Praise the Name of the Lord

The Lord Will Turn Mourning to Joy

31 ^(A)“At that time, declares the Lord, ^(B)I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they shall be my people.”

²³ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Once more they shall use these words in the land of Judah and in its cities, ^(BE)when I restore their fortunes:

^24 (BI)And Judah and all its cities shall dwell there together, and ^(BJ)the farmers and those who wander with their flocks. ²⁵ For I will ^(BK)satisfy the weary soul, and every languishing soul I will replenish.”

²⁶ At this I awoke and looked, and my sleep was pleasant to me.

^27 (BL)“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when ^(BM)I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with ^(BN)the seed of man and the seed of beast. ²⁸ And it shall come to pass that ^(BO)as I have watched over them ^(BP)to pluck up and break down, to overthrow, destroy, and bring harm, ^(BQ)so I will watch over them ^(BR)to build and to plant, declares the Lord. ²⁹ In those days they shall no longer say:

^30 (BT)But everyone shall die for his own iniquity. Each man who eats sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

The New Covenant

^31 (BU)“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make ^(BV)a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, ³² not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when ^(BW)I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, ^(BX)though I was their husband, declares the Lord. ^33 (BY)For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: ^(BZ)I will put my law within them, and I will write it ^(CA)on their hearts. ^(CB)And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ³⁴ And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ ^(CC)for they shall all know me, ^(CD)from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord. For ^(CE)I will forgive their iniquity, and ^(CF)I will remember their sin no more.”

^38 (CL)“Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when the city shall be rebuilt for the Lord ^(CM)from the Tower of Hananel to ^(CN)the Corner Gate. ^39 (CO)And the measuring line shall go out farther, straight to the hill Gareb, and shall then turn to Goah. ^40 (CP)The whole valley of the dead bodies and the ashes, and all the fields as far as the ^(CQ)brook Kidron, to the corner of ^(CR)the Horse Gate toward the east, ^(CS)shall be sacred to the Lord. ^(CT)It shall not be plucked up or overthrown anymore forever.”

Encouragement to Give Generously

8 We want you to know, brothers,^[a] about the grace of God that has been ^(A)given among the churches of Macedonia, ² for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and ^(B)their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. ³ For they gave ^(C)according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, ⁴ begging us earnestly ^(D)for the favor^[b] of taking part in ^(E)the relief of the saints— ⁵ and this, not as we expected, but they ^(F)gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. ⁶ Accordingly, ^(G)we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you ^(H)this act of grace. ⁷ But as ^(I)you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you^[c]—^(J)see that you excel in this act of grace also.

^8 (K)I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. ⁹ For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ^(L)though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. ¹⁰ And in this matter ^(M)I give my judgment: ^(N)this benefits you, who ^(O)a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. ¹¹ So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. ¹² For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable ^(P)according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. ¹³ For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness ¹⁴ your abundance at the present time should supply ^(Q)their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. ¹⁵ As it is written, ^(R)“Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”

Commendation of Titus

¹⁶ But ^(S)thanks be to God, ^(T)who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you. ¹⁷ For ^(U)he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest he is going^[d] to you of his own accord. ¹⁸ With him we are sending^{[e] (V)}the brother who is famous among ^(W)all the churches for his preaching of the gospel. ¹⁹ And not only that, but he has been ^(X)appointed by the churches to travel with us as we carry out this act of ^(Y)grace that is being ministered by us, ^(Z)for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our good will. ²⁰ We take this course so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us, ²¹ for ^(AA)we aim at what is honorable ^(AB)not only in the Lord's sight but also in the sight of man. ²² And with them we are sending our brother whom we have often tested and found earnest in many matters, but who is now more earnest than ever because of his great confidence in you. ²³ As for Titus, he is ^(AC)my partner and fellow worker for your benefit. And as for our brothers, they are messengers^[f] of the churches, the glory of Christ. ²⁴ So give proof before the churches of your love and of ^(AD)our boasting about you to these men.