From: "FamilyNet"
Bible Reading for August 20
Jeremiah 50
[1] The word that the LORD spake against Babylon and against the land of the
Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.
[2] Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish,
and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken
in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.
[3] For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall
make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they
shall depart, both man and beast. [4] In those days, and in that time, saith
the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah
together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God. [5]
They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and
let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be
forgotten.
[6] My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go
astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from
mountain to hill, they have forgotten their restingplace. [7] All that found
them have devoured them: and their adversaries said, We offend not, because
they have sinned against the LORD, the habitation of justice, even the LORD,
the hope of their fathers. [8] Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go
forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and be as the he goats before the
flocks. [9] For, lo, I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an
assembly of great nations from the north country: and they shall set
themselves in array against her; from thence she shall be taken: their arrows
shall be as of a mighty expert man; none shall return in vain. [10] And
Chaldea shall be a spoil: all that spoil her shall be satisfied, saith the
LORD.
[11] Because ye were glad, because ye rejoiced, O ye destroyers of mine
heritage, because ye are grown fat as the heifer at grass, and bellow as bulls;
[12] Your mother shall be sore confounded; she that bare you shall be ashamed:
behold, the hindermost of the nations shall be a wilderness, a dry land, and a
desert.
[13] Because of the wrath of the LORD it shall not be inhabited, but it shall
be wholly desolate: every one that goeth by Babylon shall be astonished, and
hiss at all her plagues. [14] Put yourselves in array against Babylon round
about: all ye that bend the bow, shoot at her, spare no arrows: for she hath
sinned against the LORD.
[15] Shout against her round about: she hath given her hand: her foundations
are fallen, her walls are thrown down: for it is the vengeance of the LORD:
take vengeance upon her; as she hath done, do unto her. [16] Cut off the sower
from Babylon, and him that handleth the sickle in the time of harvest: for
fear of the oppressing sword they shall turn every one to his people, and they
shall flee every one to his own land. [17] Israel is a scattered sheep; the
lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and
last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.
[18] Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will
punish the king of Babylon and his land, as I have punished the king of
Assyria.
[19] And I will bring Israel again to his habitation, and he shall feed on
Carmel and Bashan, and his soul shall be satisfied upon mount Ephraim and
Gilead.
[20] In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve. [21] Go up against
the land of Merathaim, even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod:
waste and utterly destroy after them, saith the LORD, and do according to all
that I have commanded thee. [22] A sound of battle is in the land, and of
great destruction. [23] How is the hammer of the whole earth cut asunder and
broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations! [24] I have laid
a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon, and thou wast not aware:
thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast striven against the LORD.
[25] The LORD hath opened his armoury, and hath brought forth the weapons of
his indignation: for this is the work of the Lord GOD of hosts in the land of
the Chaldeans.
[26] Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her
up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left. [27] Slay
all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their
day is come, the time of their visitation. [28] The voice of them that flee
and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of the
LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple.
[29] Call together the archers against Babylon: all ye that bend the bow, camp
against it round about; let none thereof escape: recompense her according to
her work; according to all that she hath done, do unto her: for she hath been
proud against the LORD, against the Holy One of Israel. [30] Therefore shall
her young men fall in the streets, and all her men of war shall be cut off in
that day, saith the LORD. [31] Behold, I am against thee, O thou most proud,
saith the Lord GOD of hosts: for thy day is come, the time that I will visit
thee. [32] And the most proud shall stumble and fall, and none shall raise him
up: and I will kindle a fire in his cities, and it shall devour all round
about him.
[33] Thus saith the LORD of hosts; The children of Israel and the children of
Judah were oppressed together: and all that took them captives held them fast;
they refused to let them go.
[34] Their Redeemer is strong; the LORD of hosts is his name: he shall
throughly plead their cause, that he may give rest to the land, and disquiet
the inhabitants of Babylon.
[35] A sword is upon the Chaldeans, saith the LORD, and upon the inhabitants
of Babylon, and upon her princes, and upon her wise men. [36] A sword is upon
the liars; and they shall dote: a sword is upon her mighty men; and they shall
be dismayed. [37] A sword is upon their horses, and upon their chariots, and
upon all the mingled people that are in the midst of her; and they shall
become as women: a sword is upon her treasures; and they shall be robbed. [38]
A drought is upon her waters; and they shall be dried up: for it is the land
of graven images, and they are mad upon their idols. [39] Therefore the wild
beasts of the desert with the wild beasts of the islands shall dwell there,
and the owls shall dwell therein: and it shall be no more inhabited for ever;
neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation.
