Daily Bible Reading from BibleStudyTools.com

October 28, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

October 28

2 Thessalonians 3; Isaiah 29-30; Psalm 119:1-32 CJB

2 Thessalonians 3

1 Finally, brothers, pray for us that the Lord's message may spread rapidly and receive honor, just as it did with you;

2 and that we may be rescued from wicked and evil people, for not everyone has trust.

3 But the Lord is worthy of trust; he will make you firm and guard you from the Evil One.

4 Yes, united with the Lord we are confident about you, that you are doing the things we are telling you to do, and that you will keep on doing them.

5 May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and the perseverance which the Messiah gives.

6 Now, in the name of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah we command you, brothers, to stay away from any brother who is leading a life of idleness, a life not in keeping with the tradition you received from us.

7 For you yourselves know how you must imitate us, that we were not idle when we were among you.

8 We did not accept anyone's food without paying; on the contrary, we labored and toiled, day and night, working so as not to be a burden to any of you.

9 It was not that we hadn't the right to be supported, but so that we could make ourselves an example to imitate.

10 For even when we were with you, we gave you this command: if someone won't work, he shouldn't eat!

11 We hear that some of you are leading a life of idleness - not busy working, just busybodies!

12 We command such people - and in union with the Lord Yeshua the Messiah we urge them - to settle down, get to work, and earn their own living.

13 And you brothers who are doing what is good, don't slack off!

14 Furthermore, if anyone does not obey what we are saying in this letter, take note of him and have nothing to do with him, so that he will be ashamed.

15 But don't consider him an enemy; on the contrary, confront him as a brother and try to help him change.

16 Now may the Lord of shalom himself give you shalom always in all ways. The Lord be with all of you.

17 The greeting in my own handwriting: From Sha'ul. This is the mark of genuineness in every letter, this is what my handwriting looks like.

18 The grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you all.

Isaiah 29

1 Woe to Ari'el [fireplace on God's altar, lion of God] - Ari'el, the city where David encamped! Celebrate the feasts for a few more years,

2 but then I will bring trouble to Ari'el. There will be mourning and moaning, as she becomes truly an ari'el for me.

3 I will encamp all around you, besiege you with towers and mount siege-works against you.

4 Prostrate, you will speak from the ground; your words will be stifled by the dust; your voice will sound like a ghost in the ground, your words like squeaks in the dust.

5 But your many foes will become like fine powder, the horde of tyrants like blowing chaff, and it will happen very suddenly.

6 You will be visited by ADONAI-Tzva'ot with thunder, earthquakes and loud noises, whirlwinds, tempests, flaming firestorms.

7 Then, all the nations fighting Ari'el, every one at war with her, the ramparts around her, the people that trouble her will fade like a dream, like a vision in the night.

8 It will be like a hungry man dreaming he's eating; but when he wakes up, his stomach is empty; or like a thirsty man dreaming he's drinking; but when he wakes up, he is dry and exhausted - it will be like this for the horde of all nations fighting against Mount Tziyon.

9 If you make yourselves stupid, you will stay stupid! If you blind yourselves, you will stay blind! You are drunk, but not from wine; you are staggering, but not from strong liquor.

10 For ADONAI has poured over you a spirit of lethargy; he has closed your eyes (that is, the prophets) and covered your heads (that is, the seers).

11 For you this whole prophetic vision has become like the message in a sealed-up scroll. When one gives it to someone who can read and says, "Please read this," he answers, "I can't, because it's sealed."

12 If the scroll is given to someone who can't read with the request, "Please read this," he says, "I can't read."

13 Then Adonai said: "Because these people approach me with empty words, and the honor they bestow on me is mere lip-service; while in fact they have distanced their hearts from me, and their 'fear of me' is just a mitzvah of human origin

14 therefore, I will have to keep shocking these people with astounding and amazing things, until the 'wisdom' of their 'wise ones' vanishes, and the 'discernment' of their 'discerning ones' is hidden away."

15 Woe to those who burrow down deep to hide their plans from ADONAI! They work in the dark and say to themselves, "Nobody sees us, nobody knows us."

16 How you turn things upside down! - Is the potter not better than the clay, Does something made say of its maker, "He didn't make me"? Does the product say of its producer, "He has no discernment"?

17 In but a little while the L'vanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field regarded as a forest.

18 On that day the deaf will hear the words of a book, and out of gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind will see.

19 The humble will again rejoice in ADONAI and the poor exult in the Holy One of Isra'el,

20 for the tyrant is now nothing, the scoffer is finished, and all alert to do evil are cut off

21 those whose words make a man out to be a sinner, those who set traps for the arbitrator at the city gate, and those who groundlessly deny justice to the one in the right.

22 Therefore, here are the words of ADONAI, who redeemed Avraham, concerning the house of Ya'akov: "Ya'akov will no longer be ashamed, no longer will his face grow pale.

23 When his descendants see the work of my hands among them, they will consecrate my name. Yes, they will consecrate the Holy one of Ya'akov and stand in awe of the God of Isra'el.

24 Those whose spirits stray will come to understand, and those who complain will learn their lesson.

Isaiah 30

1 "Woe to the rebellious children," says ADONAI. "They make plans, but the plans are not mine; they develop alliances, but not from my Spirit, in order to pile sin upon sin.

2 They go down to Egypt but don't consult me, seeking refuge in Pharaoh's protection, seeking shelter in Egypt's shadow.

3 But Pharaoh's protection will bring you shame, shelter in Egypt's shadow will lead to disgrace.

4 Though his princes are at Tzo'an, and his envoys have reached Hannes,

5 they all are disappointed with a people that doesn't help them, who give no assistance and no advantage, only disappointment and disgrace."

6 A prophecy about the animals in the Negev: In a land of trouble and anguish, of lionesses and roaring lions, of vipers and poisonous flying serpents, they carry their riches on donkeys' backs and their treasures on camels' humps to a people who will not help them.

7 For Egypt's help is worthless, pointless; so I call her "Arrogance Doing Nothing."

8 Now go, inscribe it on a tablet, write it for them in a scroll, so that on the final day it will be a witness forever and ever.

9 For this is a rebellious people; they are lying children, children who refuse to hear the Torah of ADONAI.

10 They say to the seers, "Do not see!" to those who have visions, "Do not tell us the visions you have as they really are; but flatter us, fabricate illusions!

11 Get out of the way! Leave the path! Rid us of the Holy One of Isra'el!"

12 Therefore here is what the Holy One of Isra'el says: "Because you reject this word, trust in extortion and rely on deceit,

13 this sin will become for you a crack bulging out high on a wall, showing signs it is ready to fall; then suddenly, all at once, it breaks."

14 He will break it like a clay pot, ruthlessly shattering it into pieces so tiny not even a potsherd remains for taking fire from the fireplace or scooping water from the cistern.

15 For this is what Adonai ELOHIM, the Holy One of Isra'el, says: "Returning and resting is what will save you; calmness and confidence will make you strong - but you want none of this!

16 'No!' you say, 'We will flee on horseback!' Therefore you will surely flee. And, 'We will ride on swift ones!' So your pursuers will be swift.

17 A thousand will flee at the threat of one, you all will flee at the threat of five, until you are left isolated, like a flagstaff on a mountaintop, like a banner on a hill."

18 Yet ADONAI is just waiting to show you favor, he will have pity on you from on high; for ADONAI is a God of justice; happy are all who wait for him!

19 People in Tziyon, who live in Yerushalayim, you will weep no more. At the sound of your cry, he will show you his grace; on hearing it, he will answer you.

20 Though Adonai may give you but bread and water, and not very much of that; your teacher will no longer hide himself, but with your own eyes you will see your teacher.

21 With your ears you will hear a word from behind you: "This is the way; stay on it, whether you go to the right or the left."

22 You will treat as unclean your silver-covered idols and your cast metal images plated with gold; you will throw them away, like menstrual cloths; you will say to them, "Get out of here!"

23 Then he will give you rain for the seed you use to sow your land; and the food that comes from the ground will be rich and abundant. When that day comes, your cattle will graze in spacious pastures.

24 The oxen and donkeys that work the land will eat a tasty mixture, winnowed free of chaff, spread by pitchfork and shovel.

25 On every high mountain and lofty hill will be streams and flowing brooks, on a day of great slaughter, when the towers fall.

26 Moreover, the light of the moon will be as bright as the light of the sun; and the light of the sun will be seven times stronger, like the light of seven days [in one], on the day ADONAI binds up the wounds of his people and heals the bruise caused by the blow.

27 Here comes the name of ADONAI from afar, his anger burning, in thick rising smoke. His lips are full to the brim with fury, his tongue a consuming fire.

28 His breath is like a racing torrent that rises up to the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of destruction, and put a bridle in the peoples' mouths to lead them astray.

29 Your song will be like one that is sung on a night when a holy feast is kept, and your hearts will be happy, as if walking to the sound of the flute, to the mountain of ADONAI, to the Rock of Isra'el.

30 ADONAI will make his glorious voice heard, and he will reveal his arm descending with furious anger in a flaming firestorm, with cloudbursts, tempests and hailstones.

31 For ADONAI's voice will terrify Ashur, as with his scepter he strikes them down.

32 Every sweep of the punishing rod that ADONAI imposes on him will be to tambourines and lyres, as he brandishes his arm against them in battle.

33 For the Tofet fire pit has long been ready, prepared for the king, made large and deep, with plenty of wood and blazing with fire; like a stream of sulfur, ADONAI's breath sets it aflame.

Psalm 119:1-32

1 (Alef) How happy are those whose way of life is blameless, who live by the Torah of ADONAI!

2 How happy are those who observe his instruction, who seek him wholeheartedly!

3 They do nothing wrong but live by his ways.

4 You laid down your precepts for us to observe with care.

5 May my ways be steady in observing your laws.

6 Then I will not be put to shame, since I will have fixed my sight on all your mitzvot.

7 I thank you with a sincere heart as I learn your righteous rulings.

8 I will observe your laws; don't completely abandon me!

9 (Bet) How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your word.

10 I seek you with all my heart; don't let me stray from your mitzvot.

11 I treasure your word in my heart, so that I won't sin against you.

12 Blessed are you, ADONAI! Teach me your laws.

13 I proclaim with my mouth all the rulings you have spoken.

14 I rejoice in the way of your instruction more than in any kind of wealth.

15 I will meditate on your precepts and keep my eyes on your ways.

16 I will find my delight in your regulations. I will not forget your word.

17 (Gimel) Deal generously with your servant; then I will live and observe your word.

18 Open my eyes, so that I will see wonders from your Torah.

19 Though I'm just a wanderer on the earth, don't hide your mitzvot from me.

20 I am continually consumed with longing for your rulings.

21 You rebuke the proud, the cursed, who stray from your mitzvot.

22 Remove scorn and contempt from me, because I observe your instruction.

23 Even when princes sit and plot against me, your servant meditates on your laws.

24 Also your instructions are my delight; they are my counselors.

25 (Dalet) I lie prostrate in the dust; revive me, in keeping with your word.

26 I told you of my ways, and you answered me; teach me your laws.

27 Make me understand the way of your precepts, and I will meditate on your wonders.

28 I am melting away from anxiety and grief; renew my strength, in keeping with your word.

29 Keep deceitful ways far from me, and favor me with your Torah.

30 I choose the way of trust; I set your rulings [before me].

31 I cling to your instruction; ADONAI, don't let me be put to shame!

32 I will run the way of your mitzvot, for you have broadened my understanding.

October 29, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

October 29

1 Timothy 1; Isaiah 31-33; Psalm 119:33-64 CJB

1 Timothy 1

1 From: Sha'ul, an emissary of the Messiah Yeshua by command of God our deliverer and the Messiah Yeshua our hope,

2 To: Timothy, a true son because of your trust: Grace, mercy and shalom from God the Father and the Messiah Yeshua our Lord.

3 As I counseled you when I was leaving for Macedonia, stay on in Ephesus, so that you may order certain people who are teaching a different doctrine to stop.

4 Have them stop devoting their attention to myths and never-ending genealogies; these divert people to speculating instead of doing God's work, which requires trust.

5 The purpose of this order is to promote love from a clean heart, from a good conscience and from sincere trust.

6 Some, by aiming amiss, have wandered off into fruitless discussion.

7 They want to be teachers of Torah, but they understand neither their own words nor the matters about which they make such emphatic pronouncements.

8 We know that the Torah is good, provided one uses it in the way the Torah itself intends.

9 We are aware that Torah is not for a person who is righteous, but for those who are heedless of Torah and rebellious, ungodly and sinful, wicked and worldly, for people who kill their fathers and mothers, for murderers,

10 the sexually immoral - both heterosexual and homosexual - slave dealers, liars, perjurers, and anyone who acts contrary to the sound teaching

11 that accords with the Good News of the glorious and blessed God. This Good News was entrusted to me;

12 and I thank the one who has given me strength, the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord, that he considered me trustworthy enough to put me in his service,

13 even though I used to be a man who blasphemed and persecuted and was arrogant! But I received mercy because I had acted in unbelief, not understanding what I was doing.

14 Our Lord's grace overflowed to me with trust and love that come through the Messiah Yeshua.

15 So here is a statement you can trust, one that fully deserves to be accepted: the Messiah came into the world to save sinners, and I'm the number one sinner!

16 But this is precisely why I received mercy - so that in me, as the number one sinner, Yeshua the Messiah might demonstrate how very patient he is, as an example to those who would later come to trust in him and thereby have eternal life.

17 So to the King - eternal, imperishable and invisible, the only God there is - let there be honor and glory for ever and ever! Amen.

18 This charge, son Timothy, I put to you, in keeping with the prophecies already made about you, so that by these prophecies you may fight the good fight,

19 armed with trust and a good conscience. By rejecting conscience, some have made shipwreck of their trust;

20 among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander. I have turned them over to the Adversary, so that they will learn not to insult God.

Isaiah 31

1 Woe to those going down to Egypt expecting help - relying on horses; trusting in chariots, because they have many, and in the strength of their cavalrymen - but not looking to the Holy One of Isra'el, not consulting ADONAI.

2 But he too is wise and can bring disaster, and he does not take back his words; he will rise against the house of evildoers and against the help of those who do wrong.

3 Now the Egyptians are men and not God, and their horses flesh and not spirit. So when ADONAI stretches out his hand, both he who helps will stumble, and he who is helped will fall; both will perish together.

4 For here is what ADONAI says to me: "As a lion or lion cub growls at its prey and isn't frightened away by the shouts of hordes of shepherds called out against him - their voices do not upset him - so likewise ADONAI-Tzva'ot will descend to fight on Mount Tziyon, on its hill.

5 Like hovering birds, ADONAI-Tzva'ot will protect Yerushalayim. In protecting it, he will rescue it; in sparing it, he will save it.

6 People of Isra'el! Return to him to whom you have been so deeply disloyal!

7 For on that day everyone will discard his idols of silver and idols of gold, which you made for yourselves with your own sinful hands.

8 Then Ashur will fall by a sword not of mortals, a sword, not of humans, will devour him; he will flee before the sword, and his young men will be put to forced labor.

9 His rock, out of terror, will pass away, and his panicked officers will desert the standard." So says ADONAI, whose fire is in Tziyon, whose furnace is in Yerushalayim.

Isaiah 32

1 There is coming a king who will reign justly and princes who will rule uprightly.

2 A man will be like a refuge from the wind, like protection from a storm, like streams of water on arid ground, like a rock cliff shading a weary land.

3 The eyes of those seeing will not be closed, the ears of those hearing will pay close attention.

4 The minds of the impetuous will learn to weigh carefully, the tongues of the stutterers will speak readily and clearly.

5 The mean person will no longer be called generous, or the miserly said to be noble;

6 for the mean person will speak meanness, his heart planning evil, so that he can act godlessly, spreading error concerning ADONAI, as he lets the hungry go on starving and deprives the thirsty of drink.

7 The mean person's means are mean - he devises wicked devices to ruin the poor and needy with lies, even when their cause is just.

8 But the generous person devises generous things, and his generosity will keep him standing.

9 You women who are so complacent, listen to me! Overconfident women, pay attention to my words!

10 In a year and a few days more, you overconfident women will shudder, because the vintage will fail, the harvest will not come.

11 Tremble, you complacent women! Shudder, you overconfident women! Strip bare, wear sackcloth to cover yourselves.

12 Beat your breasts in mourning for the pleasant fields and fruitful vines,

13 for the land of my people, producing thorns and briars, for all the happy homes in the joyful city.

14 For the palace will be abandoned, the crowded city deserted, 'Ofel and fortress wastelands forever, a delight for wild donkeys and a pasture for flocks

15 till the Spirit is poured out on us from above, and the desert becomes a fertile field, with the fertile field regarded as a forest.

16 Then justice will dwell in the desert, and righteousness abide in the fertile field.

17 The effect of righteousness will be peace; the result of righteousness, quiet trust forever.

18 My people will live in a peaceful place, in secure neighborhoods and tranquil dwellings.

19 Just as the forest will surely come down, the city will surely be laid low.

20 Happy are you who sow by all streams, letting oxen and donkeys roam freely.

Isaiah 33

1 Woe, destroyer, yourself undestroyed! Woe, betrayer, yourself unbetrayed! When you stop destroying, you will be destroyed; when you tire of betraying, they will betray you.

2 ADONAI, show us mercy; we have waited for you. Be their arm every morning, and our salvation in time of trouble.

3 At the sound of the tumult, the peoples wander off; when you exalt yourself, the nations are scattered.

4 Your spoil is gathered as if stripped by shearer-worms; they run over it like a swarm of locusts.

5 ADONAI is exalted, for he dwells on high; he has filled Tziyon with justice and right.

6 He will be the stability of your times, a wealth of salvation, wisdom and knowledge, and fear of ADONAI, which is his treasure.

7 Hear their brave men crying out for help! The envoys of peace weep bitterly.

8 The highways are deserted, there are no travelers. He has broken the covenant, despised the cities; he has no regard for human life.

9 The land is mourning and wilting away. The L'vanon is withering with shame. The Sharon has become like the 'Aravah. Bashan and Karmel have been shaken bare.

10 "Now I will arise," says ADONAI, "Now I will exalt and lift myself up.

11 You conceive chaff and give birth to stubble, your breath is a fire devouring you.

12 The peoples will be as if burned into lime, like thorns cut off to burn in the fire.

13 You living far off, hear what I have done! You who are near, acknowledge my strength!"

14 The sinners in Tziyon are frightened; trembling has seized the ungodly. "Who of us can live with the devouring fire? Who of us can live with eternal burning?"

15 He whose life is right and whose speech is straight, he who scorns getting rich by extortion, he who shakes his hands free of bribes, stops his ears against talk of bloodshed and shuts his eyes against looking at evil.

16 Such a person will live on the heights, his refuge a fortress among the cliffs, his food and water in steady supply.

17 Your eyes will see the king in his beauty, they will gaze on a land stretching into the distance.

18 Your mind will meditate on the terror: "Where is the man who did the counting? Where is the man who did the weighing? Where is the man who numbered the towers?"

19 You will not see the intransigent people, that people whose language is so obscure, whose stuttering speech you cannot understand.

20 Look at Tziyon, the city of our festivals; your eyes will see Yerushalayim a secure abode, a tent that will not be removed, whose pegs will never be pulled out and whose guy-ropes will not be cut.

21 But there in his splendor ADONAI will be with us, in a place of rivers and broad streams. But no boat with oars will go there, no majestic ship will pass by.

22 For ADONAI is our judge, ADONAI is our lawgiver, ADONAI is our king. He will save us.

23 For your ropes are hanging loose, not holding the mast, not spreading the sail. Then the plunder shared out is so huge that even the lame get part of the spoil.

24 No inhabitant will say, "I am ill"; the people living there will be forgiven their sin.

Psalm 119:33-64

33 (Heh) Teach me, ADONAI, the way of your laws; keeping them will be its own reward for me.

34 Give me understanding; then I will keep your Torah; I will observe it with all my heart.

35 Guide me on the path of your mitzvot, for I take pleasure in it.

36 Bend my heart toward your instructions and not toward selfish gain.

37 Turn my eyes away from worthless things; with your ways, give me life.

38 Fulfill your promise, which you made to your servant, which you made to those who fear you.

39 Avert the disgrace which I dread, for your rulings are good.

40 See how I long for your precepts; in your righteousness, give me life!

41 May your grace come to me, ADONAI, your salvation, as you promised;

42 then I will have an answer for those who taunt me; for I trust in your word.

43 Don't take away completely my power to speak the truth; for I put my hope in your rulings;

44 and I will keep your Torah always, forever and ever.

45 I will go wherever I like, for I have sought your precepts.

46 I will speak of your instructions even to kings without being ashamed.

47 I will delight myself in your mitzvot, which I have loved.

48 I will lift my hands to your mitzvot, which I love; and I will meditate on your laws.

49 (Zayin) Remember your promise to your servant, through which you have given me hope.

50 In my distress my comfort is this: that your promise gives me life.

51 Though the arrogant scorn me completely, I have not turned away from your Torah.

52 ADONAI, I keep in mind your age-old rulings; in them I take comfort.

53 Fury seizes me when I think of the wicked, because they abandon your Torah.

54 Your laws have become my songs wherever I make my home.

55 I remember your name, ADONAI, at night; and I observe your Torah.

56 This [comfort] has come to me, because I observe your precepts.

57 (Het) ADONAI, I say that my task is to observe your words.

58 I beg your favor with my whole heart; show pity to me, in keeping with your promise.

59 I thought about my ways and turned my feet toward your instruction.

60 I hurry, I don't delay, to observe your mitzvot.

61 Even when the cords of the wicked close around me, I don't forget your Torah.

62 At midnight I rise to give you thanks because of your righteous rulings.

63 I am a friend of all who fear you, of those who observe your precepts.

64 The earth, ADONAI, is full of your grace; teach me your laws.

October 30, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

October 30

1 Timothy 2; Isaiah 34-35; Psalm 119:65-96 CJB

1 Timothy 2

1 First of all, then, I counsel that petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all human beings,

2 including kings and all in positions of prominence; so that we may lead quiet and peaceful lives, being godly and upright in everything.

3 This is what God, our Deliverer, regards as good; this is what meets his approval.

4 He wants all humanity to be delivered and come to full knowledge of the truth.

5 For God is one;a and there is but one Mediator between God and humanity, Yeshua the Messiah, himself human,

6 who gave himself as a ransom on behalf of all, thus providing testimony to God's purpose at just the right time.

7 This is why I myself was appointed a proclaimer, even an emissary - I am telling the truth, not lying! - a trustworthy and truthful teacher of the Goyim.

8 Therefore, it is my wish that when the men pray, no matter where, they should lift up hands that are holy - they should not become angry or get into arguments.

9 Likewise, the women, when they pray, should be dressed modestly and sensibly in respectable attire, not with elaborate hairstyles and gold jewelry, or pearls, or expensive clothes.

10 Rather, they should adorn themselves with what is appropriate for women who claim to be worshipping God, namely, good deeds.

11 Let a woman learn in peace, fully submitted;

12 but I do not permit a woman to teach a man or exercise authority over him; rather, she is to remain at peace.

13 For Adam was formed first, then Havah.

14 Also it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman who, on being deceived, became involved in the transgression.

15 Nevertheless, the woman will be delivered through childbearing, provided that she continues trusting, loving and living a holy life with modesty.

Isaiah 34

1 Come close, you nations, and listen! Pay close attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and everything in it; the world, with all it produces.

2 For ADONAI is angry at every nation, furious with all their armies; he has completely destroyed them, handed them over to slaughter.

3 Their slain will be thrown out, the stench will rise from their corpses, the mountains will flow with their blood.

4 The whole host of heaven will decompose, the heavens themselves be rolled up like a scroll; all their array will wither away like a withering grape-leaf that falls from a vine or a withered fig from a fig tree.

5 "For my sword has drunk its fill in heaven; now it descends on Edom to judge them, the people I have doomed to destruction."

6 There is a sword that belongs to ADONAI. It is filled with blood, gorged with fat, filled with the blood of lambs and goats, gorged with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For ADONAI has a sacrifice in Botzrah, a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

7 The wild oxen will fall with them, the young bulls with the strong, mature ones. Their land will be drunk with blood and their dust made greasy with fat.

8 For ADONAI has a day of vengeance, a year of requital for fighting with Tziyon.

9 Its streams will be changed to tar, its dust to sulfur, its land burning tar

10 that will not be quenched night or day; its smoke will rise forever. In all generations it will lie waste; no one will pass through it ever again.

11 Horned owl and hawk will possess it, screech owl and raven will live there; he will stretch over it the measuring line of confusion and the plumbline of the empty void.

12 Of its nobles, none will be called to be king, and all its princes will be nothing.

13 Thorns will overgrow its palaces, nettles and thistles its fortresses; it will become a lair for jackals, an enclosure for ostriches.

14 Wildcats and hyenas will meet there; and billy-goats call to each other; Lilit [the night monster] will lurk there and find herself a place to rest.

15 There the hoot owl will nest, lay her eggs, hatch and gather her young in its shade. There the vultures will assemble, every one with its mate.

16 Consult the book of ADONAI and read it: not one of these will be missing, none will be lacking a mate. For by his own mouth he gave the order, and by his Spirit he brought them together.

17 It is he who cast the lot for them, his hand measured out their shares. They will possess it forever, and live there through all generations.

Isaiah 35

1 The desert and the dry land will be glad; the 'Aravah will rejoice and blossom like the lily.

2 It will burst into flower, will rejoice with joy and singing, will be given the glory of the L'vanon, the splendor of Karmel and the Sharon. They will see the glory of ADONAI, the splendor of our God.

3 Strengthen your drooping arms, and steady your tottering knees.

4 Say to the fainthearted, "Be strong and unafraid! Here is your God; he will come with vengeance; with God's retribution he will come and save you."

5 Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped;

6 then the lame man will leap like a deer, and the mute person's tongue will sing. For in the desert, springs will burst forth, streams of water in the 'Aravah;

7 the sandy mirage will become a pool, the thirsty ground springs of water. The haunts where jackals lie down will become a marsh filled with reeds and papyrus.

8 A highway will be there, a way, called the Way of Holiness. The unclean will not pass over it, but it will be for those whom he guides fools will not stray along it.

9 No lion or other beast of prey will be there, traveling on it. They will not be found there, but the redeemed will go there.

10 Those ransomed by ADONAI will return and come with singing to Tziyon, on their heads will be everlasting joy. They will acquire gladness and joy, while sorrow and sighing will flee.

Psalm 119:65-160

65 (Tet) You have treated your servant well, ADONAI, in keeping with your word.

66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge, because I trust in your mitzvot.

67 Before I was humbled, I used to go astray; but now I observe your word.

68 You are good, and you do good; teach me your laws.

69 The arrogant are slandering me, but I will wholeheartedly keep your precepts.

70 Their hearts are as thick as fat, but I take delight in your Torah.

71 It is for my good that I have been humbled; it was so that I would learn your laws.

72 The Torah you have spoken means more to me than a fortune in gold and silver.

73 (Yud) Your hands made and formed me; give me understanding, so I can learn your mitzvot.

74 Those who fear you rejoice at the sight of me, because I put my hope in your word.

75 I know, ADONAI, that your rulings are righteous, that even when you humble me you are faithful.

76 Let your grace comfort me, in keeping with your promise to your servant.

77 Show me pity, and I will live, for your Torah is my delight.

78 Let the proud be ashamed, because they wrong me with lies; as for me, I will meditate on your precepts.

79 Let those who fear you turn to me, along with those who know your instruction.

80 Let my heart be pure in your laws, so that I won't be put to shame.

81 (Kaf) I am dying to know your salvation; my hope is in your word.

82 My eyes fail from watching for your promise; I ask, "When will you comfort me?"

83 For I have shriveled like a wineskin in a smoky room; still, I don't forget your laws.

84 How long can your servant stay alive? When will you bring judgment on my persecutors?

85 The arrogant have dug pits for me to fall in; this is not in keeping with your Torah!

86 All your mitzvot [show your] faithfulness; they are hounding me with lies; help me!

87 They have nearly ended my life on earth, but I have not abandoned your precepts.

88 In keeping with your grace, revive me; and I will observe your spoken instructions.

89 (Lamed) Your word continues forever, ADONAI, firmly fixed in heaven;

90 your faithfulness through all generations; you established the earth, and it stands.

91 Yes, it stands today, in keeping with your rulings; for all things are your servants.

92 If your Torah had not been my delight, I would have perished in my distress.

93 I will never forget your precepts, for with them you have made me alive.

94 I am yours; save me because I seek your precepts.

95 The wicked hope to destroy me, but I focus on your instruction.

96 (Mem) I see the limits of all perfection, but your mitzvah has no bounds.

November 1, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

October 31

1 Timothy 3; Isaiah 36-37; Psalm 119:97-120 CJB

1 Timothy 3

1 Here is a statement you can trust: anyone aspiring to be a congregation leader is seeking worthwhile work.

2 A congregation leader must be above reproach, he must be faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, orderly, hospitable and able to teach.

