Old/New Testament
6 “O you children of Benjamin, prepare to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa! Set up a standard upon Beth-Haccerem! For a plague appears out of the North, and great destruction!
2 “I have compared the Daughter of Zion to a beautiful and delicate woman.
3 “The shepherds, with their flocks, shall come to her. They shall pitch tents all around her, and everyone shall feed in his place.”
4 “Prepare for war against her! Arise, and let us go up toward the South. Woe to us! For the day declines, and the shadows of the evening are stretched out.
5 “Arise, and let us go up by night and destroy her palaces!”
6 For thus has the LORD of Hosts said: “Cut down wood and lay down a mound against Jerusalem! This city must be visited! All oppression is in the midst of it!
7 “As the fountain throws forth her waters, so she throws forth her malice! Cruelty and spoil are continually heard in her before Me, with sorrow and strokes.
8 “Be instructed, O [h]Jerusalem, lest My Soul departs from you, lest I make you desolate, a land that no one inhabits!”
9 Thus says the LORD of Hosts: “They shall gather, the residue of Israel, as a vine. Return your hand into the baskets, as does the grape gatherer.”
10 To whom shall I speak, and admonish, so that they may hear? Behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot listen. Behold, the Word of the LORD is as a reproach to them. They have no delight in it.
11 Therefore, I am full of the wrath of the LORD. I am weary with holding it. “I will pour it out upon the children in the street, and likewise upon the assembly of the young men. For the husband shall be taken with the wife, the aged with him who is full of days,
12 “and their houses with their lands. And wives, also, shall be turned to strangers. For I will stretch out My Hand upon the inhabitants of the land,” says the LORD.
13 “For from the least of them to the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness, and from the Prophet to the Priest, they all deal falsely.
14 “They have also slightly healed the hurt of My people, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.
15 “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not ashamed. Nor could they have any shame. Therefore, they shall fall among the slain when I shall visit them. They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.
16 Thus says the LORD: “Stand in the ways and behold. And ask for the old way, which is the good way. And walk in it. And you shall find rest for your souls.’ But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
17 “Also, I set watchmen over you, who said, ‘Listen for the sound of the trumpet.’ But they said, ‘We will not listen for it.’
18 “Hear, therefore, you Gentiles. And know, you Congregation, what is among them.
19 “Hear, O Earth! Behold, I will cause a plague to come upon this people, the fruit of their own imaginations. Because they have not listened to My Words, nor to My Law, but cast it off.
20 “For what purpose do you bring Me incense from Sheba, and sweet calamus from a far country? Your Burnt Offerings are not pleasant, nor your sacrifices sweet, to Me.”
21 Therefore, thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them. The neighbor and his friend shall perish.”
22 Thus says the LORD: “Behold, a people comes from the north country, and a great nation shall arise from the sides of the Earth.
23 “They shall be weaponed with bow and shield. They are cruel and will have no compassion. Their voice roars like the sea, and they ride upon horses, well-appointed, like men of war against you, O daughter Zion.”
24 We have heard of their fame. Our hands grow feeble. Sorrow has come upon us, as the sorrow of a woman in labor.
25 Do not go forth into the field or walk by the way, for the sword of the enemy and fear are on every side.
26 O daughter of my people, gird yourselves with sackcloth and wallow in the ashes! Make lamentation, and bitter mourning, as for your only son. For the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.
27 “I have set you as a defense and fortress among My people, so that you may know and try their ways.
28 “They are all rebellious traitors, walking craftily, bronze and iron. They all are destroyers.
29 “The bellows are burnt. The lead is consumed in the fire. The founder refines in vain. For the wicked are not taken away.
30 “They shall call them rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them.”
7 The Words that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s House, and cry this Word there, and say, ‘Hear the Word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates, to worship the LORD!”
3 Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your works, and I will let you dwell in this place.
4 “Do not trust in lying words, saying, ‘The Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, this is the Temple of the LORD.’
5 “For if you amend and redress your ways and your works, if you execute judgment between a man and neighbor,
6 “and do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place or walk after other gods, to your destruction,
7 “then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, forever and ever.
8 “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.
9 “Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know,
10 “and come and stand before Me in this House, whereupon My Name is called, and say, ‘We are delivered, even though we have done all these abominations’?
11 “Has this House become a den of thieves, whereupon My Name is called before your eyes? Behold, even I see it,” says the LORD.
12 “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My Name at the beginning. And behold what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel.
13 “Therefore, now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “I rose up early and spoke to you. But when I spoke, you would not hear Me, nor would you answer when I called.
14 “Therefore I will do to this House upon which My Name is called — in which you also trust, the place that I gave to you and to your fathers — as I have done to Shiloh.
15 “And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim.
16 “Therefore, you shall neither pray for this people nor lift up cry or prayer for them nor entreat Me. For I will not hear you.
17 “Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18 “The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, so that they may provoke Me to anger.
19 “Do they provoke Me to anger,” says the LORD, “and not themselves to the shame of their own faces?”
20 Therefore, thus says the LORD God: “Behold, MY anger and My wrath shall be poured upon this place, upon man and upon beast, and upon the tree of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground. And it shall burn and not be quenched.”
21 Thus says the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel: “Put your Burnt Offerings with your Sacrifices and eat the flesh.
22 “For I did not speak to your fathers, or Command them, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning Burnt Offerings and Sacrifices.
23 “But this thing I Commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My Voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways which I have Commanded you, so that it may be well with you.’
24 “But they would not obey, nor incline their ear, but went after the counsels and the stubbornness of their wicked heart and went backward and not forward.