[40] As God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbour cities thereof,
saith the LORD; so shall no man abide there, neither shall any son of man
dwell therein.
[41] Behold, a people shall come from the north, and a great nation, and many
kings shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth. [42] They shall hold
the bow and the lance: they are cruel, and will not shew mercy: their voice
shall roar like the sea, and they shall ride upon horses, every one put in
array, like a man to the battle, against thee, O daughter of Babylon.
[43] The king of Babylon hath heard the report of them, and his hands waxed
feeble: anguish took hold of him, and pangs as of a woman in travail. [44]
Behold, he shall come up like a lion from the swelling of Jordan unto the
habitation of the strong: but I will make them suddenly run away from her: and
who is a chosen man, that I may appoint over her? for who is like me? and who
will appoint me the time? and who is that shepherd that will stand before me?
[45] Therefore hear ye the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against
Babylon; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the land of the
Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall
make their habitation desolate with them. [46] At the noise of the taking of
Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among the nations.
Jeremiah 51
[1] Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against
them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying
wind;
[2] And will send unto Babylon fanners, that shall fan her, and shall empty
her land: for in the day of trouble they shall be against her round about. [3]
Against him that bendeth let the archer bend his bow, and against him that
lifteth himself up in his brigandine: and spare ye not her young men; destroy
ye utterly all her host.
[4] Thus the slain shall fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and they that are
thrust through in her streets.
[5] For Israel hath not been forsaken, nor Judah of his God, of the LORD of
hosts; though their land was filled with sin against the Holy One of Israel.
[6] Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver every man his soul: be not
cut off in her iniquity; for this is the time of the LORD's vengeance; he will
render unto her a recompence.
[7] Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD's hand, that made all the earth
drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
[8] Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: howl for her; take balm for her
pain, if so she may be healed.
[9] We would have healed Babylon, but she is not healed: forsake her, and let
us go every one into his own country: for her judgment reacheth unto heaven,
and is lifted up even to the skies. [10] The LORD hath brought forth our
righteousness: come, and let us declare in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
[11] Make bright the arrows; gather the shields: the LORD hath raised up the
spirit of the kings of the Medes: for his device is against Babylon, to
destroy it; because it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his
temple.
[12] Set up the standard upon the walls of Babylon, make the watch strong, set
up the watchmen, prepare the ambushes: for the LORD hath both devised and done
that which he spake against the inhabitants of Babylon. [13] O thou that
dwellest upon many waters, abundant in treasures, thine end is come, and the
measure of thy covetousness. [14] The LORD of hosts hath sworn by himself,
saying, Surely I will fill thee with men, as with caterpillers; and they shall
lift up a shout against thee.
[15] He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his
wisdom, and hath stretched out the heaven by his understanding. [16] When he
uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens; and he
causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth: he maketh lightnings
with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.
[17] Every man is brutish by his knowledge; every founder is confounded by the
graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in
them.
[18] They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they
shall perish.
[19] The portion of Jacob is not like them; for he is the former of all
things: and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: the LORD of hosts is his
name.
[20] Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in
pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms; [21] And with thee
will I break in pieces the horse and his rider; and with thee will I break in
pieces the chariot and his rider; [22] With thee also will I break in pieces
man and woman; and with thee will I break in pieces old and young; and with
thee will I break in pieces the young man and the maid;
[23] I will also break in pieces with thee the shepherd and his flock; and
with thee will I break in pieces the husbandman and his yoke of oxen; and with
thee will I break in pieces captains and rulers. [24] And I will render unto
Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they have
done in Zion in your sight, saith the LORD. [25] Behold, I am against thee, O
destroying mountain, saith the LORD, which destroyest all the earth: and I
will stretch out mine hand upon thee, and roll thee down from the rocks, and
will make thee a burnt mountain. [26] And they shall not take of thee a stone
for a corner, nor a stone for foundations; but thou shalt be desolate for
ever, saith the LORD. [27] Set ye up a standard in the land, blow the trumpet
among the nations, prepare the nations against her, call together against her
the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz; appoint a captain against her;
cause the horses to come up as the rough caterpillers. [28] Prepare against
her the nations with the kings of the Medes, the captains thereof, and all the
rulers thereof, and all the land of his dominion.
