Old/New Testament
6 ¶ O ye sons of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem and blow the shofar in Tekoa and set up as a sign smoke in Bethhaccerem; for evil appears out of the north wind and great destruction.
2 I shall liken the daughter of Zion to a comely and delicate woman.
3 The shepherds with their flocks shall come unto her; they shall pitch their tents against her round about; they shall feed each one his portion.
4 Prepare ye war against her; arise, and let us go up towards the south. Woe unto us! for the day goes away, for the shadows of the evening are stretched out.
5 Arise, and let us go up by night, and let us destroy her palaces.
6 For thus hath the LORD of the hosts said, Hew ye down trees and cast a mount against Jerusalem; this is the city that all of her is to be visited; there is violence in the midst of her.
7 As the waters never cease to flow from a fountain, so her wickedness never ceases to flow; injustice and robbery is heard in her; in my presence continually, sickness and wounds.
8 Chastise Jerusalem lest peradventure my soul be disjointed from thee, lest peradventure I make thee desolate, a land not inhabited.
9 ¶ Thus hath the LORD of the hosts said, They shall thoroughly glean the remnant of Israel as a vine; turn back thine hand as a grapegatherer into the baskets.
10 To whom shall I speak, and give warning that they may hear? behold, their ears are uncircumcised, and they cannot hearken, behold, the word of the LORD is unto them a reproach; they have no delight in it.
11 Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD; I have worked hard to hold myself in from pouring it out upon the children in the street, and upon the assembly of young men together; for the husband with the wife shall also be taken, the aged with him that is full of days.
12 And their houses shall be turned unto others, with their fields and wives together; for I will stretch out my hand upon the inhabitants of the land, saith the LORD.
13 For from the least of them even unto the greatest of them each one is given to greed; and from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely.
14 They treat also the destruction of the daughter of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? no, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush; therefore, they shall fall among those that shall fall: at the time that I visit them they shall fall, saith the LORD.
16 Thus hath the LORD said, Stand ye in the ways and see and ask for the old paths, where the good way is and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.
17 Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hearken to the sound of the shofar. But they said, We will not hearken.
18 ¶ Therefore hear, ye Gentiles, and know, O congregation of Gentiles.
19 Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts because they have not hearkened unto my words, and they hated my law.
20 To what purpose does this incense come to me from Sheba and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not according to my will, nor are your sacrifices sweet unto me.
21 Therefore thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will lay stumblingblocks before this people, and the fathers and the sons together shall fall upon them; the neighbour and his friend shall perish.
22 Thus hath the LORD said, Behold, a people come from the land of the north wind, and a great nation shall be raised from the sides of the earth.
23 They shall lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel, and they shall have no mercy; their voice shall roar like the sea; and they shall ride upon horses set in array as men for war against thee, O daughter of Zion.
24 We have heard the fame thereof; our hands wax feeble; anguish has taken hold of us, and pain as of a woman in travail.
25 Do not go forth into the field, nor walk by the way; for the sword of the enemy and fear is on every side.
26 O daughter of my people, gird thee with sackcloth and wallow thyself in ashes; make thee mourning, as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; for the destroyer shall suddenly come upon us.
27 I have set thee for a tower and a fortress among my people; thou shalt know and examine their way.
28 They are all rebellious princes; they walk with deception: they are brass and iron; they are all corrupters.
29 The bellows are burned; the lead is consumed of the fire; the founder melts in vain; for the wicked are not plucked away.
30 Reprobate silver shall men call them because the LORD has rejected them.
7 ¶ The word that was sent to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
2 Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house and proclaim there this word and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD.
3 Thus hath the LORD of the hosts the God of Israel said, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.
4 Do not trust in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD are these.
5 For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if ye thoroughly do right between a man and his neighbour,
6 if ye do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed no innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt,
7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers for ever and ever.
8 Behold, ye trust in lying words that cannot profit.
9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not,
10 and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are free to do all these abominations?
11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, said the LORD.
12 But go now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.
13 And now because ye have done all these works, said the LORD and I spoke well unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye did not hear; and I called you, but ye did not answer;
14 therefore I will do unto this house, which is called by my name, in which ye trust, and unto this place which 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, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
16 ¶ Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.
17 Dost thou not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18 The sons gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough to make cakes to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods that they may provoke me to anger.
19 Shall they provoke me to anger? said the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?
20 Therefore thus hath the Lord GOD said: Behold, my anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man and upon beast and upon the trees of the field and upon the fruit of the ground, and it shall burn and shall not be quenched.
21 ¶ Thus hath the LORD of the hosts, the God of Israel said: Add your burnt offerings upon your sacrifices and eat flesh.