3 He must not drink excessively or get into fights; rather, he must be kind and gentle. He must not be a lover of money.

4 He must manage his own household well, having children who obey him with all proper respect;

5 for if a man can't manage his own household, how will he be able to care for God's Messianic Community?

6 He must not be a new believer, because he might become puffed up with pride and thus fall under the same judgment as did the Adversary.

7 Furthermore, he must be well regarded by outsiders, so that he won't fall into disgrace and into the Adversary's trap.

8 Likewise, the shammashim must be of good character, people whose word can be trusted. They must not give themselves to excessive drinking or be greedy for dishonest gain.

9 They must possess the formerly hidden truth of the faith with a clean conscience.

10 And first, let them be tested; then, if they prove themselves blameless, let them be appointed shammashim.

11 Similarly, the wives must be of good character, not gossips, but temperate, faithful in everything.

12 Let the shammashim each be faithful to his wife, managing his children and household well.

13 For those who serve well as shammashim gain good standing for themselves and much boldness in the trust that comes through Yeshua the Messiah.

14 I hope to visit you soon; but I am writing these things

15 so that if I am delayed, you may know how one should behave in the household of God, which is the Messianic Community of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth.

16 Great beyond all question is the formerly hidden truth underlying our faith: He was manifested physically and proved righteous spiritually, seen by angels and proclaimed among the nations, trusted throughout the world and raised up in glory to heaven.

Isaiah 36

1 It was in the fourteenth year of King Hizkiyahu that Sancheriv king of Ashur advanced against all the fortified cities of Y'hudah and captured them.

2 From Lakhish the king of Ashur sent Rav-Shakeh to Hizkiyahu in Yerushalayim with a large army. He positioned himself by the aqueduct from the Upper Pool, which is by the road to the Launderers' Field.

3 Elyakim the son of Hilkiyahu, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and Yo'ach the son of Asaf the foreign minister went out to meet him.

4 Rav-Shakeh addressed them: "Tell Hizkiyahu: 'Here is what the great king, the king of Ashur, says: "What makes you so confident?

5 I say: do mere words constitute strategy and strength for battle? In whom, then, are you trusting when you rebel against me like this?

6 Look! Relying on Egypt is like using a broken stick as a staff - when you lean on it, it punctures your hand. That's what Pharaoh king of Egypt is like for anyone who puts his trust in him.

7 But if you tell me, 'We trust in ADONAI our God,' then isn't he the one whose high places and altars Hizkiyahu has removed, telling Y'hudah and Yerushalayim, 'You must worship before this altar'?

8 All right, then, make a wager with my lord the king of Ashur: I will give you two thousand horses if you can find enough riders for them.

9 How then can you repulse even one of my master's lowest-ranked army officers? Yet you are relying on Egypt for chariots and riders!

10 Do you think I have come up to this land to destroy it without ADONAI's approval? ADONAI said to me, 'Go up against this land and destroy it!'"'"

11 Elyakim, Shevnah and Yo'ach said to Rav-Shakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, since we understand it; don't speak to us in Hebrew while the people on the wall are listening."

12 But Rav-Shakeh answered, "Did my master send me to deliver my message just to your master and yourselves? Didn't he send me to address the men sitting on the wall, who, like you, are going to eat their own dung and drink their own urine?"

13 Then Rav-Shakeh stood up and, speaking loudly in Hebrew, said: "Hear what the great king, the king of Ashur, says!

14 This is what the king says: 'Don't let Hizkiyahu deceive you, because he won't be able to save you.

15 And don't let Hizkiyahu make you trust in ADONAI by saying, "ADONAI will surely save us; this city will not be given over to the king of Ashur."

16 Don't listen to Hizkiyahu.' For this is what the king says: 'Make peace with me, surrender to me. Then every one of you can eat from his vine and fig tree and drink the water in his own cistern,

17 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land with grain and wine, a land with bread and vineyards.

18 Beware of Hizkiyahu; he is only deluding you when he says, "ADONAI will save us." Has any god of any nation ever saved his land from the power of the king of Ashur?

19 Where are the gods of Hamat and Arpad? Where are the gods of S'farvayim? Did they save Shomron from my power?

20 Where is the god of any of these countries that has saved its country from my power, so that ADONAI might be able to save Yerushalayim from my power?'"

21 But they kept still and didn't answer him so much as a word, for the king's order was, "Don't answer him."

22 Then Elyakim the son of Hilkiyahu, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and Yo'ach the son of Asaf the foreign minister went to Hizkiyahu with their clothes torn and reported to him what Rav-Shakeh had said.

Isaiah 37

1 On hearing it, King Hizkiyahu tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth and entered the house of ADONAI.

2 He sent Elyakim, who was in charge of the household, Shevnah the general secretary and the leading cohanim, covered with sackcloth, to Yesha'yahu the prophet, the son of Amotz.

3 They said to him, "This is what Hizkiyahu says: 'Today is a day of trouble, rebuke and disgrace. Children are ready to be born, but there is no strength to bring them to birth.

4 Maybe ADONAI your God will hear the words of Rav-Shakeh, whom his master the king of Ashur has sent to taunt the living God, and will rebuke the message which ADONAI your God has heard. So pray for the remnant that is left.'"

5 When King Hizkiyahu's servants came to Yesha'yahu,

6 he said to them, "Tell your master that this is what ADONAI says: 'Don't be afraid of the words you heard the servants of the king of Ashur use to insult me.

7 I will put a spirit in him that will make him hear a rumor and return to his own land; then I will cause him to die by the sword in his own land.'"

8 Rav-Shakeh returned and, having heard that the king of Ashur had left Lakhish, found him making war with Livnah.

9 Then he heard it said that Tirhakah king of Ethiopia was on his way to fight him. On hearing this, the king of Ashur sent messengers to Hizkiyahu, after ordering them,

10 "This is what you are to say to Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah: 'Don't let your God in whom you trust deceive you by saying, "Yerushalayim will not be handed over to the power of the king of Ashur."

11 You have heard what the kings of Ashur have done to all lands - they have completely destroyed them. So how will you be delivered?

12 Have the gods of the nations delivered them? No, my ancestors destroyed them - Gozan, Haran, Retzef and the people of 'Eden who were in Tel'asar.

13 Where is the king of Hamat? the king of Arpad? the king of the city of S'farvayim, of Hena and 'Ivah?'"

14 Hizkiyahu took the letter from the messengers' hands and read it. Then Hizkiyahu went up to the house of ADONAI and spread it out before ADONAI.

15 This is the prayer that Hizkiyahu prayed to ADONAI:

16 "ADONAI-Tzva'ot, God of Isra'el, who dwells above the k'ruvim! You alone are God of all the kingdoms on earth. You made heaven and earth.

17 Turn your ear, ADONAI, and hear! Open your eyes, ADONAI, and see! Hear all the words that Sancheriv sent to taunt the living God.

18 It is true that the kings of Ashur have laid waste all the countries and their lands

19 and have thrown their gods into the fire. For those were non-gods, merely the products of people's hands, wood and stone; this is why they could destroy them.

20 Now therefore, ADONAI our God, save us from his power - so that all the kingdoms on earth will know that you are ADONAI - you only."

21 Then Yesha'yahu the son of Amotz sent this message to Hizkiyahu: "ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'You prayed to me against Sancheriv king of Ashur.'

22 Here is ADONAI's answer concerning him: "'The virgin daughter of Tziyon despises you; she laughs you to scorn. The daughter of Yerushalayim shakes her head at you.

23 Whom have you taunted and insulted? Against whom have you raised your voice and haughtily lifted your eyes? The Holy One of Isra'el!

24 "'Through your servants you taunted Adonai. You said, "With my many chariots I have ascended the mountain heights even in the far reaches of the L'vanon. I cut down its tall cedars and its best cypress trees. I reached its remotest heights and its best forests.

25 I dug [wells] and drank the water. The soles of my [soldiers'] feet dried up all the rivers of Egypt."

26 "'Haven't you heard? Long ago I made it; in antiquity I produced it; and now I am making it happen: you are turning fortified cities into heaps of ruins,

27 while their inhabitants, shorn of power, are disheartened and ashamed, weak as grass, frail as plants, like grass on the rooftops or grain scorched by the east wind.

28 "'But I know when you sit, when you leave, when you enter - and when you rage against me.

29 And because of your rage against me, because of your pride that has reached my ears, I am putting my hook in your nose and my bridle on your lips; and I will make you return by the way on which you came.

30 "'This will be the sign for you [people of Isra'el]: this year, you will eat the grain that grows of itself; the second year, you will eat what grows from that; but in the third year, you will sow, reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit.

31 "'Meanwhile, the remnant of the house of Y'hudah that has escaped will again take root downward and bear fruit upward;

32 for a remnant will go out from Yerushalayim, those escaping will go out from Mount Tziyon. The zeal of ADONAI-Tzva'ot will accomplish this.'

33 "Therefore this is what ADONAI says concerning the king of Ashur: "'He will not come to this city or even shoot an arrow there; he will not confront it with a shield or erect earthworks against it.

34 "'By the way he came he will return; he will not come to this city,' says ADONAI.

35 'For I will defend this city and save it, both for my own sake and for my servant David's sake.'"

36 Then the angel of ADONAI went out and struck down 185,000 men in the camp of Ashur. Early the next morning, there they were, all of them, corpses - dead.

37 So Sancheriv king of Ashur left, went and returned to live in Ninveh.

38 One day, as he was worshipping in the temple of Nisrokh his god, his sons Adramelekh and Shar'etzer struck him with the sword and escaped into the land of Ararat. So his son Esar-Hadon took his place as king.

Psalm 119:97-120

97 How I love your Torah! I meditate on it all day.

98 I am wiser than my foes, because your mitzvot are mine forever.

99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, because I meditate on your instruction.

100 I understand more than my elders, because I keep your precepts.

101 I keep my feet from every evil way, in order to observe your word.

102 I don't turn away from your rulings, because you have instructed me.

103 How sweet to my tongue is your promise, truly sweeter than honey in my mouth!

104 From your precepts I gain understanding; this is why I hate every false way.

105 (Nun) Your word is a lamp for my foot and light on my path.

106 I have sworn an oath and confirmed it, that I will observe your righteous rulings.

107 I am very much distressed; ADONAI, give me life, in keeping with your word.

108 Please accept my mouth's voluntary offerings, ADONAI; and teach me your rulings.

109 I am continually taking my life in my hands, yet I haven't forgotten your Torah.

110 The wicked have set a trap for me, yet I haven't strayed from your precepts.

111 I take your instruction as a permanent heritage, because it is the joy of my heart.

112 I have resolved to obey your laws forever, at every step.

113 (Samekh) I hate doubleminded people, but I love your Torah.

114 You are my hiding-place and shield; I put my hope in your word.

115 Leave me alone, you evildoers, so that I can keep my God's mitzvot.

116 Uphold me, as you promised; and I will live; don't disappoint me in my hope.

117 Support me; and I will be saved, always putting my attention on your laws.

118 You reject all who stray from your laws, for what they deceive themselves with is false.

119 You discard the wicked of the earth like slag; this is why I love your instruction.

120 My body trembles for fear of you; your rulings make me afraid.

November 2, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 1

1 Timothy 4; Isaiah 38-39; Psalm 119:121-144 CJB

1 Timothy 4

1 The Spirit expressly states that in the acharit-hayamim some people will apostatize from the faith by paying attention to deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.

2 Such teachings come from the hypocrisy of liars whose own consciences have been burned, as if with a red-hot branding iron.

3 They forbid marriage and require abstinence from foods which God created to be eaten with thanksgiving by those who have come to trust and to know the truth.

4 For everything created by God is good, and nothing received with thanksgiving needs to be rejected,

5 because the word of God and prayer make it holy.

6 If you present all this to the brothers, you will be serving the Messiah Yeshua well; it will show that you have digested the words of the faith and of the good teaching which you have followed.

7 But refuse godless bubbe-meises, and exercise yourself in godliness.

8 For although physical exercise does have some value, godliness is valuable for everything, since it holds promise both for the present life and for the life to come.

9 Here is a statement you can trust, one that fully deserves to be accepted

10 (indeed, it is for this that we toil and strive): we have our hope set on a living God who is the deliverer of all humanity, especially of those who trust.

11 Command these things and teach them.

12 Don't let anyone look down on you because of your youth; on the contrary, set the believers an example in your speech, behavior, love, trust and purity.

13 Until I come, pay attention to the public reading of the Scriptures.

14 Do not neglect your gift, which you were given through a prophecy when the body of elders gave you s'mikhah.

15 Be diligent about this work, throw yourself into it, so that your progress may be clear to everyone.

16 Pay attention to yourself and to the teaching, continue in it, for by so doing you will deliver both yourself and those who hear you.

Isaiah 38

1 Around this time Hizkiyahu became ill to the point of death. Yesha'yahu the prophet, the son of Amotz, came and said to him, "Here is what ADONAI says: 'Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not live.'"

2 Hizkiyahu turned his face toward the wall and prayed to ADONAI:

3 "I plead with you, ADONAI, remember now how I have lived before you truly and wholeheartedly, and how I have done what you see as good." And he cried bitter tears.

4 Then the word of ADONAI came to Yesha'yahu:

5 "Go and tell Hizkiyahu that this is what ADONAI, the God of David your ancestor, says: 'I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; therefore I will add fifteen years to your life.

6 Also I will rescue you and this city from the power of the king of Ashur; I will defend this city.

7 The sign for you from ADONAI that ADONAI will do what he said is

8 that I will cause the shadow of the sundial, which has started going down on the sundial of Achaz, to go backward ten intervals.'" So the sun went back ten intervals of the distance it had already gone down.

9 After Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah had been ill and had recovered, he wrote the following:

10 "I once said: 'In the prime of life I am going off to the gates of Sh'ol. I am being deprived of living out the full span of my life.'

11 "I said, 'I will never again see Yah, Yah in the land of the living; I will look on human beings no more or be with those who live in this world.

12 My home is uprooted and taken away from me like a shepherd's tent. Like a weaver, I have rolled up my life; he cuts me off from the loom. Between day and night you could finish me off.

13 I try to be strong like a lion till morning, but still my illness breaks all my bones - between day and night you could finish me off.

14 I make little chattering sounds like a swallow, I moan aloud like a dove, My eyes are weary with looking upward. Adonai, I am overwhelmed; guarantee my life!'

15 "What is there that I can say? He has spoken to me and acted! I will go humbly all my years, remembering how bitter I was.

16 Adonai, by these things people live; in all these is the life of my spirit. You're restoring my health and giving me life

17 though instead of peace, I felt very bitter. You desired my life and preserved it from the nothingness pit; for you threw all my sins behind your back.

18 "Sh'ol cannot thank you, death cannot praise you; those descending to the pit cannot hope for your truth.

19 The living, the living - they can thank you, as I do today; fathers will make their children know about your faithfulness.

20 ADONAI is ready to save me; hence we will make our stringed instruments sound all the days of our life in the house of ADONAI."

21 Then Yesha'yahu said, "Have them take a fig-plaster and apply it to the inflammation, and he will recover."

22 Hizkiyahu asked, "What sign will there be that I will be able to go up to the house of ADONAI?"

Isaiah 39

1 M'rodakh-Bal'adan the son of Bal'adan, king of Bavel, heard that Hizkiyahu had been ill and had recovered, so he sent a letter and a gift to him.

2 Hizkiyahu was pleased with the gifts and showed the messengers all of the building where he kept his treasures, including the silver, gold, spices and precious oils; also all of the building where he kept his armor; and everything in his treasury - there was nothing in his palace or in his entire domain that Hizkiyahu did not show them.

3 Then Yesha'yahu the prophet came to King Hizkiyahu and asked him, "What did these men say? Where did they come from?" Hizkiyahu answered, "They came to me from a distant country, Bavel."

4 Yesha'yahu asked, "What have they seen in your palace?" "They have seen everything in my palace," said Hizkiyahu. "There isn't a thing among my treasures that I haven't shown them."

5 Yesha'yahu said to Hizkiyahu, "Hear what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says:

6 'The day will come when everything in your palace, along with everything your ancestors stored up until today, will be carried off to Bavel. Nothing will be left,' says ADONAI.

7 'They will carry off some of your descendants, your own offspring; and they will be made eunuchs serving in the palace of the king of Bavel."

8 Hizkiyahu said to Yesha'yahu, "The word of ADONAI which you have just told me is good"; because he thought, "At least peace and truth will continue during my lifetime."

Psalm 119:121-144

121 ('Ayin) I have done what is just and right; don't abandon me to my oppressors.

122 Guarantee your servant's well-being; don't let the arrogant oppress me.

123 My eyes fail from watching for your salvation and for [the fulfillment of] your righteous promise.

124 Deal with your servant in accordance with your grace, and teach me your laws.

125 I am your servant; give me understanding, so that I can know your instruction.

126 The time has come for ADONAI to act, because they are breaking your Torah.

127 Therefore I love your mitzvot more than gold, more than fine gold.

128 Thus I direct my steps by [your] precepts; every false way I hate.

129 (Peh) Your instruction is a wonder; this is why I follow it.

130 Your words are a doorway that lets in light, giving understanding to the thoughtless.

131 My mouth is wide open, as I pant with longing for your mitzvot.

132 Turn to me, and show me your favor; in keeping with [your] judgment for those who love your name.

133 Guide my footsteps by your word; don't let any kind of sin rule me.

134 Redeem me from human oppression, and I will observe your precepts.

135 Make your face shine on your servant, and teach me your laws.

136 Rivers of tears flow down from my eyes, because they don't observe your Torah.

137 (Tzadeh) You are righteous, ADONAI; and your rulings are upright.

138 You have commanded your instructions in righteousness and great faithfulness.

139 My zeal is destroying me, because my foes have forgotten your words.

140 Your word is refined to complete purity, and your servant loves it.

141 I may be small and despised, but I do not forget your precepts.

142 Your righteousness is eternal righteousness, and your Torah is truth.

143 Trouble and distress have overtaken me, but your mitzvot are my delight.

144 Your instruction is righteous forever; give me understanding, and I will live.

November 2, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 2

1 Timothy 5; Jeremiah 1-2; Psalm 119:145-176 CJB

1 Timothy 5

1 Do not rebuke an older man sharply, but appeal to him as you would to a father; treat younger men like brothers,

2 older women like mothers and younger women like sisters, with absolute purity.

3 Show respect to widows who are really in need.

4 But if a widow has children or grandchildren, first let them learn to do their religious duty to their own family and thus repay some of the debt they owe their forebears, for this is what is acceptable in the sight of God.

5 Now the widow who is really in need, the one who has been left all alone, has set her hope on God and continues in petitions and prayers night and day.

6 But the one who is self-indulgent is already dead, even though she lives.

7 And instruct them about this, so that they will not be open to blame.

8 Moreover, anyone who does not provide for his own people, especially for his family, has disowned the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

9 Let a widow be enrolled on the list of widows only if she is more than sixty years old, was faithful to her husband,

10 and is known for her good deeds - as one who has reared her children well, showed hospitality, washed the feet of God's people, helped those in trouble, and engaged in all kinds of good work.

11 But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when they begin to feel natural passions that alienate them from the Messiah, they want to get married.

12 This brings them under condemnation for having set aside the trust they had at first.

13 Besides that, they learn to be idle, going around from house to house; and not only idle, but gossips and busybodies, saying things they shouldn't.

14 Therefore, I would rather the young widows get married, have children and take charge of their homes, so as to give the opposition no occasion for slandering us.

15 For already some have turned astray to follow the Adversary.

16 If any believing woman has relatives who are widows, she should provide relief for them - the congregation shouldn't be burdened, so that it may help the widows who are really in need.

17 The leaders who lead well should be considered worthy of double honor, especially those working hard at communicating the Word and at teaching.

18 For the Tanakh says, "You are not to muzzle an ox when it is treading out the grain,"b in other words, "The worker deserves his wages."

19 Never listen to any accusation against a leader unless it is supported by two or three witnesses. c

20 Rebuke before the whole assembly those leaders who continue sinning, as a warning to the others.

21 Before God, the Messiah Yeshua and the chosen angels, I solemnly charge you to observe these instructions, not pre-judging and not doing anything out of favoritism.

22 Do not be hasty in granting s'mikhah to anyone, and do not share in other people's sins - keep yourself pure.

23 Stop drinking water; instead, use a little wine for the sake of your digestion and because of your frequent illnesses.

24 The sins of some people are obvious and go ahead of them to judgment, but the sins of others follow afterwards.

25 Likewise, good deeds are obvious; and even when they are not, they can't stay hidden.

Jeremiah 1

1 These are the words of Yirmeyahu the son of Hilkiyahu, one of the cohanim living in 'Anatot, in the territory of Binyamin.

2 The word of ADONAI came to him during the days of Yoshiyahu the son of Amon, king of Y'hudah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

3 It also came during the days of Y'hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah, continuing until the eleventh year of Tzidkiyahu the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah, right up until the time Yerushalayim was carried away captive, in the fifth month.

4 Here is the word of ADONAI that came to me:

5 "Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born, I separated you for myself. I have appointed you to be a prophet to the nations."

6 I said, "Oh, Adonai ELOHIM, I don't even know how to speak! I'm just a child!"

7 But ADONAI said to me, "Don't say, 'I'm just a child.' "For you will go to whomever I send you, and you will speak whatever I order you.

8 Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you, says ADONAI, to rescue you."

9 Then ADONAI put out his hand and touched my mouth, and ADONAI said to me, "There! I have put my words in your mouth.

10 Today I have placed you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and to tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant."

11 The word of ADONAI came to me, asking, "Yirmeyahu, what do you see?" I answered, "I see a branch from an almond tree [Hebrew: shaked].

12 Then ADONAI said to me, "You have seen well, because I am watching [Hebrew: shoked] to fulfill my word."

13 A second time the word of ADONAI came to me, asking, "What do you see?" I answered, "I see a caldron tilted away from the north, over a fire fanned by the wind."

14 Then ADONAI said to me, "From the north calamity will boil over onto everyone living in the land,

15 because I will summon all the families in the kingdoms of the north," says ADONAI, "and they will come and sit, each one, on his throne at the entrance to the gates of Yerushalayim, opposite its walls, all the way around, and opposite all the cities of Y'hudah.

16 I will pronounce my judgments against them for all their wickedness in abandoning me, offering incense to other gods and worshipping what their own hands made.

17 "But you, dress for action; stand up and tell them everything I order you to say. When you confront them, don't break down; or I will break you down in front of them!

18 For today, you see, I have made you into a fortified city, a pillar of iron, a wall of bronze against the whole land - against the kings of Y'hudah, against its princes, against its cohanim and the people of the land.

19 They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you," says ADONAI, "to rescue you."

Jeremiah 2

1 The word of ADONAI came to me:

2 "Go and shout in the ears of Yerushalayim that this is what ADONAI says: 'I remember your devotion when you were young; how, as a bride, you loved me; how you followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.

3 "'Isra'el is set aside for ADONAI, the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devour him will incur guilt; evil will befall them," says ADONAI.

4 Hear the word of ADONAI, house of Ya'akov and all families in the house of Isra'el;

5 here is what ADONAI says: "What did your ancestors find wrong with me to make them go so far away from me, to make them go after nothings and become themselves nothings?

6 They didn't ask, 'Where is ADONAI, who brought us out of the land of Egypt, who led us through the desert, through a land of wastes and ravines, through a land of drought and death-dark shadows, through a land where no one travels and where no one ever lived?'

7 I brought you into a fertile land to enjoy its fruit and all its good things; but when you entered, you defiled my land and made my heritage loathsome.

8 The cohanim didn't ask, 'Where is ADONAI?' Those who deal with the Torah did not know me, the people's shepherds rebelled against me; the prophets prophesied by Ba'al and went after things of no value.

9 "So again I state my case against you," says ADONAI, "and state it against your grandchildren too.

10 Cross to the coasts of the Kitti'im and look; send to Kedar and observe closely; see if anything like this has happened before:

11 has a nation ever exchanged its gods (and theirs are not gods at all!)? Yet my people have exchanged their Glory for something without value.

12 Be aghast at this, you heavens! Shudder in absolute horror!" says ADONAI.

13 "For my people have committed two evils: they have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water!

14 "Is Isra'el a slave, born into serfdom? If not, why has he become plunder?

15 The young lions are roaring at him - how loudly they are roaring! They desolate his country, demolishing and depopulating his cities.

16 The people of Nof and Tachpanches feed on the crown of your head.

17 "Haven't you brought this on yourself by abandoning ADONAI your God when he led you along the way?

18 If you go to Egypt, what's in it for you? Drinking water from the Nile? If you go to Ashur, what's in it for you? Drinking water from the [Euphrates] River?

19 Your own wickedness will correct you, your own backslidings will convict you; you will know and see how bad and bitter it was to abandon ADONAI your God, and how fear of me is not in you," says Adonai ELOHIM-Tzva'ot.

20 "For long ago I broke your yoke; when I snapped your chains, you said, 'I won't sin.' Yet on every high hill, under every green tree, you sprawled and prostituted yourself.

21 But I planted you as a choice vine of seed fully tested and true. How did you degenerate into a wild vine for me?

22 Even if you scrub yourself with soda and plenty of soap, the stain of your guilt is still there before me," says Adonai ELOHIM.

23 "How can you say, 'I am not defiled, I have not pursued the ba'alim'? Look at your conduct in the valley, understand what you have done. You are a restive young female camel, running here and there,

24 wild, accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her lust - who can control her when she's in heat? Males seeking her need not weary themselves, for at mating season they will find her.

25 "Stop before your shoes wear out, and your throat is dry from thirst! But you say, 'No, it's hopeless! I love these strangers, and I'm going after them.'

26 Just as a thief is ashamed when caught, so is the house of Isra'el ashamed - they, their kings, their leaders, their cohanim and their prophets,

27 who say to a log, 'You are my father,' and to a stone, 'You gave us birth.' For they have turned their backs to me instead of their faces. But when trouble comes, they will plead, 'Rouse yourself and save us!'

28 Where are your gods that you made for yourselves? Let them rouse themselves, if they can save you when trouble comes. Y'hudah, you have as many gods as you have cities!

29 Why argue with me? You have all rebelled against me!" says ADONAI.

30 "In vain have I struck down your people. They would not receive correction. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a marauding lion.

31 You of this generation, look at the word of ADONAI: Have I been a desert to Isra'el? or a land of oppressive darkness? Why do my people say, 'We're free to roam, we will no longer come to you'?

32 Does a girl forget her jewellery, or a bride her wedding sash? Yet my people have forgotten me, days beyond numbering.

33 You are so clever in your search for love that the worst of women can learn from you!

34 Right there on your clothing is the blood of the innocent poor, although you never caught them breaking and entering. Yet concerning all these things,

35 you say, 'I am innocent; surely he's no longer angry at me.' Here, I am passing sentence on you, because you say, 'I have done nothing wrong.'

36 You cheapen yourself when you change course so often - you will be disappointed by Egypt too, just as you were disappointed by Ashur.

37 Yes, you will leave him too, with your hands on your heads [in shame]. For ADONAI rejects those in whom you trust; from them you will gain nothing."

Psalm 119:145-176

145 (Kuf) Wholeheartedly I am calling on you; answer me, ADONAI; I will keep your laws.

146 I am calling on you; save me; and I will observe your instruction.

147 I rise before dawn and cry for help; I put my hope in your word.

148 My eyes are open before the night watches, so that I can meditate on your promise.

149 In your grace, hear my voice; ADONAI, in keeping with your justice, revive me.

150 The pursuers of carnality are getting close; they are distancing themselves from your Torah.

151 You are close by, ADONAI; and all your mitzvot are truth.

152 Long ago I learned from your instruction that you established it forever.

153 (Resh) Look at my distress, and rescue me, for I do not forget your Torah.

154 Plead my cause, and redeem me; in keeping with your promise, revive me.

155 Salvation is far away from the wicked, because they don't seek your laws.

156 Great is your compassion, ADONAI; in keeping with your rulings, revive me.

157 Although my persecutors and foes are many, I have not turned away from your instruction.

158 I look at traitors with disgust, because they don't keep your word.

159 See how I love your precepts, ADONAI; in keeping with your grace, revive me.

160 The main thing about your word is that it's true; and all your just rulings last forever.

161 (Shin) Princes persecute me for no reason, but my heart stands in awe of your words.

162 I take joy in your promise, like someone who finds much booty.

163 I hate falsehood, I detest it; but I love your Torah.

164 I praise you seven times a day because of your righteous rulings.

165 Those who love your Torah have great peace; nothing makes them stumble.

166 I hope for your deliverance, ADONAI; I obey your mitzvot.

167 My soul observes your instruction, and I love it so much!

168 I observe your precepts and instruction, for all my ways lie open before you.

169 (Tav) Let my cry come before you, ADONAI; in keeping with your word, give me understanding.

