Jeremiah 21-22

English Standard Version

Jerusalem Will Fall to Nebuchadnezzar

21 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him ^(A)Pashhur the son of Malchiah and ^(B)Zephaniah the priest, the son of ^(C)Maaseiah, saying, ²^(D)“Inquire of the Lord for us, ^(E)for Nebuchadnezzar^[a] king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to ^(F)all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.”

³Then Jeremiah said to them: “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, ⁴‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: ^(G)Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. ^(H)And I will bring them together into the midst of this city. ⁵I myself will fight against you ^(I)with outstretched hand and strong arm, ^(J)in anger and in fury and in great wrath. ⁶And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence. ⁷Afterward, declares the Lord, ^(K)I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. ^(L)He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.’

⁸“And to this people you shall say: ^(M)‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, ^(N)I set before you the way of life and the way of death. ⁹He who stays in this city shall die ^(O)by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and ^(P)surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live ^(Q)and shall have his life as a prize of war. ¹⁰For ^(R)I have set my face against this city for harm and ^(S)not for good, declares the Lord: ^(T)it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.’

Message to the House of David

¹¹“And to the house of the king of Judah say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, ¹²O house of David! Thus says the Lord:

^(U)“‘Execute justice ^(V)in the morning,
    and deliver from the hand of the oppressor
    him who has been robbed,
^(W)lest my wrath go forth like fire,
    and burn with none to quench it,
    because of your evil deeds.’”

¹³^(X)“Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley,
    O rock of the plain,
declares the Lord;
you who say, ^(Y)‘Who shall come down against us,
    or who shall enter our habitations?’
¹⁴^(Z)I will punish you according to ^(AA)the fruit of your deeds,
declares the Lord;
    ^(AB)I will kindle a fire in her forest,
    ^(AC)and it shall devour all that is around her.”

22 Thus says the Lord: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, ²and say, ^(AD)‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. ³Thus says the Lord: ^(AE)Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And ^(AF)do no wrong or violence ^(AG)to the resident alien, ^(AH)the fatherless, and the widow, nor ^(AI)shed innocent blood in this place. ⁴For if you will indeed obey this word, ^(AJ)then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. ⁵But if you will not obey these words, I ^(AK)swear by myself, declares the Lord, that ^(AL)this house shall become a desolation. ⁶For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah:

“‘You are like Gilead to me,
    like the summit of ^(AM)Lebanon,
yet surely I will make you a desert,
    ^(AN)an uninhabited city.^[b]
⁷^(AO)I will prepare destroyers against you,
    each with his weapons,
^(AP)and they shall cut down your choicest cedars
    and cast them into the fire.

⁸“‘And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, ^(AQ)“Why has the Lord dealt thus with this great city?” ⁹^(AR)And they will answer, “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them.”’”

¹⁰^(AS)Weep not for him who is dead,
    nor grieve for him,
^(AT)but weep bitterly for him who goes away,
    for he shall return no more
    to see his native land.

Message to the Sons of Josiah

¹¹For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and ^(AU)who went away from this place: “He shall return here no more, ¹²but ^(AV)in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again.”

¹³^(AW)“Woe to him who builds his house by ^(AX)unrighteousness,
    and his upper rooms by injustice,
^(AY)who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing
    and does not give him his wages,
¹⁴who says, ‘I will build myself a great house
    with spacious upper rooms,’
who cuts out windows for it,
    paneling it with cedar
    and ^(AZ)painting it with vermilion.
¹⁵Do you think you are a king
    because you compete in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
    and ^(BA)do justice and righteousness?
    ^(BB)Then it was well with him.
¹⁶^(BC)He judged the cause of the poor and needy;
    ^(BD)then it was well.
Is not this ^(BE)to know me?
    declares the Lord.
¹⁷But you have eyes and heart
    only for your dishonest gain,
^(BF)for shedding innocent blood,
    and for practicing oppression and violence.”

¹⁸Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah:

^(BG)“They shall not lament for him, saying,
    ^(BH)‘Ah, my brother!’ or ‘Ah, sister!’
They shall not lament for him, saying,
    ^(BI)‘Ah, lord!’ or ‘Ah, his majesty!’
¹⁹With the burial of a donkey ^(BJ)he shall be buried,
    dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”

²⁰“Go up to Lebanon, and cry out,
    and lift up your voice in Bashan;
cry out from ^(BK)Abarim,
    for all ^(BL)your lovers are destroyed.
²¹I spoke to you in your prosperity,
    but you said, ‘I will not listen.’
^(BM)This has been your way from ^(BN)your youth,
    that you have not obeyed my voice.
²²^(BO)The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds,
    and ^(BP)your lovers shall go into captivity;
^(BQ)then you will be ashamed and confounded
    because of all your evil.
²³O inhabitant of ^(BR)Lebanon,
    nested among the cedars,
how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you,
    ^(BS)pain as of a woman in labor!”

