Titus 3

Contemporary English Version

Doing Helpful Things

3 Remind your people to obey the rulers and authorities and not to be rebellious. They must always be ready to do something helpful ²and not say cruel things or argue. They should be gentle and kind to everyone. ³We used to be stupid, disobedient, and foolish, as well as slaves of all sorts of desires and pleasures. We were evil and jealous. Everyone hated us, and we hated everyone.

⁴God our Savior showed us
    how good and kind he is.
⁵He saved us because
    of his mercy,
and not because
of any good things
    we have done.

God washed us by the power
    of the Holy Spirit.
He gave us new birth
    and a fresh beginning.
⁶God sent Jesus Christ
our Savior
    to give us his Spirit.

⁷Jesus treated us much better
than we deserve.
He made us acceptable to God
and gave us the hope
of eternal life.

⁸This message is certainly true.

These teachings are useful and helpful for everyone. I want you to insist that the people follow them, so that all who have faith in God will be sure to do good deeds. ⁹But don't have anything to do with stupid arguments about ancestors. And stay away from disagreements and quarrels about the Law of Moses. Such arguments are useless and senseless.

¹⁰Warn troublemakers once or twice. Then don't have anything else to do with them. ¹¹You know their minds are twisted, and their own sins show how guilty they are.

Personal Instructions and Greetings

¹²^(A) I plan to send Artemas or Tychicus to you. After he arrives, please try your best to meet me at Nicopolis. I have decided to spend the winter there.

¹³^(B) When Zenas the lawyer and Apollos get ready to leave, help them as much as you can, so they won't have need of anything.

¹⁴Our people should learn to spend their time doing something useful and worthwhile.

¹⁵Greetings to you from everyone here. Greet all of our friends who share in our faith.

I pray that the Lord will be kind to all of you!

Jeremiah 17-18

Contemporary English Version

The Lord Will Punish Judah

The Lord said:

17 People of Judah,
    your sins cannot be erased.
They are written on your hearts
    like words chiseled in stone
or carved on the corners
    of your altars.^[a]
* ²One generation after another
    has set up pagan altars
and worshiped the goddess Asherah
everywhere in your country—
    on hills and mountains,
    and under large trees.
³So I'll take everything you own,
    including your altars,
and give it all
    to your enemies.^[b]
⁴You will lose^[c] the land
    that I gave you,
and I will make you slaves
    in a foreign country,
because you have made my anger
blaze up like a fire
    that won't stop burning.

Trust the Lord

⁵I, the Lord, have put a curse
on those who turn from me
and trust in human strength.
⁶They will dry up like a bush
in salty desert soil,
where nothing can grow.

⁷But I will bless those
    who trust me, the Lord.
⁸^(A) They will be like trees
    growing beside a stream—
trees with roots that reach
    down to the water,
and with leaves
    that are always green.
They bear fruit every year
and are never worried
    by a lack of rain.

⁹You people of Judah
    are so deceitful
that you even fool yourselves,
    and you can't change.
¹⁰^(B) But I know your deeds
    and your thoughts,
and I will make sure
    you get what you deserve.
¹¹You cheated others,
    but everything you gained
will fly away, like birds
    hatched from stolen eggs.
Then you will discover
    what fools you are.

Jeremiah Prays to the Lord

¹²Our Lord, your temple
    is a glorious throne
that has stood on a mountain
    from the beginning.
¹³You are a spring of water
    giving Israel life and hope.
But if the people reject
    what you have told me,
they will be swept away
    like words written in dust.^[d]

¹⁴You, Lord, are the one I praise.
So heal me and rescue me!
Then I will be completely well
and perfectly safe.

¹⁵The people of Judah say to me,
“Jeremiah, you claimed to tell us
what the Lord has said.
So why hasn't it come true?”

¹⁶Our Lord, you chose me
to care for your people,
    and that's what I have done.
You know everything I have said,
and I have never once
    asked you to punish them.^[e]
¹⁷I trust you for protection
in times of trouble,
    so don't frighten me.
¹⁸Keep me from failure
    and disgrace,
but make my enemies fail
    and be disgraced.
Send destruction to make
    their worst fears come true.

Resting on the Sabbath

^19-20The Lord said:

Jeremiah, stand at each city gate in Jerusalem, including the one the king uses, and speak to him and everyone else. Tell them I have said:

I am the Lord, so pay attention. ^21-24^(C) If you value your lives, don't do any work on the Sabbath. Don't carry anything through the city gates or through the door of your house, or anywhere else. Keep the Sabbath day sacred!

