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Disaster because of Disobedience
16 This is what the Lord says:
Stand by the roadways and look.
Ask about the ancient paths:(A)
Which is the way to what is good?
Then take it
and find rest for yourselves.(B)
But they protested, “We won’t!”
17 I appointed watchmen over you(C)
and said: Listen for the sound of the ram’s horn.
But they protested, “We won’t listen!”
18 Therefore listen, you nations
and you witnesses,
learn what the charge is against them.
19 Listen, earth!
I am about to bring disaster on these people,
the fruit of their own plotting,(D)
for they have paid no attention to My word.
They have rejected My instruction.(E)
20 What use to Me is frankincense from Sheba(F)
or sweet cane(G) from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable;
your sacrifices do not please Me.(H)
21 Therefore, this is what the Lord says:
I am going to place stumbling blocks before these people;
fathers and sons together will stumble over them;(I)
friends and neighbors will also perish.
A Cruel Nation from the North
22 This is what the Lord says:
Look, an army is coming from a northern land;(J)
a great nation will be awakened
from the remote regions of the earth.(K)
23 They grasp bow and javelin.
They are cruel and show no mercy.(L)
Their voice roars like the sea,(M)
and they ride on horses,
lined up like men in battle formation
against you, Daughter Zion.
24 We have heard about it,
and we are discouraged.[a]
Distress has seized us—
pain like a woman in(N) labor.(O)
25 Don’t go out to the fields;
don’t walk on the road.
For the enemy has a sword;
terror is on every side.(P)
26 My dear[b] people, dress yourselves in sackcloth
and roll in the dust.(Q)
Mourn as you would for an only son,(R)
a bitter lament,
for suddenly the destroyer(S) will come on us.(T)
Jeremiah Appointed as an Examiner
27 I have appointed you to be an assayer among My people—
a refiner[c]—
so you may know and assay their way of life.(U)
28 All are stubborn rebels
spreading slander.(V)
They are bronze and iron;
all of them are corrupt.(W)
29 The bellows blow,
blasting the lead with fire.
The refining is completely in vain;
the evil ones are not separated out.
30 They are called rejected silver,
for the Lord has rejected them.(X)
False Trust in the Temple
7 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Stand in the gate of the house of the Lord(Y) and there call out this word: Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the Lord.
3 “This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your deeds,(Z) and I will allow you to live in this place. 4 Do not trust deceitful words, chanting: This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. 5 Instead, if you really change your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another,[d](AA) 6 if you no longer oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow(AB) and no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods, bringing harm on yourselves, 7 I will allow you to live in this place, the land I gave to your ancestors(AC) long ago and forever. 8 But look, you keep trusting in deceitful words that cannot help.
9 “Do you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known?(AD) 10 Then do you come and stand before Me in this house(AE) called by My name and say, ‘We are delivered, so we can continue doing all these detestable acts’? 11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers(AF) in your view? Yes, I too have seen it.”(AG)
This is the Lord’s declaration.
Shiloh As a Warning
12 “But return to My place that was at Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at first.(AH) See what I did to it because of the evil of My people Israel. 13 Now, because you have done all these things”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“and because I have spoken to you time and time again[e] but you wouldn’t listen,(AI) and I have called to you, but you wouldn’t answer,(AJ) 14 what I did to Shiloh I will do to the house that is called by My name(AK)—the house in which you trust—the place that I gave you and your ancestors. 15 I will drive you from My presence, just as I drove out all of your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.(AL)
Do Not Pray for Judah
16 “As for you, do not pray for these people.(AM) Do not offer a cry or a prayer on their behalf, and do not beg Me,(AN) for I will not listen to you.(AO) 17 Don’t you see how they behave in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven,[f](AP) and they pour out drink offerings to other gods so that they provoke Me to anger. 19 But are they really provoking Me?”(AQ) This is the Lord’s declaration. “Isn’t it they themselves being provoked to disgrace?”
20 Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: “Look, My anger—My burning wrath—is about to be poured out on this place,(AR) on man and beast, on the tree of the field, and on the produce of the land. My wrath will burn and not be quenched.”(AS)
Obedience Over Sacrifice
21 This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves,(AT) 22 for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them(AU) or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice. 23 However, I did give them this command: Obey Me, and then I will be your God, and you will be My people. You must follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.(AV) 24 Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention(AW) but followed their own advice and according to their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward.(AX) 25 Since the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent all My servants the prophets(AY) to you time and time again.[g](AZ) 26 However, they wouldn’t listen to Me or pay attention but became obstinate;[h](BA) they did more evil than their ancestors.(BB)
A Lament for Disobedient Judah
27 “When you speak all these things to them, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer you. 28 You must therefore declare to them: This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the Lord their God and would not accept discipline. Truth[i] has perished—it has disappeared from their mouths. 29 Cut off the hair of your sacred vow[j](BC) and throw it away. Raise up a dirge on the barren heights,(BD) for the Lord has rejected and abandoned the generation under His wrath.(BE)
30 “For the Judeans have done what is evil in My sight.” This is the Lord’s declaration. “They have set up their detestable things(BF) in the house that is called by My name and defiled it.(BG) 31 They have built the high places of Topheth[k](BH) in the Valley of Hinnom[l](BI) in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire,(BJ) a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought.[m]
32 “Therefore, take note! Days are coming”(BK)—the Lord’s declaration—“when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.(BL) Topheth will become a cemetery,[n] because there will be no other burial place. 33 The corpses of these people will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away.(BM) 34 I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and gladness and the voices of the groom and the bride,(BN) for the land will become a desolate waste.(BO)
Death over Life
8 “At that time”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of her officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the residents of Jerusalem will be brought out of their graves. 2 They will be exposed(BP) to the sun, the moon, and the whole heavenly host,(BQ) which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped. Their bones will not be collected and buried but will become like manure on the surface of the soil.(BR) 3 Death will be chosen over life(BS) by all the survivors of this evil family, those who remain wherever I have banished them.” This is the declaration of the Lord of Hosts.