170 Let my prayer come before you; in keeping with your promise, rescue me.

171 Let my lips speak praise, because you teach me your laws.

172 Let my tongue sing of your promise, because all your mitzvot are righteous.

173 Let your hand be ready to help me, because I choose your precepts.

174 I long for your deliverance, ADONAI; and your Torah is my delight.

175 Let me live, and I will praise you; let your rulings help me.

176 I strayed like a lost sheep; seek out your servant; for I do not forget your mitzvot.

November 4, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 3

1 Timothy 6; Jeremiah 3-4; Psalm 120 CJB

1 Timothy 6

1 Those who are under the yoke of slavery should regard their masters as worthy of full respect, so that the name of God and the teaching will not be brought into disrepute.

2 And those who have believing masters are not to show them less respect on the ground that they are brothers; on the contrary, they should serve all the more diligently, since those benefiting from their service are believers whom they love. Teach and exhort people about these things.

3 If anyone teaches differently and does not agree to the sound precepts of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah and to the doctrine that is in keeping with godliness,

4 he is swollen with conceit and understands nothing. Instead, he has a morbid desire for controversies and word-battles, out of which come jealousy, dissension, insults, evil suspicions,

5 and constant wrangling among people whose minds no longer function properly and who have been deprived of the truth, so that they imagine that religion is a road to riches.

6 Now true religion does bring great riches, but only to those who are content with what they have.

7 For we have brought nothing into the world; and we can take nothing out of it;

8 so if we have food and clothing, we will be satisfied with these.

9 Furthermore, those whose goal is to be rich fall into temptation; they get trapped in many foolish and hurtful ambitions which plunge them into ruin and destruction.

10 For the love of money is a root of all the evils; because of this craving, some people have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves to the heart with many pains.

11 But you, as a man of God, flee from these things; and pursue righteousness, godliness, faithfulness, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

12 Fight the good fight of the faith, take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you testified so well to your faith before many witnesses.

13 I charge you before God, who gives life to all things, and before the Messiah Yeshua, who in his witness to Pontius Pilate gave the same good testimony,

14 to obey your commission spotlessly and irreproachably until our Lord Yeshua the Messiah appears.

15 His appearing will be brought about in its own time by the blessed and sole Sovereign, who is King of kings and Lord of lords,

16 who alone is immortal, who dwells in unapproachable light that no human being has ever seen or can see - to him be honor and eternal power. Amen.

17 As for those who do have riches in this present world, charge them not to be proud and not to let their hopes rest on the uncertainties of riches but to rest their hopes on God, who richly provides us with all things for our enjoyment.

18 Charge them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, to be generous and ready to share.

19 In this way they will treasure up for themselves a good foundation for the future, so that they may lay hold of the real life.

20 Oh, Timothy! Keep safe what has been entrusted to you. Turn away from the ungodly babblings and the argumentative opposition of what is falsely called "knowledge."

21 For many who promise this "knowledge" have missed the mark, as far as the faith is concerned. Grace be with you.

Jeremiah 3

1 [ADONAI] says: "If a man divorces his wife, and she leaves him and marries another man, then if the first one marries her again, that land will be completely defiled. But you prostituted yourself to many lovers, yet you want to return to me?" says ADONAI.

2 "Raise your eyes to the bare hills, take a look: where have you not had sex? You sat by the roadsides waiting for them like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.

3 For this reason the showers have been withheld, there has been no rain in the spring; still you maintain a whore's brazen look and refuse to be ashamed.

4 Didn't you just now cry to me, 'My father, you are my friend from my youth'?

5 [thinking,] 'He won't bear a grudge forever, will he? He wouldn't maintain it right to the end.' You say this, but you keep doing evil things, you just do whatever you want."

6 In the days of Yoshiyahu the king, ADONAI asked me, "Have you seen the things that backsliding Isra'el has been doing? She goes up on every bare hill and under every green tree and prostitutes herself there.

7 I said that after she had done all these things, she would return to me; but she hasn't returned. Meanwhile, her unfaithful sister Y'hudah has been watching.

8 I saw that even though backsliding Isra'el had committed adultery, so that I had sent her away and given her a divorce document, unfaithful Y'hudah her sister was not moved to fear - instead she too went and prostituted herself.

9 The ease with which Isra'el prostituted herself defiled the land, as she committed adultery with stones and with logs.

10 Yet in spite of all this, her unfaithful sister Y'hudah has not returned to me wholeheartedly; she only makes a pretense of it," said ADONAI.

11 Then ADONAI said to me, "Backsliding Isra'el has proved herself more righteous than unfaithful Y'hudah.

12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north: '"Return, backsliding Isra'el," says ADONAI. "I will not frown on you, for I am merciful," says ADONAI. "I will not bear a grudge forever.

13 Only acknowledge your guilt, that you have committed crimes against ADONAI your God, that you were promiscuous with strangers under every green tree, and that you have not paid attention to my voice," says ADONAI.

14 "Return, backsliding children," says ADONAI; "for I am your master. I will take you, one from a city, two from a family, and bring you to Tziyon.

15 I will give you shepherds after my own heart, and they will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

16 "'"And," says ADONAI, "in those days, when your numbers have increased in the land, people will no longer talk about the ark for the covenant of ADONAI - they won't think about it, they won't miss it, and they won't make another one.

17 When that time comes, they will call Yerushalayim the throne of ADONAI. All the nations will be gathered there to the name of ADONAI, to Yerushalayim. No longer will they live according to their stubbornly evil hearts.

18 In those days, the house of Y'hudah will live together with the house of Isra'el; they will come together from the lands in the north to the land I gave your ancestors as their heritage.

19 "'"I thought that I would like to put you among the sons [with inheritance rights] and give you a pleasant land, the best heritage of all the nations. I thought that you would call me 'My father' and never stop following me.

20 But like a faithless woman who betrays her husband, you, house of Isra'el, have betrayed me," says ADONAI.'"

21 A sound is heard on the heights, the house of Isra'el crying, pleading for mercy, because they have perverted their way and forgotten ADONAI their God.

22 "Return, backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding." "Here we are, we are coming to you, for you are ADONAI our God.

23 Indeed the hills have proved a delusion, likewise the orgies on the mountains. Truly the salvation of Isra'el is in ADONAI our God.

24 But from our youth the shameful thing [idolatry] has devoured the fruit of our ancestors' work, their flocks and herds, their sons and daughters.

25 Let us lie down in our shame, let our disgrace cover us, for we have sinned against ADONAI our God, both we and our ancestors, from our youth until today; we have not paid attention to the voice of ADONAI our God."

Jeremiah 4

1 "Isra'el, if you will return," says ADONAI, "yes, return to me; and if you will banish your abominations from my presence without wandering astray again;

2 and if you will swear, 'As ADONAI lives,' in truth, justice and righteousness; then the nations will bless themselves by him, and in him will they glory."

3 For here is what ADONAI says to the people of Y'hudah and Yerushalayim: "Break up your ground that hasn't been plowed, and do not sow among thorns."

4 "People of Y'hudah and inhabitants of Yerushalayim, circumcise yourselves for ADONAI, remove the foreskins of your heart! Otherwise my fury will lash out like fire, burning so hot that no one can quench it, because of how evil your actions are.

5 "Announce in Y'hudah, proclaim in Yerushalayim; say: 'Blow the shofar in the land!' Shout the message aloud: 'Assemble! Let us go to the fortified cities!'

6 Set up a signal toward Tziyon, head for cover without delay. For I will bring disaster from the north, yes, dire destruction.

7 A lion has risen from his lair, a destroyer of nations has set out, left his own place to ruin your land, to demolish and depopulate your cities."

8 So wrap yourselves in sackcloth, lament and wail, for ADONAI's fierce anger has not turned away from us.

9 "When that day comes," says ADONAI, "the king's heart will fail him, likewise the princes'; the cohanim will be appalled and the prophets stupefied."

10 Then I said, "Oh, Adonai ELOHIM! Surely you have sadly deceived this people and Yerushalayim by saying, 'You will have peace,' when the sword is at our very throats!"

11 "At that time it will be said of this people and of Yerushalayim: 'A scorching wind from the desert heights is sweeping down on my people.' It is not coming to winnow or cleanse;

12 this wind of mine is too strong for that. Now I will pass sentence on them."

13 Here he comes, like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind, his horses faster than eagles! Woe to us, we are doomed!

14 Wash the evil from your heart, Yerushalayim, so that you can be saved. How long will you harbor within yourselves your evil thoughts?

15 For a voice is announcing the news from Dan, proclaiming disaster from the hills of Efrayim:

16 "Report it to the nations, proclaim about Yerushalayim: '[Enemies] are coming from a distant country, watching and shouting their war cry against the cities of Y'hudah.'

17 Like guards in a field they surround her, because she has rebelled against me," says ADONAI.

18 "Your own ways and your actions have brought these things on yourselves. This is your wickedness, so bitter! It has reached your very heart."

19 My guts! My guts! I'm writhing in pain! My heart! It beats wildly - I can't stay still! - because I have heard the shofar sound; it's the call to war.

20 The news is disaster after disaster! All the land is ruined! My tents are suddenly destroyed, my tent curtains in an instant.

21 How long must I see that signal and hear the shofar sound?

22 "It is because my people are foolish - they do not know me; they are stupid children, without understanding, wise when doing evil; but they don't know how to do good."

23 I looked at the land - it was unformed and void - and at the sky - it had no light.

24 I looked at the mountains, and they shook - all the hills moved back and forth.

25 I looked, and there was no human being; all the birds in the air had fled.

26 I looked, and the fertile fields were a desert, all the land's cities were razed to the ground at the presence of ADONAI, before his burning anger.

27 For here is what ADONAI says: "The whole land will be desolate (although I will not destroy it completely).

28 Because of this, the land will mourn and the sky above be black; for I have spoken, I have decided, I will not change my mind, I will not turn back."

29 At the noise of the horsemen and archers, the entire city flees - some plunge into thickets; others climb rocks; all cities are deserted; no one lives there.

30 And you, who are doomed to be plundered, what do you mean by putting on crimson, decking yourselves with jewels and gold, enlarging your eyes with eye make-up? You beautify yourself in vain - your lovers despise you, they seek your life!

31 For I have heard a sound like a woman in labor, in anguish giving birth to her first child. It is the sound of the daughter of Tziyon gasping for breath as she spreads her hands: "Woe to me! Everything in me is so weary before the killers."

Psalm 120

1 A song of ascents: I called to ADONAI in my distress, and he answered me.

2 Rescue me, ADONAI, from lips that tell lies, from a tongue full of deceit.

3 What has he in store for you, deceitful tongue? What more will he do to you?

4 A warrior's sharp arrows, with red-hot coals from a broom tree.

5 How wretched I am, that I'm an alien in Meshekh, that I must live among the tents of Keidar!

6 I have had to live far too long with those who hate peace.

7 I am all for peace; but when I speak, they are for war.

November 5, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 4

2 Timothy 1; Jeremiah 5-6; Psalm 121 CJB

2 Timothy 1

1 From: Sha'ul, an emissary of the Messiah Yeshua by God's will, which holds forth a promise of life through being united with Messiah Yeshua

2 To: Timothy, my dear son: Grace, mercy and shalom from God the Father and the Messiah Yeshua, our Lord.

3 I give thanks to God, whom, like my forbears, I worship with a clean conscience, as I regularly remember you in my prayers night and day.

4 I am reminded of your tears, and I long to see you, so that I might be filled with joy.

5 I recall your sincere trust, the same trust that your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice had first; and I am convinced that you too now have this trust.

6 For this reason, I am reminding you to fan the flame of God's gift, which you received through s'mikhah from me.

7 For God gave us a Spirit who produces not timidity, but power, love and self-discipline.

8 So don't be ashamed of bearing testimony to our Lord or to me, his prisoner. On the contrary, accept your share in suffering disgrace for the sake of the Good News. God will give you the strength for it,

9 since he delivered us and called us to a life of holiness as his people. It was not because of our deeds, but because of his own purpose and the grace which he gave to us who are united with the Messiah Yeshua. He did this before the beginning of time,

10 but made it public only now through the appearing of our Deliverer, the Messiah Yeshua, who abolished death and, through the Good News, revealed life and immortality.

11 It was for this Good News that I was appointed a proclaimer, emissary and teacher of the Goyim;

12 and this is why I suffer as I do. But I am not ashamed, because I know him in whom I have put my trust, and I am persuaded that he can keep safe until that Day what he has entrusted to me.

13 Follow the pattern of the sound teachings you have heard from me, with trust and the love which is yours in the Messiah Yeshua.

14 Keep safe the great treasure that has been entrusted to you, with the help of the Ruach HaKodesh, who lives in us.

15 You know that everyone in the province of Asia turned away from me, including Phygelus and Ermogenes.

16 May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he was often a comfort to me and was not ashamed of my being in prison.

17 On the contrary, when he came to Rome, he diligently searched for me and found me.

18 May the Lord grant it to him to find mercy from ADONAI on that Day. And you know very well how much he helped me in Ephesus.

Jeremiah 5

1 "Roam the streets of Yerushalayim look around, observe and ask in its open spaces: if you can find anyone (if there is anyone!) who acts with justice and seeks the truth, I will pardon her.

2 And though they say, 'As ADONAI lives,' the fact is that they are swearing falsely."

3 ADONAI, your eyes look for truth. You struck them, but they weren't affected; you [nearly] destroyed them, but they refused correction. They made their faces harder than rock, refusing to repent.

4 My reaction was, "These must be the poor, the foolish, not knowing the way of ADONAI or the rulings of their God.

5 I will go to the prominent men, and I will speak to them; for they know the way of ADONAI and the rulings of their God." But these had completely broken the yoke and torn the harness off.

6 This is why a forest lion kills them, why a desert wolf can plunder them, why a leopard guards their cities - all who leave are torn to pieces - because their crimes are many, their backslidings keep increasing.

7 "Why should I forgive you? Your people have abandoned me and sworn by non-gods. When I fed them to the full, they committed adultery, thronging to the brothels.

8 They have become like well-fed horses, lusty stallions, each one neighing after his neighbor's wife.

9 Should I not punish for this?" asks ADONAI. "Should I not be avenged on a nation like this?"

10 Go through her rows [of vines], and destroy them (but don't destroy them completely): strip away her branches, they do not belong to ADONAI.

11 "For the house of Isra'el and the house of Y'hudah have thoroughly betrayed me," says ADONAI.

12 They have denied ADONAI, they have said, "He won't do anything, calamity will not strike us, we will see neither sword nor famine.

13 The prophets are merely wind, they do not have the word; the things that they are predicting will happen only to them."

14 Therefore ADONAI Elohei-Tzva'ot says: "Because you people speak this way, I will make my words fire in your mouth, [Yirmeyahu,] and this people wood; so that it will devour them.

15 I will bring on you, house of Isra'el, a distant nation," says ADONAI, "an enduring nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language you do not know - you will not understand what they are saying.

16 Their quiver is like an open grave, they are all mighty warriors.

17 They will eat up your harvest and your bread, they will eat up your sons and your daughters, they will eat up your flocks and your herds, they will eat up your vines and your fig trees; with the sword they will beat down your fortified cities, in which you trust.

18 But even in those days," says ADONAI, "I will not completely destroy you.

19 And when your people ask, 'Why has ADONAI our God done all these things to us?' you are to give them this answer: 'Just as you abandoned me and served strange gods in your own land, so likewise you will serve strangers in a land that is not your own.'

20 Announce this in the house of Ya'akov, proclaim it in Y'hudah; say:

21 'Hear this, stupid, brainless people, who have eyes but do not see, who have ears but do not hear:

22 Don't you fear me? - says ADONAI. Won't you tremble at my presence? I made the shore the limit for the sea; by eternal decree it cannot pass. Its waves may toss, but to no avail; although they roar, they cannot cross it.

23 But this people has a rebellious, defiant heart; they have rebelled and gone!

24 They don't say to themselves, "Let's fear ADONAI our God, who gives the fall and spring rains in season, who reserves us the weeks assigned for harvest."

25 Your crimes have overturned nature's rules, your sins have kept back good from you.'

26 "For among my people there are wicked men, who, like fowlers, lie in wait and set traps to catch their fellow human beings.

27 Their houses are as full of fraud as a cage full of birds. They grow rich and great,

28 sleek and bloated; they excel in acts of wickedness but do not plead on behalf of the orphan, thus enabling his cause to succeed; nor do they judge in favor of the poor.

29 "Should I not punish for this?" asks ADONAI. "Should I not be avenged on a nation like this?

30 A shocking and horrifying thing has happened in the land:

31 The prophets prophesy lies, the cohanim obey the prophets, and my people love it that way. But what will you do at the end of it all?

Jeremiah 6

1 "Head for cover, people of Binyamin, get out of Yerushalayim! Blow the shofar in T'koa, light the beacon on Beit-Hakerem. For disaster threatens from the north, with great destruction.

2 Although she is beautiful and delicate, I am cutting off the daughter of Tziyon."

3 Shepherds advance on her with their flocks; all around her they pitch their tents, each grazing his own plot of pasture.

4 "Prepare for war against her! Get up! Let's attack at noon!" "Woe to us! for the day is waning, evening shadows are lengthening."

5 "Get up! Let's attack at night! Let's destroy her palaces!"

6 For ADONAI-Tzva'ot says this: "Cut down her trees, and raise a siege-ramp against Yerushalayim! This is the city to be punished; in her there is nothing but oppression.

7 Just as a cistern keeps its water fresh, so she keeps her wickedness fresh! Violence and destruction are heard within her, always before me sickness and wounds.

8 Accept correction, Yerushalayim, or I will be estranged from you and turn you into a desolate waste, a land without inhabitants."

9 Thus says ADONAI-Tzva'ot: "They will glean the remnant of Isra'el as thoroughly as in a vineyard - one last time, like a grape-picker, pass your hand over the vines."

10 To whom should I speak? Whom should I warn? Who will listen to me? Their ears are dull, they can't pay attention. For them the word of ADONAI has become unattractive, an object of scorn.

11 This is why I am full of ADONAI's fury; I am weary of holding it back. "Pour it out on the children in the street and on the groups of young men gathered; for husbands and wives will be taken together, seniors as well as the very old.

12 Their homes will be turned over to others, their fields together with their wives. Yes, I will stretch out my hand against those who are living in the land," says ADONAI.

13 "For from the least to the greatest of them, all are greedy for gains; prophets and cohanim alike, they all practice fraud

14 they dress the wound of my people, but only superficially, saying, 'There is perfect shalom,' when there is no shalom.

15 "They should be ashamed of their detestable deeds, but they are not ashamed at all; they don't know how to blush. Therefore when others fall, they too will fall; when I punish them, they will stumble," says ADONAI.

16 Here is what ADONAI says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask about the ancient paths, 'Which one is the good way?' Take it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not take it.'

17 I appointed sentinels to direct them: 'Listen for the sound of the shofar.' But they said, 'We will not listen.'

18 So hear, you nations; know, you assembly, what there is against them.

19 Hear, oh earth! I am going to bring disaster on this people; it is the consequence of their own way of thinking; for they pay no attention to my words; and as for my Torah, they reject it.

20 What do I care about incense from Sh'va or sweet cane from a distant land? Your burnt offerings are unacceptable, your sacrifices don't please me."

21 Therefore thus says ADONAI: "I will put obstacles in the way of this people that they will stumble over fathers and sons, neighbors and friends, all will perish together."

22 Here is what ADONAI says: "A people is coming from the land of the north, a great nation will be aroused from the ends of the earth.

23 They will take hold of bow and spear; they are cruel; they have no compassion: their noise as they ride on horses is like the roaring sea; and they are equipped for battle against you, daughter of Tziyon.

24 'We have heard the news, and our hands fall limp; anguish has seized us, pain like a mother's in childbirth.'"

25 Don't go into the countryside, don't walk out on the road; for the sword of the enemy is spreading terror in every direction.

26 Daughter of my people, put on sackcloth, roll in ashes, mourn as if for an only son, wail most bitterly; for suddenly the destroyer will come upon us.

27 "I have made you a refiner and tester of my people, to know and test how they behave.

28 All of them are total rebels, spreading slanderous gossip; they are bronze and iron, [inferior metals,] all of them corrupt.

29 The bellows blast away; and though the lead is consumed by the fire, in vain has the smelter refined, for the wicked have not been separated.

30 They are called 'rejected silver,' because ADONAI has rejected them."

Psalm 121

1 A song of ascents: If I raise my eyes to the hills, from where will my help come?

2 My help comes from ADONAI, the maker of heaven and earth.

3 He will not let your foot slip -your guardian is not asleep.

4 No, the guardian of Isra'el never slumbers or sleeps.

5 ADONAI is your guardian; at your right hand ADONAI provides you with shade

6 the sun can't strike you during the day or even the moon at night.

7 ADONAI will guard you against all harm; he will guard your life.

8 ADONAI will guard your coming and going from now on and forever.

November 5, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 5

2 Timothy 2; Jeremiah 7-8; Psalm 122 CJB

2 Timothy 2

1 So then, you, my son, be empowered by the grace that comes from the Messiah Yeshua.

2 And the things you heard from me, which were supported by many witnesses, these things commit to faithful people, such as will be competent to teach others also.

3 Accept your share in suffering disgrace as a good soldier of the Messiah Yeshua.

4 No soldier on duty gets involved with civilian affairs, since he has to please his commanding officer.

5 Also an athlete can't win a contest unless he competes according to the rules.

6 The farmer who has done the hard work should be the first to receive a share of the harvest.

7 Think about what I am saying, for the Lord will enable you to understand everything.

8 Remember Yeshua the Messiah, who was raised from the dead, who was a descendant of David. This is the Good News I proclaim,

9 and for which I am suffering to the point of being bound in chains - but the Word of God is not bound in chains!

10 Why do I persevere through it all? For the sake of those who have been chosen, so that they too may obtain the deliverance that comes through the Messiah Yeshua, with eternal glory.

11 Here is a statement you can trust: If we have died with him, we will also live with him.

12 If we persevere, we will also rule with him If we disown him, he will also disown us.

13 If we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.

14 Keep reminding people of this, and charge them solemnly before the Lord not to engage in word-battles. They accomplish nothing useful and are a catastrophe for the hearers!

15 Do all you can to present yourself to God as someone worthy of his approval, as a worker with no need to be ashamed, because he deals straightforwardly with the Word of the Truth.

16 But keep away from godless babbling, for those who engage in it will only become more ungodly,

17 and their teaching will eat away at people like gangrene. Hymenaeus and Philetus are among these;

18 they have missed the mark, as far as the truth is concerned, by saying that our resurrection has already taken place; and they are overturning some people's faith.

19 Nevertheless, God's firm foundation stands, stamped with these words: "The Lord knows his own," and, "Let everyone who claims he belongs to the Lord stand apart from wrongdoing."

20 In a large house there are dishes and pots not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay. That is, some are meant for honorable use and some for dishonorable.

21 If a person keeps himself free of defilement by the latter, he will be a vessel set aside for honorable use by the master of the house and ready for every kind of good work.

22 So, flee the passions of youth; and, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart, pursue righteousness, faithfulness, love and peace.

23 But stay away from stupid and ignorant controversies - you know that they lead to fights,

24 and a slave of the Lord shouldn't fight. On the contrary, he should be kind to everyone, a good teacher, and not resentful when mistreated.

25 Also he should be gentle as he corrects his opponents. For God may perhaps grant them the opportunity to turn from their sins, acquire full knowledge of the truth,

26 come to their senses and escape the trap of the Adversary, after having been captured alive by him to do his will.

Jeremiah 7

1 This word came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI:

2 "Stand at the gate of the house of ADONAI and proclaim this word: 'Listen to the word of ADONAI, all you from Y'hudah who enter these gates to worship ADONAI!

3 Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: "Improve your ways and actions, and I will let you stay in this place.

4 Don't rely on that deceitful slogan, 'The temple of ADONAI, the temple of ADONAI - these [buildings] are the temple of ADONAI.'

5 No, but if you really improve your ways and actions; if you really administer justice between people;

6 if you stop oppressing foreigners, orphans and widows; if you stop shedding innocent blood in this place; and if you stop following other gods, to your own harm;

7 then I will let you stay in this place, in the land I gave to your ancestors forever and ever.

8 Look! You are relying on deceitful words that can't do you any good.

9 First you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, offer to Ba'al and go after other gods that you haven't known.

10 Then you come and stand before me in this house that bears my name and say, 'We are saved' - so that you can go on doing these abominations!

11 Do you regard this house, which bears my name, as a cave for bandits? I can see for myself what's going on," says ADONAI.

12 "Go to the place in Shiloh that used to be mine, that used to bear my name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Isra'el.

13 I spoke to you again and again, but you wouldn't listen. I called you, but you wouldn't answer. Now," says ADONAI, "because you have done all these things,

14 I will do to the house that bears my name, on which you rely, and to the place I gave you and your ancestors, what I did to Shiloh;

15 and I will drive you out of my presence, just as I drove out all your kinsmen, all the descendants of Efrayim."'

16 "So you, [Yirmeyahu,] don't pray for this people! Don't cry, pray or intercede on their behalf with me; because I won't listen to you.

17 Don't you see what they are doing in the cities of Y'hudah and in the streets of Yerushalayim?

18 The children gather the wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and, just to provoke me, they pour out drink offerings to other gods!

19 Are they really provoking me," asks ADONAI, "or are they provoking themselves, to their own ruin?"

20 Therefore, here is what Adonai ELOHIM says: "My anger and fury will be poured out on this place, on men, animals, trees in the fields and produce growing from the ground; and it will burn without being quenched."

21 Thus says ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el: "You may as well eat the meat of your burnt offerings along with that of your sacrifices.

22 For I didn't speak to your ancestors or give them orders concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.

23 Rather, what I did order them was this: 'Pay attention to what I say. Then I will be your God, and you will be my people. In everything, live according to the way that I order you, so that things will go well for you.'

24 But they neither listened nor paid attention, but lived according to their own plans, in the stubbornness of their evil hearts, thus going backward and not forward.

25 You have done this from the day your ancestors came out of Egypt until today. Even though I sent you all my servants the prophets, sending them time after time,

26 they would not listen or pay attention to me, but stiffened their necks; they did worse than their ancestors.

27 So tell them all this; but they won't listen to you; likewise, call to them; but they won't answer you.

28 Therefore, say to them, 'This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of ADONAI their God. They won't take correction; faithfulness has perished; it has vanished from their mouths.

29 Cut off your hair, and throw it away, take up a lament on the bare hills, for ADONAI has rejected and abandoned the generation that rouses his anger.'

30 "For the people of Y'hudah have done what is evil from my perspective," says ADONAI; "they have set up their detestable things in the house which bears my name, to defile it.

31 They have built the high places of Tofet in the Ben-Hinnom Valley, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, something I never ordered; in fact, such a thing never even entered my mind!

32 Therefore, the days are coming," says ADONAI, "when it will no longer be called either Tofet or the Ben-Hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter - they will put the dead in Tofet, because there will be no space left [anywhere else].

33 The corpses of this people will become food for the birds in the air and the wild animals; no one will frighten them away.

34 Then in the cities of Y'hudah and the streets of Yerushalayim I will silence the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of bridegroom and bride; because the land will be reduced to ruins.

Jeremiah 8

1 "At that time," says ADONAI, "[these enemies] will remove the bones of the kings of Y'hudah, the bones of his princes, the bones of the cohanim, the bones of the prophets and the bones of the inhabitants of Yerushalayim from their graves.

2 They will spread them out, exposed to the sun, the moon and the entire army of heaven, whom they loved, served, walked after, sought after and worshipped. The bones will not be collected or reburied but will be left lying on the ground like dung.

3 All the survivors of this evil family who remain wherever I have driven them will prefer death to life," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot.

4 "You are to tell them that ADONAI says: 'If a person falls, doesn't he get up again? If someone goes astray, doesn't he turn back?

5 Why do these people keep backsliding? Why is their backsliding so persistent? They cling to deceit and refuse to return!

6 I listened attentively but they spoke nothing right. No one repents of his wickedness, saying, "What have I done!" Each runs off in his own direction, like a horse plunging headlong into battle.

7 Storks in the sky know their seasons; doves, swallows and cranes their migration times; but my people do not know the rulings of ADONAI!

8 "'How can you say, "We are wise; ADONAI's Torah is with us," when in fact the lying pen of the scribes has turned it into falsehood?

9 The wise are put to shame, alarmed, entrapped. They have rejected the word of ADONAI, so what wisdom do they have?

10 "'Therefore I will give their wives to others, and their fields to those who take them over; for from the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gains; prophets and cohanim alike all practice fraud

11 they dress the wound of the daughter of my people, but only superficially, saying, "There is perfect shalom," when there is no shalom.

12 They should be ashamed of their detestable deeds, but they are not ashamed at all, they don't know how to blush. So when others fall, they too will fall; when I punish them, they will stumble,' says ADONAI.

13 "'I will put an end to them,' says ADONAI. 'There are no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig tree; the leaf has withered; and what I have given them will pass from their possession.'"

14 "Why are we sitting still? Assemble! Let's enter the fortified cities and meet our doom there! For ADONAI our God has doomed us; he has given us bitter water to drink, because we have sinned against ADONAI.

15 When we look for peace, nothing good comes; when we seek a time of healing, instead there is terror."

16 From Dan can be heard the snorting of his horses; when his stallions neigh, the whole land trembles. For they come devouring the land and all in it, the city and those who dwell there.

