Day 331 The Bible in a Year (Orthodox canon)

Jeremiah 22

1 Thus saith the Lord; Go thou, and go down to the house of the king of Juda, and thou shalt speak there this word, 2 and thou shalt say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Juda, that sittest on the throne of David, thou, and thy house, and thy people, and they that go in at these gates: 3 thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and justice, and rescue the spoiled out of the hand of him that wrongs him: and oppress not the stranger, and orphan, and widow, and sin not, and shed no innocent blood in this place. 4 For if ye will indeed perform this word, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, and riding on chariots and horses, they, and their servants, and their people. 5 But if ye will not perform these words, by myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, that this house shall be [brought] to desolation. 6 For thus saith the Lord concerning the house of the king of Juda; Thou art Galaad to me, [and] the head of Libanus: [yet] surely I will make thee a desert, [even] cities that shall not be inhabited: 7 and I will bring upon thee a destroying man, and his axe: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast [them] into the fire. 8 And nations shall pass through this city, and each shall say to his neighbour, Why has the Lord done thus to this great city? 9 And they shall say, Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped strange gods, and served them. 10 Weep not for the dead, nor lament for him: weep bitterly for him that goes away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native land. 11 For thus saith the Lord concerning Sellem the son of Josias, who reigns in the place of Josias his father, who has gone forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more: 12 but in that place whither I have carried him captive, there shall he die, and shall see this land no more. 13 He that builds his house not with justice, and his upper chambers not with judgment, who works by means of his neighbour for nothing, and will by no means give him his reward. 14 Thou hast built for thyself a well-proportioned house, airy chambers, fitted with windows, and wainscoted with cedar, and painted with vermilion. 15 Shalt thou reign, because thou art provoked with thy father Achaz? they shall not eat, and they shall not drink: it is better for thee to execute judgment and justice. 16 They understood not, they judged not the cause of the afflicted, nor the cause of the poor: is not this thy not knowing me? saith the Lord. 17 Behold, thine eyes are not good, nor thine heart, but [they go] after thy covetousness, and after the innocent blood to shed it, and after acts of injustice and slaughter, to commit them. 18 Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning Joakim son of Josias, king of Juda, even concerning this man; they shall not bewail him, [saying], Ah brother! neither shall they at all weep for him, [saying], Alas Lord. 19 He shall be buried with the burial of an ass; he shall be dragged roughly along and cast outside the gate of Jerusalem. 20 Go up to Libanus, and cry; and utter thy voice to Basan, and cry aloud to the extremity of the sea: for all thy lovers are destroyed. 21 I spoke to thee on [occasion of] thy trespass, but thou saidst, I will not hearken. This [has been] thy way from thy youth, thou hast not hearkened to my voice. 22 The wind shall tend all thy shepherds, and thy lovers shall go into captivity; for then shalt thou be ashamed and disgraced because of all thy lovers. 23 O thou that dwellest in Libanus, making thy nest in the cedars, thou shalt groan heavily, when pangs as of a travailing woman are come upon thee. 24 [As] I live, saith the Lord, though Jechonias son of Joakim king of Juda were indeed the seal upon my right hand, thence would I pluck thee; 25 and I will deliver thee into the hands of them that seek thy life, before whom thou art afraid, into the hands of the Chaldeans. 26 And I will cast forth thee, and thy mother that bore thee, into a land where thou wast not born; and there ye shall die. 27 But they shall by no means return to the land which they long for in their souls. 28 Jechonias is dishonoured as a good-for-nothing vessel; for he is thrown out and cast forth into a land which he knew not. 29 Land, land, hear the word of the Lord. 30 Write ye this man an outcast: for there shall none of his seed at all grow up to sit on the throne of David, [or as] a prince yet in Juda.

