Old/New Testament
12 O LORD, if I dispute with You, You are righteous. Yet, let me talk with You of judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are all those wealthy who rebelliously transgress?
2 You have planted them, and they have taken root. They grow and bring forth fruit. You are near in their mouth, and far from their core.
3 But You, LORD, know me. You have seen me and tried my heart toward You. Pull them out, like sheep for the slaughter, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.
4 How long shall the land mourn, and the herbs of every field wither, for the wickedness of those who dwell in them? The beasts are consumed, and the birds, because they said, “He will not see our last end.”
5 “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, then how can you match yourself with horses? And if you thought yourself safe in a peaceable land, what will you do in the swelling of Jordan?
6 “For even your brethren and the House of your father, even they have dealt unfaithfully with you. And they have cried out altogether upon you. Do not believe them, though they speak good things to you.
7 “I have forsaken My House. I have left My heritage. I have given the dearly beloved of My Soul into the hands of her enemies.
8 “My heritage is to Me as a lion in the forest. It cries out against Me. Therefore, I have hated it.
9 “Shall My heritage be to Me as a bird of diverse colors? Are not the birds around her saying, ‘Come, assemble all the beasts of the field. Come to eat her’?
10 “Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard and trampled My portion under foot. They have made a desolate wilderness of My pleasant portion.
11 “They have laid it waste. And it, being waste, mourns to Me. The whole land lies waste because no man sets his mind on it.
12 “The destroyers have come upon all the high places in the wilderness. For the sword of the LORD shall devour. From one end of the land to the other end of the land, no flesh shall have peace.
13 “They have sown wheat and reaped thorns. They were sick and had no profit. And they were ashamed of your fruits because of the fierce wrath of the LORD.”
14 Thus says the LORD: “Against all My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit, behold, I will pluck them out of their land and pluck out the House of Judah from among them.
15 “And after I have plucked them out, I will return and have compassion on them, and will bring back every man to his heritage, and every man to his land.
16 “And if they will learn the ways of My people, to swear by My Name, ‘The LORD lives’ (as they taught My people to swear by Baal), then they shall be built in the midst of My people.
17 “But if they will not obey, then will I utterly pluck up and destroy that nation,” says the LORD.
13 Thus says the LORD to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen girdle, and put it upon your loins. And do not put it in water.”
2 So I bought the girdle, according to the Commandment of the LORD, and put it upon my loins.
3 And the Word of the LORD came to me a second time, saying,
4 “Take the girdle that you have bought, which is upon your loins. And arise, go toward Perath, and hide it there in the cleft of the rock.”
5 So I went and hid it by Perath, as the LORD had Commanded me.
6 And after many days, the LORD said to me, “Arise, go toward Perath, and take the girdle from there, which I Commanded you to hide there.”
7 Then I went to Perath and dug and took the girdle from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the girdle was ruined, profitable for nothing.
8 Then the Word of the LORD came to me, saying,
9 “Thus says the LORD: After this manner I will destroy the pride of Judah, and the great pride of Jerusalem.
10 “This wicked people has refused to hear My Word, and walk after the stubbornness of their own heart, and walk after other gods, to serve them and to worship them. Therefore they shall be as this girdle, which is profitable to nothing.
11 “For as the girdle clings to the loins of a man, so have I tied to Myself the whole House of Israel, and the whole House of Judah,” says the LORD, “so that they might be My people, so that they might have a name and praise and glory. But they would not hear.
12 “Therefore, you shall say this Word to them, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: “Every bottle shall be filled with wine.”’ And they shall say to you, ‘Do we not know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?’
13 “Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land—even the kings that sit upon the throne of David, and the priests and the Prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness.”’
14 “And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,” says the LORD. “I will not spare. I will neither pity nor have compassion, but will destroy them.”
15 Hear and give ear! Do not be proud. For the LORD has spoken it.
16 Give glory to the LORD your God before He brings darkness, or if ever your feet stumble in the dark mountains while you look for light and He turns it into the shadow of death and makes it as darkness.
17 But if you will not hear this, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride. And my eye shall weep and drop down tears, because the LORD’s flock is carried away captive.
18 Say to the king and to the queen, “Humble yourselves. Sit down. For the crown of your glory shall come down from your heads.”
19 The cities of the South shall be shut up, and no man shall open them. All Judah shall be carried away captive. It shall be wholly carried away captive.
20 Lift up your eyes and behold those who come from the North. Where is the flock that was given to you, your beautiful flock?
21 What will you say when He shall reckon with you? For you have taught them to be captains, as chief over you. Shall not sorrow take you, as a woman in labor?
22 And if you say in your heart, “Why do these things come upon me?” For the multitude of your iniquities are your skirts uncovered and your heels made bare.