17 "Yes, now I am sending snakes among you, vipers that no one can charm, and they will bite you," says ADONAI.

18 My grief has no cure, I am sick at heart.

19 Listen to my people's cry of distress out of a distant land: "Is ADONAI no longer in Tziyon? Is her king no longer there?" "Why do they provoke me with their idols and their futile foreign gods?"

20 "The harvest has passed, the summer is over, and still we are not saved."

21 The daughter of my people is broken, and it's tearing me to pieces; everything looks dark to me, horror seizes me.

22 Has Gil'ad exhausted its healing resin? Is no physician there? If there is, then why is the daughter of my people so slow to recover her health?

Psalm 122

1 A song of ascents. By David: I was glad when they said to me, "The house of ADONAI! Let's go!"

2 Our feet were already standing at your gates, Yerushalayim.

3 Yerushalayim, built as a city fostering friendship and unity.

4 The tribes have gone up there, the tribes of ADONAI, as a witness to Isra'el, to give thanks to the name of ADONAI.

5 For there the thrones of justice were set up, the thrones of the house of David.

6 Pray for shalom in Yerushalayim; may those who love you prosper.

7 May shalom be within your ramparts, prosperity in your palaces.

8 For the sake of my family and friends, I say, "Shalom be within you!"

9 For the sake of the house of ADONAI our God, I will seek your well-being.

November 6, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 6

2 Timothy 3; Jeremiah 9-10; Psalm 123 CJB

2 Timothy 3

1 Moreover, understand this: in the acharit-hayamim will come trying times.

2 People will be self-loving, money-loving, proud, arrogant, insulting, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,

3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, uncontrolled, brutal, hateful of good,

4 traitorous, headstrong, swollen with conceit, loving pleasure rather than God,

5 as they retain the outer form of religion but deny its power. Stay away from these people!

6 For some of them worm their way into homes and get control of weak-willed women who are heaped with sins and swayed by various impulses,

7 who are always learning but never able to come to full knowledge of the truth.

8 In the same way as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moshe, so also these people oppose the truth. They are people with corrupted minds, whose trust cannot pass the test.

9 However, they won't get very far; because everyone will see how stupid they are, just as happened with those two.

10 But you, you have closely followed my teaching, conduct, purpose in life, trust, steadfastness, love and perseverance -

11 as well as the persecutions and sufferings that came my way in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them.

12 And indeed, all who want to live a godly life united with the Messiah Yeshua will be persecuted,

13 while evil people and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving others and being deceived themselves.

14 But you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, recalling the people from whom you learned it;

15 and recalling too how from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which can give you the wisdom that leads to deliverance through trusting in Yeshua the Messiah.

16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is valuable for teaching the truth, convicting of sin, correcting faults and training in right living;

17 thus anyone who belongs to God may be fully equipped for every good work.

Jeremiah 9

1 wish my head were made of water and my eyes were a fountain of tears, so that I could cry day and night over the slain of the daughter of my people!

2 I wish I were out in the desert, in some travelers' lodge then I could get away from my people and distance myself from them! "Indeed they are all adulterers, a band of traitors is what they are.

3 They bend their tongues, their 'bow' of falsehood, and hold sway in the land, but not for truth. For they go from evil to evil, and me they do not know," says ADONAI.

4 Everyone, be on guard against your neighbor, don't trust even a brother; for every brother is out to trick you, and every neighbor goes around gossiping.

5 Everyone deceives his neighbor, no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongues to lie, they wear themselves out with sinning.

6 "You inhabit a world of deceit; deceitfully they refuse to know me," says ADONAI.

7 "Therefore," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot, "I will refine them and test them. What else can I do with the daughter of my people?

8 Their tongues are sharpened arrows; with their mouths they speak deceit - they say nice words to their neighbors, while inwardly plotting against them.

9 Should I not punish them for these things?" asks ADONAI. "Should I not take vengeance on such a nation?"

10 I weep and wail for the mountains and lament over the desert pastures, because they have been burned up; no one passes through; they no longer hear the sound of cattle; the birds and wild animals have fled, are gone.

11 "I will make Yerushalayim a heap of ruins, turn it into a lair for jackals, and make the cities of Y'hudah desolate, with no one living there."

12 Who is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of ADONAI spoken, so that he can proclaim it? Why has the land perished and been laid waste like a desert, so that no one passes through?

13 ADONAI answers: "Because they abandoned my Torah, which I set before them, and neither listened to what I said nor lived accordingly,

14 but have lived by their own hearts' stubbornness and by the ba'alim, as their ancestors taught them

15 therefore," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el: "I will feed this people bitter wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink.

16 I will scatter them among nations that neither they nor their ancestors have known. I will send the sword after them until I have wiped them out."

17 Thus says ADONAI-Tzva'ot: "Mark this, then summon the mourning women, so that they will come; send for those who are best [at mourning], so that they will come:

18 'Have them hurry and wail for us, so our eyes will be wet from crying, and our eyelids gush with tears.'

19 For the sound of wailing is heard from Tziyon: 'We are utterly ruined, we are completely ashamed, because we have left the land, and our homes have been torn down!'"

20 You women, hear the word of ADONAI! Let your ears receive the words from his mouth. Teach your daughters how to wail, have each teach her friend how to lament:

21 "Death has come up through our windows, it has entered our palaces, it has cut down children in the streets and young people in the public places."

22 Say: "Here is what ADONAI says: 'The corpses of people are scattered like dung in an open field, like sheaves left behind by the reaper with no one to gather them.'"

23 Here is what ADONAI says: "The wise man should not boast of his wisdom, the powerful should not boast of his power, the wealthy should not boast of his wealth;

24 instead, let the boaster boast about this: that he understands and knows me - that I am ADONAI, practicing grace, justice and righteousness in the land; for in these things I take pleasure," says ADONAI.

25 "The days are coming," says ADONAI, "when I will punish all those who have been circumcised in their uncircumcision -

26 Egypt, Y'hudah, Edom, the people of 'Amon and Mo'av, and all those living in the desert who cut the edges [of their beard]: "For although all the Goyim are uncircumcised, all the house of Isra'el have uncircumcised hearts."

Jeremiah 10

1 Hear the word ADONAI speaks to you, house of Isra'el!

2 Here is what ADONAI says: "Don't learn the way of the Goyim, don't be frightened by astrological signs, even if the Goyim are afraid of them;

3 for the customs of the peoples are nothing. They cut down a tree in the forest; a craftsman works it with his axe;

4 they deck it with silver and gold. They fix it with hammer and nails, so that it won't move.

5 Like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch, it cannot speak. It has to be carried, because it cannot walk. Do not be afraid of it it can do nothing bad; likewise it is unable to do anything good!"

6 There is no one like you, ADONAI! You are great, and your name is great and mighty.

7 Who would not fear you, king of the nations? For it is your due! - since among all the wise of the nations and among all their royalty, there is no one like you.

8 One and all they are boorish and stupid; the teaching of their nothings is a piece of wood!

9 Silver is beaten into plates, then imported from Tarshish. Gold from Ufaz is worked by a craftsman and shaped by the hands of a goldsmith. They are clothed in blue and purple, all the work of skillful men.

10 But ADONAI, God, is the true God, the living God, the everlasting king. At his anger, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his fury.

11 "This is what you must say to them: 'The gods that did not make heaven and earth will perish from earth and from under heaven.'"

12 God made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom spread out the sky by his understanding.

13 When he thunders, the waters in heaven roar, he raises clouds from the ends of the earth, he makes the lightning flash in the rain and brings the wind out from his storehouses.

14 At this, everyone is proved stupid, ignorant, every goldsmith put to shame by his idol! The figures he casts are a fraud; there is no breath in them;

15 they are nothings, ridiculous objects; when the day for their punishment comes, they will perish.

16 Ya'akov's portion is not like these, for he is the one who formed all things. Isra'el is the tribe he claims as his heritage; ADONAI-Tzva'ot is his name.

17 You who are living under the siege, gather your belongings off the ground,

18 for here is what ADONAI says: "At this time I am slinging away the inhabitants of the land; I will distress them, so that they will feel it."

19 Woe to me because of my wound! My injury is incurable! I used to say, "It's only an illness, and I can bear it."

20 But now my tent is ruined, all its cords are severed; my children have left me and are no more; there is no one to set up my tent again, no one to raise its curtains.

21 The shepherds have become stupid, they have not consulted ADONAI. This is why they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered.

22 Listen! A noise! It's coming closer! A great uproar from the land to the north, to make the cities of Y'hudah desolate, a place for jackals to live.

23 ADONAI, I know that the way of humans is not in their control, humans are not able to direct their steps as they walk.

24 ADONAI, correct me, but in moderation, not in your anger, or you'll reduce me to nothing.

25 Pour out your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you, also on the families that do not call on your name. For they have consumed Ya'akov - consumed him and finished him off, and laid waste to his home.

Psalm 123

1 A song of ascents: I raise my eyes to you, whose throne is in heaven.

2 As a servant looks to the hand of his master, or a slave-girl to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes turn to ADONAI our God, until he has mercy on us.

3 Have mercy on us, ADONAI, have mercy; for we have had our fill of contempt,

4 more than our fill of scorn from the complacent and contempt from the arrogant.

November 7, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 7

2 Timothy 4; Jeremiah 11-12; Psalm 124 CJB

2 Timothy 4

1 I solemnly charge you before God and the Messiah Yeshua, who will judge the living and the dead when he appears and establishes his Kingdom:

2 proclaim the Word! Be on hand with it whether the time seems right or not. Convict, censure and exhort with unfailing patience and with teaching.

3 For the time is coming when people will not have patience for sound teaching, but will cater to their passions and gather around themselves teachers who say whatever their ears itch to hear.

4 Yes, they will stop listening to the truth, but will turn aside to follow myths.

5 But you, remain steady in every situation, endure suffering, do the work that a proclaimer of the Good News should, and do everything your service to God requires.

6 For as for me, I am already being poured out on the altar; yes, the time for my departure has arrived.

7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

8 All that awaits me now is the crown of righteousness which the Lord, "the Righteous Judge," will award to me on that Day - and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for him to appear.

9 Do your best to come to me soon.

10 For Demas, because he has fallen in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone off to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia; Titus has gone to Dalmatia -

11 only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with you, because he is a very useful helper in my work.

12 But Tychicus I have sent to Ephesus.

13 When you come, bring the coat which I left with Carpus in Troas, also the scrolls and especially the parchments.

14 Alexander the metalworker did me a great deal of harm; the Lord will render to him according to his works;c

15 and you should guard against him, because he bitterly opposed everything we said.

16 The first time I had to present my defense, no one stood by me; everyone deserted me - may it not be counted against them.

17 But the Lord stood by me and gave me power to proclaim the full message for all the Goyim to hear, and I was rescued from the lion's mouth. d

18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and bring me safely into his heavenly Kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

19 Greet Priscilla and Aquila and the household of Onesiphorus.

20 Erastus has remained in Corinth, and Trophimus I left ill at Miletus.

21 Do your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens, Linus, Claudia and all the brothers.

22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.

Jeremiah 11

1 Here is the word that came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI:

2 "Listen to the words of this covenant; then speak to the people of Y'hudah and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim;

3 tell them that ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'A curse on anyone who does not pay attention to the words of this covenant,

4 which I enjoined on your ancestors at the time that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of that iron-smelter. I said, "Listen to my voice, and carry out all my orders; then you will be my people, and I will be your God;

5 so that I can fulfill the oath that I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is today."'" Then I responded, "Amen, ADONAI."

6 ADONAI said to me, "Proclaim all these words in the cities of Y'hudah and in the streets of Yerushalayim: 'Listen to the words of this covenant, and obey them.

7 For I solemnly warned your ancestors at the time when I brought them out of the land of Egypt; and until this day I have frequently warned them, "Listen to my voice!"

8 But they have not listened or paid attention; instead, each one has lived according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart. For this reason I have brought upon them all the words of this covenant, which I ordered them to obey, but which they did not obey.'"

9 Then ADONAI said to me, "The men of Y'hudah and the people living in Yerushalayim have formed a conspiracy.

10 They have returned to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to hear my words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Isra'el and the house of Y'hudah have broken my covenant which I made with their ancestors."

11 Therefore ADONAI says, "I am going to bring on them a disaster which they will not be able to escape; and even if they cry to me, I will not listen to them.

12 Then the cities of Y'hudah and the people living in Yerushalayim will go and cry to the gods to whom they are making offerings; but they will not save them at all in their time of trouble.

13 For you have as many gods, Y'hudah, as you have towns; and you have erected as many altars for sacrificing to that shameful thing, Ba'al, as there are streets in Yerushalayim.

14 "So you, [Yirmeyahu,] don't pray for this people! Don't cry or pray on their behalf, because I won't listen to them when they cry to me because of their troubles.

15 What right does my beloved have to be in my house, when she has behaved so shamelessly with so many? Offerings of consecrated meat can no longer help, because it is when you are doing evil that you are happy."

16 ADONAI once called you an olive tree, beautiful, full of leaves and good fruit. Now with the roar of a violent storm, he has set it on fire; and its branches will be consumed.

17 For ADONAI-Tzva'ot, who planted you, has decreed evil for you. "It is because of the evil which the house of Isra'el and the house of Y'hudah did to themselves, provoking me with their offerings of incense to Ba'al."

18 ADONAI made this known to me, and then I knew - you showed me what they were doing.

19 But I was like a tame lamb led to be slaughtered; I did not know that they were plotting schemes against me - "Let's destroy the tree with its fruit, we'll cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be forgotten."

20 ADONAI-Tzva'ot, righteous judge, tester of motives and thoughts, I have committed my cause to you; so let me see your vengeance on them.

21 Therefore, here is what ADONAI says concerning the men from 'Anatot who seek your life and who tell you, "Stop prophesying in the name of ADONAI, or we will kill you ourselves" -

22 this is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says: "I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters will die by famine.

23 None of them will remain, for I will bring disaster on the men from 'Anatot when the year comes for them to be punished."

Jeremiah 12

1 ADONAI, although you would be in the right if I were to dispute with you, nevertheless I want to discuss some points of justice with you: Why do the wicked prosper? Why do the treacherous all thrive?

2 You planted them, and they took root; they grow, and they bear fruit. You are near in their mouths, though far from their hearts.

3 But, ADONAI, you know me and see me; you test my devotion to you; drag them away like sheep to be slaughtered, and set them apart for the day of slaughter.

4 How long must the land mourn and the grass in all the fields wither? The wild animals and birds are consumed because of the wickedness of those who live there; for they say, "He will not see how we end up."

5 If racing men on foot exhausts you, how will you compete against horses? You may feel secure in a land at peace, but how will you do in the Yarden's thick brush?

6 For even your own brothers and your father's family are betraying you; they are in full cry after you. Despite all their nice speech, don't believe them.

7 "I have abandoned my house, I have rejected my heritage, I have given my heart's beloved over to the hands of her foes.

8 For me, my heritage has become like a lion in the forest - she roared out against me; so now I hate her.

9 For me, my heritage is like a speckled bird of prey - other birds of prey surround her and attack her. Go, gather all the wild animals, and bring them to devour her.

10 Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard, they have trampled my plot of land, they have turned my desirable property into a desert waste.

11 Yes, they have made it a waste; wasted, it mourns to me; the whole land is wasted, because nobody really cares."

12 On all the desert's bare hills plunderers have come; yes, the sword of ADONAI devours the land from one end to the other; nothing alive is safe.

13 They sowed wheat and reaped thorns, they wore themselves out and gained nothing. So be ashamed of your [tiny] harvest, the result of ADONAI's fierce anger.

14 Here is what ADONAI says: "As for all my evil neighbors who encroach on the heritage I gave to my people Isra'el as their possession, I will uproot them from their own land, and I will uproot Y'hudah from among them.

15 Then, after I have uprooted them, I will take pity on them again and bring them back, each one to his inheritance, each one to his own land.

16 Then, if they will carefully learn my people's ways, swearing by my name, 'As ADONAI lives,' just as they taught my people to swear by Ba'al, they will be built up among my people.

17 But if they refuse to listen, then I will uproot that nation, uproot and destroy it," says ADONAI.

Psalm 124

1 A song of ascents. By David: If ADONAI hadn't been for us -let Isra'el repeat it -

2 If ADONAI hadn't been for us when people rose to attack us,

3 then, when their anger blazed against us, they would have swallowed us alive!

4 Then the water would have engulfed us, the torrent would have swept over us.

5 Yes, the raging water would have swept right over us.

6 Blessed be ADONAI, who did not leave us to be a prey for their teeth!

7 We escaped like a bird from the hunter's trap; the trap is broken, and we have escaped.

8 Our help is in the name of ADONAI, the maker of heaven and earth.

November 8, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 8

Titus 1; Jeremiah 13-14; Psalm 125 CJB

Titus 1

1 From: Sha'ul, God's slave and an emissary of Yeshua the Messiah, sent to promote among God's chosen people the trust and knowledge of truth which lead to godliness

2 and which are based on the certain hope of eternal life. God, who does not lie, promised that life before the beginning of time

3 but made public this word of his in its own season through a proclamation with which I have been entrusted by order of God, our Deliverer.

4 To: Titus, a true son in the faith we share: Grace and shalom from God the Father and from the Messiah Yeshua, our Deliverer.

5 The reason I left you in Crete was so that you might attend to the matters still not in order and appoint congregation leaders in each city-those were my instructions.

6 A leader must be blameless, husband to one wife, with believing children who do not have a reputation for being wild or rebellious.

7 For an overseer, as someone entrusted with God's affairs, must be blameless - he must not be self-willed or quick-tempered, he must not drink excessively, get into fights or be greedy for dishonest gain.

8 On the contrary, he must be hospitable, devoted to good, sober-mindedness, uprightness, holiness and self-control.

9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy Message that agrees with the doctrine; so that by his sound teaching he will be able to exhort and encourage, and also to refute those who speak against it.

10 For there are many, especially from the Circumcision faction, who are rebellious, who delude people's minds with their worthless and misleading talk.

11 They must be silenced; because they are upsetting entire households by teaching what they have no business teaching, and doing it for the sake of dishonest gain.

12 Even one of the Cretans' own prophets has said, "Cretans are always liars, evil brutes, lazy gluttons" -

13 and it's true! For this reason, you must be severe when you rebuke those who have followed this false teaching, so that they will come to be sound in their trust

14 and no longer pay attention to Judaistic myths or to the commands of people who reject the truth.

15 To all who are themselves pure, everything is pure. But to those who are defiled and without trust, nothing is pure - even their minds and consciences have been defiled.

16 They claim to know God, but with their actions they deny him. They are detestable and disobedient; they have proved themselves unfit to do anything good.

Jeremiah 13

1 ADONAI said to me, "Go, buy yourself a linen loincloth, and wrap it around your body; but don't soften it in water."

2 So I bought a loincloth, as ADONAI had said, and put it on.

3 Then the word of ADONAI came to me a second time:

4 "Take the loincloth you bought and are wearing, get up, go to Parah, and hide it there in a hole in the rock."

5 So I went and hid it in Parah, as ADONAI had ordered me.

6 A long time afterwards, ADONAI said to me, "Get up, go to Parah, and recover the loincloth I ordered you to hide there."

7 So I went to Parah and dug up the loincloth; but when I took it from the place where I had hidden it, I saw that it was ruined and useless for anything.

8 Then the word of ADONAI came to me:

9 "Here is what ADONAI says: 'This is how I will ruin what makes Y'hudah so proud and Yerushalayim so very proud:

10 I will ruin this evil people, who refuse to hear my words and live according to their own stubborn inclinations, who go after other gods to serve and worship them. They will be like this loincloth, which is useless for anything.

11 For just as a loincloth clings to a man's body, I made the whole house of Isra'el and the whole house of Y'hudah cling to me,' says ADONAI, 'so that they could be my people, building me a name and becoming for me a source of praise and honor. But they would not listen.

12 So you are to tell them, "This is what ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'Every bottle is filled with wine.'" Then when they ask you, "Don't we already know that every bottle is filled with wine?"

13 you are to answer them, "This is what ADONAI says: 'I am going to fill all the inhabitants of this land - including the kings sitting on the throne of David, the cohanim, the prophets and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim - with drunkenness.

14 Then I will smash them one against another, even fathers and sons together,' says ADONAI 'I will show neither pity nor compassion, but I will destroy them relentlessly.'"'"

15 Listen and pay attention; don't be proud! For ADONAI has spoken.

16 Give glory to ADONAI your God before the darkness falls, before your feet stumble on the mountains in the twilight, and, while you are seeking light, he turns it into deathlike shadows and makes it completely dark.

17 But if you will not hear this warning, I will weep secretly because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, streaming with tears, because ADONAI's flock is carried away captive.

18 Tell the king and the queen mother, "Come down from your thrones, for your magnificent crowns are falling from your heads."

19 The cities of the Negev are besieged, and no one can relieve them; all of Y'hudah is carried into exile, completely swept into exile.

20 Raise your eyes, and you will see them coming from the north. Where is the flock once entrusted to you, the sheep that were your pride?

21 When he sets over you as rulers those you trained to be allies, what will you say? Won't pains seize you like those of a woman in labor?

22 And if you ask yourself, "Why have these things happened to me?" it is because of your many sins that your skirts are pulled up and you have been violated.

23 Can an Ethiopian change his skin? or a leopard its spots? If they can, then you can do good, who are so accustomed to doing evil.

24 "So I will scatter them like chaff that flies away in the desert wind.

25 This is what you get," says ADONAI, "the portion I measure out to you, because you have forgotten me and trusted in the lie.

26 I myself will lift your skirts above your face, and your privates will be exposed.

27 On the hills and in the fields, I have seen your abominations - your adulteries, your lustful neighings your shameless prostitution. Woe to you, Yerushalayim! You refuse to be purified! Won't you ever allow it?"

Jeremiah 14

1 The word of ADONAI that came to Yirmeyahu concerning the drought:

2 "Y'hudah is mourning, her gates are languishing; they sit on the ground in gloom; Yerushalayim sends up a cry of anguish.

3 Her nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns but find no water, so they return with empty jars. Ashamed and dismayed, they cover their heads.

4 Because of the ground, which is cracked, since it has not rained in the land, the farmers are ashamed; they cover their heads.

5 The doe in the countryside, giving birth, abandons her young for lack of grass.

6 The wild donkeys standing on the bare heights gasp for air like jackals; their eyes grow dim from trying to spot any vegetation."

7 Although our crimes witness against us, take action, ADONAI, for your name's sake; for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against you.

8 You, hope of Isra'el, its savior in time of trouble, why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler turning aside for the night?

9 Why should you be like a man in shock, like a champion unable to save? You, ADONAI, are right here with us; we bear your name - don't leave us!

10 Here is what ADONAI says to this people: "They so love to wander, they don't restrain their feet; so ADONAI does not want them. Now he will remember their crimes, and he will punish their sins."

11 Then ADONAI said to me, "Don't pray for this people or for their welfare.

12 When they fast, I will not hear their cry; when they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Rather, I will destroy them with war, famine and disease."

13 Then I said, "ADONAI, God! The prophets are telling them, 'You won't see war, and you won't have famine; but I will give you secure peace in this place.'"

14 ADONAI replied, "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I didn't send them, order them or speak to them. They are prophesying false visions to you, worthless divinations, the delusions of their own minds.

15 Therefore," ADONAI says, "concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, whom I did not send, yet they say, 'There will be neither war nor famine in this land' - it will be war and famine that will destroy those prophets.

16 And the people to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Yerushalayim because of the famine and war, with no one to bury them - them, or their wives, or their sons, or their daughters - because I will pour their own wickedness out upon them.

17 You are to give them this message: 'Let my eyes stream with tears night and day, unceasingly, because the virgin daughter of my people has been severely broken; she has been dealt a crushing blow.

18 If I go out in the field, I see those slain with the sword. If I enter the city, I see the victims of famine. Meanwhile, prophets and cohanim ply their trade in the land, knowing nothing.'"

19 Have you rejected Y'hudah completely? Is Tziyon loathsome to you? Why have you struck us irreparably? We looked for peace, but to no avail; for a time of healing, but instead found terror!

20 We confess our rebellion, ADONAI, also the crimes of our ancestors; yes, we have sinned against you.

21 For your name's sake, do not spurn us; do not dishonor your glorious throne. Remember your covenant with us; do not break it.

22 Among the nations' idols, can any make it rain? Can the skies, of themselves, send showers? Aren't you the one, ADONAI, our God? Don't we look to you? For you do all these things.

Psalm 125

1 A song of ascents: Those who trust in ADONAI are like Mount Tziyon, which cannot be moved but remains forever.

2 Yerushalayim! Mountains all around it! Thus ADONAI is around his people henceforth and forever.

3 For the scepter of wickedness will not rule the inheritance of the righteous, so that the righteous will not themselves turn their hands to evil.

4 Do good, ADONAI, to the good, to those upright in their hearts.

5 But as for those who turn aside to their own crooked ways, may ADONAI turn them away, along with those who do evil. Shalom on Isra'el!

November 9, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 9

Titus 2; Jeremiah 15-16; Psalm 126 CJB

Titus 2

1 But you, explain what kind of behavior goes along with sound teaching.

2 Tell the older men to be serious, sensible, self-controlled and sound in their trust, love and perseverance.

3 Likewise, tell the older women to behave the way people leading a holy life should. They shouldn't be slanderers or slaves to excessive drinking. They should teach what is good,

4 thus training the younger women to love their husbands and children,

5 to be self-controlled and pure, to take good care of their homes and submit to their husbands. In this way, God's message will not be brought into disgrace.

6 Similarly, urge the young men to be self-controlled,

7 and in everything set them an example yourself by doing what is good. When you are teaching, have integrity and be serious;

8 let everything you say be so wholesome that an opponent will be put to shame because he will have nothing bad to say about us.

9 Tell slaves to submit to their masters in everything, to give satisfaction without talking back

10 or pilfering. On the contrary, they should demonstrate complete faithfulness always, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Deliverer more attractive.

11 For God's grace, which brings deliverance, has appeared to all people.

12 It teaches us to renounce godlessness and worldly pleasures, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives now, in this age;

13 while continuing to expect the blessed fulfillment of our certain hope, which is the appearing of the Sh'khinah of our great God and the appearing of our Deliverer, Yeshua the Messiah.

14 He gave himself up on our behalf in order to free us from all violation of Torah and purify for himself a people who would be his own, eager to do good.

15 These are the things you should say. Encourage and rebuke with full authority; don't let anyone look down on you.

Jeremiah 15

1 Then ADONAI said to me, "Even if Moshe and Sh'mu'el were standing in front of me, my heart would not turn toward this people! Drive them out of my sight, get them out of here!

2 And when they ask you where they should go, tell them that this is what ADONAI says: 'Those destined for death - to death! Those destined for the sword - to the sword! Those destined for famine - to famine! Those destined for captivity - to captivity!'

3 "I will assign them four kinds [of scourges]," says ADONAI, "the sword to kill, dogs to drag away, birds in the air and wild animals to devour and destroy.

4 I will make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth, because of M'nasheh the son of Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah, because of what he did in Yerushalayim.

5 "Who will take pity on you, Yerushalayim? Who will grieve for you? Who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?

6 You have rejected me," says ADONAI. "You are heading backward. So I am stretching out my hand against you; tired of sparing you, I am destroying you.

7 With a winnowing fork I am scattering them to the wind at the gates of the land; I am bereaving them, destroying my people, because they will not return from their ways.

8 Their widows increase in number more than the sand of the seas; At midday I am bringing the destroyer on the mothers of young men, causing anguish and terror suddenly to fall upon her.

9 The mother of seven sons grows faint, panting in despair; her sun has gone down while it's still daytime; she is left disgraced and bewildered. And the rest of them I will give to the sword, to their enemies," says ADONAI.

10 Woe to me, mother, that you gave me birth, a man who is the object of strife and controversy throughout the land! I neither lend nor borrow, yet all of them curse me.

11 ADONAI said, "I promise to release you for good, I promise to make your enemies appeal to you when calamity and trouble come.

12 "Can iron break iron and bronze from the north?

13 I will give away your wealth and your treasures as plunder, and you will not be paid for them, because of all your sins throughout your territory;

14 and I will make you pass together with your enemies into a land you do not know. For my anger has become a blazing fire, and it will flare up against you."

15 ADONAI, you know. Remember me, think of me, and take vengeance for me on my persecutors. Because you are patient, don't banish me; know that for your sake I suffer insults.

16 When I found your words, I devoured them; your words made me glad, they gave me joy; because, ADONAI-Tzva'ot, you had me bear your name.

17 I have never kept company with merrymakers, I could not celebrate; with your hand on me I sat by myself, for you filled me with indignation.

18 Why is my pain unending, my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will you be for me like a deceptive vadi, which is only sometimes filled with water?

19 This is ADONAI's answer: "If you return - if I bring you back you will stand before me. If you separate the precious from the base, you will be my spokesman. It will then be they who turn to you, not you who turn to them.

20 Toward this people I will make you a fortified wall of bronze they will fight against you but not prevail against you; for I am with you to save you and rescue you," says ADONAI.

