Psalm 129

A song of ascents.

Zedekiah Questions Jeremiah Again

¹⁴ Then King Zedekiah sent^(A) for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to the third entrance to the temple of the Lord. “I am going to ask you something,” the king said to Jeremiah. “Do not hide^(B) anything from me.”

¹⁵ Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “If I give you an answer, will you not kill me? Even if I did give you counsel, you would not listen to me.”

¹⁶ But King Zedekiah swore this oath secretly^(C) to Jeremiah: “As surely as the Lord lives, who has given us breath,^(D) I will neither kill you nor hand you over to those who want to kill you.”^(E)

¹⁷ Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, “This is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you surrender^(F) to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live.^{(G) 18} But if you will not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be given into the hands^(H) of the Babylonians and they will burn^(I) it down; you yourself will not escape^(J) from them.’”

¹⁹ King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am afraid^(K) of the Jews who have gone over^(L) to the Babylonians, for the Babylonians may hand me over to them and they will mistreat me.”

²⁰ “They will not hand you over,” Jeremiah replied. “Obey^(M) the Lord by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well^(N) with you, and your life^(O) will be spared. ²¹ But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the Lord has revealed to me: ²² All the women^(P) left in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon. Those women will say to you:

²³ “All your wives and children^(S) will be brought out to the Babylonians. You yourself will not escape^(T) from their hands but will be captured^(U) by the king of Babylon; and this city will^[a] be burned down.”^(V)

²⁴ Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “Do not let anyone know^(W) about this conversation, or you may die. ²⁵ If the officials hear that I talked with you, and they come to you and say, ‘Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; do not hide it from us or we will kill you,’ ²⁶ then tell^(X) them, ‘I was pleading with the king not to send me back to Jonathan’s house^(Y) to die there.’”

²⁷ All the officials did come to Jeremiah and question him, and he told them everything the king had ordered him to say. So they said no more to him, for no one had heard his conversation with the king.

²⁸ And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard^(Z) until the day Jerusalem was captured.

The Fall of Jerusalem^(AA)

This is how Jerusalem^(AB) was taken:

Lawsuits Among Believers

6 If any of you has a dispute with another, do you dare to take it before the ungodly for judgment instead of before the Lord’s people?^{(A) 2} Or do you not know that the Lord’s people will judge the world?^(B) And if you are to judge the world, are you not competent to judge trivial cases? ³ Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more the things of this life! ⁴ Therefore, if you have disputes about such matters, do you ask for a ruling from those whose way of life is scorned in the church? ⁵ I say this to shame you.^(C) Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?^{(D) 6} But instead, one brother^(E) takes another to court—and this in front of unbelievers!^(F)

⁷ The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?^{(G) 8} Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers and sisters.^{(H) 9} Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God?^(I) Do not be deceived:^(J) Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers^(K) nor men who have sex with men^{[a](L) 10} nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers^(M) will inherit the kingdom of God. ¹¹ And that is what some of you were.^(N) But you were washed,^(O) you were sanctified,^(P) you were justified^(Q) in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.