22 For I did not speak unto your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:
23 But this thing I commanded them, saying, Hear my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the way that I have commanded you that it may be well unto you.
24 But they did not hearken, nor incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels in the imagination of their evil heart and went backward, and not forward
25 since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day. I have even sent unto you all my slaves, the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them;
26 yet they did not hearken unto me, nor incline their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
27 Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt even call unto them; but they will not answer thee.
28 Therefore thou shalt say unto them, This is the nation that did not hear the voice of the LORD their God, nor receive chastisement; the faith is lost and was cut off from their mouth.
29 ¶ Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away and take up a lamentation on high places; for the LORD has cast off and forsaken the nation of his wrath.
30 For the sons of Judah have done evil in my sight, said the LORD; they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name to pollute it.
31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command them, neither did it come into my heart.
32 Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no longer be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter; for they shall bury in Tophet, for there shall be no other place.
33 And the carcasses of this people shall be food for the fowls of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth; and there shall be no one to chase 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, said the LORD, they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah and the bones of his 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 after whom they have walked and whom they have sought and whom they have worshipped: they shall not be gathered, nor be buried; they shall be for dung upon the face of the earth.
3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those that remain of this evil generation, in all the places where I have driven those that remain, said the LORD of the hosts.
4 ¶ Moreover thou shalt say unto them, Thus hath the LORD said: The one who falls, does he never arise? he who turns away, does he never return?
5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem rebellious with a perpetual rebellion? They hold fast deceit; they refuse to return.
6 I hearkened and heard, but they did not speak aright: there was no man that repented of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? each one returned to his course as the horse rushes into the battle.
7 Even the stork in the heaven knows her appointed time; and the turtle dove and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people did not know the judgment of the LORD.
8 How do ye say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Behold, certainly in vain did he make the pen; the scribes were in vain.
9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?
10 Therefore I will give their wives unto others and their fields unto those that shall inherit them: for each one from the least even unto the greatest is given to greed; from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely.
11 For they have treated the destruction of the daughter of my people lightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fall among those that should fall: when I visit them, they shall fall, saith the LORD.
13 ¶ I will surely cut them off completely, said the LORD: there are no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fall; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.
14 Upon what shall we secure ourselves? Assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put us to silence and given us water of gall to drink because we have sinned against the LORD.
15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!
16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan; the whole earth trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come and have devoured the land and all that is in it, the city and those that dwell therein.
17 For, behold, I send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, said the LORD.
18 Because of my strong sorrow, my heart is faint in me.
19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people that comes 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 graven images and with vanities of a strange god?
20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
21 For the destruction of the daughter of my people I am devastated; I am in darkness; astonishment has taken hold on me.
22 Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there? Why then was there no medicine for the daughter of my people?
5 ¶ Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a father, and the younger men as brethren,
2 the elder women as mothers, the younger as sisters, with all purity.
3 ¶ Honour widows that are widows indeed.
4 But if any widow has children or grandchildren, let those learn first to govern their house in piety and to recompense their parents, for this is honest and pleasing before God.
5 Now she that is a widow indeed and desolate, trusts in God, and is diligent in supplications and prayers night and day,
6 but she that lives in pleasure is dead while she lives.
7 Therefore command these things, that they may be blameless.
8 But if any provide not for his own and specially for those of his own house, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
9 Let a widow be placed on the list being not less than sixty years old, having been the wife of one man,
10 having a good testimony of good works, if she has brought up well her children, if she has exercised hospitality, if she has washed the feet of the saints, if she has relieved the afflicted, if she has diligently followed every good work.
11 But the younger widows refuse, for when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they desire to marry,
12 having condemnation, because they have cast off their first faith.
13 And reject also the idle, who have learned to wander about from house to house, and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.
14 I desire therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, govern the house, giving no occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.
15 For some are already turned back after Satan.
16 If any faithful man or woman has widows, let them maintain them and let not the congregation {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} be charged, that it may relieve those that are widows indeed.
17 ¶ Let the elders that govern well be counted worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in the word and doctrine.
18 For the scripture saith, Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain. And, The labourer is worthy of his reward.
19 Against an elder do not receive an accusation, unless there are two or three witnesses.
20 Those that persist in sin rebuke before all, that the others may also fear.
21 I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one before another, doing nothing by partiality.
22 Lay hands suddenly on no one, neither be partaker of the sins of others; keep thyself pure.
23 Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.
24 Some men’s sins are manifest beforehand, before they come unto judgment, but to others they follow after.
25 Likewise also the good works of some are manifest beforehand, and those that are otherwise cannot be hid.
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