21 "I will free you from the grasp of the wicked and redeem you from the clutches of the ruthless."

Jeremiah 16

1 This word of ADONAI came to me:

2 "You are not to marry or have sons and daughters in this place.

3 For this is what ADONAI says concerning the sons and daughters born here, as well as their mothers who gave birth to them and their fathers who conceived them in this land:

4 'They will die terrible deaths without being mourned or buried; they will be left on the ground like dung. They will die by the sword and by famine, and their corpses will be food for the birds in the air and the wild animals.'

5 "For here is what ADONAI says: 'Do not enter any house where there is mourning; don't lament them, and don't grieve for them; for I have removed my shalom from this people, as well as my grace and compassion,' says ADONAI.

6 'Great and small alike will die in this land; they will not be buried, people will not lament them; nor will they cut their flesh or shave their heads for them.

7 No one will prepare a meal for those in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; and no one will give them a cup to drink, to console them for their father or mother.'

8 And you are not to go into any house where there is celebrating to sit with them, eating and drinking.

9 For here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'In this place, while you are still alive, before your very eyes, I will put an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bridegroom and bride.'

10 "When you tell this people all that I have said, and they ask you, 'Why has ADONAI decreed all this terrible disaster against us? What is our iniquity, what is our sin, that we have committed against ADONAI our God?'

11 then you are to say to them, 'It is because your ancestors abandoned me, says ADONAI, and went after other gods, serving and worshipping them, but abandoned me and did not keep my Torah.

12 And you have done worse than your ancestors, for - look! - each of you lives according to the stubbornness of his own evilheart, so that you don't listen to me.

13 Therefore I am thrusting you out of this land into a land you have not known, neither you nor your ancestors; and there you will serve other gods day and night; for I will show you no favor.'

14 "'Therefore,' says ADONAI, 'the day will come when people will no longer swear, "As ADONAI lives, who brought the people of Isra'el out of the land of Egypt,"

15 but, "As ADONAI lives, who brought the people of Isra'el out of the land to the north and out of all the countries where he drove them"; for I will bring them back to their own land, which I gave to their ancestors.

16 "'Look,' says ADONAI, 'I will send for many fishermen, and they will fish for them. Afterwards, I will send for many hunters; and they will hunt them from every mountain and hill and out of caves in the rocks.

17 For I see all their ways; they are not hidden from me; their crimes are not concealed from my eyes.

18 First, I will pay them back double for their crimes and sins; because they have defiled the land which is mine; they have filled my heritage with the corpses of their horrors and abominations.'"

19 ADONAI, my strength, my fortress, my refuge in time of trouble, the nations will come to you from the ends of the earth, saying, "Our ancestors inherited nothing but lies, futile idols, completely useless."

20 Can a person make himself gods? (In fact they aren't gods at all.)

21 "Therefore, I will make them know, once and for all, I will make them know my power and my might. Then they will know that my name is ADONAI.

Psalm 126

1 A song of ascents: When ADONAI restored Tziyon's fortunes, we thought we were dreaming.

2 Our mouths were full of laughter, and our tongues shouted for joy. Among the nations it was said, "ADONAI has done great things for them!"

3 ADONAI did do great things with us; and we are overjoyed.

4 Return our people from exile, ADONAI, as streams fill vadis in the Negev.

5 Those who sow in tears will reap with cries of joy.

6 He who goes out weeping as he carries his sack of seed will come home with cries of joy as he carries his sheaves of grain.

November 10, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 10

Titus 3; Jeremiah 17-18; Psalm 127 CJB

Titus 3

1 Remind people to submit to the government and its officials, to obey them, to be ready to do any honorable kind of work,

2 to slander no one, to avoid quarrelling, to be friendly, and to behave gently towards everyone.

3 For at one time, we too were foolish and disobedient, deceived and enslaved by a variety of passions and pleasures. We spent our lives in evil and envy; people hated us, and we hated each other.

4 But when the kindness and love for mankind of God our Deliverer was revealed,

5 he delivered us. It was not on the ground of any righteous deeds we had done, but on the ground of his own mercy. He did it by means of the mikveh of rebirth and the renewal brought about by the Ruach HaKodesh,

6 whom he poured out on us generously through Yeshua the Messiah, our Deliverer.

7 He did it so that by his grace we might come to be considered righteous by God and become heirs, with the certain hope of eternal life.

8 You can trust what I have just said, and I want you to speak with confidence about these things, so that those who have put their trust in God may apply themselves to doing good deeds. These are both good in themselves and valuable to the community.

9 But avoid stupid controversies, genealogies, quarrels and fights about the Torah; because they are worthless and futile.

10 Warn a divisive person once, then a second time; and after that, have nothing more to do with him.

11 You may be sure that such a person has been perverted and is sinning: he stands self-condemned.

12 When I send Artemas or Tychicus to you. Do your best to come to me in Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there.

13 Do your best to help Zenas the Torah expert and Apollos with their arrangements for travelling, so that they will lack nothing.

14 And have our people learn to apply themselves to doing good deeds that meet genuine needs, so that they will not be unproductive.

15 All who are with me send you greetings. Give our greetings to our friends in the faith. Grace be with you all.

Jeremiah 17

1 "Y'hudah's sin is written with an iron pen; with a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts and on the horns of your altars.

2 As they remember their children, so they remember their altars and their sacred poles by the green trees on the high hills.

3 My mountain in the field, your wealth and all your treasures will be plundered; because of the sin of your high places throughout your territory.

4 You will relinquish your hold on your heritage which I gave you. I will make you serve your enemies in a land you do not know. For you have kindled my fiery anger, and it will burn forever."

5 Here is what ADONAI says: "A curse on the person who trusts in humans, who relies on merely human strength, whose heart turns away from ADONAI.

6 He will be like a tamarisk in the 'Aravah - when relief comes, it is unaffected; for it lives in the sun-baked desert, in salty, uninhabited land.

7 Blessed is the man who trusts in ADONAI; ADONAI will be his security.

8 He will be like a tree planted near water; it spreads out its roots by the river; it does not notice when heat comes; and its foliage is luxuriant; it is not anxious in a year of drought but keeps on yielding fruit.

9 "The heart is more deceitful than anything else and mortally sick. Who can fathom it?

10 I, ADONAI, search the heart; I test inner motivations; in order to give to everyone what his actions and conduct deserve."

11 A partridge hatches eggs it did not lay; like this are those who get rich unjustly: in the prime of life their wealth will desert them; in the end they will prove to be fools.

12 Throne of Glory, exalted from the beginning! Our Holy Sanctuary,

13 Hope of Isra'el, ADONAI! All who abandon you will be ashamed, those who leave you will be inscribed in the dust, because they have abandoned ADONAI, the source of living water.

14 Heal me, ADONAI, and I will be healed; save me, and I will be saved, for you are my praise.

15 They keep asking me, "Where is the word of ADONAI? Let it come now."

16 As for me, I have not run away from being a shepherd who follows you; you know I didn't want this fatal day; what came from my lips has been clear to you.

17 So do not be my ruin, you, my refuge on the day of disaster.

18 Let my persecutors be ashamed, not me; let them be terrified, not me. Bring on them the day of disaster, destroy them with double destruction.

19 Then ADONAI said this to me: "Go, and stand at the People's Gate, where the kings of Y'hudah go in and out, and at all the gates of Yerushalayim;

20 and say to them: 'Kings of Y'hudah, all Y'hudah and all living in Yerushalayim who enter through these gates, hear the word of ADONAI!

21 Here is what ADONAI says: "If you value your lives, don't carry anything on Shabbat or bring it in through the gates of Yerushalayim;

22 don't carry anything out of your houses on Shabbat; and don't do any work. Instead, make Shabbat a holy day. I ordered your ancestors to do this,

23 but they neither listened nor paid attention; rather, they stiffened their necks, so that they wouldn't have to hear or receive instruction.

24 However, if you will pay careful heed to me," says ADONAI "and carry nothing through the gates of this city on Shabbat, but instead make Shabbat a day which is holy and not for doing work;

25 then kings and princes occupying the throne of David will enter through the gates of this city, riding in chariots and on horses. They, their princes, the people of Y'hudah and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim will enter; and this city will be inhabited forever.

26 They will come from the cities of Y'hudah, from the places surrounding Yerushalayim, from the land of Binyamin, from the Sh'felah, from the hills and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, frankincense and thanksgiving sacrifices to the house of ADONAI.

27 But if you will not obey me and make Shabbat a holy day and not carry loads through the gates of Yerushalayim on Shabbat, then I will set its gates on fire; it will burn up the palaces of Yerushalayim and not be quenched."'"

Jeremiah 18

1 This word came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI:

2 "Get up, and go down to the potter's house; there I will tell you more."

3 So I went down to the house of the potter; and there he was, working at the wheels.

4 Whenever a pot he made came out imperfect, the potter took the clay and made another pot with it, in whatever shape suited him.

5 Then the word of ADONAI came to me:

6 "House of Isra'el, can't I deal with you as the potter deals with his clay? - says ADONAI. Look! You, house of Isra'el, are the same in my hand as the clay in the potter's hand.

7 At one time, I may speak about uprooting, breaking down and destroying a nation or kingdom;

8 but if that nation turns from their evil, which prompted me to speak against it, then I relent concerning the disaster I had planned to inflict on it.

9 Similarly, at another time, I may speak about building and planting a nation or kingdom;

10 but if it behaves wickedly from my perspective and doesn't listen to what I say, then I change my mind and don't do the good I said I would do that would have helped it.

11 "So now, tell the people of Y'hudah and those living in Yerushalayim that this is what ADONAI says: 'I am designing disaster for you, working out my plan against you. Turn, each of you, from his evil ways; improve your conduct and actions.'

12 "But they will answer, 'It's hopeless! We will stick to our own plans; each of us will stubbornly follow his own evil desires!'

13 "Therefore, ADONAI says this: 'Ask among the nations who has heard anything like this. The virgin Isra'el has done a most horrible thing.

14 Does the snow of the L'vanon disappear from the mountain crags? Do the cold waters of foreign lands ever run dry?

15 No, but my people have forgotten me and offer incense to nothings. This causes them to stumble as they walk the ancient paths; they leave the highway to walk on side-trails.

16 Thus they make their land an object of horror and ongoing ridicule. Passers-by shake their heads, appalled, every one.

17 Like a strong east wind, I will scatter them before the enemy. I will see their back, not their face, on their day of disaster.'"

18 Then they said, "Let's develop a plan for dealing with Yirmeyahu. Torah won't be lost from the cohanim, or counsel from the wise, or words from the prophets. So come, let's destroy him with slander; and meanwhile, we won't pay attention to anything he says."

19 Pay attention to me, ADONAI! Listen to what my opponents are saying!

20 Is good to be repaid with evil? For they have dug a pit [to trap] me. Remember how I stood before you and spoke well of them, in order to turn your anger away from them?

21 Therefore, hand their sons over to famine, hurl them into the power of the sword, let their wives be made childless and widows, let their husbands be slain by disease, let their young men be slain by the sword in battle,

22 let screams be heard from their houses when you bring raiders on them without warning. For they have dug a pit to catch me and have laid snares for my feet.

23 Nevertheless, ADONAI, you know all their plans against me to stop me. Do not forgive their crime, do not blot out their sin from your sight; but let them be made to stumble before you; deal with them when you are angry.

Psalm 127

1 A song of ascents. By Shlomo: Unless ADONAI builds the house, its builders work in vain. Unless ADONAI guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain.

2 In vain do you get up early and put off going to bed, working hard to earn a living; for he provides for his beloved, even when they sleep.

3 Children too are a gift from ADONAI; the fruit of the womb is a reward.

4 The children born when one is young. are like arrows in the hand of a warrior.

5 How blessed is the man who has filled his quiver with them; he will not have to be embarrassed when contending with foes at the city gate.

November 11, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 11

Philemon 1; Jeremiah 19-20; Psalm 128 CJB

Philemon 1

1 From: Sha'ul, a prisoner for the sake of the Messiah Yeshua, and brother Timothy To: Our dear fellow-worker Philemon,

2 along with sister Apphia, our fellow-soldier Archippus and the congregation that gathers in your home:

3 Grace and shalom to you from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah.

4 I thank my God every time I mention you in my prayers, Philemon,

5 for I am hearing about your love and commitment to the Lord Yeshua and to all God's people.

6 I pray that the fellowship based on your commitment will produce full understanding of every good thing that is ours in union with the Messiah.

7 For your love has given me much joy and encouragement. Brother, you have refreshed the hearts of God's people.

8 Therefore, I would not hesitate, in union with the Messiah, to direct you to do the thing you ought to do.

9 But since I Sha'ul, am the kind of person I am, an old man and now for the Messiah Yeshua's sake a prisoner besides, I prefer to appeal to you on the basis of love.

10 My request to you concerns my son, of whom I became the father while here in prison, Onesimus.

11 His name means "useful," and although he was once useless to you, he has now become most useful - not only to you but also to me;

12 so that in returning him to you I am sending a part of my very heart.

13 I would dearly have loved to keep him with me, in order for him to serve me in your place while I am in prison because of the Good News.

14 But I didn't want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do for me may be voluntary and not forced.

15 Perhaps the reason he was separated from you for a brief period was so that you could have him back forever,

16 no longer as a slave but as more than a slave, as a dear brother. And that he is, especially to me. But how much dearer he must be to you, both humanly and in union with the Lord!

17 So if you are in fellowship with me, receive him as you would me.

18 And if he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge it to me.

19 I, Sha'ul, write with my own hand. I will repay it. (I won't mention, of course, that you owe me your very life.)

20 Yes, brother, please do me this favor in the Lord; refresh my heart in the Messiah.

21 Trusting that you will respond positively, I write knowing that you will indeed do more than I am asking.

22 One more thing: please get a room ready for me. For I hope that through the prayers of you all God will give me a chance to visit you.

23 Epaphras, my fellow-prisoner for the sake of the Messiah Yeshua, sends greetings to you,

24 as do Mark, Aristarchus, Demas and Luke, my fellow-workers.

25 The grace of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with your spirit.

Jeremiah 19

1 ADONAI then said, "Go; buy a clay jar from the potter; take some of the people's leaders and some of the leading cohanim;

2 and go out into the Ben-Hinnom Valley, by the entry to the Potsherd Gate. There you are to proclaim the words I am about to tell you.

3 Say: 'Hear the word of ADONAI, kings of Y'hudah and inhabitants of Yerushalayim! This is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: "I am about to bring disaster on this place that will make the ears of whoever hears about it ring.

4 This is because they have abandoned me and alienated this place. In it they have offered to other gods that neither they nor their ancestors have known, nor the kings of Y'hudah. They have filled this place with the blood of innocent people.

5 They have built the high places of Ba'al, in order to burn up their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Ba'al - something I never ordered or said; it never even entered my mind.

6 "'"Therefore the time is coming," says ADONAI, "when this place will no longer be called either Tofet or the Ben-Hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter.

7 I will nullify the plans of Y'hudah and Yerushalayim in this place. I will have them fall by the sword before their enemies and at the hand of those seeking their lives, and I will give their corpses as food for the birds in the air and the wild animals.

8 I will make this city an object of horror and ridicule; everyone passing by will be horrified and will ridicule it because of all its wounds.

9 I will cause them to eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters; everyone will be eating the flesh of his friends during the siege, because of the shortage imposed on them by their enemies and those set on killing them."'

10 "Then you are to smash the jar in front of the people who went with you,

11 and say to them, 'ADONAI-Tzva'ot says that this is how I will break this people and this city, just as one smashes a potter's vessel beyond the possibility of repair. The dead will be buried in Tofet, because there will be no space left for burial [anywhere else].

12 That is what I will do to this place,' says ADONAI 'and to its inhabitants; I will make it like Tofet.

13 The houses of Yerushalayim and those of the kings of Y'hudah will be defiled like this place Tofet - yes, all the houses on whose roofs they have offered to all the stars in heaven and poured out drink offerings to other gods.'"

14 Then Yirmeyahu returned from Tofet, where ADONAI had sent him to prophesy, stood in the courtyard of ADONAI's house and said to all the people,

15 "This is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'I am bringing on this city and all its surrounding villages all the disaster I have pronounced against it; because they have stiffened their necks and refused to pay attention to my words.'"

Jeremiah 20

1 Now when the cohen Pash'chur son of Immer, chief official in the house of ADONAI, heard Yirmeyahu prophesying these things,

2 he had him flogged and put him in the stocks at the Upper Binyamin Gate of the house of ADONAI.

3 The following morning, when Pash'chur led Yirmeyahu out of the stocks, Yirmeyahu said to him, "ADONAI no longer calls you Pash'chur but Magor-Missaviv [terror on every side].

4 For this is what ADONAI says: 'I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They will fall by the sword of their enemies, while you watch. I will hand over all of Y'hudah to the king of Bavel, and he will carry them off captive to Bavel and put them to the sword.

5 Moreover, I will hand over everything stored in this city, all its valuables, all its wealth, indeed all the treasures of the kings of Y'hudah, to their enemies, who will plunder them, take them and carry them to Bavel.

6 And you, Pash'chur, along with your entire household, will go into captivity; you will go to Bavel, where you will die and be buried - you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.'"

7 You fooled me, ADONAI; I have been your dupe. You overpowered me, and you have prevailed. All day long I'm a laughingstock; everyone makes fun of me.

8 Whenever I speak, I have to cry out; I shout, "Violence!" and "Destruction!" Thus the word of ADONAI becomes for me the cause of reproach and derision all day!

9 But if I say, "I won't think about him, I won't speak in his name any more," then it seems as though a fire is burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones; I wear myself out trying to hold it in, but I just can't do it.

10 I have heard many whispering their plot: "'Terror in every direction'? Denounce him! Let's denounce him!" Even all my close friends are watching for me to make a false step - "Maybe he can be tricked, then we'll get the better of him, then we'll take our revenge on him."

11 But ADONAI is with me like a dreaded warrior; so my persecutors will stumble, defeated, greatly ashamed because of their failure; their lasting disgrace will not be forgotten.

12 ADONAI-Tzva'ot, you who test the righteous and see people's hearts and thoughts, let me see you take vengeance on them, for I have committed my cause to you.

13 Sing to ADONAI! Praise ADONAI! For he rescues those in need from the clutches of evildoers.

14 A curse on the day I was born! The day my mother gave birth to me - let it not be blessed!

15 A curse on the man who brought the news to my father, "A son has been born to you!" - thus making him very happy.

16 Let that man be like the cities ADONAI overthrew without mercy! Let him hear cries of alarm in the morning and the sound of battle at noon,

17 because God did not put me to death in the womb and let my mother become my grave, her womb forever filled with me.

18 Why did I have to emerge from the womb, just to see toil and sorrow, and end my days in shame?

Psalm 128

1 A song of ascents: How happy is everyone who fears ADONAI, who lives by his ways.

2 You will eat what your hands have produced; you will be happy and prosperous.

3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine in the inner parts of your house. Your children around the table will be like shoots from an olive tree.

4 This is the kind of blessing that will fall on him who fears ADONAI.

5 May ADONAI bless you from Tziyon! May you see Yerushalayim prosper all the days of your life,

6 and may you live to see your children's children! Shalom on Isra'el.

November 12, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 12

James 1; Jeremiah 21-22; Psalm 129 CJB

James 1

1 From: Ya'akov, a slave of God and of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah To: The Twelve Tribes in the Diaspora: Shalom!

2 Regard it all as joy, my brothers, when you face various kinds of temptations;

3 for you know that the testing of your trust produces perseverance.

4 But let perseverance do its complete work; so that you may be complete and whole, lacking in nothing.

5 Now if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives to all generously and without reproach; and it will be given to him.

6 But let him ask in trust, doubting nothing; for the doubter is like a wave in the sea being tossed and driven by the wind.

7 Indeed that person should not think that he will receive anything from the Lord,

8 because he is double-minded, unstable in all his ways.

9 Let the brother in humble circumstances boast about his high position.

10 But let the rich brother boast about his being humbled; since, like a wildflower, he will pass away.

11 For just as the sun rises with the sharav and dries up the plant, so that its flower falls off and its beauty is destroyed, so too the rich person going about his business will wither away.

12 How blessed is the man who perseveres through temptation! For after he has passed the test, he will receive as his crown the Life which God has promised to those who love him.

13 No one being tempted should say, "I am being tempted by God." For God cannot be tempted by evil, and God himself tempts no one.

14 Rather, each person is being tempted whenever he is being dragged off and enticed by the bait of his own desire.

15 Then, having conceived, the desire gives birth to sin; and when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.

16 Don't delude yourselves, my dear brothers.

17 Every good act of giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father who made the heavenly lights; with him there is neither variation nor darkness caused by turning.

18 Having made his decision, he gave birth to us through a Word that can be relied upon, in order that we should be a kind of firstfruits of all that he created.

19 Therefore, my dear brothers, let every person be quick to listen but slow to speak, slow to get angry;

20 for a person's anger does not accomplish God's righteousness!

21 So rid yourselves of all vulgarity and obvious evil, and receive meekly the Word implanted in you that can save your lives.

22 Don't deceive yourselves by only hearing what the Word says, but do it!

23 For whoever hears the Word but doesn't do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror,

24 who looks at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

25 But if a person looks closely into the perfect Torah, which gives freedom, and continues, becoming not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work it requires, then he will be blessed in what he does.

26 Anyone who thinks he is religiously observant but does not control his tongue is deceiving himself, and his observance counts for nothing.

27 The religious observance that God the Father considers pure and faultless is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being contaminated by the world.

Jeremiah 21

1 This is the word that came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI when King Tzidkiyahu sent to him Pash'chur the son of Malkiyah and Tz'fanyah the son of Ma'aseiyah with this message:

2 "Please consult ADONAI for us, because N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel is making war on us. Maybe ADONAI will perform a miracle for us and cause him to withdraw."

3 Yirmeyahu answered them, "Here is what you are to tell Tzidkiyahu:

4 'This is what ADONAI, the God of Isra'el, says: "I will make the weapons of war that you have in your hands ineffectual in your fight against the king of Bavel and the Kasdim who are outside the walls besieging you. Instead, I will gather them inside this city;

5 and I myself will fight against you with my hand stretched out and with a strong arm, in anger, rage and great fury.

6 I will strike the inhabitants of this city, humans and animals alike, and they will die of a terrible plague.

7 Afterwards," says ADONAI "I will hand over Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah, his servants, the people, and anyone remaining alive in this city after the plague, war and famine, to N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel and to their enemies, to those who seek their lives; and he will put them to the sword. He will not spare them; he will have no pity, no compassion."'

8 "And here is what you are to tell this people: 'ADONAI says: "Look! I am presenting you with the way of life and the way of death.

9 Anyone who stays in this city will die by sword, famine and plague. But he who leaves and surrenders to the Kasdim besieging you will stay alive; his own life will be his only 'spoils of war.'

10 For I have determined absolutely that this city will have evil, not good," says ADONAI. "It is going to be handed over to the king of Bavel, and he will burn it to the ground."'

11 "To the royal house of Y'hudah say: 'Hear the word of ADONAI;

12 house of David, this is what ADONAI says: "Judge fairly every morning, rescue the wronged from their oppressors; or my fury will lash out like fire, burning so hot that no one can quench it, because of how evil your actions are."

13 ADONAI says, "I am against you, [Yerushalayim,] situated in a valley like a rock on a plain. You who say, 'Who can come down against us? Who can enter our lairs?'

14 I will punish you," says ADONAI, "as your deeds deserve. I will set its forest on fire, and it will devour everything around it."'"

Jeremiah 22

1 ADONAI said, "Go down to the house of the king of Y'hudah and there speak this word:

2 'King of Y'hudah occupying David's throne, hear the word of ADONAI - you, your servants and your people who enter through these gates.

3 This is what ADONAI says: "Do what is right and just; rescue the wronged from their oppressors; do nothing wrong or violent to the stranger, orphan or widow; don't shed innocent blood in this place.

4 "'"If you are careful to do this, then future kings occupying David's throne will enter these palace gates riding in chariots and on horses - he, his servants and his people.

5 But if you will not pay attention to these words, then I swear by myself," says ADONAI, "that this palace will become a ruin."'

6 "For here is what ADONAI says concerning the palace of the king of Y'hudah: 'You are like Gil'ad to me, like the peak of the L'vanon; yet I will turn you into a desert, uninhabited cities.

7 I will designate men to destroy you, each one with his weapons; they will chop down your choice cedars and throw them in the fire.'

8 "Many nations will pass by this city, and they will say to one another, 'Why has ADONAI done such a thing to this great city?'

9 The answer will be, 'Because they abandoned the covenant of ADONAI their God and worshipped other gods, serving them.'"

10 Do not weep for [the king] who has died, do not mourn for him [Yoshiyahu]. But weep for him who departs [to Egypt], for he will never return or see his native land again.

11 For this is what ADONAI says about Shalum the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah, who succeeded Yoshiyahu his father as king: "He has left this place, never to return;

12 but he will die in the place where they have led him captive, without seeing this land again.

13 "Woe to him who builds his palace unfairly, its upper rooms by injustice; who makes his neighbor work for free and will not give him his wages;

14 who says, 'I will build me a spacious palace with airy upper rooms,' then makes windows and cedar panels painted with vermilion!

15 Your cedar may be excellent, but that doesn't make you a better king. True, your father ate and drank, but he also did what was right and just, so things went well with him.

16 He upheld the cause of the poor and the weak, so everything went well. Isn't that what knowing me is all about?" says ADONAI.

17 "In contrast, your eyes and heart are controlled entirely by your greed, your desire for shedding innocent blood, oppressing and extorting."

18 Therefore here is what ADONAI says concerning Y'hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah: "There will be no one to mourn for him, 'Oh! My brother!' or 'Oh! My sister!' There will be no one to mourn for him, 'Oh! My master!' or 'Oh! His glory!'

19 He will be given a donkey's 'burial' - dragged out the gates of Yerushalayim and thrown away [to rot].

20 Climb up to the L'vanon and cry out, raise your voice in Bashan, cry out from 'Avarim, for all your lovers are broken.

21 I spoke to you in your times of prosperity, but you said, 'I won't listen.' This has been your pattern since you were young - you pay no attention to what I say.

22 The wind will shepherd all your shepherds away, and your lovers will go into captivity. Then you will be ashamed and disgraced for all your wicked deeds.

23 You who live in the L'vanon, nesting in the cedars, how gracious will you be when pains come on you like a woman in labor?

24 "As I live," says ADONAI, "even if Koniyahu the son of Y'hoyakim king of Y'hudah were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off

25 and hand you over to those who seek your life, to those you fear, N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel and the Kasdim.

26 I will hurl you and the mother who gave birth to you into a country different from the one you were born in, and you will die there.

27 They will not return to the country to which they long to return."

28 Is this man Koniyahu a despised, broken pot, an instrument nobody wants? Why are they being thrown out? Why are he and his offspring thrown out into a country they do not know?

29 Oh, land, land, land! Hear the word of ADONAI!

30 This what ADONAI says: "List this man as childless; he is a lifetime failure - none of his offspring will succeed, none will sit on David's throne or rule again in Y'hudah."

Psalm 129

1 A song of ascents: Since I was young they have often attacked me -let Isra'el repeat it

2 since I was young they have often attacked me, but they haven't overcome me.

3 The plowmen plowed on my back; wounding me with long furrows.

4 But ADONAI is righteous; he cuts me free from the yoke of the wicked.

5 Let all who hate Tziyon be thrown back in confusion.

6 Let them be like grass on the roof, which dries out before it grows up

7 and never fills the reaper's hands or the arms of the one who binds sheaves,

8 so that no passer-by says, "ADONAI's blessing on you! We bless you in the name of ADONAI!"

November 14, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 13

James 2; Jeremiah 23-24; Psalm 130 CJB

James 2

1 My brothers, practice the faith of our Lord Yeshua, the glorious Messiah, without showing favoritism.

2 Suppose a man comes into your synagogue wearing gold rings and fancy clothes, and also a poor man comes in dressed in rags.

3 If you show more respect to the man wearing the fancy clothes and say to him, "Have this good seat here," while to the poor man you say, "You, stand over there," or, "Sit down on the floor by my feet,"

4 then aren't you creating distinctions among yourselves, and haven't you made yourselves into judges with evil motives?

5 Listen, my dear brothers, hasn't God chosen the poor of the world to be rich in faith and to receive the Kingdom which he promised to those who love him?

6 But you despise the poor! Aren't the rich the ones who oppress you and drag you into court?

7 Aren't they the ones who insult the good name of Him to whom you belong?

8 If you truly attain the goal of Kingdom Torah, in conformity with the passage that says, "Love your neighbor as yourself," you are doing well.

9 But if you show favoritism, your actions constitute sin, since you are convicted under the Torah as transgressors.

10 For a person who keeps the whole Torah, yet stumbles at one point, has become guilty of breaking them all.

11 For the One who said, "Don't commit adultery," also said, "Don't murder."c Now, if you don't commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the Torah.