²⁴^(BT)“As I live, declares the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were ^(BU)the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off ²⁵and ^(BV)give you ^(BW)into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. ²⁶^(BX)I will hurl you and ^(BY)the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die. ²⁷But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return.”

²⁸Is this man ^(BZ)Coniah a despised, broken pot,
    a ^(CA)vessel no one cares for?
Why are he and his children hurled and cast
    into a ^(CB)land that they do not know?
²⁹^(CC)O land, land, land,
    hear the word of the Lord!
³⁰Thus says the Lord:
“Write this man down as ^(CD)childless,
    a man who shall not succeed in his days,
^(CE)for none of his offspring shall succeed
    ^(CF)in sitting on the throne of David
    and ruling again in Judah.”

Footnotes

Jeremiah 21:2 Hebrew Nebuchadrezzar, an alternate spelling of Nebuchadnezzar (king of Babylon) occurring frequently from Jeremiah 21–52; this latter spelling is used throughout Jeremiah for consistency
Jeremiah 22:6 Hebrew cities

Psalm 42

English Standard Version

Book Two

Why Are You Cast Down, O My Soul?

To the choirmaster. A Maskil^[a] of ^(A)the Sons of Korah.

42 ^(B)As a deer pants for flowing streams,
    so pants my soul for you, O God.
²^(C)My soul thirsts for God,
    for ^(D)the living God.
When shall I come and ^(E)appear before God?^[b]
³^(F)My tears have been my food
    day and night,
^(G)while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?”
⁴These things I remember,
    as I ^(H)pour out my soul:
^(I)how I would go ^(J)with the throng
    and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
    ^(K)a multitude keeping festival.

⁵^(L)Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you ^(M)in turmoil within me?
^(N)Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation^[c] ⁶and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
    therefore I ^(O)remember you
^(P)from the land of Jordan and of ^(Q)Hermon,
    from Mount Mizar.
⁷Deep calls to deep
    at the roar of your waterfalls;
^(R)all your breakers and your ^(S)waves
    have gone over me.
⁸By day the Lord ^(T)commands his steadfast love,
    and at ^(U)night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.
⁹I say to God, ^(V)my rock:
    “Why have you forgotten me?
^(W)Why do I go mourning
    because of the oppression of the enemy?”
¹⁰As with a deadly wound in my bones,
    my adversaries taunt me,
^(X)while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?”

¹¹^(Y)Why are you cast down, O my soul,
and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
my salvation and my God.

Footnotes

Psalm 42:1 Probably a musical or liturgical term
Psalm 42:2 Revocalization yields and see the face of God
Psalm 42:5 Hebrew the salvation of my face; also verse 11 and 43:5

Hebrews 1-3

English Standard Version

The Supremacy of God's Son

1 Long ago, at many times and ^(A)in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, ²but ^(B)in these last days ^(C)he has spoken to us by ^(D)his Son, whom he appointed ^(E)the heir of all things, ^(F)through whom also he created ^(G)the world. ³He is the radiance of the glory of God and ^(H)the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. ^(I)After making purification for sins, ^(J)he sat down ^(K)at the right hand of the Majesty on high, ⁴having become as much superior to angels as the name ^(L)he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

⁵For to which of the angels did God ever say,

^(M)“You are my Son,
today I have begotten you”?

Or again,

^(N)“I will be to him a father,
and he shall be to me a son”?

⁶And again, when he brings ^(O)the firstborn into the world, he says,

^(P)“Let all God's angels worship him.”

⁷Of the angels he says,

^(Q)“He makes his angels winds,
and his ministers a flame of fire.”

⁸But of the Son he says,

^(R)“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever,
the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
⁹You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness;
therefore God, your God, ^(S)has anointed you
with ^(T)the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”

¹⁰And,

^(U)“You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning,
    and the heavens are the work of your hands;
¹¹they will perish, but you remain;
    they will all wear out like a garment,
¹²like a robe you will roll them up,
    like a garment they will be changed.^[a]
But you are ^(V)the same,
    and your years will have no end.”

