²⁹ O land, land, land,
       hear the word of the LORD!

 ³⁰ This is what the LORD says:
       "Record this man as if childless,
       a man who will not prosper in his lifetime,
       for none of his offspring will prosper,
       none will sit on the throne of David
       or rule anymore in Judah."

Jeremiah 23

The Righteous Branch

 ⁵ "The days are coming," declares the LORD,
       "when I will raise up to David ^[e] a righteous Branch,
       a King who will reign wisely
       and do what is just and right in the land.

 ⁶ In his days Judah will be saved
       and Israel will live in safety.
       This is the name by which he will be called:
       The LORD Our Righteousness.

 ⁷ "So then, the days are coming," declares the LORD, "when people will no longer say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,' ⁸ but they will say, 'As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.' Then they will live in their own land."

Lying Prophets

 ¹⁰ The land is full of adulterers;
       because of the curse ^[f] the land lies parched ^[g]
       and the pastures in the desert are withered.
       The prophets follow an evil course
       and use their power unjustly.

 ¹¹ "Both prophet and priest are godless;
       even in my temple I find their wickedness,"
       declares the LORD.

 ¹² "Therefore their path will become slippery;
       they will be banished to darkness
       and there they will fall.
       I will bring disaster on them
       in the year they are punished,"
       declares the LORD.

 ¹³ "Among the prophets of Samaria
       I saw this repulsive thing:
       They prophesied by Baal
       and led my people Israel astray.

 ¹⁴ And among the prophets of Jerusalem
       I have seen something horrible:
       They commit adultery and live a lie.
       They strengthen the hands of evildoers,
       so that no one turns from his wickedness.
       They are all like Sodom to me;
       the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah."

 ¹⁵ Therefore, this is what the LORD Almighty says concerning the prophets:
       "I will make them eat bitter food
       and drink poisoned water,
       because from the prophets of Jerusalem
       ungodliness has spread throughout the land."

 ¹⁶ This is what the LORD Almighty says:
       "Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you;
       they fill you with false hopes.
       They speak visions from their own minds,
       not from the mouth of the LORD.

 ¹⁷ They keep saying to those who despise me,
       'The LORD says: You will have peace.'
       And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts
       they say, 'No harm will come to you.'

 ¹⁸ But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD
       to see or to hear his word?
       Who has listened and heard his word?

 ¹⁹ See, the storm of the LORD
       will burst out in wrath,
       a whirlwind swirling down
       on the heads of the wicked.

 ²⁰ The anger of the LORD will not turn back
       until he fully accomplishes
       the purposes of his heart.
       In days to come
       you will understand it clearly.

 ²¹ I did not send these prophets,
       yet they have run with their message;
       I did not speak to them,
       yet they have prophesied.

 ²² But if they had stood in my council,
       they would have proclaimed my words to my people
       and would have turned them from their evil ways
       and from their evil deeds.

 ²³ "Am I only a God nearby,"
       declares the LORD,
       "and not a God far away?

 ²⁴ Can anyone hide in secret places
       so that I cannot see him?"
       declares the LORD.
       "Do not I fill heaven and earth?"
       declares the LORD.

 ²⁵ "I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, 'I had a dream! I had a dream!' ²⁶ How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? ²⁷ They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their fathers forgot my name through Baal worship. ²⁸ Let the prophet who has a dream tell his dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?" declares the LORD. ²⁹ "Is not my word like fire," declares the LORD, "and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?

 ³⁰ "Therefore," declares the LORD, "I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. ³¹ Yes," declares the LORD, "I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, 'The LORD declares.' ³² Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams," declares the LORD. "They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least," declares the LORD.

False Oracles and False Prophets

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Titus 1

 ¹Paul, a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ for the faith of God's elect and the knowledge of the truth that leads to godliness— ²a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time, ³and at his appointed season he brought his word to light through the preaching entrusted to me by the command of God our Savior,

 ⁴To Titus, my true son in our common faith:
      Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.

Titus' Task on Crete

 ¹⁰For there are many rebellious people, mere talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision group. ¹¹They must be silenced, because they are ruining whole households by teaching things they ought not to teach—and that for the sake of dishonest gain. ¹²Even one of their own prophets has said, "Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons." ¹³This testimony is true. Therefore, rebuke them sharply, so that they will be sound in the faith ¹⁴and will pay no attention to Jewish myths or to the commands of those who reject the truth. ¹⁵To the pure, all things are pure, but to those who are corrupted and do not believe, nothing is pure. In fact, both their minds and consciences are corrupted. ¹⁶They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him. They are detestable, disobedient and unfit for doing anything good.