23 Can the black moor change his skin, or the leopard his spots? May you who are accustomed to doing evil also do good?
24 “Therefore, I will scatter them as the stubble that is taken away with the south wind.
25 “This is your portion, the part of your measures from Me,” says the LORD, “because you have forgotten Me and trusted in lies.
26 “Therefore, I have also uncovered your skirts upon your face, so that your shame may appear.
27 “I have seen your adulteries and your neighings, the filthiness of your whoredom on the hills, in the fields, your abominations. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! Will you not be made clean as you once were?”
14 The Word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought.
2 “Judah has mourned, and its gates are desolate. They have been brought to heaviness, to the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem goes up.
3 “And their nobles have sent their inferiors to the water, who came to the wells and found no water. They returned with their vessels empty. They were ashamed and confounded and covered their heads.
4 “For the ground was destroyed because there was no rain on the Earth. The plowmen were ashamed, covering their heads.
5 “Yea, the deer also calved in the field, and left it, because there was no grass.
6 “And the wild donkeys stood in the high places and drew in their wind like dragons. Their eyes failed because there was no grass.”
7 O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, deal with us according to Your Name. For our rebellions are many. We sinned against You.
8 O, You Hope of Israel, its Savior in the time of trouble! Why are You as a stranger in the land, as one who passes through, to tarry for a night?
9 Why are You as a man astonished, and as a strong man who cannot help? Yet You, O LORD, are in the midst of us. And Your Name has called upon us. Do not forsake us.
10 Thus says the LORD to this people: “Thus have they delighted in wandering. They have not refrained their feet.” Therefore, the LORD has no delight in them. He will now remember their iniquity and visit their sins.
11 Then said the LORD to me, “You shall not pray to do this people good.
12 “When they fast, I will not hear their cry. And when they offer Burnt Offering, and an oblation, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.”
13 Then I answered, “Ah, LORD God, behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall famine come upon you. But I will give you assured peace in this place.’”
14 Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My Name. I have not sent them, nor did I Command them, nor did I speak to them. They prophesy to you a false vision, and divination, and vanity, and deceitfulness of their own heart.”
15 Therefore thus says the LORD: “Concerning the prophets that prophesy in My Name whom I have not sent, yet they say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land,’ by sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.
16 “And the people to whom these prophets prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, because of the famine and the sword, and there shall be no one to bury them and their wives and their sons and their daughters. For I will pour their wickedness upon them.
17 “Therefore, you shall say this Word to them, ‘Let my eyes drop down tears night and day without ceasing. For the virgin daughter of my people is destroyed with a great destruction, with a very grievous plague.
18 ‘For if I go into the field, behold the slain with the sword. And if I enter into the city, also behold those who are sick from hunger. Moreover, the Prophet and the priest go wandering into a land that they do not know.’”
19 Have You utterly rejected Judah? Or has Your Soul abhorred Zion? Why have You stricken us, so that we cannot be healed? We looked for peace and there is no good, and for the time of health and behold trouble.
20 We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness and the iniquity of our fathers. For we have sinned against You.
21 Do not abhor. For Your Name’s sake, do not cast down the throne of Your Glory. Remember. Do not break Your Covenant with us.
22 Are there any among the vanities of the Gentiles that can give rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Is it not You, O LORD our God? Therefore, we will wait upon You. For You have made all these things.
1 Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,
2 To Timothy, my beloved son: Grace, mercy and peace, from God the Father, and from Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 I thank God, Whom I serve with pure conscience (as my forefathers did), remembering you in my prayers night and day, without ceasing;
4 desiring to see you, mindful of your tears, so that I may be filled with joy
5 when I call to remembrance the sincere faith that is in you (which dwelt first in your grandmother, Lois, and in your mother, Eunice, and assuredly dwells in you also).
6 Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you by the laying on of my hands.
7 For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of self-control.
8 Therefore, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me (His prisoner). But share in the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God.
9 He has saved us and called us with a holy calling - not according to our works - but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us through Christ Jesus before the world was;
10 but is now revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Jesus Christ, Who has abolished death and has brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel,
11 for which I am appointed a preacher and Apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles.
12 For this reason I also suffer these things. But I am not ashamed. For I know Whom I have believed. And I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed to Him until that Day.
13 Keep the true pattern of the wholesome words which you have heard from me in faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus.
14 Keep that worthy thing which was committed to you through the Holy Ghost, Who dwells in us.
15 This you know: that all those who are in Asia have turned from me. Of which are Phygellus and Hermogenes.
16 May the Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus. For he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain.
17 But when he was at Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me.
18 The Lord grant to him that he may find mercy with the Lord on that Day. And you know very well in how many things he has ministered to me at Ephesus.
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