12 Keep speaking and acting like people who will be judged by a Torah which gives freedom.

13 For judgment will be without mercy toward one who doesn't show mercy; but mercy wins out over judgment.

14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone claims to have faith but has no actions to prove it? Is such "faith" able to save him?

15 Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food,

16 and someone says to him, "Shalom! Keep warm and eat hearty!" without giving him what he needs, what good does it do?

17 Thus, faith by itself, unaccompanied by actions, is dead.

18 But someone will say that you have faith and I have actions. Show me this faith of yours without the actions, and I will show you my faith by my actions!

19 You believe that "God is one"? Good for you! The demons believe it too - the thought makes them shudder with fear!

20 But, foolish fellow, do you want to be shown that such "faith" apart from actions is barren?

21 Wasn't Avraham avinu declared righteous because of actions when he offered up his son Yitz'chak on the altar?

22 You see that his faith worked with his actions; by the actions the faith was made complete;

23 and the passage of the Tanakh was fulfilled which says, "Avraham had faith in God, and it was credited to his account as righteousness." He was even called God's friend.

24 You see that a person is declared righteous because of actions and not because of faith alone.

25 Likewise, wasn't Rachav the prostitute also declared righteous because of actions when she welcomed the messengers and sent them out by another route?

26 Indeed, just as the body without a spirit is dead, so too faith without actions is dead.

Jeremiah 23

1 "Oh no! The shepherds are destroying and scattering the sheep in my pasture!" says ADONAI.

2 Therefore this is what ADONAI, the God of Isra'el, says against the shepherds who shepherd my people: "You have scattered my flock, driven them away and not taken care of them. So I will 'take care of' you because of your evil deeds," says ADONAI.

3 "I myself will gather what remains of my flock from all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their homes, and they will be fruitful and increase their numbers.

4 I will appoint shepherds over them who will shepherd them; then they will no longer be afraid or disgraced; and none will be missing," says ADONAI

5 "The days are coming," says ADONAI when I will raise a righteous Branch for David. He will reign as king and succeed, he will do what is just and right in the land.

6 In his days Y'hudah will be saved, Isra'el will live in safety, and the name given to him will be ADONAI Tzidkenu [ADONAI our righteousness].

7 "Therefore," says ADONAI, "the day will come when people no longer swear, 'As ADONAI lives, who brought the people of Isra'el out of the land of Egypt,'

8 but, 'As ADONAI lives, who brought the descendants of the house of Isra'el up from the land to the north' and from all the countries where I drove them. Then they will live in their own land."

9 Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken, all my bones are shaking; I am like a drunk, like a man overcome by wine, because of ADONAI, because of his holy words.

10 For the land is full of adulterers; because of a curse the land is in mourning - the desert pastures have dried up. Their course is evil, their power misused.

11 "Both prophet and cohen are godless; In my own house I find their wickedness," says ADONAI.

12 "Therefore their way will be slippery for them; they will be driven into darkness and fall there. For I will bring disaster upon them, their year of punishment," says ADONAI.

13 "I have seen inappropriate conduct in the prophets of Shomron - they prophesied by Ba'al and led my people Isra'el astray.

14 But in the prophets of Yerushalayim I have seen a horrible thing - they commit adultery, live in lies, so encouraging evildoers that none returns from his sin. For me they have all become like S'dom, its inhabitants like 'Amora.

15 Therefore, this is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says concerning the prophets: "I will feed them bitter wormwood and make them drink poisonous water, for ungodliness has spread through all the land from the prophets of Yerushalayim."

16 ADONAI-Tzva'ot says: "Don't listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are making you act foolishly, telling you visions from their own minds and not from the mouth of ADONAI.

17 They keep reassuring those who despise me, 'ADONAI says you will be safe and secure,' and saying to all living by their own stubborn hearts, 'Nothing bad will happen to you.'

18 But which of them has been present at the council of ADONAI to see and hear his word? Who has paid attention to his word enough to hear it?"

19 Look! The storm of ADONAI, bursting out in fury, a whirling storm, whirling down upon the heads of the wicked

20 ADONAI's anger will not abate till he fully accomplishes the purpose in his heart. In the acharit-hayamim, you will understand everything.

21 "I did not send these prophets; yet they ran. I did not speak to them; yet they prophesied

22 If they have been present at my council, they should let my people hear my words and turn them from their evil way and the evil of their actions.

23 Am I God only when near," asks ADONAI, "and not when far away?

24 Can anyone hide in a place so secret that I won't see him?" asks ADONAI. ADONAI says, "Do I not fill heaven and earth?

25 "I have heard what these prophets prophesying lies in my name are saying: 'I've had a dream! I've had a dream!'

26 How long will this go on? Is [my word] in the hearts of prophets who are prophesying lies, who are prophesying the deceit of their own minds?

27 With their dreams that they keep telling each other, they hope to cause my people to forget my name; just as their ancestors forgot my name when they worshipped Ba'al.

28 "If a prophet has a dream, let him tell it as a dream. But someone who has my word should speak my word faithfully. What do chaff and wheat have in common?" asks ADONAI.

29 "Isn't my word like fire," asks ADONAI, "like a hammer shattering rocks?

30 So, I am against the prophets," says ADONAI, "who steal my words from each other.

31 Yes, I am against the prophets," says ADONAI, "who speak their own words, then add, 'He says.'

32 "I am against those who concoct prophecies out of fake dreams," says ADONAI. "They tell them, and by their lies and arrogance they lead my people astray. I didn't send them, I didn't commission them, and they don't do this people any good at all," says ADONAI.

33 "When [someone from] this people, a prophet or a cohen asks you, 'What is the burden of ADONAI?' you are to answer them, 'What burden? I am throwing you off,' says ADONAI.

34 As for a prophet, cohen or [someone else from] this people who speaks about 'the burden of ADONAI,' I will punish him and his household."

35 So, when you speak with your neighbor or brother, ask, "What answer has ADONAI given?" or "What has ADONAI said?"

36 Don't use the expression, "burden of ADONAI" any more; for every person's own word will be his burden. Must you twist the words of the living God, of ADONAI-Tzva'ot, our God

37 So, when speaking to a prophet, ask, "What answer has ADONAI given you?" or "What did ADONAI say?"

38 But if you talk about "the burden of ADONAI," then here is what ADONAI says: "Because you use this expression, 'the burden of ADONAI,' after I have already sent you the order not to say, 'the burden of ADONAI,

39 I will lift you up, burden that you are, and throw you off, away from my presence - you and the city I gave you and your ancestors.

40 Then I will subject you to everlasting disgrace - eternal, unforgettable shame."

Jeremiah 24

1 It was after N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel had carried Y'khanyahu the son of Y'hoyakim, king of Y'hudah, along with the leaders of Y'hudah, the artisans and the skilled workers into exile from Yerushalayim and brought them to Bavel, that ADONAI gave me a vision. There, in front of the temple of ADONAI, two baskets of figs were placed.

2 One of the baskets had in it very good figs, like those that ripen first; while the other basket had very bad figs, so bad that they were inedible.

3 Then ADONAI asked me, "Yirmeyahu, what do you see?" I answered, "Figs - the good figs are very good; but the bad ones are very bad, so bad they are inedible."

4 The word of ADONAI came to me:

5 "Here is what ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'I will regard the exiles from Y'hudah, whom I sent away from this place to the land of the Kasdim, as good, just as I do these good figs.

6 "'I will look after them for their good, I will bring them back to this land; I will build them up and not tear them down, plant them and not pull them up.

7 I will give them a heart to know me that I am ADONAI. They will be my people, and I will be their God; for they will return to me with all their heart.'

8 "But concerning the bad figs that are so bad as to be inedible, ADONAI says: 'I will make Tzidkiyahu the king of Y'hudah and his leaders resemble them, likewise the rest of Yerushalayim remaining in this land and those living in the land of Egypt.

9 Everywhere I drive them I will make them an object of horror, repulsive to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace, a byword, a laughingstock and a curse;

10 and I will send sword, famine and plague among them until they have disappeared from the land I gave them and their ancestors.'"

Psalm 130

1 A song of ascents. By David: ADONAI, I call to you from the depths;

2 hear my cry, Adonai! Let your ears pay attention to the sound of my pleading.

3 Yah, if you kept a record of sins, who, Adonai, could stand?

4 But with you there is forgiveness, so that you will be feared.

5 I wait longingly for ADONAI; I put my hope in his word.

6 Everything in me waits for Adonai more than guards on watch wait for morning, more than guards on watch wait for morning.

7 Isra'el, put your hope in ADONAI! For grace is found with ADONAI, and with him is unlimited redemption.

8 He will redeem Isra'el from all their wrongdoings.

November 14, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 14

James 3; Jeremiah 25-26; Psalm 131 CJB

James 3

1 Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, since you know that we will be judged more severely.

2 For we all stumble in many ways; if someone does not stumble in what he says, he is a mature man who can bridle his whole body.

3 If we put a bit into a horse's mouth to make it obey us, we control its whole body as well.

4 And think of a ship - although it is huge and is driven by strong winds, yet the pilot can steer it wherever he wants with just a small rudder.

5 So too the tongue is a tiny part of the body, yet it boasts great things. See how a little fire sets a whole forest ablaze!

6 Yes, the tongue is a fire, a world of wickedness. The tongue is so placed in our body that it defiles every part of it, setting ablaze the whole of our life; and it is set on fire by Gei-Hinnom itself.

7 For people have tamed and continue to tame all kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures;

8 but the tongue no one can tame - it is an unstable and evil thing, full of death-dealing poison!

9 With it we bless ADONAI, the Father; and with it we curse people, who were made in the image of God.g

10 Out of the same mouth come blessing and cursing! Brothers, it isn't right for things to be this way.

11 A spring doesn't send both fresh and bitter water from the same opening, does it?

12 Can a fig tree yield olives, my brothers? or a grapevine, figs? Neither does salt water produce fresh.

13 Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him demonstrate it by his good way of life, by actions done in the humility that grows out of wisdom.

14 But if you harbor in your hearts bitter jealousy and selfish ambition, don't boast and attack the truth with lies!

15 This wisdom is not the kind that comes down from above; on the contrary, it is worldly, unspiritual, demonic.

16 For where there are jealousy and selfish ambition, there will be disharmony and every foul practice.

17 But the wisdom from above is, first of all, pure, then peaceful, kind, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

18 And peacemakers who sow seed in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

Jeremiah 25

1 This is the word that came to Yirmeyahu concerning all the people of Y'hudah in the fourth year of Y'hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah; this was also the first year of N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel.

2 Yirmeyahu the prophet proclaimed it before all the people of Y'hudah and all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim:

3 "For twenty-three years, since the thirteenth year of Yoshiyahu the son of Amon, king of Y'hudah, until today, the word of ADONAI has come to me; and I have proclaimed it to you on numerous occasions; but you haven't listened.

4 Moreover, ADONAI sent you all his servants the prophets - again, on numerous occasions - but you didn't listen or pay attention.

5 The message was always: 'Every one of you, turn back from his evil way, from the evil of your actions. Then you will live in the land ADONAI gave you and your ancestors forever and ever.

6 Don't follow other gods by serving and worshipping them. "Don't provoke my anger with things your own hands have made; then I will do you no harm.

7 But you wouldn't listen to me," says ADONAI, "so that you could provoke me with the products of your hands, to your own harm."

8 "Therefore, here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says: 'Because you haven't paid attention to what I've been saying,

9 I'm going to send for all the families of the north,' says ADONAI, 'and for my servant N'vukhadretzar the king of Bavel, and bring them against this land, against its inhabitants and against all the surrounding nations. I will completely destroy them, making them an object of horror and ridicule, a perpetual ruin.

10 Moreover, I will silence among them the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of bridegroom and bride, the grinding of millstones and the light of lamps.

11 This entire land will become a ruin, a waste; and these nations will serve the king of Bavel for seventy years.

12 But when the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Bavel and that nation for their sin,' says ADONAI, 'and I will turn the land of the Kasdim into everlasting ruins.

13 I will inflict on that land all my words that I have decreed against it, everything written in this book, in which Yirmeyahu has prophesied against all the nations.

14 For they too will become slaves to many nations and to powerful kings; I will pay them back according to their deeds and the work of their own hands.'

15 "For here is what ADONAI the God of Isra'el says to me: 'Take this cup of the wine of fury from my hand, and make all the nations where I am sending you drink it.

16 They will drink, stagger to and fro and behave like crazy people because of the sword that I will send among them.'"

17 Then I took the cup from ADONAI's hand and made all the nations drink, where ADONAI had sent me -

18 Yerushalayim and the cities of Y'hudah, along with their kings and leaders, to make them a ruin and an object of horror, ridicule and cursing, as it is today;

19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, with his servants and leaders and all his people, both native

20 and foreign; all the kings of the land of 'Utz; all the kings of the land of the P'lishtim, Ashkelon, 'Azah, 'Ekron and those remaining in Ashdod;

21 Edom, Mo'av, and the people of 'Amon;

22 all the kings of Tzor, of Tzidon and of the coastlands across the sea;

23 D'dan, Teima, Buz and all who cut the corners of their beards;

24 all the kings of Arabia and of the mixed peoples living in the desert;

25 all the kings of Zimri, of 'Eilam and of the Medes;

26 and all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another - indeed, all the kingdoms of the world that there are on the surface of the earth. And the king of Sheshakh will drink last of all.

27 "You are to say to them, 'Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: Drink until you're so drunk that you throw up, fall down, and never get up again, because of the sword I am sending among you!'

28 If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it, then say to them, 'Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says: You must drink!

29 For, look! - if I am bringing disaster on the city that bears my own name, do you expect to go unpunished? Yes, I will summon a sword for all the inhabitants of the earth,' says ADONAI.

30 "As for you, [Yirmeyahu,] prophesy all these words against them; say to them, 'ADONAI is roaring from on high, raising his voice from his holy dwelling, roaring with might against his own habitation, shouting out loud, like those who tread grapes, against everyone living on earth.

31 The sound resounds to the ends of the earth, for ADONAI is indicting the nations, about to pass judgment on all humankind; the wicked he has handed over to the sword,' says ADONAI."

32 Thus says ADONAI-Tzva'ot: "Disaster is spreading from nation to nation, a mighty tempest is being unleashed from the farthest ends of the earth."

33 On that day, those killed by ADONAI will be strewn from one end of the earth to the other; they will not be mourned or gathered or buried, but will lie on the ground like dung.

34 "Wail, shepherds! Cry! Wallow in the dust, you lords of the flock! For the days for your slaughter have come. I will break you in pieces, and like a prized vase you will fall."

35 The shepherds have no way to flee, the lords of the flock no way to escape.

36 Hear the cry of the shepherds, the wails of the lords of the flock! For ADONAI is destroying their pasture,

37 the peaceful grazing grounds are silenced, because of ADONAI's fierce anger.

38 Like a lion, he has abandoned his lair; for their land has become desolate because of the oppressor's fierce sword and because of ADONAI's fierce anger.

Jeremiah 26

1 At the beginning of the reign of Y'hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah, this word came from ADONAI:

2 "ADONAI says: 'Stand in the courtyard of ADONAI's house and speak to the people from all the cities in Y'hudah who come to worship at ADONAI's house; say everything I order you to say to them, and don't leave out a word.

3 Maybe they will listen, and each of them turn from his evil way; then I will be able to relent from the disaster I intend to bring on them because of how evil their deeds are.

4 So tell them that this is what ADONAI says: "If you will not pay attention to me and live according to my Torah, which I have given you,

5 and listen to what my servants the prophets, whom I send to you, say - I have sent them frequently, but you haven't listened -

6 then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city an object of cursing for all the nations of the earth."'"

7 The cohanim, the prophets and all the people heard Yirmeyahu speaking these words in the house of ADONAI.

8 When Yirmeyahu had finished saying everything ADONAI had ordered him to say to all the people, the cohanim, prophets and all the people seized him, shouting, "You will die for this!

9 Why have you prophesied in the name of ADONAI, 'This house will become like Shiloh,' and, 'This city will become uninhabited ruins'?" The people all crowded in on Yirmeyahu in ADONAI's house.

10 When the officials of Y'hudah heard about it, they came up from the king's palace to ADONAI's house and sat at the entrance to the New Gate of ADONAI's house.

11 The cohanim and prophets said to the officials and all the people, "This man deserves a death sentence, because he has prophesied against this city; you have heard it with your own ears."

12 Then Yirmeyahu said to the officials and all the people, "ADONAI sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city all the words you have heard.

13 Therefore now, improve your ways and your doings; and listen to the voice of ADONAI your God; then ADONAI will relent from the disaster he has decreed against you.

14 But as for me, here, I am in your hands; do with me whatever seems good and right to you.

15 Only know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, on this city and on its inhabitants; because the fact is that ADONAI sent me to you to speak all these words, so that you could hear them."

16 The officials and all the people then said to the cohanim and prophets, "This man does not deserve a death sentence, because he has spoken to us in the name of ADONAI our God."

17 At this point some of the leaders of the land stood up and addressed all the people assembled:

18 "Back in the time of Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah, Mikhah from Moreshet was a prophet. He told all the people of Y'hudah, 'ADONAI-Tzva'ot says, "Tziyon will be plowed under like a field, Yerushalayim will become heaps of ruins, and the mountain of the house like a forested height."'

19 "Did Hizkiyahu king of Y'hudah and all Y'hudah put him to death? Not at all. Rather, he feared ADONAI, and prayed for ADONAI's favor; and ADONAI relented from the disaster he had pronounced against them. So [if we put Yirmeyahu to death,] we might bring great disaster on ourselves."

20 On the other hand, there was also a man who prophesied in the name of ADONAI, Uriyahu the son of Sh'ma'yahu from Kiryat-Ye'arim, who prophesied against this city and against this land exactly what Yirmeyahu is saying.

21 When Y'hoyakim the king, with all his military men and other officials, heard what he was saying, the king wanted to have him killed. On hearing of this, Uriyahu became frightened, fled and went to Egypt.

22 Y'hoyakim the king sent men to Egypt - Elnatan the son of 'Akhbor and some others.

23 They brought Uriyahu back from Egypt and took him to Y'hoyakim the king, who put him to the sword and threw his corpse into the burial-ground of the common people.

24 But in this situation concerning Yirmeyahu, Achikam the son of Shafan used his influence to help him, so that he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.

Psalm 131

1 A song of ascents. By David: ADONAI, my heart isn't proud; I don't set my sight too high, I don't take part in great affairs or in wonders far beyond me.

2 No, I keep myself calm and quiet, like a little child on its mother's lap -I keep myself like a little child.

3 Isra'el, put your hope in ADONAI from now on and forever!

November 15, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 15

James 4; Jeremiah 27-28; Psalm 132 CJB

James 4

1 What is causing all the quarrels and fights among you? Isn't it your desires battling inside you?

2 You desire things and don't have them. You kill, and you are jealous, and you still can't get them. So you fight and quarrel. The reason you don't have is that you don't pray!

3 Or you pray and don't receive, because you pray with the wrong motive, that of wanting to indulge your own desires.

4 You unfaithful wives! Don't you know that loving the world is hating God? Whoever chooses to be the world's friend makes himself God's enemy!

5 Or do you suppose the Scripture speaks in vain when it says that there is a spirit in us which longs to envy?

6 But the grace he gives is greater, which is why it says, "God opposes the arrogant, but to the humble he gives grace."

7 Therefore, submit to God. Moreover, take a stand against the Adversary, and he will flee from you.

8 Come close to God, and he will come close to you. Clean your hands, sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded people!

9 Wail, mourn, sob! Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy into gloom!

10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

11 Brothers, stop speaking against each other! Whoever speaks against a brother or judges a brother is speaking against Torah and judging Torah. And if you judge Torah, you are not a doer of what Torah says, but a judge.

12 There is but one Giver of Torah; he is also the Judge, with the power to deliver and to destroy. Who do you think you are, judging your fellow human being?

13 Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a city, stay there a year trading and make a profit"!

14 You don't even know if you will be alive tomorrow! For all you are is a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears.

15 Instead, you ought to say, "If ADONAI wants it to happen, we will live" to do this or that.

16 But as it is, in your arrogance you boast. All such boasting is evil.

17 So then, anyone who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it is committing a sin.

Jeremiah 27

1 At the beginning of the reign of Y'hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah, this word came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI:

2 "ADONAI says this to me: 'Make yourself a yoke of straps and crossbars, and put it on your neck.

3 Send [similar yokes] to the kings of Edom, of Mo'av, of the people of 'Amon, of Tzor, and of Tzidon by means of the envoys they send to Yerushalayim, and to Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah.

4 Give them this message for their masters by telling their envoys that ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says for them to tell their masters:

5 "'"I made the earth, humankind, and the animals on the earth by my great power and my outstretched arm; and I give it to whom it seems right to me.

6 For now, I have given over all these lands to my servant N'vukhadnetzar the king of Bavel; I have also given him the wild animals to serve him.

7 All the nations will serve him, his son and his grandson, until his own country gets its turn - at which time many nations and great kings will make him their slave.

8 The nation and kingdom that refuses to serve this N'vukhadnetzar king of Bavel, that will not put their necks under the yoke of the king of Bavel, I will punish," says ADONAI "with sword, famine and plague, until I have put an end to them through him.

9 "'"You, therefore, don't listen to your prophets, diviners, dreamers, magicians or sorcerers, when they tell you that you won't be subject to the king of Bavel;

10 for they are prophesying lies to you that will result in your being removed far from your land, with my driving you out, so that you perish.

11 But the nation that puts its neck under the yoke of the king of Bavel and serves him, that nation I will allow to remain on their own soil," says ADONAI. "They will farm it and live there."'"

12 Then I spoke to Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah in just the same way: "Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Bavel, serve him and his people, and you will live.

13 Why would you want to die, you and your people, by sword, famine and plague - which is what ADONAI has decreed for the nation that will not serve the king of Bavel?

14 Don't listen to the words of the prophets who say to you, 'You will not serve the king of Bavel'; because they are prophesying lies to you.

15 'For I have not sent them,' says ADONAI, 'and they are prophesying falsely in my name, with the result that I will drive you out, and you will perish - you and the prophets prophesying to you.'"

16 I also spoke to the cohanim and to all this people; I said, "This is what ADONAI says: 'Don't listen to the words of the prophets prophesying to you that the articles from ADONAI's house will soon be returned from Bavel; because they are prophesying lies to you.

17 Don't listen to them. Serve the king of Bavel, and stay alive; why should this city become a ruin?'

18 But if they are in fact prophets, and if the word of ADONAI is with them, then let them now intercede with ADONAI-Tzva'ot that the articles still remaining in the house of ADONAI and in the palace of the king of Y'hudah will not go off to Bavel.

19 For this is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot says concerning the columns, the Sea, the bases and the rest of the articles still here in this city,

20 that N'vukhadnetzar, king of Bavel did not seize when he carried off captive Y'khanyahu the son of Y'hoyakim, king of Y'hudah, from Yerushalayim to Bavel, along with all the leading men of Y'hudah and Yerushalayim-

21 yes, this is what ADONAI Shaddai, the God of Isra'el, says about the things remaining in the house of ADONAI, in the palace of the king of Y'hudah and in Yerushalayim:

22 'They will be carried to Bavel; and there they will stay until the day I remember them, bring them back and restore them to this place,' says ADONAI."

Jeremiah 28

1 That same year, at the beginning of the reign of Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, Hananyah the son of 'Azur the prophet, from Giv'on, spoke to me in ADONAI's house in front of the cohanim and all the people, saying,

2 "This is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'I have broken the yoke of the king of Bavel.

3 Within two years I will restore to this place all the articles from ADONAI's house that N'vukhadnetzar king of Bavel removed from this place and carried to Bavel.

4 Also I will bring back here Y'khanyah the son of Y'hoyakim, king of Y'hudah, along with all those from Y'hudah who were taken captive to Bavel,' says ADONAI, 'for I will break the yoke of the king of Bavel.'"

5 Then the prophet Yirmeyahu said to the prophet Hananyah in front of the cohanim and all the people standing in ADONAI's house -

6 the prophet Yirmeyahu said, "Amen! May ADONAI do it! May ADONAI fulfill the words you have prophesied and bring back from Bavel to this place the articles from ADONAI's house and all the people who were carried away captive!

7 Nevertheless, listen now to this word that I am speaking for you to hear and for all the people to hear.

8 The prophets who were here before me and before you prophesied in times past against many countries and against great kingdoms about war, disaster and plagues.

9 As for a prophet who prophesies peace - when the word of that prophet is fulfilled, it will be evident concerning that prophet that ADONAI indeed did send him."

10 At this point Hananyah the prophet took the crossbar off the prophet Yirmeyahu's neck and broke it.

11 Then Hananyah, in front of all the people, said, "Thus says ADONAI: 'In just this way will I break off the yoke of N'vukhadnetzar king of Bavel from the necks of all the nations within two years.'" The prophet Yirmeyahu left them;

12 but then this word of ADONAI came to Yirmeyahu, after Hananyah the prophet had broken off the crossbar from the neck of the prophet Yirmeyahu:

13 "Go and tell Hananyah that ADONAI:says, 'You have broken the crossbars of wood, but you will make in their place crossbars of iron.

14 For here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: "I have put a yoke of iron on the necks of all these nations, so that they can serve N'vukhadnetzar king of Bavel; and they will serve him; and I have given him the wild animals too."'"

15 Then the prophet Yirmeyahu said to Hananyah the prophet, "Listen here, Hananyah! ADONAI has not sent you! You are making these people trust in a lie!

16 Therefore, here is what ADONAI says: 'I am about to send you away from the face of the earth - this year you will die, because you have preached rebellion against ADONAI.'"

17 Hananyah the prophet died that same year, in the seventh month.

Psalm 132

1 A song of ascents: ADONAI, remember in David's favor all the hardships he endured,

2 how he swore to ADONAI, vowed to the Mighty One of Ya'akov,

3 "I will not enter the house where I live or get into my bed,

4 I will not allow myself to sleep or even close my eyes,

5 until I find a place for ADONAI, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Ya'akov."

6 We heard about it in Efrat, we found it in the Fields of Ya'ar.

7 Let's go into his dwelling and prostrate ourselves at his footstool.

8 Go up, ADONAI, to your resting-place, you and the ark through which you give strength.

9 May your cohanim be clothed with righteousness; may those loyal to you shout for joy.

10 For the sake of your servant David, don't turn away the face of your anointed one.

11 ADONAI swore an oath to David, an oath he will not break: "One of the sons from your own body I will set on your throne.

12 If your sons keep my covenant and my instruction, which I will teach them, then their descendants too, forever, will sit on your throne."

13 For ADONAI has chosen Tziyon, he has wanted it as his home.

14 "This is my resting-place forever, I will live here because I so much want to.

15 I will bless it with plenty of meat, I will give its poor their fill of food.

16 Its cohanim I will clothe with salvation, and its faithful will shout for joy.

17 I will make a king sprout there from David's line and prepare a lamp for my anointed one.

18 His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him there will be a shining crown."

November 16, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 16

James 5; Jeremiah 29-30; Psalm 133 CJB

James 5

1 Next, a word for the rich: weep and wail over the hardships coming upon you!

2 Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have become moth-eaten;

3 your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat up your flesh like fire! This is the acharit-hayamim, and you have been storing up wealth!

4 Listen! The wages you have fraudulently withheld from the workers who mowed your fields are calling out against you, and the outcries of those who harvested have reached the ears of ADONAI-Tzva'ot.

5 You have led a life of luxury and self-indulgence here on earth - in a time of slaughter, you have gone on eating to your heart's content.

6 You have condemned, you have murdered the innocent; they have not withstood you.

7 So, brothers, be patient until the Lord returns. See how the farmer waits for the precious "fruit of the earth" - he is patient over it until it receives the fall and spring rains. i

8 You too, be patient; keep up your courage; for the Lord's return is near.

9 Don't grumble against one another, brothers, so that you won't come under condemnation - look! the Judge is standing at the door!

10 As an example of suffering mistreatment and being patient, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of ADONAI.

11 Look, we regard those who persevered as blessed. You have heard of the perseverance of Iyov, and you know what the purpose of ADONAI was, that ADONAI is very compassionate and merciful.

12 Above all, brothers, stop swearing oaths - not "By heaven," not "By the earth," and not by any other formula; rather, let your "Yes" be simply "Yes" and your "No" simply "No," so that you won't fall under condemnation.

13 Is someone among you in trouble? He should pray. Is someone feeling good? He should sing songs of praise.

14 Is someone among you ill? He should call for the elders of the congregation. They will pray for him and rub olive oil on him in the name of the Lord.

15 The prayer offered with trust will heal the one who is ill - the Lord will restore his health; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.

16 Therefore, openly acknowledge your sins to one another, and pray for each other, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.

17 Eliyahu was only a human being like us; yet he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and no rain fell on the Land for three years and six months.

18 Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the Land produced its crops.

19 My brothers, if one of you wanders from the truth, and someone causes him to return,

20 you should know that whoever turns a sinner from his wandering path will save him from death and cover many sins.

Jeremiah 29

1 Following is the text of the letter Yirmeyahu the prophet sent from Yerushalayim to the leaders remaining in exile, as well as to the cohanim, the prophets and all the people N'vukhadnetzar had carried off captive from Yerushalayim to Bavel.

