Hallow the Sabbath Day

¹⁹ Thus the Lord said to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem; ²⁰ and say to them, ^(A)‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates. ²¹ Thus says the Lord: ^(B)“Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem; ²² nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I ^(C)commanded your fathers. ^23 (D)But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but ^[a]made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.

²⁴ “And it shall be, ^(E)if you heed Me carefully,” says the Lord, “to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the ^(F)Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it, ^25 (G)then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever. ²⁶ And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from ^(H)the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from ^(I)the ^[b]lowland, from the mountains and from ^(J)the ^[c]South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing ^(K)sacrifices of praise to the house of the Lord.

²⁷ “But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then ^(L)I will kindle a fire in its gates, ^(M)and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be ^(N)quenched.” ’ ”

¹⁶ But ^(A)they mocked the messengers of God, ^(B)despised His words, and ^(C)scoffed at His prophets, until the ^(D)wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.

^17 (E)Therefore He brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who ^(F)killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, on the aged or the weak; He gave them all into his hand. ^18 (G)And all the articles from the house of God, great and small, the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king and of his leaders, all these he took to Babylon. ^19 (H)Then they burned the house of God, broke down the wall of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces with fire, and destroyed all its precious possessions. ²⁰ And ^(I)those who escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon, ^(J)where they became servants to him and his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, ²¹ to fulfill the word of the Lord by the mouth of ^(K)Jeremiah, until the land ^(L)had enjoyed her Sabbaths. As long as she lay desolate ^(M)she kept Sabbath, to fulfill seventy years.

Daniel and His Friends Obey God^(A)

1 In the third year of the reign of ^(B)Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. ² And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with ^(C)some of the articles of ^[a]the house of God, which he carried ^(D)into the land of Shinar to the house of his god; ^(E)and he brought the articles into the treasure house of his god.