25 “Since the day that your fathers came up out of the land of Egypt, to this day, I have even sent to you all My servants, the Prophets, rising up early every day and sending them.
26 “Yet they would not hear Me, nor incline their ear, but hardened their neck and did worse than their fathers.
27 “Therefore, you shall speak all these Words to them. But they will not hear you. You shall also cry to them, but they will not answer you.
28 “But you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not hear the Voice of the LORD their God or receive discipline. Truth has perished and has been cut out of their mouth.
29 ‘Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away. And take up a complaint on the high places. For the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’
30 “For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the LORD. “They have set their abominations in the House upon which My Name is called, to pollute it.
31 “And they have built the high place of Tophet, which is in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not Command them. Nor did it come into My Heart.
32 “Therefore, behold, the days come,” says the LORD, “that it shall not be called Tophet anymore, nor the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they shall bury in Tophet until there is no place.
33 “And the carcasses of this people shall be food for the birds of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. And no one shall frighten them away.
34 “Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride. For the land shall be desolate.”
8 “At that time,” says the LORD, “they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of their princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the Prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.
2 “And they shall spread them before the Sun, and the Moon, and all the host of Heaven, whom they have loved, and whom they have served, and whom they have followed, and whom they have sought, and whom they have worshipped. They shall not be gathered or be buried, but shall be as dung upon the Earth.
3 “And death shall be desired rather than life by all the residue that remains of this wicked family, who remain in all the places where I have scattered them,” says the LORD of Hosts.’
4 “You shall also say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Shall they fall, and not arise? Shall he turn away and not turn again?
5 “Why has this people of Jerusalem backslid in a perpetual apostasy? They gave themselves to deceit and would not return.
6 “I listened and heard. No one spoke aright. No man repented of his wickedness, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turned to their running, as the horse rushes into the battle.
7 “Even the stork in the air knows her appointed times, and the turtle, and the crane, and the swallow, observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of the LORD.
8 “How do you say, ‘We are wise, and the Law of the LORD is with us?’ Lo, certainly in vain it is made, the pen of the scribes.
9 “The wise men are ashamed. They are afraid and taken. Lo, they have rejected the Word of the LORD. And what wisdom is in them?
10 “Therefore, I will give their wives to others, their fields to those who shall possess them. For everyone, from the least to the greatest, is given to covetousness. From the Prophet to the Priest, everyone deals falsely.
11 “For they have healed the hurt of the Daughter of My people with sweet words, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.
12 “Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not ashamed. Nor could they have any shame. Therefore, they shall fall among the slain when I shall visit them. They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.’
13 “I will surely consume them,” says the LORD.’ “There shall be no grapes on the vine or figs on the fig tree. And the leaf shall fade. And the things that I have given them shall depart from them.”’”
14 Why do we stay? Assemble yourselves! And let us enter into the strong cities! And let us be quiet there. For the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water with gall to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
15 We looked for peace, but no good; for a time of health, and behold troubles.
16 The neighing of His horses was heard from Dan. The whole land trembled at the noise of the neighing of His strong horses. For they have come, and have devoured the land with all that is in it: the city and those who dwell in it.
17 “For behold, I will send serpents and vipers among you, which will not be charmed. And they shall sting you,” says the LORD.
18 I would have comforted myself against sorrow, but my heart is heavy in me.
19 Behold, the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people from a far country, “Is not the LORD in Zion? Is not her King in her?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger with their carved images, and with strange vanities?”
20 “The harvest is past! The summer has ended! And we are not saved!”
21 Because of the brokenness of the daughter of my people, I am broken. I mourn. Astonishment has taken me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no Physician there? Why then has not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?
5 Do not rebuke an elder, but encourage him as a father, and the younger men as brothers;
2 the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters, with all pureness.
3 Honor widows which are truly widows.
4 But if any widow has children or nephews, let them learn first to show godliness toward their own house, and to repay their family. For that is an honorable thing, and acceptable before God.
5 And she who is a true widow, and left alone, trusts in God, and continues in supplications and prayers night and day.
6 But she who lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.
7 Therefore, warn them of these things, so that they may be blameless.
8 If there is anyone who does not look out for his own, and namely for those of his household, he denies the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
9 Do not let a widow under 60 years old be registered; who has been the wife of one husband
10 and has a reputation for good works (whether she has nourished her children, taken in strangers, washed the saints’ feet, ministered to those who were in adversity, and if she has constantly pursued every good work).
11 But refuse the younger widows. For when their desires begin to draw them away from Christ, they will marry,
12 having damnation because they have broken their first faith.
13 And also, being idle, they learn to go about from house to house. Indeed, not only are they idle, but also gossips and busybodies, speaking things which are not necessary.
14 Therefore, I desire that the younger women marry, and bear children, and govern the house, and give no opportunity for the adversary to speak evil.
15 For some have already turned back after Satan.
16 If any faithful man or faithful woman has widows, let them minister to them, and do not let the Church be charged, so that there may be enough for those who are true widows.
17 Let the elders who rule well have double the honor, especially those who labor in the Word and doctrine.
18 For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treads out the corn,” and, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”
19 Receive no accusation against an elder unless by two or three witnesses.
20 Rebuke those who sin openly, so that the rest may also fear.
21 I charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels to observe these things, without preferring one to another. And do nothing with partiality.
22 Do not quickly lay hands on anyone or share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.
23 Drink water no longer. But use a little wine for your stomach’s sake, and your frequent infirmities.
24 Some men’s sins are evident, preceding them to judgment. But some follow afterward.
25 Likewise, good works are also evident beforehand. And those which are otherwise cannot be hidden.
© 2019, 2024 by Five Talents Audio. All rights reserved.