2 This was after Y'khanyah the king, the queen mother, the officers, the leaders of Y'hudah and Yerushalayim, and the artisans and skilled workers had left Yerushalayim.

3 The letter was entrusted to El'asah the son of Shafan and G'maryah the son of Hilkiyah; Tzidkiyah king of Y'hudah sent them to Bavel, to N'vukhadnetzar king of Bavel. The letter said:

4 "Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says to all those in exile, whom I have caused to be carried off captive from Yerushalayim to Bavel:

5 'Build yourselves houses, and live in them. Plant gardens, and eat what they produce.

6 Choose women to marry, and have sons and daughters. Choose wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage to men, so that they can have sons and daughters - increase your numbers there, don't decrease.

7 Seek the welfare of the city to which I have caused you to go in exile, and pray to ADONAI on its behalf; for your welfare is bound up in its welfare.'

8 For this is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'Don't let your prophets who are living among you and your diviners deceive you, and don't pay attention to the dreams you urge them to dream.

9 For they are prophesying falsely in my name; I have not sent them,' says ADONAI.

10 "For here is what ADONAI says: 'After Bavel's seventy years are over, I will remember you and fulfill my good promise to you by bringing you back to this place.

11 For I know what plans I have in mind for you,' says ADONAI,'plans for well-being, not for bad things; so that you can have hope and a future.

12 When you call to me and pray to me, I will listen to you.

13 When you seek me, you will find me, provided you seek for me wholeheartedly;

14 and I will let you find me,' says ADONAI. 'Then I will reverse your exile. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have driven you,' says ADONAI, 'and bring you back to the place from which I exiled you.'

15 "You say that ADONAI has raised up prophets for you in Bavel.

16 But here is what ADONAI says about the king occupying David's throne and about all the people living in this city, your kinsmen who did not go into exile with you -

17 thus says ADONAI-Tzva'ot: 'I will attack them with sword, famine and plague; I will make them like bad figs, so bad they are inedible.

18 I will pursue them with sword, famine and plague and make them an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth; and they will bring on themselves cursing, astonishment, ridicule and reproach among all the nations where I have driven them;

19 because they have not paid attention to my words,' says ADONAI, 'which I sent to them through my servants the prophets. I sent them frequently, but you refused to listen,' says ADONAI.

20 "So pay attention now to the word of ADONAI, all of you in exile, whom I sent away from Yerushalayim to Bavel.

21 Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says about Ach'av the son of Kolayah and Tzidkiyahu the son of Ma'aseiyah, who prophesy lies to you in my name: 'I will hand them over to N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel, and he will put them to death before your eyes.

22 In fact, all those exiled from Y'hudah who are in Bavel will take up this formula for cursing: "May ADONAI make you like Tzidkiyahu and Ach'av, whom the king of Bavel roasted in the fire!"

23 because they have done vile things in Isra'el, committing adultery with their neighbors' wives and speaking words in my name, falsely, which I did not order them to say. For I am he who knows; I am witness to this,' says ADONAI.

24 "To Sh'ma'yah the Nechelami you are to communicate this message:

25 'This is a word from ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, because of the letters you sent in your own name to all the people in Yerushalayim, including Tz'fanyah the son of Ma'aseiyah the cohen and all the cohanim.

26 Your letter said, "ADONAI has made you cohen in place of Y'hoyada the cohen, in order to have officials in ADONAI's house who will arrest any crazy person who makes himself out to be a prophet, so that you can restrain him in stocks and collar.

27 So why haven't you rebuked Yirmeyahu of 'Anatot, who makes himself out to be a prophet for you?

28 He even sends word to us in Bavel saying that the exile will last a long time; so build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat what they produce."

29 Tz'fanyah the cohen read this letter to Yirmeyahu the prophet, and afterwards

30 the word of ADONAI came to Yirmeyahu,

31 instructing him to send to all those in exile this message: "Here is what ADONAI says about Sh'ma'yah the Nechelami: 'This Sh'ma'yah has prophesied to you, even though I did not send him, and has caused you to put your trust in a lie.

32 Because of this,' ADONAI says, 'I will punish Sh'ma'yah the Nechelami and his offspring. He will not have a man to live among this people, and he will not see the good I am planning to do for my people,' says ADONAI, 'because he has preached rebellion against ADONAI.'"'"

Jeremiah 30

1 This word came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI:

2 "This is what ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'Write all the words I have spoken to you in a scroll.

3 For the day is coming,' says ADONAI, 'when I will reverse the exile of my people Isra'el and Y'hudah,' says ADONAI. 'I will cause them to return to the land I gave their ancestors, and they will take possession of it.'"

4 These are the words ADONAI spoke concerning Isra'el and Y'hudah:

5 Here is what ADONAI says: "We have heard a cry of terror, of fear and not of peace.

6 Ask now and see: can men give birth to children? Why, then, do I see all the men with their hands on their stomachs like women in labor, with every face turned pale?

7 How dreadful that day will be! - there has never been one like it: a time of trouble for Ya'akov, but out of it he will be saved.

8 "On that day," says ADONAI-Tzva'ot, "I will break his yoke from off your neck, I will snap your chains. Foreigners will no longer enslave him.

9 Instead, they will serve ADONAI their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them.

10 "So don't be afraid, Ya'akov my servant," says ADONAI, "or be alarmed, Isra'el; for I will return you from far away and your offspring from their country of exile. Ya'akov will again be quiet, at rest; and no one will make him afraid.

11 "For I am with you to save you," says ADONAI, "I will finish off all the nations where I have scattered you. However, you I will not finish off, but will discipline only as you deserve; I will not completely destroy you."

12 For here is what ADONAI says: "Your wound is past healing, your injury most severe;

13 no one thinks your wound can be bandaged; you have no medicines that can heal you.

14 All your friends have forgotten you, they no longer seek you out. I have struck you down as an enemy would, punished as a cruel man would, because of your great wickedness, because of your many sins.

15 Why cry that your wound and pain are past healing? I have done these things to you because of your great wickedness, because of your many sins.

16 "But all who devour you will be devoured, all your enemies will go into exile, those who plunder you will be plundered, those who pillage you will be pillaged.

17 For I will restore your health, I will heal you of your wounds," says ADONAI, "because they called you an outcast, Tziyon, with no one who cares about her."

18 Thus says ADONAI: "I will return Ya'akov's captives to their tents; I will take pity on his dwellings. Cities will be rebuilt on their own tels, with palaces where they're supposed to be.

19 From them will come thanksgiving and the sound of people celebrating. I will increase them; they will not be decreased; I will honor them; they will not be despised.

20 Their children will be as they used to be, their community confirmed in my presence; and I will punish everyone who oppresses them.

21 Their leader will be one of their own, their ruler will come from among them. I will cause him to come close and let him approach me; for, otherwise, who would guarantee his heart enough to approach me?" says ADONAI.

22 "You will be my people, and I will be your God."

23 Look! The storm of ADONAI, bursting out in fury, a sweeping storm, whirling down upon the heads of the wicked!

24 ADONAI's fierce anger will not abate till he accomplishes the purpose in his heart. In the acharit-hayamim, you will understand.

Psalm 133

1 A song of ascents. By David: Oh, how good, how pleasant it is for brothers to live together in harmony.

2 It is like fragrant oil on the head that runs down over the beard, over the beard of Aharon, and flows down on the collar of his robes.

3 It is like the dew of Hermon that settles on the mountains of Tziyon. For it was there that ADONAI ordained the blessing of everlasting life.

November 17, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 17

1 Peter 1; Jeremiah 31-32; Psalm 134 CJB

1 Peter 1

1 From: Kefa, an emissary of Yeshua the Messiah To: God's chosen people, living as aliens in the Diaspora - in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bythinia -

2 chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father and set apart by the Spirit for obeying Yeshua the Messiah and for sprinkling with his blood: Grace and shalom be yours in full measure.

3 Praised be God, Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who, in keeping with his great mercy, has caused us, through the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah from the dead, to be born again to a living hope,

4 to an inheritance that cannot decay, spoil or fade, kept safe for you in heaven.

5 Meanwhile, through trusting, you are being protected by God's power for a deliverance ready to be revealed at the Last Time.

6 Rejoice in this, even though for a little while you may have to experience grief in various trials.

7 Even gold is tested for genuineness by fire. The purpose of these trials is so that your trust's genuineness, which is far more valuable than perishable gold, will be judged worthy of praise, glory and honor at the revealing of Yeshua the Messiah.

8 Without having seen him, you love him. Without seeing him now, but trusting in him, you continue to be full of joy that is glorious beyond words.

9 And you are receiving what your trust is aiming at, namely, your deliverance.

10 The prophets, who prophesied about this gift of deliverance that was meant for you, pondered and inquired diligently about it.

11 They were trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of the Messiah in them was referring in predicting the Messiah's sufferings and the glorious things to follow.

12 It was revealed to them that their service when they spoke about these things was not for their own benefit, but for yours. And these same things have now been proclaimed to you by those who communicated the Good News to you through the Ruach HaKodesh sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things!

13 Therefore, get your minds ready for work, keep yourselves under control, and fix your hopes fully on the gift you will receive when Yeshua the Messiah is revealed.

14 As people who obey God, do not let yourselves be shaped by the evil desires you used to have when you were still ignorant.

15 On the contrary, following the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in your entire way of life;

16 since the Tanakh says, "You are to be holy because I am holy."

17 Also, if you are addressing as Father the one who judges impartially according to each person's actions, you should live out your temporary stay on earth in fear.

18 You should be aware that the ransom paid to free you from the worthless way of life which your fathers passed on to you did not consist of anything perishable like silver or gold;

19 on the contrary, it was the costly bloody sacrificial death of the Messiah, as of a lamb without defect or spot.

20 God knew him before the founding of the universe, but revealed him in the acharit-hayamim for your sakes.

21 Through him you trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory; so that your trust and hope are in God.

22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth, so that you have a sincere love for your brothers, love each other deeply, with all your heart.

23 You have been born again not from some seed that will decay, but from one that cannot decay, through the living Word of God that lasts forever.

24 For all humanity is like grass, all its glory is like a wildflower the grass withers, and the flower falls off; but the Word of ADONAI lasts forever. Moreover, this Word is the Good News which has been proclaimed to you.

Jeremiah 31

1 "When that time comes," says ADONAI, "I will be God of all the clans of Isra'el, and they will be my people."

2 Here is what ADONAI says: "The people escaping the sword found favor in the desert I have brought Isra'el to its rest."

3 From a distance ADONAI appeared to me, [saying,] "I love you with an everlasting love; this is why in my grace I draw you to me.

4 Once again, I will build you; you will be rebuilt, virgin of Isra'el. Once again, equipped with your tambourines, you will go out and dance with the merrymakers.

5 Once again, you will plant vineyards on the hills of Shomron, and those doing the planting will have the use of its fruit.

6 For a day will come when the watchmen on Mount Efrayim will call, 'Come, let's go up to Tziyon, to ADONAI our God.'"

7 For here is what ADONAI says: "Sing with joy for Ya'akov! shout for the chief of the nations! Proclaim your praise, and say: 'ADONAI! You have saved your people, the remnant of Isra'el!'

8 Look! I am bringing them from the land in the north, gathering them from the far ends of the earth; among them are the blind and lame, women with children, women in labor, all together, a vast throng returning here.

9 They will come weeping and praying as I bring them back. I will lead them by streams of water on smooth paths, so that they won't stumble. For I am a father to Isra'el, and Efrayim is my firstborn son."

10 Nations, hear the word of ADONAI! Proclaim it in the coastlands far away. Say: "He who scattered Isra'el is gathering him, guarding him like a shepherd his flock."

11 For ADONAI has ransomed Ya'akov, redeemed him from hands too strong for him.

12 They will come and sing on the heights of Tziyon, streaming to the goodness of Adonai, to the grain, the wine, the olive oil, and the young of the flock and the herd. They themselves will be like a well-watered garden, never to languish again.

13 "Then the virgin will dance for joy, young men and old men together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, comfort and gladden them after their sorrow.

14 I will give the cohanim their fill of rich food, and my people will be satisfied with my bounty," says ADONAI.

15 This is what ADONAI says: "A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and bitter weeping. It is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no longer alive."

16 This is what ADONAI says: "Stop your weeping, and dry your eyes, for your work will be rewarded," says ADONAI. "They will return from the enemy's land;

17 so there is hope for your future," says ADONAI. "Your children will return to their own territory.

18 "I hear Efrayim bemoaning himself: 'You disciplined me, and I took your discipline like a young ox not used to a yoke. Let me return, and I will return, for you are ADONAI, my God.

19 Yes, I turned away; but later I repented. When I had been made to understand, I struck my thigh in shame and remorse, bearing the weight of the disgrace acquired when I was young.'

20 "Isn't Efrayim my very dear son, a child who delights me so? I speak about him all the time, I can't help but recall him to mind. In sum, I deeply yearn for him; I will surely show him favor," says ADONAI.

21 Set up road signs, erect guideposts, pay attention to the highway, the path on which you traveled. Come back, virgin Isra'el, come back to these cities of yours!

22 How long will you hesitate, you unruly daughter? For ADONAI has created something new on earth: a woman with the strengths of a man.

23 Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: "This expression will be used again in the land of Y'hudah and its cities after I have returned their exiles: 'May ADONAI bless you, home of justice, holy mountain!'

24 In it will live together Y'hudah and all its cities, the farmer and those who lead the flocks.

25 For I have satisfied the weary and filled the needs of all in distress."

26 At this point I woke up and looked around, but I had enjoyed my sleep.

27 "Here, the days are coming," says ADONAI, when I will sow the house of Isra'el and the house of Y'hudah with the seed of humans and the seed of animals.

28 At that time, just as I used to watch over them with the intent to uproot, break down, overthrow, destroy and do harm; so then I will watch over them to build and plant," says ADONAI.

29 "When those days come they will no longer say, 'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge.'

30 Rather, each will die for his own sin; every one who eats sour grapes, his own teeth will be set on edge.

31 "Here, the days are coming," says ADONAI, "when I will make a new covenant with the house of Isra'el and with the house of Y'hudah.

32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers on the day I took them by their hand and brought them out of the land of Egypt; because they, for their part, violated my covenant, even though I, for my part, was a husband to them," says ADONAI.

33 "For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Isra'el after those days," says ADONAI: "I will put my Torah within them and write it on their hearts; I will be their God, and they will be my people.

34 No longer will any of them teach his fellow community member or his brother, 'Know ADONAI'; for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest; because I will forgive their wickednesses and remember their sins no more."

35 This is what ADONAI says, who gives the sun as light for the day, who ordained the laws for the moon and stars to provide light for the night, who stirs up the sea until its waves rorar -- ADONAI-Tzva'ot is his name:

36 "If these laws leave my presence," says ADONAI, "then the offspring of Isra'el will stop being a nation in my presence forever."

37 This is what ADONAI says: "If the sky above can be measured and the foundations of the earth be fathomed, then I will reject all the offspring of Isra'el for all that they have done," says ADONAI.

38 "Look, the days are coming," says ADONAI, "when the city will be rebuilt for ADONAI from the Tower of Hanan'el to the Corner Gate.

39 The measuring line will be stretched straight to Garev Hill, then turn to Go'ah.

40 The whole valley of corpses and ashes, including all the fields as far as Vadi Kidron, and on to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east, will be separated out for ADONAI; it will never be uprooted or destroyed again." to provide light for the night, who stirs up the sea until its waves roar ADONAI-Tzva'ot is his name: 36 "If these laws leave my presence," says ADONAI, "then the offspring of Isra'el will stop being a nation in my presence forever."

Jeremiah 32

1 This is the word that came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI in the tenth year of Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah, which was the eighteenth year of N'vukhadretzar.

2 At that time the army of the king of Bavel was besieging Yerushalayim; and Yirmeyahu the prophet was imprisoned in the guards' quarters attached to the king of Y'hudah's palace,

3 where Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah had imprisoned him after demanding, "How dare you prophesy that ADONAI says, 'I will hand this city over to the king of Bavel, and he will capture it;

4 Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah will not escape from the Kasdim but will certainly be handed over to the king of Bavel, who will address him face to face, with their eyes meeting;

5 and he will lead Tzidkiyahu to Bavel, where he will stay until I remember him,' says ADONAI, 'and even if you fight the Kasdim, you will fail'?"

6 Yirmeyahu said, "This word of ADONAI came to me:

7 'Hanam'el, the son of your uncle Shalum, will approach you and say, "Buy my field at 'Anatot; you have next-of-kin's right to redeem it; so buy it."'"

8 AS ADONAI had said, my cousin Hanam'el came to me in the guards' quarters and said, "Please buy my field at 'Anatot, in the territory of Binyamin; because you will inherit it, and you have next-of-kin's right to redeem it, so buy it for yourself." Then I was certain that this was ADONAI's word.

9 So I bought the field at 'Anatot which belonged to my cousin Hanam'el and weighed out the money for him, seven ounces of silver shekels.

10 I signed on the purchase contract, sealed it, called witnesses and weighed out the money for him on a balance scale.

11 I took the purchase contract, both the sealed copy with the terms and conditions, and the unsealed copy,

12 and gave the purchase contract to Barukh the son of Neriyah, the son of Machseyah, in the presence of my cousin Hanam'el, the witnesses who had signed the purchase contract and the people from Y'hudah sitting by the guards' quarters.

13 In their presence I instructed Barukh as follows:

14 "Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'Take these contracts, both the sealed and unsealed copies, and place them in a clay jar, so that they can be preserved for a long time.'

15 For ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says that one day homes, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land."

16 After giving the purchase contract to Barukh son of Neriyah, I prayed to ADONAI:

17 "ADONAI, God! You made heaven and earth by your great power and outstretched arm; nothing is too hard for you.

18 You display your grace to thousands but also repay the guilt of the fathers into the lap of their children who follow them. Great, powerful God, whose name is ADONAI-Tzva'ot,

19 great in counsel, mighty in deed! Your eyes are open to all the ways of human beings in order to repay each one according to his ways, according to the consequences of what he does.

20 You gave signs and performed miracles in the land of Egypt which continue to this day, also in Isra'el and among other people; thus you made yourself the reputation you have today.

21 You brought your people of Isra'el out of the land of Egypt with signs and miracles, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm and with great terror.

22 Then you gave them this land, which you had sworn to their ancestors that you would give them, a land flowing with milk and honey.

23 They entered and took possession of it; but they did not pay attention to your voice, did not live according to your Torah, and did nothing of all you ordered them to do. Therefore you made this complete disaster befall them -

24 the siege-works are already there; they have come to the city to capture it; and the city, by means of sword, famine and plague, is being handed over to the Kasdim fighting against it. What you foretold is being fulfilled; here, you see it, yourself.

25 Yet you, ADONAI, God, have said to me, 'Buy the field for money, and call witnesses; even as the city is being turned over to the Kasdim!'"

26 Then this word of ADONAI came to Yirmeyahu:

27 "Look, I am ADONAI, the God of every living creature; is there anything too hard for me?

28 Therefore, here is what ADONAI says: 'I will hand this city over to the Kasdim and to N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel; and he will capture it.

29 The Kasdim who are fighting against this city will enter and set this city on fire; they will burn it down, including its houses, on whose roofs they offered to Ba'al and poured out drink offerings to other gods, in order to make me angry.

30 For from their youth, the people of Isra'el and the people of Y'hudah have done only what is evil from my perspective; the people of Isra'el have done nothing but provoke me with what their hands make,' says ADONAI.

31 'This city has so provoked my anger and fury from the day they built it to this day that I ought to remove it from my presence,

32 because of all the evil that the people of Isra'el and the people of Y'hudah have done in order to make me angry - they, their kings, their leaders, their cohanim, their prophets, the men of Y'hudah and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim.

33 They have turned their backs on me, not their faces; and although I taught them, taught them frequently, they have not listened so as to receive instruction.

34 Instead they put their detestable idols in the house that bears my name, to defile it;

35 and they built the high places for Ba'al which are in the Ben-Hinnom Valley, to burn alive their sons and daughters to Molekh - something I did not order them to do, it never even entered my mind that they would do such an abominable thing - and thus they caused Y'hudah to sin.'

36 "Therefore, thus says ADONAI the God of Isra'el concerning this city, of which you say that it is handed over to the king of Bavel by sword, famine and plague:

37 'I will gather them out of all the countries where I drove them in my anger, fury and great wrath; and I will bring them back to this place and have them live here in safety.

38 They will be my people, and I will be their God.

39 I will give them singleness of heart and singleness of purpose, so that they will fear me forever - this will be for their own good and for the good of their children after them.

40 I will make with them an everlasting covenant not to turn away from them, but to do them good; I will put fear of me in their hearts, so that they will not leave me.

41 I will take joy in them, so as to do them good. I will plant them in this land truly, with my whole heart and being.'

42 For here is what ADONAI says: 'Just as I have brought this complete disaster on this people, so likewise I will bring on them all the good I have promised them.

43 Fields will be bought in this land, even though you say about it that it is desolate, devoid of human beings or animals, and given over to the Kasdim.

44 Yes, people will buy fields for money, sign the purchase contracts, seal them and call witnesses, in the territory of Binyamin, in the areas around Yerushalayim, in the cities of Y'hudah, in the cities of the hill-country, in the cities of the Sh'felah and in the cities of the Negev. For I will cause their exiles to return,' says ADONAI."

Psalm 134

1 A song of ascents: Come, bless ADONAI, all you servants of ADONAI, who serve each night in the house of ADONAI.

2 Lift your hands toward the sanctuary, and bless ADONAI.

3 May ADONAI, the maker of heaven and earth, bless you from Tziyon.

November 18, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 18

1 Peter 2; Jeremiah 33-34; Psalm 135 CJB

1 Peter 2

1 Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice, of all deceit, hypocrisy and envy, and of all the ways there are of speaking against people;

2 and be like newborn babies, thirsty for the pure milk of the Word; so that by it, you may grow up into deliverance.

3 For you have tasted that ADONAI is good.

4 As you come to him, the living stone, rejected by people but chosen by God and precious to him,

5 you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be cohanim set apart for God to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to him through Yeshua the Messiah.

6 This is why the Tanakh says, "Look! I am laying in Tziyon a stone, a chosen and precious cornerstone; and whoever rests his trust on it will certainly not be humiliated."

7 Now to you who keep trusting, he is precious. But to those who are not trusting, "The very stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone";

8 also he is a stone that will make people stumble, a rock over which they will trip. They are stumbling at the Word, disobeying it - as had been planned.

9 But you are a chosen people, the King's cohanim, a holy nation, a people for God to possess! Why? In order for you to declare the praises of the One who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; before, you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

11 Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and temporary residentsl not to give in to the desires of your old nature, which keep warring against you;

12 but to live such good lives among the pagans that even though they now speak against you as evildoers, they will, as a result of seeing your good actions, give glory to God on the Day of his coming.

13 For the sake of the Lord, submit yourselves to every human authority - whether to the emperor as being supreme,

14 or to governors as being sent by him to punish wrongdoers and praise those who do what is good.

15 For it is God's will that your doing good should silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.

16 Submit as people who are free, but not letting your freedom serve as an excuse for evil; rather, submit as God's slaves.

17 Be respectful to all - keep loving the brotherhood, fearing God and honoring the emperor.

18 Household servants, submit yourselves to your masters, showing them full respect - and not only those who are kind and considerate, but also those who are harsh.

19 For it is a grace when someone, because he is mindful of God, bears up under the pain of undeserved punishment.

20 For what credit is there in bearing up under a beating you deserve for doing something wrong? But if you bear up under punishment, even though you have done what is right, God looks on it with favor.

21 Indeed, this is what you were called to; because the Messiah too suffered, on your behalf, leaving an example so that you should follow in his steps.

22 "He committed no sin, nor was any deceit found on his lips."

23 When he was insulted, he didn't retaliate with insults; when he suffered, he didn't threaten, but handed them over to him who judges justly.

24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the stake, o so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness - by his wounds you were healed.p

25 For you used to be like sheep gone astray, but now you have turned toq the Shepherd, who watches over you.

Jeremiah 33

1 The word of ADONAI came to Yirmeyahu a second time while he was still imprisoned in the guards' quarters:

2 "Thus says ADONAI the maker, ADONAI who formed [the universe] so as to keep directing it ADONAI is his name:

3 'Call out to me, and I will answer you I will tell you great things, hidden things of which you are unaware.'"

4 For here is what ADONAI the God of Isra'el says concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of the kings of Y'hudah which are about to be destroyed and used as siege-works and ramparts,

5 where they will come to fight the Kasdim: "These places will eventually be filled with the corpses of people whom I am striking down in my anger and fury, everyone whose wickedness has caused me to hide my face from this city.

6 However, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them peace and truth in plenty.

7 I will cause the captives of Y'hudah and the captives of Isra'el to return; and I will build them up as I did at first.

8 I will cleanse them from all their sins, through which they offended me; and I will pardon all their sins, through which they offended and rebelled against me.

9 Then the name of this city will bring me joy, praise and glory before all the nations of the earth that hear about all the good I am doing for them; they will be overcome with fear and trembling at all the good and peace I am securing for it."

10 Here is what ADONAI says: "You say that this place is a wasteland, with neither people nor animals in the cities of Y'hudah, and that the streets of Yerushalayim are desolate, without people or animals - no inhabitants. Yet there will again be heard here

11 the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of bridegroom and bride, the voices of those who sing, 'Give thanks to ADONAI-Tzva'ot, for ADONAI is good, for his grace continues forever,' as they bring offerings of thanksgiving into the house of ADONAI. For I will cause those captured from the land to return, as before," says ADONAI.

12 ADONAI-Tzva'ot says, "In this place, which is a wasteland without people or animals, and in all its cities, there will once again be pasture-lands where shepherds can let their flocks rest.

13 In the cities of the hill-country, in the cities of the Sh'felah, in the cities of the Negev, in the territory of Binyamin, in the areas around Yerushalayim and in the cities of Y'hudah flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them," says ADONAI.

14 "Here, the days are coming," says ADONAI, "when I will fulfill this good promise which I have proclaimed for the house of Isra'el and the house of Y'hudah.

15 When those days come, at that time, I will cause to spring up for David a Branch of Righteousness. He will do what is just and right in the land.

16 When those days come, Y'hudah will be saved, Yerushalayim will live in safety, and the name given to her will be ADONAI Tzidkenu [ADONAI our Righteousness]."

17 For this is what ADONAI says: "There will never be cut off from David a man to occupy the throne of the house of Isra'el.

18 Nor will there ever be cut off from the cohanim who are L'vi'im a man before me to offer burnt offerings, burn grain offerings and offer sacrifices every day."

19 This word of ADONAI came to Yirmeyahu:

20 "Here is what ADONAI says: 'If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night, so that daytime and nighttime no longer come when they are supposed to,

21 then my covenant with my servant David also can be broken, so that he will not have a descendant to reign from his throne or L'vi'im who are cohanim to minister to me.

22 To the degree that the armies of heaven are past counting and the sand by the sea past measuring, I will increase the descendants of my servant David and the L'vi'im ministering to me.'"

23 This word of ADONAI came to Yirmeyahu:

24 "Haven't you noticed that these people are saying, 'ADONAI has rejected the two families he chose'? Hence they despise my people and no longer look at them as a nation.

25 Here is what ADONAI says: 'If I have not established my covenant with day and night and fixed the laws for sky and earth,

26 then I will also reject the descendants of Ya'akov and of my servant David, not choosing from his descendants people to rule over the descendants of Avraham, Yis'chak and Ya'akov. For I will cause their captives to come back, and I will show them compassion.'"

Jeremiah 34

1 This word came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI when N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel, his whole army, all his vassal kingdoms and all the peoples fought against Yerushalayim and all its cities:

2 "ADONAI the God of Isra'el says to go and speak to Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah. Tell him that ADONAI says: 'I am going to hand this city over to the king of Bavel, and he will burn it to the ground.

3 You will not escape but will surely be captured and handed over to him; your eyes will see the eyes of the king of Bavel, he will speak with you face to face, and you will go to Bavel.'

4 Nevertheless, Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah, hear the word of ADONAI. ADONAI says this about you: 'You will not be put to the sword

5 but will die peacefully; and just as they burned spices for your ancestors, the earlier kings who preceded you, so they will burn spices for you and mourn you, "Oh! Master!" For I have spoken the word,' says ADONAI."

6 Yirmeyahu the prophet said all these words to Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah in Yerushalayim

7 at the time when the king of Bavel's army was fighting against Yerushalayim and against all the cities of Y'hudah that were left - that is, against Lakhish and 'Azekah, since only these remained of the fortified cities of Y'hudah.

8 This word came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI after King Tzidkiyahu had made a covenant with all the people in Yerushalayim to emancipate them.

9 Everyone who had a male or female slave who was Hebrew was to let him go free; none was to keep as his slave a fellow Jew.

10 All the leaders and all the people listened who had entered into the covenant, wherein everyone was to free his male and female slaves and not keep them in bondage any longer. They listened, and they let them go.