4 “You are to say to them: This is what the Lord says:
Do people fall and not get up again?(BT)
If they turn away, do they not return?
5 Why have these people turned away?
Why is Jerusalem always turning away?
They take hold of deceit;(BU)
they refuse to return.(BV)
6 I have paid careful attention.
They do not speak what is right.
No one regrets his evil,
asking, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone has stayed his course
like a horse rushing into battle.(BW)
7 Even the stork in the sky
knows her seasons.
The turtledove, swallow, and crane[o]
are aware of their migration,
but My people do not know
the requirements of the Lord.(BX)
8 Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition,(A) based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ.(B) 9 For the entire fullness(C) of God’s nature[a] dwells bodily[b] in Christ, 10 and you have been filled by Him, who is the head(D) over every ruler and authority. 11 You were also circumcised in Him with a circumcision not done with hands, by putting off the body of flesh,(E) in the circumcision of the Messiah.[c](F) 12 Having been buried with Him(G) in baptism, you were also raised with Him(H) through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.(I) 13 And when you were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive with Him and forgave us all our trespasses. 14 He erased the certificate of debt, with its obligations, that was against us and opposed to us, and has taken it out of the way by nailing it to the cross.(J) 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and disgraced them publicly; He triumphed over them by Him.[d](K)
16 Therefore, don’t let anyone judge(L) you in regard to food and drink(M) or in the matter of a festival or a new moon(N) or a Sabbath day.[e] 17 These are a shadow(O) of what was to come;(P) the substance is[f] the Messiah.(Q) 18 Let no one disqualify you,[g](R) insisting on ascetic practices(S) and the worship of angels, claiming access to a visionary realm and inflated(T) without cause by his unspiritual[h] mind. 19 He doesn’t hold on to the head, from whom the whole body,(U) nourished and held together by its ligaments and tendons, develops with growth from God.
20 If you died with the Messiah(V) to the elemental forces of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: 21 “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”? 22 All these regulations refer to what is destroyed by being used up; they are commands and doctrines of men. 23 Although these have a reputation of wisdom(W) by promoting ascetic practices, humility, and severe treatment of the body, they are not of any value in curbing self-indulgence.[i](X)
Psalm 78
Lessons from Israel’s Past
A Maskil of Asaph.(A)
1 My people, hear my instruction;
listen to what I say.(B)
2 I will declare wise sayings;
I will speak mysteries from the past(C)—
3 things we have heard and known
and that our fathers have passed down to us.(D)
4 We must not hide them from their children,
but must tell a future generation
the praises of the Lord,
His might, and the wonderful works
He has performed.(E)
5 He established a testimony in Jacob
and set up a law in Israel,
which He commanded our fathers
to teach to their children(F)
6 so that a future generation—
children yet to be born—might know.
They were to rise and tell their children(G)
7 so that they might put their confidence in God
and not forget God’s works,
but keep His commands.(H)
8 Then they would not be like their fathers,
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation whose heart was not loyal
and whose spirit was not faithful to God.(I)
9 The Ephraimite archers turned back
on the day of battle.(J)
10 They did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to live by His law.(K)
11 They forgot what He had done,
the wonderful works He had shown them.(L)
12 He worked wonders in the sight of their fathers
in the land of Egypt, the region of Zoan.(M)
13 He split the sea and brought them across;
the water stood firm like a wall.(N)
14 He led them with a cloud by day
and with a fiery light throughout the night.(O)
15 He split rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.(P)
16 He brought streams out of the stone
and made water flow down like rivers.(Q)
17 But they continued to sin against Him,
rebelling in the desert against the Most High.(R)
18 They deliberately[a] tested God,
demanding the food they craved.(S)
19 They spoke against God, saying,
“Is God able to provide food in the wilderness?
20 Look! He struck the rock and water gushed out;
torrents overflowed.(T)
But can He also provide bread
or furnish meat for His people?”(U)
21 Therefore, the Lord heard and became furious;
then fire broke out against Jacob,
and anger flared up against Israel(V)
22 because they did not believe God
or rely on His salvation.(W)
23 He gave a command to the clouds above
and opened the doors of heaven.(X)
24 He rained manna for them to eat;
He gave them grain from heaven.(Y)
25 People[b] ate the bread of angels.[c]
He sent them an abundant supply of food.(Z)
26 He made the east wind blow in the skies
and drove the south wind by His might.(AA)
27 He rained meat on them like dust,
and winged birds like the sand of the seas.
28 He made them fall in His camp,
all around His tent.[d][e](AB)
29 They ate and were completely satisfied,
for He gave them what they craved.(AC)
30 Before they had satisfied their desire,
while the food was still in their mouths,
31 God’s anger flared up against them,
and He killed some of their best men.
He struck down Israel’s choice young men.(AD)
26 He who gives an honest answer
gives a kiss on the lips.
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