[29] And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD
shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desolation
without an inhabitant.
[30] The mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight, they have remained in
their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women: they have burned
her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken. [31] One post shall run to meet
another, and one messenger to meet another, to shew the king of Babylon that
his city is taken at one end, [32] And that the passages are stopped, and the
reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are affrighted. [33] For
thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; The daughter of Babylon is
like a threshingfloor, it is time to thresh her: yet a little while, and the
time of her harvest shall come. [34] Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon hath
devoured me, he hath crushed me, he hath made me an empty vessel, he hath
swallowed me up like a dragon, he hath filled his belly with my delicates, he
hath cast me out. [35] The violence done to me and to my flesh be upon
Babylon, shall the inhabitant of Zion say; and my blood upon the inhabitants
of Chaldea, shall Jerusalem say.
[36] Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will plead thy cause, and take
vengeance for thee; and I will dry up her sea, and make her springs dry. [37]
And Babylon shall become heaps, a dwellingplace for dragons, an astonishment,
and an hissing, without an inhabitant. [38] They shall roar together like
lions: they shall yell as lion's whelps. [39] In their heat I will make their
feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a
perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.
[40] I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he
goats.
[41] How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole earth
surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment among the nations! [42] The
sea is come up upon Babylon: she is covered with the multitude of the waves
thereof.
[43] Her cities are a desolation, a dry land, and a wilderness, a land wherein
no man dwelleth, neither doth any son of man pass thereby. [44] And I will
punish Bel in Babylon, and I will bring forth out of his mouth that which he
hath swallowed up: and the nations shall not flow together any more unto him:
yea, the wall of Babylon shall fall. [45] My people, go ye out of the midst of
her, and deliver ye every man his soul from the fierce anger of the LORD. [46]
And lest your heart faint, and ye fear for the rumour that shall be heard in
the land; a rumour shall both come one year, and after that in another year
shall come a rumour, and violence in the land, ruler against ruler.
[47] Therefore, behold, the days come, that I will do judgment upon the graven
images of Babylon: and her whole land shall be confounded, and all her slain
shall fall in the midst of her. [48] Then the heaven and the earth, and all
that is therein, shall sing for Babylon: for the spoilers shall come unto her
from the north, saith the LORD.
[49] As Babylon hath caused the slain of Israel to fall, so at Babylon shall
fall the slain of all the earth.
[50] Ye that have escaped the sword, go away, stand not still: remember the
LORD afar off, and let Jerusalem come into your mind. [51] We are confounded,
because we have heard reproach: shame hath covered our faces: for strangers
are come into the sanctuaries of the LORD's house. [52] Wherefore, behold, the
days come, saith the LORD, that I will do judgment upon her graven images: and
through all her land the wounded shall groan.
[53] Though Babylon should mount up to heaven, and though she should fortify
the height of her strength, yet from me shall spoilers come unto her, saith
the LORD.
[54] A sound of a cry cometh from Babylon, and great destruction from the land
of the Chaldeans:
[55] Because the LORD hath spoiled Babylon, and destroyed out of her the great
voice; when her waves do roar like great waters, a noise of their voice is
uttered:
[56] Because the spoiler is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty
men are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the LORD God of
recompences shall surely requite.
[57] And I will make drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and
her rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual sleep, and
not wake, saith the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts. [58] Thus saith the
LORD of hosts; The broad walls of Babylon shall be utterly broken, and her
high gates shall be burned with fire; and the people shall labour in vain, and
the folk in the fire, and they shall be weary. [59] The word which Jeremiah
the prophet commanded Seraiah the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, when he
went with Zedekiah the king of Judah into Babylon in the fourth year of his
reign. And this Seraiah was a quiet prince.
[60] So Jeremiah wrote in a book all the evil that should come upon Babylon,
even all these words that are written against Babylon. [61] And Jeremiah said
to Seraiah, When thou comest to Babylon, and shalt see, and shalt read all
these words; [62] Then shalt thou say, O LORD, thou hast spoken against this
place, to cut it off, that none shall remain in it, neither man nor beast, but
that it shall be desolate for ever.
[63] And it shall be, when thou hast made an end of reading this book, that
thou shalt bind a stone to it, and cast it into the midst of Euphrates: [64]
And thou shalt say, Thus shall Babylon sink, and shall not rise from the evil
that I will bring upon her: and they shall be weary. Thus far are the words of
Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 52
[1] Zedekiah was one and twenty years old when he began to reign, and he
reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Hamutal the
daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah.
