Patience in Suffering

⁷ Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming.^(A) See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting^(B) for the autumn and spring rains.^(C)

³⁵ This is what the Lord says,

²⁰ “This is what the Lord says: ‘If you can break my covenant with the day^(A) and my covenant with the night, so that day and night no longer come at their appointed time,^{(B) 21} then my covenant^(C) with David my servant—and my covenant with the Levites^(D) who are priests ministering before me—can be broken and David will no longer have a descendant to reign on his throne.^{(E) 22} I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless^(F) as the stars in the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.’”

²³ The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ²⁴ “Have you not noticed that these people are saying, ‘The Lord has rejected the two kingdoms^[a](G) he chose’? So they despise^(H) my people and no longer regard them as a nation.^{(I) 25} This is what the Lord says: ‘If I have not made my covenant with day and night^(J) and established the laws^(K) of heaven and earth,^{(L) 26} then I will reject^(M) the descendants of Jacob^(N) and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes^[b](O) and have compassion^(P) on them.’”

²¹ “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest;^(A) even during the plowing season and harvest^(B) you must rest.

⁶ For two years now there has been famine^(A) in the land, and for the next five years there will be no plowing and reaping.