The Lord Will Not Relent

15 Then the Lord said to me, ^(A)“Though ^(B)Moses ^(C)and Samuel ^(D)stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! ² And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:

^3 (F)I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and ^(G)the birds of the air ^(H)and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. ^4 (I)And I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what ^(J)Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

Jeremiah's Complaint

^10 (W)Woe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! ^(X)I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me. ¹¹ The Lord said, “Have I not^[a] set you free for their good? Have I not pleaded for you before the enemy in the time of trouble and in the time of distress? ¹² Can one break iron, iron ^(Y)from the north, and bronze?

^13 (Z)“Your wealth and your treasures I will give as ^(AA)spoil, without price, for all your sins, throughout all your territory. ¹⁴ I will make you serve your enemies ^(AB)in a land that you do not know, ^(AC)for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”

Famine, Sword, and Death

16 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. ³ For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: ^4 (AX)They shall die of deadly diseases. ^(AY)They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. ^(AZ)They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ^(BA)They shall perish by the sword and by famine, ^(BB)and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.

⁵ “For thus says the Lord: ^(BC)Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the Lord. ⁶ Both great and small shall die in this land. ^(BD)They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or ^(BE)cut himself ^(BF)or make himself bald for them. ⁷ No one shall ^(BG)break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother. ⁸ You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. ⁹ For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(BH)Behold, I will silence in 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.

¹⁰ “And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ^(BI)‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’ ¹¹ then you shall say to them: ^(BJ)‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and ^(BK)have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, ¹² and because ^(BL)you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, ^(BM)every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. ¹³ Therefore ^(BN)I will hurl you out of this land into ^(BO)a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, ^(BP)and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

The Lord Will Restore Israel

^14 (BQ)“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ^(BR)‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ¹⁵ but ^(BS)‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel ^(BT)out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For ^(BU)I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶ “Behold, ^(BV)I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out ^(BW)of the clefts of the rocks. ¹⁷ For ^(BX)my eyes are on all their ways. ^(BY)They are not hidden from me, ^(BZ)nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸ But first ^(CA)I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and ^(CB)have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

²¹ “Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that ^(CH)my name is the Lord.”

Greeting

1 Paul, ^(A)an apostle of Christ Jesus ^(B)by the will of God,

To the saints who are in Ephesus, and ^(C)are faithful^[a] in Christ Jesus:

^2 (D)Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

^3 (E)Blessed be ^(F)the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing ^(G)in the heavenly places, ^4 (H)even as he ^(I)chose us in him ^(J)before the foundation of the world, that we should be ^(K)holy and blameless before him. In love ^5 (L)he predestined us^[b] for ^(M)adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, ^(N)according to the purpose of his will, ^6 (O)to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in ^(P)the Beloved. ^7 (Q)In him we have ^(R)redemption ^(S)through his blood, ^(T)the forgiveness of our trespasses, ^(U)according to the riches of his grace, ⁸ which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight ^9 (V)making known^[c] to us the mystery of his will, ^(W)according to his purpose, which he ^(X)set forth in Christ ¹⁰ as a plan for ^(Y)the fullness of time, ^(Z)to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

¹¹ In him we have obtained ^(AA)an inheritance, ^(AB)having been predestined ^(AC)according to the purpose of him who works all things according to ^(AD)the counsel of his will, ¹² so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be ^(AE)to the praise of his glory. ¹³ In him you also, when you heard ^(AF)the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, ^(AG)were sealed with the ^(AH)promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is ^(AI)the guarantee^[d] of our ^(AJ)inheritance until ^(AK)we acquire ^(AL)possession of it,^{[e] (AM)}to the praise of his glory.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

¹⁵ For this reason, ^(AN)because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love^[f] toward all the saints, ¹⁶ I ^(AO)do not cease to give thanks for you, ^(AP)remembering you in my prayers, ¹⁷ that ^(AQ)the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, ^(AR)may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, ^18 (AS)having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is ^(AT)the hope to which he has called you, what are ^(AU)the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, ^(AV)according to the working of ^(AW)his great might ²⁰ that he worked in Christ ^(AX)when he raised him from the dead and ^(AY)seated him at his right hand ^(AZ)in the heavenly places, ^21 (BA)far above ^(BB)all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above ^(BC)every name that is named, not only in ^(BD)this age but also in the one to come. ²² And ^(BE)he put all things under his feet and gave him as ^(BF)head over all things to the church, ^23 (BG)which is his body, ^(BH)the fullness of him ^(BI)who fills ^(BJ)all in all.