I gave this command to your ancestors, but they were stubborn and refused to obey or to be corrected. But if you obey, ²⁵then Judah and Jerusalem will always be ruled by kings from David's family. The king and his officials will ride through these gates on horses or in chariots, and the people of Judah and Jerusalem will be with them. There will always be people living in Jerusalem, ²⁶and others will come here from the nearby villages, from the towns of Judah and Benjamin,^[f] from the hill country and the foothills to the west, and from the Southern Desert. They will bring sacrifices to please me and to give me thanks,^[g] as well as offerings of grain and incense.

²⁷But if you keep on carrying things through the city gates on the Sabbath and keep treating it as any other day, I will set fire to these gates and burn down the whole city, including the fortresses.

Jeremiah Goes to the Pottery Shop

18 The Lord told me, ²“Jeremiah, go to the pottery shop, and when you get there, I will tell you what to say to the people.”

³I went there and saw the potter making clay pots on his pottery wheel. ⁴And whenever the clay would not take the shape he wanted, he would change his mind and form it into some other shape.

⁵Then the Lord told me to say:

⁶People of Israel, I, the Lord, have power over you, just as a potter has power over clay. ⁷If I threaten to uproot and shatter an evil nation, ⁸and that nation turns from its evil, I will change my mind.

⁹If I promise to make a nation strong, ¹⁰but its people start disobeying me and doing evil, then I will change my mind and not help them at all.

¹¹So listen to me, people of Judah and Jerusalem! I have decided to strike you with disaster, and I won't change my mind unless you stop sinning and start living right.

¹²But I know you won't listen. You might as well answer, “We don't care what you say. We have made plans to sin, and we are going to be stubborn and do as we please!”

¹³So I, the Lord, command you to ask the nations, and find out if they have ever heard of such a horrible sin as what you have done.

¹⁴The snow
on Lebanon's mountains
    never melts away,
and the streams there
    never run dry.^[h]
¹⁵But you, my people,
    have turned from me
to burn incense
    to worthless idols.
You have left the ancient road
to follow an unknown path
    where you stumble over idols.

¹⁶Your land will be ruined,
    and every passerby
will look at it with horror
    and make insulting remarks.
¹⁷When your enemies attack,
I will scatter you like dust
    blown by an eastern wind.
Then, on that day of disaster,
    I will turn my back on you.

The Plot against Jeremiah

¹⁸Some of the people said, “Let's get rid of Jeremiah! We will always have priests to teach us God's laws, as well as wise people to give us advice, and prophets to speak the Lord's messages. So, instead of listening to Jeremiah any longer, let's accuse him of a crime.”

Jeremiah Prays about His Enemies

¹⁹Please, Lord, answer my prayer.
Make my enemies stop
    accusing me of evil.
²⁰I tried to help them,
but they are paying me back
    by digging a pit to trap me.
I even begged you
    not to punish them.
²¹But now I am asking you
to let their children starve
    or be killed in war.
Let women lose
their husbands and sons
    to disease and violence.
²²These people have dug pits
    and set traps for me, Lord.
Make them scream in fear
when you send enemy troops
    to attack their homes.
²³You know they plan to kill me.
    So get angry and punish them!
Don't ever forgive
    their terrible crimes.

Footnotes

17.1 carved on the corners of your altars: When sacrifices were offered to the Lord to ask him to forgive sins, some of the blood was smeared on the corners of the altar (see Leviticus 4.7,18-20,25, 26,30, 31,34, 35; 16.18). But now the Lord refuses to accept these sacrifices.
17.3 enemies: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verses 2,3.
17.4 You will lose: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
17.13 reject … dust: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
17.16 you chose … punish them: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
17.26 Judah and Benjamin: These two tribes made up the southern kingdom of Judah.
17.26 sacrifices to please me and to give me thanks: See the notes at 14.12.
18.14 dry: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text of verse 14.

Psalm 127

Contemporary English Version

(A song by Solomon for worship.)

Only the Lord Can Bless a Home

¹Without the help of the Lord
it is useless to build a home
    or to guard a city.
²It is useless to get up early
and stay up late
    in order to earn a living.
God takes care of his own,
    even while they sleep.^[a]

³Children are a blessing
    and a gift from the Lord.
⁴Having a lot of children
to take care of you
    in your old age
is like a warrior
    with a lot of arrows.
⁵The more you have,
    the better off you will be,
because they will protect you
when your enemies
    attack you in court.