¹³And to which of the angels has he ever said,

^(W)“Sit at my right hand
^(X)until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet”?

¹⁴Are they not all ministering spirits ^(Y)sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to ^(Z)inherit salvation?

Warning Against Neglecting Salvation

2 Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. ²For since ^(AA)the message declared by angels proved to be reliable, and ^(AB)every transgression or disobedience received a just ^(AC)retribution, ³^(AD)how shall we escape if we ^(AE)neglect such a great salvation? It was ^(AF)declared at first by the Lord, and it was ^(AG)attested to us ^(AH)by those who heard, ⁴^(AI)while God also bore witness ^(AJ)by signs and wonders and various miracles and by ^(AK)gifts of the Holy Spirit ^(AL)distributed according to his will.

The Founder of Salvation

⁵For it was not to angels that God subjected the world ^(AM)to come, of which we are speaking. ⁶It has been testified somewhere,

^(AN)“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
    or the son of man, that you care for him?
⁷You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
    you have crowned him with glory and honor,^[b]
⁸    putting everything in subjection under his feet.”

Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, ^(AO)we do not yet see everything in subjection to him. ⁹But we see him ^(AP)who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, ^(AQ)crowned with glory and honor ^(AR)because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might ^(AS)taste death ^(AT)for everyone.

¹⁰For it ^(AU)was fitting that he, ^(AV)for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons ^(AW)to glory, should make the ^(AX)founder of their salvation ^(AY)perfect through suffering. ¹¹For ^(AZ)he who sanctifies and ^(BA)those who are sanctified ^(BB)all have one source.^[c] That is why he is not ashamed to call them ^(BC)brothers,^[d] ¹²saying,

^(BD)“I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the ^(BE)congregation I will sing your praise.”

¹³And again,

^(BF)“I will put my trust in him.”

And again,

^(BG)“Behold, I and the children ^(BH)God has given me.”

¹⁴Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise ^(BI)partook of the same things, that ^(BJ)through death he might ^(BK)destroy ^(BL)the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, ¹⁵and deliver all those who ^(BM)through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. ¹⁶For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he ^(BN)helps the offspring of Abraham. ¹⁷Therefore he had ^(BO)to be made like his brothers in every respect, ^(BP)so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest ^(BQ)in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. ¹⁸For because he himself has suffered ^(BR)when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.

Jesus Greater Than Moses

3 Therefore, holy brothers,^[e] you who share in ^(BS)a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, ^(BT)the apostle and high priest of our confession, ²who was faithful to him who appointed him, ^(BU)just as Moses also was faithful in all God's^[f] house. ³For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. ⁴(For every house is built by someone, but ^(BV)the builder of all things is God.) ⁵^(BW)Now Moses was faithful in all God's house ^(BX)as a servant, ^(BY)to testify to the things that were to be spoken later, ⁶but Christ is faithful over God's house as ^(BZ)a son. And ^(CA)we are his house, if indeed we ^(CB)hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.^[g]

A Rest for the People of God

⁷Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

^(CC)“Today, if you hear his voice,
⁸do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
    on the day of testing in the wilderness,
⁹where your fathers put me to the test
    and saw my works for ^(CD)forty years.
¹⁰Therefore I was provoked with that generation,
and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart;
    they have not known my ways.’
¹¹^(CE)As I swore in my wrath,
    ‘They shall not enter my rest.’”

¹²Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from ^(CF)the living God. ¹³But ^(CG)exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by ^(CH)the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴For we have come to share in Christ, ^(CI)if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. ¹⁵As it is said,

^(CJ)“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”

¹⁶For ^(CK)who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not ^(CL)all those who left Egypt led by Moses? ¹⁷And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, ^(CM)whose bodies fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸And to whom did he swear that ^(CN)they would not enter his rest, but to those who were disobedient? ¹⁹So we see that ^(CO)they were unable to enter because of unbelief.

Footnotes

Hebrews 1:12 Some manuscripts omit like a garment
Hebrews 2:7 Some manuscripts insert and set him over the works of your hands
Hebrews 2:11 Greek all are of one
Hebrews 2:11 Or brothers and sisters. In New Testament usage, depending on the context, the plural Greek word adelphoi (translated “brothers”) may refer either to brothers or to brothers and sisters; also verse 12
Hebrews 3:1 Or brothers and sisters; also verse 12
Hebrews 3:2 Greek his; also verses 5, 6
Hebrews 3:6 Some manuscripts insert firm to the end