[2] And he did that which was evil in the eyes of the LORD, according to all
that Jehoiakim had done.
[3] For through the anger of the LORD it came to pass in Jerusalem and Judah,
till he had cast them out from his presence, that Zedekiah rebelled against
the king of Babylon.
[4] And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in
the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon came, he and
all his army, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it, and built forts
against it round about.
[5] So the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. [6] And
in the fourth month, in the ninth day of the month, the famine was sore in the
city, so that there was no bread for the people of the land. [7] Then the city
was broken up, and all the men of war fled, and went forth out of the city by
night by the way of the gate between the two walls, which was by the king's
garden; (now the Chaldeans were by the city round about:) and they went by the
way of the plain. [8] But the army of the Chaldeans pursued after the king,
and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho; and all his army was scattered
from him. [9] Then they took the king, and carried him up unto the king of
Babylon to Riblah in the land of Hamath; where he gave judgment upon him. [10]
And the king of Babylon slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes: he slew
also all the princes of Judah in Riblah. [11] Then he put out the eyes of
Zedekiah; and the king of Babylon bound him in chains, and carried him to
Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.
[12] Now in the fifth month, in the tenth day of the month, which was the
nineteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzar-adan, captain
of the guard, which served the king of Babylon, into Jerusalem, [13] And
burned the house of the LORD, and the king's house; and all the houses of
Jerusalem, and all the houses of the great men, burned he with fire:
[14] And all the army of the Chaldeans, that were with the captain of the
guard, brake down all the walls of Jerusalem round about. [15] Then
Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carried away captive certain of the poor
of the people, and the residue of the people that remained in the city, and
those that fell away, that fell to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the
multitude.
[16] But Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard left certain of the poor of the
land for vinedressers and for husbandmen. [17] Also the pillars of brass that
were in the house of the LORD, and the bases, and the brasen sea that was in
the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans brake, and carried all the brass of them
to Babylon. [18] The caldrons also, and the shovels, and the snuffers, and the
bowls, and the spoons, and all the vessels of brass wherewith they ministered,
took they away.
[19] And the basons, and the firepans, and the bowls, and the caldrons, and
the candlesticks, and the spoons, and the cups; that which was of gold in
gold, and that which was of silver in silver, took the captain of the guard
away.
[20] The two pillars, one sea, and twelve brasen bulls that were under the
bases, which king Solomon had made in the house of the LORD: the brass of all
these vessels was without weight. [21] And concerning the pillars, the height
of one pillar was eighteen cubits; and a fillet of twelve cubits did compass
it; and the thickness thereof was four fingers: it was hollow. [22] And a
chapiter of brass was upon it; and the height of one chapiter was five cubits,
with network and pomegranates upon the chapiters round about, all of brass.
The second pillar also and the pomegranates were like unto these.
[23] And there were ninety and six pomegranates on a side; and all the
pomegranates upon the network were an hundred round about. [24] And the
captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second
priest, and the three keepers of the door: [25] He took also out of the city
an eunuch, which had the charge of the men of war; and seven men of them that
were near the king's person, which were found in the city; and the principal
scribe of the host, who mustered the people of the land; and threescore men of
the people of the land, that were found in the midst of the city.
[26] So Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard took them, and brought them to
the king of Babylon to Riblah.
[27] And the king of Babylon smote them, and put them to death in Riblah in
the land of Hamath. Thus Judah was carried away captive out of his own land.
[28] This is the people whom Nebuchadrezzar carried away captive: in the
seventh year three thousand Jews and three and twenty: [29] In the eighteenth
year of Nebuchadrezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem eight hundred
thirty and two persons: [30] In the three and twentieth year of Nebuchadrezzar
Nebuzar-adan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Jews seven
hundred forty and five persons: all the persons were four thousand and six
hundred. [31] And it came to pass in the seven and thirtieth year of the
captivity of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, in the five and
twentieth day of the month, that Evil-merodach king of Babylon in the first
year of his reign lifted up the head of Jehoiachin king of Judah, and brought
him forth out of prison,
[32] And spake kindly unto him, and set his throne above the throne of the
kings that were with him in Babylon, [33] And changed his prison garments: and
he did continually eat bread before him all the days of his life. [34] And for
his diet, there was a continual diet given him of the king of Babylon, every
day a portion until the day of his death, all the days of his life.
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