Jeremiah 16

English Standard Version

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. ³For 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^(A)They shall die of deadly diseases. ^(B)They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. ^(C)They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. ^(D)They shall perish by the sword and by famine, ^(E)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: ^(F)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. ⁶Both great and small shall die in this land. ^(G)They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or ^(H)cut himself ^(I)or make himself bald for them. ⁷No one shall ^(J)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. ⁸You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. ⁹For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ^(K)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, ^(L)‘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?’ ¹¹then you shall say to them: ^(M)‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and ^(N)have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law, ¹²and because ^(O)you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, ^(P)every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. ¹³Therefore ^(Q)I will hurl you out of this land into ^(R)a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, ^(S)and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

The Lord Will Restore Israel

¹⁴^(T)“Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ^(U)‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ ¹⁵but ^(V)‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel ^(W)out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For ^(X)I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶“Behold, ^(Y)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 ^(Z)of the clefts of the rocks. ¹⁷For ^(AA)my eyes are on all their ways. ^(AB)They are not hidden from me, ^(AC)nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. ¹⁸But first ^(AD)I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and ^(AE)have filled my inheritance with their abominations.”

¹⁹^(AF)O Lord, my strength and my stronghold,
    ^(AG)my refuge in the day of trouble,
^(AH)to you shall the nations come
    from the ends of the earth and say:
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies,
    ^(AI)worthless things in which there is no profit.
²⁰Can man make for himself ^(AJ)gods?
    Such are not gods!”

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 ^(AK)my name is the Lord.”

Psalm 39

English Standard Version

What Is the Measure of My Days?

To the choirmaster: to ^(A)Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.

39 I said, “I will ^(B)guard my ways,
    that I ^(C)may not sin with my tongue;
I will ^(D)guard my mouth with a muzzle,
    so long as the wicked are in my presence.”
²I was ^(E)mute and silent;
    I held my peace to no avail,
and my distress grew worse.
³    My ^(F)heart became hot within me.
As I mused, the fire burned;
    then I spoke with my tongue:

⁴“O Lord, ^(G)make me know my end
    and what is the measure of my days;
    let me know how fleeting I am!
⁵Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,
    and ^(H)my lifetime is as nothing before you.
Surely ^(I)all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah
⁶    Surely a man ^(J)goes about as a shadow!
Surely for nothing^[a] they are in turmoil;
    man ^(K)heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!

⁷“And now, O Lord, for what do I wait?
    ^(L)My hope is in you.
⁸Deliver me from all my transgressions.
    ^(M)Do not make me the scorn of the fool!
⁹^(N)I am mute; I do not open my mouth,
    ^(O)for it is you who have done it.
¹⁰^(P)Remove your stroke from me;
    I am spent by the hostility of your hand.
¹¹When you discipline a man
    with ^(Q)rebukes for sin,
you ^(R)consume like a ^(S)moth what is dear to him;
    ^(T)surely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah

¹²^(U)“Hear my prayer, O Lord,
    and give ear to my cry;
    hold not your peace at my tears!
For I am ^(V)a sojourner with you,
    ^(W)a guest, like all my fathers.
¹³^(X)Look away from me, that I may smile again,
    ^(Y)before I depart and ^(Z)am no more!”

Footnotes

Psalm 39:6 Hebrew Surely as a breath

1 John 4-5

English Standard Version

Test the Spirits

4 Beloved, ^(A)do not believe every spirit, but ^(B)test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for ^(C)many ^(D)false prophets ^(E)have gone out into the world. ²By this you know the Spirit of God: ^(F)every spirit that confesses that ^(G)Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, ³and every spirit ^(H)that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and ^(I)now is in the world already. ⁴Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for ^(J)he who is in you is greater than ^(K)he who is in the world. ⁵^(L)They are from the world; therefore they speak from the world, and ^(M)the world listens to them. ⁶We are from God. ^(N)Whoever knows God listens to us; whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know ^(O)the Spirit of truth and ^(P)the spirit of error.

God Is Love

⁷Beloved, ^(Q)let us love one another, for love is from God, and ^(R)whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. ⁸^(S)Anyone who does not love does not know God, because ^(T)God is love. ⁹In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that ^(U)God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. ¹⁰In this is love, ^(V)not that we have loved God ^(W)but that he loved us and sent his Son to be ^(X)the propitiation for our sins. ¹¹Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. ¹²^(Y)No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and ^(Z)his love is perfected in us.

¹³^(AA)By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. ¹⁴And ^(AB)we have seen and testify that ^(AC)the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of ^(AD)the world. ¹⁵^(AE)Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God. ¹⁶So ^(AF)we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. ^(AG)God is love, and ^(AH)whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. ¹⁷By this ^(AI)is love perfected with us, so that ^(AJ)we may have confidence for the day of judgment, because ^(AK)as he is so also are we in this world. ¹⁸There is no fear in love, but ^(AL)perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not ^(AM)been perfected in love. ¹⁹^(AN)We love because he first loved us. ²⁰^(AO)If anyone says, “I love God,” and ^(AP)hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot^[a] love God ^(AQ)whom he has not seen. ²¹And ^(AR)this commandment we have from him: ^(AS)whoever loves God must also love his brother.

Overcoming the World

5 ^(AT)Everyone who believes that ^(AU)Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and ^(AV)everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. ²^(AW)By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. ³For ^(AX)this is the love of God, that we ^(AY)keep his commandments. And ^(AZ)his commandments are not burdensome. ⁴For ^(BA)everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—^(BB)our faith. ⁵Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes ^(BC)that Jesus is the Son of God?

Testimony Concerning the Son of God

⁶This is he who came ^(BD)by water and blood—Jesus Christ; not by the water only but by the water and the blood. And ^(BE)the Spirit is the one who testifies, because ^(BF)the Spirit is the truth. ⁷For there are three that testify: ⁸the Spirit and the water and the blood; and these three agree. ⁹^(BG)If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God ^(BH)that he has borne concerning his Son. ¹⁰Whoever believes in the Son of God ^(BI)has the testimony in himself. Whoever does not believe God ^(BJ)has made him a liar, ^(BK)because he has not believed in the testimony that God has borne concerning his Son. ¹¹And this is the testimony, that God gave us ^(BL)eternal life, and ^(BM)this life is in his Son. ¹²^(BN)Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.

That You May Know

¹³I write ^(BO)these things to you who ^(BP)believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. ¹⁴And this is ^(BQ)the confidence that we have toward him, that ^(BR)if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. ¹⁵And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

¹⁶If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and ^(BS)God^[b] will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. ^(BT)There is sin that leads to death; ^(BU)I do not say that one should pray for that. ¹⁷^(BV)All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death.

¹⁸We know that ^(BW)everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but ^(BX)he who was born of God ^(BY)protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

¹⁹We know that we are from God, and ^(BZ)the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.

²⁰And we know that the Son of God has come and ^(CA)has given us understanding, so that we may know ^(CB)him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and ^(CC)eternal life. ²¹Little children, ^(CD)keep yourselves from idols.