Jeremiah 23

1 Woe to the shepherds that destroy and scatter the sheep of their pasture! 2 Therefore thus saith the Lord against them that tend my people; Ye have scattered my sheep, and driven them out, and ye have not visited them: behold, I [will] take vengeance upon you according to your evil practices. 3 And I will gather in the remnant of my people in every land, whither I have driven them out, and will set them in their pasture; and they shall increase and be multiplied. 4 And I will raise up shepherds to them, who shall feed them: and they shall fear no more, nor be alarmed, saith the Lord. 5 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will raise up to David a righteous branch, and a king shall reign and understand, and shall execute judgment and righteousness on the earth. 6 In his days both Juda shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell securely: and this is his name, which the Lord shall call him, Josedec among the prophets. 9 My heart is broken within me; all my bones are shaken: I am become as a broken-down man, and as a man overcome with wine, because of the Lord, and because of the excellence of his glory. 10 For because of these things the land mourns; the pastures of the wilderness are dried up; and their course is become evil, and so [also] their strength. 11 For priest and prophet are defiled; and I have seen their iniquities in my house. 12 Therefore let their way be to them slippery and dark: and they shall be tripped up and fall in it: for I will bring evils upon them, in the year of their visitation. 13 And in the prophets of Samaria I have seen lawless deeds; they prophesied by Baal, and led my people Israel astray. 14 Also in the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen horrible things: as they committed adultery, and walked in lies, and strengthened the hands of many, that they should not return each from his evil way: they are all become to me as Sodoma, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrha. 15 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will feed them with pain, and give them bitter water to drink: for from the prophets of Jerusalem has defilement gone forth [into] all the land. 16 Thus saith the Lord Almighty, Hearken not to the words of the prophets: for they frame a vain vision for themselves; they speak from their own heart, and not from the mouth of the Lord. 17 They say to them that reject the word of the Lord, There shall be peace to you; and to all that walk after their own lusts, and to every one that walks in the error of his heart, they have said, No evil shall come upon thee. 18 For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord, and seen his word? who has hearkened, and heard? 19 Behold, [there is] an earthquake from the Lord, and anger proceeds to a convulsion, it shall come violently upon the ungodly. 20 And the Lord's wrath shall return no more, until he have accomplished it, and until he have established it, according to the purpose of his heart: at the end of the days they shall understand it. 21 I sent not the prophets, yet they ran: neither spoke I to them, yet they prophesied. 22 But if they had stood in my counsel, and if they had hearkened to my words, then would they have turned my people from their evil practices. 23 I am a God nigh at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off. 24 Shall any one hide himself in secret places, and I not see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? saith the Lord. 25 I have heard what the prophets say, what they prophesy in my name, saying falsely, I have seen a night vision. 26 How long shall [these things] be in the heart of the prophets that prophesy lies, when they prophesy the purposes of their own heart? 27 who devise that [men] may forget my law by their dreams, which they have told every one to his neighbour, as their fathers forgot my name in [the worship of] Baal. 28 The prophet who has a dream, let him tell his dream; and [he] in whom is my word [spoken] to him, let him tell my word truly: what is the chaff to the corn? so are my words, saith the Lord. 29 Behold, are not my words as fire? saith the Lord; and as an axe cutting the rock? 30 Behold, I am therefore against the prophets, saith the Lord God, that steal my words every one from his neighbour. 31 Behold, I am against the prophets that put forth prophecies of mere words, and slumber their sleep. 32 Therefore, behold, I am against the prophets that prophesy false dreams, and have not told them [truly], and have caused my people to err by their lies, and by their errors; yet I sent them not, and commanded them not; therefore, they shall not profit this people at all. 33 And if this people, or the priest, or the prophet, should ask, What is the burden of the Lord? then thou shalt say to them, Ye are the burden, and I will dash you down, saith the Lord. 34 [As for] the prophet, and the priests, and the people, who shall say, The burden of the Lord, I will even take vengeance on that man, and on his house. 35 Thus shall ye say every one to his neighbour, and every one to his brother, What has the Lord answered? and, what has the Lord said? 36 And do ye name no more the burden of the Lord; for his own word shall be a man's burden. 37 But wherefore, [say ye], has the Lord our God spoken? 38 Therefore thus saith the Lord our God; Because ye have spoken this word, The burden of the Lord, and I sent to you, saying, Ye shall not say, The burden of the Lord; 39 therefore, behold, I [will] seize, and dash down you and the city which I gave to you and your fathers. 40 And I will bring upon you an everlasting reproach, and everlasting disgrace, which shall not be forgotten. 40a Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when they shall no more say, The Lord lives, who brought up the house of Israel out of the land of Egypt; 40b but The Lord lives, who has gathered the whole seed of Israel from the north land, and from all the countries whither he [had] driven them out, and has restored them into their own land.

Jeremiah 24

1 The Lord shewed me two baskets of figs, lying in front of the temple of the Lord, after Nabuchodonosor king of Babylon had carried captive Jechonias son of Joakim king of Juda, and the princes, and the artificers, and the prisoners, and the rich men out of Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon. 2 The one basket was [full] of very good figs, as the early figs; and the other basket was [full] of very bad figs, which could not be eaten, for their badness. 3 And the Lord said to me, What seest thou, Jeremias? and I said, Figs; the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, for their badness. 4 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 5 Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel; As these good figs, so will I acknowledge the Jews that have been carried away captive, whom I have sent forth out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for good. 6 And I will fix mine eyes upon them for good, and I will restore them into this land for good: and I will build them up, and not pull them down; and I will plant them, and not pluck them up. 7 And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be to me a people, and I will be to them a God: for they shall turn to me with all their heart. 8 And as the bad figs, which cannot be eaten, for their badness; thus saith the Lord, So will I deliver Sedekias king of Juda, and his nobles, and the remnant of Jerusalem, them that are left in this land, and the dwellers in Egypt. 9 And I will cause them to be dispersed into all the kingdoms of the earth, and they shall be for a reproach, and a proverb, and an [object of] hatred, and a curse, in every place whither I have driven them out. 10 And I will send against them famine, and pestilence, and the sword, until they are consumed from off the land which I gave them.