Jeremiah 20-21

English Standard Version

Jeremiah Persecuted by Pashhur

20 Now ^(A)Pashhur the priest, the son of ^(B)Immer, who was ^(C)chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. ²Then ^(D)Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him ^(E)in the stocks that were in the upper ^(F)Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. ³The next day, when ^(G)Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call your name ^(H)Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. ⁴For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you ^(I)a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. ⁵Moreover, ^(J)I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its ^(K)prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. ⁶And you, ^(L)Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, ^(M)to whom you have prophesied falsely.”

⁷O Lord, ^(N)you have deceived me,
    and I was deceived;
^(O)you are stronger than I,
    and you have prevailed.
^(P)I have become a laughingstock all the day;
    everyone mocks me.
⁸For whenever I speak, I cry out,
    I shout, ^(Q)“Violence and destruction!”
For ^(R)the word of the Lord has become for me
    ^(S)a reproach and ^(T)derision all day long.
⁹If I say, “I will not mention him,
    or speak any more in his name,”
^(U)there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
    shut up in my bones,
and ^(V)I am weary with holding it in,
    and I cannot.
¹⁰^(W)For I hear many whispering.
    ^(X)Terror is on every side!
“Denounce him! ^(Y)Let us denounce him!”
    say all my ^(Z)close friends,
    ^(AA)watching for ^(AB)my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
    then ^(AC)we can overcome him
    and take our revenge on him.”
¹¹But ^(AD)the Lord is with me as a dread warrior;
    therefore my persecutors will stumble;
    ^(AE)they will not overcome me.
^(AF)They will be greatly shamed,
    for they will not succeed.
Their ^(AG)eternal dishonor
    will never be forgotten.
¹²O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous,
    ^(AH)who sees the heart and the mind,^[a]
let me see your vengeance upon them,
    for to you have I committed my cause.

¹³^(AI)Sing to the Lord;
praise the Lord!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
from the hand of evildoers.

¹⁴^(AJ)Cursed be the day
    on which I was born!
The day when my mother bore me,
    let it not be blessed!
¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
“A son is born to you,”
    ^(AK)making him very glad.
¹⁶Let that man be like ^(AL)the cities
    that the Lord overthrew without pity;
^(AM)let him hear a cry in the morning
    and an alarm at noon,
¹⁷^(AN)because he did not kill me in the womb;
    so my mother would have been my grave,
    and her womb forever great.
¹⁸^(AO)Why did I come out from the womb
    ^(AP)to see toil and sorrow,
    and spend my days in shame?

Jerusalem Will Fall to Nebuchadnezzar

21 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him ^(AQ)Pashhur the son of Malchiah and ^(AR)Zephaniah the priest, the son of ^(AS)Maaseiah, saying, ²^(AT)“Inquire of the Lord for us, ^(AU)for Nebuchadnezzar^[b] king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to ^(AV)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: ^(AW)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. ^(AX)And I will bring them together into the midst of this city. ⁵I myself will fight against you ^(AY)with outstretched hand and strong arm, ^(AZ)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, ^(BA)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. ^(BB)He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.’

⁸“And to this people you shall say: ^(BC)‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, ^(BD)I set before you the way of life and the way of death. ⁹He who stays in this city shall die ^(BE)by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and ^(BF)surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live ^(BG)and shall have his life as a prize of war. ¹⁰For ^(BH)I have set my face against this city for harm and ^(BI)not for good, declares the Lord: ^(BJ)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:

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

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

Footnotes

Jeremiah 20:12 Hebrew kidneys
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

2 Corinthians 9

English Standard Version

The Collection for Christians in Jerusalem

9 Now ^(A)it is superfluous for me to write to you about ^(B)the ministry for the saints, ²for I know your readiness, ^(C)of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready ^(D)since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them. ³But ^(E)I am sending^[a] the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, ^(F)as I said you would be. ⁴Otherwise, if some Macedonians ^(G)come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident. ⁵So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the ^(H)gift^[b] you have promised, so that it may be ready ^(I)as a willing gift, ^(J)not as an exaction.^[c]

The Cheerful Giver

⁶The point is this: ^(K)whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully^[d] will also reap bountifully. ⁷Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, ^(L)not reluctantly or under compulsion, for ^(M)God loves a cheerful giver. ⁸And ^(N)God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency^[e] in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. ⁹As it is written,

^(O)“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.”

¹⁰He who supplies ^(P)seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and ^(Q)increase the harvest of your righteousness. ¹¹^(R)You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which ^(S)through us will produce thanksgiving to God. ¹²For the ministry of this service is not only supplying ^(T)the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. ¹³By their approval of this service, ^(U)they^[f] will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your ^(V)confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, ¹⁴while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. ¹⁵^(W)Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!