11 But afterwards, they changed their minds; they made the male and female slaves, whom they had freed, return; and they brought them back into subjection as slaves.

12 Therefore this word of ADONAI came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI:

13 "Here is what ADONAI the God of Isra'el says: 'When I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, where they lived as slaves, I made this covenant with them:

14 "At the end of seven years every one of you is to set free his brother Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years. You are to let him go free from you." But your ancestors did not listen to me or pay any attention.

15 Now you repented, you did what is right from my viewpoint when each of you proclaimed freedom to his fellow; and you made a covenant before me in the house bearing my name.

16 But then you changed your minds. You profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, whom you had set free to live as they wished, and brought them back into subjection as your slaves.'

17 Therefore here is what ADONAI says: 'You did not heed me and proclaim freedom, each to his brother and each to his neighbor; so now I proclaim for you a freedom,' says ADONAI, 'for sword, plague and famine. I will make you an object of horror to all the kingdoms on earth.

18 As for the men who violated my covenant by not living up to the conditions of the covenant which they made in my presence when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts -

19 the leaders of Y'hudah, the leaders of Yerushalayim, the officials, the cohanim and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf;

20 I will hand them over to their enemies, hand them over to those who seek their lives; and their corpses will become food for birds in the air and wild animals.

21 Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah and his officials I will hand over to their enemies, to those who seek their lives and to the army of the king of Bavel, which has withdrawn.

22 I will give the order,' says ADONAI, 'and cause them to return to this city. They will attack it, capture it and burn it to the ground; and I will make the cities of Y'hudah desolate and uninhabited.'"

Psalm 135

1 Halleluyah! Give praise to the name of ADONAI! Servants of ADONAI, give praise!

2 You who stand in the house of ADONAI, in the courtyards of the house of our God,

3 praise Yah, for ADONAI is good; sing to his name, because it is pleasant.

4 For Yah chose Ya'akov for himself, Isra'el as his own unique treasure.

5 I know that ADONAI is great, that our Lord is above all gods.

6 ADONAI does whatever pleases him, in heaven, on earth, in the seas, in all the depths.

7 He raises clouds from the ends of the earth, he makes the lightning flash in the rain and brings the wind out from his storehouses.

8 He struck down Egypt's firstborn, humans and animals alike.

9 He sent signs and wonders among you, Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his subjects.

10 He struck many nations, and slaughtered mighty kings

11 Sichon king of the Emori, 'Og king of Bashan, and all the kingdoms of Kena'an.

12 Then he gave their land as a heritage, to be possessed by Isra'el his people.

13 ADONAI, your name continues forever, your renown, ADONAI, through all generations.

14 For ADONAI will vindicate his people, he will take pity on his servants.

15 The idols of the nations are mere silver and gold, made by human hands.

16 They have mouths, but they can't speak; they have eyes, but they can't see;

17 they have ears, but they can't listen; and they have no breath in their mouths;

18 The people who make them will become like them, along with everyone who trusts in them.

19 House of Isra'el, bless ADONAI! House of Aharon, bless ADONAI!

20 House of Levi, bless ADONAI! You who fear ADONAI, bless ADONAI!

21 Blessed be ADONAI out of Tziyon, he who dwells in Yerushalayim! Halleluyah!

November 20, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 19

1 Peter 3; Jeremiah 35-36; Psalm 136 CJB

1 Peter 3

1 In the same way, wives, submit to your husbands; so that even if some of them do not believe the Word, they will be won over by your conduct, without your saying anything,

2 as they see your respectful and pure behavior.

3 Your beauty should not consist in externals such as fancy hairstyles, gold jewelry or what you wear;

4 rather, let it be the inner character of your heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit. In God's sight this is of great value.

5 This is how the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves and submit to their husbands,

6 the way Sarah obeyed Avraham, honoring him as her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not succumb to fear.

7 You husbands, likewise, conduct your married lives with understanding. Although your wife may be weaker physically, you should respect her as a fellow-heir of the gift of Life. If you don't, your prayers will be blocked.

8 Finally, all of you, be one in mind and feeling; love as brothers; and be compassionate and humble-minded,

9 not repaying evil with evil or insult with insult, but, on the contrary, with blessing. For it is to this that you have been called, so that you may receive a blessing.

10 For "Whoever wants to love life and see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit,

11 turn from evil and do good, seek peace and chase after it.

12 For ADONAI keeps his eyes on the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers; but the face of ADONAI is against those who do evil things."

13 For who will hurt you if you become zealots for what is good?

14 But even if you do suffer for being righteous, you are blessed! Moreover, don't fear what they fear or be disturbed,

15 but treat the Messiah as holy, as Lord in your hearts;s while remaining always ready to give a reasoned answer to anyone who asks you to explain the hope you have in you - yet with humility and fear,

16 keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are spoken against, those who abuse the good behavior flowing from your union with the Messiah may be put to shame.

17 For if God has in fact willed that you should suffer, it is better that you suffer for doing what is good than for doing what is evil.

18 For the Messiah himself died for sins, once and for all, a righteous person on behalf of unrighteous people, so that he might bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh but brought to life by the Spirit;

19 and in this form he went and made a proclamation to the imprisoned spirits,

20 to those who were disobedient long ago, in the days of Noach, when God waited patiently during the building of the ark, in which a few people - to be specific, eight - were delivered by means of water.

21 This also prefigures what delivers us now, the water of immersion, which is not the removal of dirt from the body, but one's pledge to keep a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Yeshua the Messiah.

22 He has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities and powers subject to him.

Jeremiah 35

1 This word came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI during the time of Y'hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah:

2 "Go to the Rekhavim, speak to them, bring them to one of the rooms in the house of ADONAI, and give them some wine to drink."

3 So I took Ya'azanyah the son of Yirmeyahu, the son of Havatzinyah, and his brothers, all his sons and all the Rekhavim,

4 and took them into the house of ADONAI, to the room of the sons of Hanan the son of Yigdalyahu, a man of God. It was by the room of the officials, which was above the room of Ma'aseiyah the son of Shalum, the gatekeeper.

5 There I set in front of the members of the clan of the Rekhavim pitchers full of wine and cups, and said to them, "Drink some wine."

6 But they said, "We will not drink any wine; because Yonadav the son of Rekhav, our ancestor, gave us this order: 'You are not to drink wine, neither you nor your descendants, forever.

7 Also you are not to build houses, sow seed, or plant or own vineyards. Rather, you are always to live in tents; so that you may live a long time in the land, in which you are not citizens.'

8 We have heeded the words of Yonadav the son of Rekhav, our ancestor, in all that he instructed us to do: not to drink wine as long as we live - we, our wives, our sons and our daughters;

9 not to build houses for ourselves to live in; and not to have vineyards, fields or seed.

10 We have lived in tents, and we have heeded Yonadav our ancestor and done everything he ordered us to do.

11 But when N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel came up to attack the land, we said, 'Come, let's go up to Yerushalayim,' because we were afraid of the army of the Kasdim and the army of Aram; hence we are living in Yerushalayim."

12 Then the word of ADONAI came to Yirmeyahu:

13 "ADONAI-Tzva'ot the God of Isra'el says to go to the men of Y'hudah and the inhabitants of Yerushalayim and say: 'Won't you ever learn to listen to my words?' says ADONAI.

14 'The words of Yonadav the son of Rekhav which he ordered his offspring, not to drink wine, are obeyed; so to this day they don't drink any; because they heed their ancestor's order. But I have spoken to you, spoken frequently, and you have not listened to me.

15 I have also sent you all my servants the prophets, sent them frequently, with the message, "Every one of you should turn back now from his evil way, improve your actions and not follow other gods in order to serve them. Then you will live in the land I gave you and your ancestors. But you have not paid attention or listened to me.

16 Because the descendants of Yonadav the son of Rekhav have obeyed the order of their ancestor, which he ordered them; but this people has not listened to me;

17 therefore - " here is what ADONAI Elohei-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: "I will inflict on Y'hudah and all the inhabitants of Yerushalayim all the disaster I have decreed against them; because I have spoken to them, but they have not listened; and I have called out to them, but they have not answered."'"

18 Then to the clan of the Rekhavim Yirmeyahu said, "Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'Because you have heeded the order of Yonadav your ancestor, observed all his commands and done what he ordered you to do;

19 therefore ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says this: "Yonadav the son of Rekhav will never lack a descendant to stand before me."'"

Jeremiah 36

1 In the fourth year of Y'hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah, this word came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI:

2 "Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you against Isra'el, Y'hudah and all the other nations, from the day I started speaking to you, back in the time of Yoshiyahu, until today.

3 Perhaps the house of Y'hudah will listen to all the disaster I intend to bring on them, and turn back, each person from his evil way; then I will forgive their wickedness and sin."

4 So Yirmeyahu summoned Barukh the son of Neriyah; and Barukh wrote down on a scroll, at Yirmeyahu's dictation, all the words that ADONAI had said to him.

5 Then Yirmeyahu gave this order to Barukh: "I am not allowed to enter the house of ADONAI.

6 Therefore, you take the scroll which you wrote at my dictation, go into the house of ADONAI on a fast-day, and read from it the words of ADONAI in the hearing of the people; also read them to all Y'hudah as they exit their cities.

7 Perhaps they will turn to ADONAI in prayer and will return, each one, from his evil way. For the anger and fury which ADONAI has decreed against this people is great."

8 Barukh the son of Neriyah obeyed everything Yirmeyahu the prophet ordered him to do, reading the words of ADONAI from the scroll in ADONAI's house.

9 A fast was proclaimed in the ninth month of the fifth year of Y'hoyakim the son of Yoshiyahu, king of Y'hudah, for all the people in Yerushalayim and all the people who came from the cities of Y'hudah to Yerushalayim.

10 It was then that Barukh read from the scroll the words of Yirmeyahu in the house of ADONAI, in the chamber of G'maryahu the son of Shafan the secretary, in the upper courtyard, at the entry to the New Gate of ADONAI's house, for all the people to hear.

11 When Mikhay'hu the son of G'maryahu, the son of Shafan, had heard from the scroll all the words of ADONAI,

12 he went down to the king's palace, into the secretary's room. All the officials were there - Elishama the secretary, D'layahu the son of Sh'ma'yahu, Elnatan the son of 'Akhbor, G'maryah the son of Shafan, Tzidkiyahu the son of Hananyahu and all the [other] officials.

13 Mikhay'hu told them all the words he had heard when Barukh read the scroll in the people's hearing;

14 whereupon all the officials sent Y'hudi the son of N'tanyahu, the son of Shelemyahu, the son of Kushi, to Barukh to say, "Take in your hand the scroll from which you read in the hearing of the people, and come." So Barukh the son of Neriyah took the scroll in his hand and went to them.

15 They said to him, "Sit down, please, and read it to us." Barukh read it to them.

16 After they had heard all the words, they turned in fear to each other and said to Barukh, "We will certainly tell the king about all these words."

17 Then they asked Barukh, "Tell us now, how did you write all these words? At his dictation?"

18 Barukh answered them, "He said all these words to me with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the scroll."

19 At this, the officials said to Barukh, "Go and hide yourselves, you and Yirmeyahu; don't let anyone know where you are."

20 After depositing the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they went in to the courtyard and told everything to the king.

21 The king sent Y'hudi to bring the scroll, and he took it from the room of Elishama the secretary. Y'hudi read it to the king and all the officials standing near the king.

22 The king was sitting in his winter house; and since it was the ninth month, he had a fire burning in the stove in front of him.

23 After Y'hudi had read three or four columns from the scroll, he would cut off that portion with a knife and throw it into the fire that was burning in the stove, until the entire scroll had been consumed by the fire in the stove.

24 But even though they heard all these words, neither the king nor any of his servants grew afraid or tore their clothes.

25 Elnatan, D'layahu and G'maryahu had begged the king not to burn the scroll; but he wouldn't listen to them.

26 Then the king ordered Yerachme'el the king's son, S'rayahu the son of 'Azri'el and Shelemyahu the son of 'Avde'el to arrest Barukh the scribe and Yirmeyahu the prophet; but ADONAI hid them.

27 Then this word of ADONAI came to Yirmeyahu after the king had burned the scroll with the words Barukh had written at Yirmeyahu's dictation:

28 "Take another scroll, and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Y'hoyakim the king of Y'hudah burned up.

29 And as far as Y'hoyakim king of Y'hudah is concerned, you are to say that ADONAI says, 'You burned this scroll, asking, "Why did you write in it that the king of Bavel will certainly come and destroy this land and leave it without either humans or animals?"

30 Therefore ADONAI says this about Y'hoyakim king of Y'hudah: "He will have no one to occupy David's throne; and his dead body will be thrown out to lie in the heat by day and in the frost by night.

31 Moreover, I will punish him, his offspring and his officials for their wickedness; and I will bring on them, the inhabitants of Yerushalayim and the people of Y'hudah all the disaster I have decreed against them, to which they have paid no attention."'"

32 Then Yirmeyahu took another scroll and gave it to Barukh the scribe, the son of Neriyah. At Yirmeyahu's dictation he wrote in it all the words of the scroll which Y'hoyakim king of Y'hudah had burned up in the fire, and to those he added many similar words.

Psalm 136

1 Give thanks to ADONAI, for he is good, for his grace continues forever.

2 Give thanks to the God of gods, for his grace continues forever.

3 Give thanks to the Lord of lords, for his grace continues forever;

4 to him who alone has done great wonders, for his grace continues forever;

5 to him who skillfully made the heavens, for his grace continues forever;

6 to him who spread out the earth on the water, for his grace continues forever;

7 to him who made the great lights, for his grace continues forever;

8 the sun to rule the day, for his grace continues forever;

9 the moon and stars to rule the night, for his grace continues forever;

10 to him who struck down Egypt's firstborn, for his grace continues forever;

11 and brought Isra'el out from among them, for his grace continues forever;

12 with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, for his grace continues forever;

13 to him who split apart the Sea of Suf, for his grace continues forever;

14 and made Isra'el cross right through it, for his grace continues forever;

15 but swept Pharaoh and his army into the Sea of Suf, for his grace continues forever;

16 to him who led his people through the desert, for his grace continues forever;

17 to him who struck down great kings, for his grace continues forever;

18 yes, he slaughtered powerful kings, for his grace continues forever;

19 Sichon king of the Emori, for his grace continues forever;

20 and 'Og king of Bashan, for his grace continues forever;

21 then he gave their land as a heritage, for his grace continues forever;

22 to be possessed by Isra'el his servant, for his grace continues forever;

23 who remembers us whenever we are brought low, for his grace continues forever;

24 and rescues us from our enemies, for his grace continues forever;

25 who provides food for every living creature, for his grace continues forever.

26 Give thanks to the God of heaven, for his grace continues forever.

November 20, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 20

1 Peter 4; Jeremiah 37-38; Psalm 137 CJB

1 Peter 4

1 Therefore, since the Messiah suffered physically, you too are to arm yourselves with the same attitude. For whoever has suffered physically is finished with sin,

2 with the result that he lives the rest of his earthly life no longer controlled by human desires, but by God's will.

3 For you have spent enough time already living the way the pagans want you to live - in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, wild parties and forbidden idol-worship.

4 They think it strange that you don't plunge with them into the same flood of dissoluteness, and so they heap insults on you.

5 But they will have to give an account to him who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.

6 This is why he was proclaimed to those who have died; it was so that, although physically they would receive the judgment common to all humanity, they might live by the Spirit in the way that God has provided.

7 The accomplishing of the goal of all things is close at hand. Therefore, keep alert and self-controlled, so that you can pray.

8 More than anything, keep loving each other actively; because love covers many sins.

9 Welcome one another into your homes without grumbling.

10 As each one has received some spiritual gift, he should use it to serve others, like good managers of God's many-sided grace -

11 if someone speaks, let him speak God's words; if someone serves, let him do so out of strength that God supplies; so that in everything God may be glorified through Yeshua the Messiah - to him be glory and power forever and ever. Amen.

12 Dear friends, don't regard as strange the fiery ordeal occurring among you to test you, as if something extraordinary were happening to you.

13 Rather, to the extent that you share the fellowship of the Messiah's sufferings, rejoice; so that you will rejoice even more when his Sh'khinah is revealed.

14 If you are being insulted because you bear the name of the Messiah, how blessed you are! For the Spirit of the Sh'khinah, that is, the Spirit of God, is resting on you!

15 Let none of you suffer for being a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or a meddler in other people's affairs.

16 But if anyone suffers for being Messianic, let him not be ashamed; but let him bring glory to God by the way he bears this name.

17 For the time has come for the judgment to begin. It begins with the household of God; and if it starts with us, what will the outcome be for those who are disobeying God's Good News?

18 "If the righteous is barely delivered, where will the ungodly and sinful end up?"

19 So let those who are suffering according to God's will entrust themselves to a faithful Creator by continuing to do what is good.

Jeremiah 37

1 Tzidkiyahu the son of Yoshiyahu became king, succeeding Koniyahu the son of Y'hoyakim, whom N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel had made king over the land of Y'hudah.

2 But neither he, his servants nor the people of the land paid attention to the words of ADONAI, which he spoke through the prophet Yirmeyahu.

3 Tzidkiyahu the king sent Y'hukhal the son of Shelemyahu and Tz'fanyahu the son of Ma'aseiyah, the cohen, to the prophet Yirmeyahu with the message, "Please pray to ADONAI our God for us."

4 At that time Yirmeyahu was mixing freely with the people, because they had not yet put him in prison.

5 At the same time Pharaoh's army marched out of Egypt; and when the Kasdim besieging Yerushalayim heard about them, they lifted the siege from Yerushalayim.

6 Then this word of ADONAI came to the prophet Yirmeyahu:

7 "ADONAI the God of Isra'el says to tell the king of Y'hudah, who sent you to me to consult me: 'Pharaoh's army has marched out to assist you; but they will return to Egypt, to their own country.

8 The Kasdim will return, attack this city, capture it and burn it to the ground.'

9 Here is what ADONAI says: 'Don't deceive yourselves by thinking that the Kasdim must withdraw from you, because they will not withdraw.

10 Even if you were to strike the entire army of the Kasdim fighting against you, to the degree that only their wounded were left, they would still rise up every man from his tent and burn this city to the ground.'"

11 Then, at the time when the army of the Kasdim had lifted the siege of Yerushalayim out of fear of Pharaoh's army,

12 Yirmeyahu left Yerushalayim to go to the territory of Binyamin to receive his share of an inheritance there. He was passing through the crowds

13 and had reached the gate leading toward Binyamin when a guard commander there named Yir'iyah the son of Shelemyah, the son of Hananyah, seized Yirmeyahu the prophet, shouting, "You're deserting to the Kasdim!"

14 Yirmeyahu answered, "That is a lie! I am not deserting to the Kasdim"; but Yir'iyah wouldn't listen to him. So he arrested Yirmeyahu and brought him to the officials.

15 The officials, furious with Yirmeyahu, had him beaten and jailed in the house of Y'honatan the secretary, which had been made over into a prison.

16 The cistern had been made into a dungeon, and Yirmeyahu was put in one of its cells; there he remained for a long time.

17 Then Tzidkiyahu the king sent and had him brought; and the king asked him secretly, in his palace, "Is there any word from ADONAI?" "There is," Yirmeyahu said. "You will be handed over to the king of Bavel."

18 Yirmeyahu asked King Tzidkiyahu, "In what way have I sinned against you or against your officials or against this people, that has caused you to put me in prison?

19 Where are your prophets now, the ones who prophesied to you that the king of Bavel wouldn't attack you or this land?

20 So now, please listen, my lord king! I beg you, approve my request - don't make me return to the house of Y'honatan the secretary, or I will die there."

21 At that, Tzidkiyahu the king gave the order, at which they committed Yirmeyahu to the guards' quarters and gave him daily a loaf of bread from the Bakers' Street, until all the bread in the city had been used up. Thus Yirmeyahu remained in the guards' quarters.

Jeremiah 38

1 But Sh'fatyah the son of Mattan, G'dalyahu the son of Pash'chur, Yukhal the son of Shelemyahu and Pash'chur the son of Malkiyah heard these words which Yirmeyahu had said to all the people,

2 "Here is what ADONAI says: whoever remains in this city will die by sword, famine and plague; but whoever leaves and surrenders to the Kasdim will stay alive; his own life will be his only 'spoils of war,' but he will stay alive.

3 ADONAI says that this city will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Bavel, and he will capture it."

4 The leaders said to the king, "Please let this man be put to death; because by speaking such words to the soldiers left in this city and to all the people, he is demoralizing them. This man is seeking not to benefit this people, but to harm them."

5 Tzidkiyahu the king said, "All right, he is in your hands; for the king can't prevent you from doing as you please."

6 Then they took Yirmeyahu and threw him into the cistern of Malkiyahu the king's son, which was in the guards' quarters; they let down Yirmeyahu into it with ropes. In the pit there was no water, but there was mud; and Yirmeyahu sank into the mud.

7 'Eved-Melekh the Ethiopian, an officer in the king's house, heard that they had put Yirmeyahu in the cistern. When the king was sitting at the gate leading toward Binyamin,

8 'Eved-Melekh left the palace and said to the king,

9 "My lord, king! What these men have done to Yirmeyahu the prophet is evil. They have thrown him into the cistern; and he is likely to die there where he is, because of the famine; for there is no more food in the city."

10 Then the king ordered 'Eved-Melekh the Ethiopian, "Take thirty men with you from here, and bring Yirmeyahu the prophet up out of the cistern before he dies."

11 So 'Eved-Melekh took the men with him and entered a storeroom under the treasury in the king's palace, from which he took some old clothes and rags. These he let down with ropes to Yirmeyahu in the cistern.

12 'Eved-Melekh the Ethiopian then said to Yirmeyahu, "Use these old clothes and rags as padding between your armpits and the ropes." After Yirmeyahu had done this,

13 they pulled Yirmeyahu up with the ropes and took him out of the cistern. Yirmeyahu remained in the guards' quarters.

14 Tzidkiyahu summoned and had Yirmeyahu brought to him through the third entry in the house of ADONAI. Then the king said to Yirmeyahu, "I want to ask you something; don't hide anything from me."

15 Yirmeyahu said to Tzidkiyahu, "If I do say it to you, won't you have me put to death? And if I give you counsel, you won't listen to me."

16 So Tzidkiyahu swore secretly to Yirmeyahu, "As ADONAI lives, who gave us our lives, I will not put you to death; nor will I hand you over to these men who want you put to death."

17 Then Yirmeyahu said to Tzidkiyahu, "Here is what ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: 'If you will go out and surrender to the king of Bavel's officers, then you will stay alive - this city will not be burned down; and you and your family will live.

18 But if you will not go out to the king of Bavel's officers, then this city will be handed over to the Kasdim; they will burn it to the ground; and you will not escape from them.'"

19 Tzidkiyahu the king said to Yirmeyahu, "I am afraid of the Judeans who deserted to the Kasdim. The Kasdim might hand me over to them, and they would mistreat me."

20 Yirmeyahu answered, "They won't hand you over. I beg you, listen to the voice of ADONAI concerning what I'm telling you about; then it will go well with you, and you will live.

21 But if you refuse to surrender, then this is the word ADONAI has shown me:

22 all the women remaining in the king of Y'hudah's palace will be brought out to the king of Bavel's officers, and those women will taunt you: 'Your own close friends misled you and took advantage of you. Now that your feet are stuck in the mud, they have abandoned you.'

23 They will bring all your women and children out to the Kasdim, and you will not escape from them. Rather, you will be captured by the king of Bavel, and you will cause this city to be burned to the ground."

24 Tzidkiyahu said to Yirmeyahu, "Don't tell anyone what you just said, or you will die.

25 If the officials hear that I have talked with you, and they come to you and say, 'Tell us now what you said to the king; don't hide it from us, or we will put you to death, and also what the king said to you,'

26 then tell them, 'I presented my request to the king that he would not make me return to Y'honatan's house, to die there.'"

27 All the officials did come to Yirmeyahu and asked him, and he told them everything the king had ordered him to say. So they stopped speaking with him, since the matter had not been reported.

28 Yirmeyahu remained in the guards' quarters until the day Yerushalayim was captured; he was there when Yerushalayim was captured.

Psalm 137

1 By the rivers of Bavel we sat down and wept as we remembered Tziyon.

2 We had hung up our lyres on the willows that were there,

3 when those who had taken us captive asked us to sing them a song; our tormentors demanded joy from us -"Sing us one of the songs from Tziyon!"

4 How can we sing a song about ADONAI here on foreign soil?

5 If I forget you, Yerushalayim, may my right hand wither away!

6 May my tongue stick to the roof of my mouth if I fail to remember you, if I fail to count Yerushalayim the greatest of all my joys.

7 Remember, ADONAI, against the people of Edom the day of Yerushalayim's fall, how they cried, "Tear it down! Tear it down! Raze it to the ground!"

8 Daughter of Bavel, you will be destroyed! A blessing on anyone who pays you back for the way you treated us!

9 A blessing on anyone who seizes your babies and smashes them against a rock!

November 21, 2016

Today's Bible Reading

November 21

1 Peter 5; Jeremiah 39-40; Psalm 138 CJB

1 Peter 5

1 Therefore, I urge the congregation leaders among you, as a fellow-leader and witness to the Messiah's sufferings, as well as a sharer in the glory to be revealed:

2 shepherd the flock of God that is in your care, exercising oversight not out of constraint, but willingly, as God wants; and not out of a desire for dishonest gain, but with enthusiasm;

3 also not as machers domineering over those in your care, but as people who become examples to the flock.

4 Then, when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive glory as your unfading crown.

5 Likewise, you who are less experienced, submit to leaders. Further, all of you should clothe yourselves in humility toward one another, because God opposes the arrogant, but to the humble he gives grace.

6 Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so that at the right time he may lift you up.

7 Throw all your anxieties upon him, because he cares about you.

8 Stay sober, stay alert! Your enemy, the Adversary, stalks about like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

9 Stand against him, firm in your trust, knowing that your brothers throughout the world are going through the same kinds of suffering.

10 You will have to suffer only a little while; after that, God, who is full of grace, the one who called you to his eternal glory in union with the Messiah, will himself restore, establish and strengthen you and make you firm.

11 To him be the power forever and ever. Amen.

12 Through Sila, whom I regard as a faithful brother, I have written you briefly, encouraging you and giving my witness that this is God's true grace. Stand firm in it!

13 Your sister congregation in Bavel, chosen along with you, sends greetings to you, as does my son Mark.

14 Greet each other with a kiss of love. "Shalom aleikhem!" to all who belong to the Messiah.

Jeremiah 39

1 In the ninth year of Tzidkiyahu king of Y'hudah, in the tenth month, N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel marched against Yerushalayim with his entire army and began to lay siege against it.

2 On the ninth day of the fourth month of the eleventh year of Tzidkiyahu, they broke through into the city.

3 All the officers of the king of Bavel entered and sat at the Middle Gate - Nergal-Sar'etzer, Samgar-N'vo, Sars'khim the Rav-Saris, Nergal-Sar'etzer the Rav-Mag and all the other officers of the king of Bavel.

4 When Tzidkiyahu the king of Y'hudah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled, leaving the city by night through the king's garden, exiting from the gate between the two walls, and continuing out by the route through the 'Aravah.

5 But the army of the Kasdim went in pursuit of them and overtook Tzidkiyahu on the plains near Yericho. Upon capturing him, they brought him up to N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel at Rivlah, in the land of Hamat, where he passed judgment on him.

6 The king of Bavel slaughtered the sons of Tzidkiyahu before his eyes in Rivlah; the king of Bavel also slaughtered all the leading men of Y'hudah.

7 Then he put out Tzidkiyahu's eyes and bound him in chains to be carried off to Bavel.

8 The Kasdim burned down the royal palace and the people's houses, and they broke down the walls of Yerushalayim.

9 N'vuzar'adan commander of the guard then deported to Bavel the remaining population of the city, the deserters who had defected to him, and the rest of the people remaining.

10 But N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard left behind in the territory of Y'hudah some of the poor people, those who had nothing, and at the same time gave them vineyards and fields.

11 Concerning Yirmeyahu, N'vukhadretzar king of Bavel gave N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard this order:

12 "Take him, look after him well, and do him no harm, but treat him as he tells you."

13 So N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard, N'vushazban the Rav-Saris, Nergal-Sar'etzer the Rav-Mag, and all the chief officers of the king of Bavel

14 sent to have Yirmeyahu taken out of the guards' quarters; they committed him to the care of G'dalyahu the son of Achikam, the son of Shafan, to be brought home. There he lived among the people.

15 This word of ADONAI came to Yirmeyahu while he was imprisoned in the guards' quarters:

16 "Go and tell 'Eved-Melekh the Ethiopian that ADONAI-Tzva'ot, the God of Isra'el, says: '"I am about to fulfill my words about this city for disaster, not for good; when the day arrives, they will come true before your eyes.

17 But at that time I will rescue you," says ADONAI, "and I will not hand you over to the men you fear.

18 Yes, I will keep you safe; you will not fall by the sword, but you will escape with your life, because you have put your trust in me," says ADONAI.'"

Jeremiah 40

1 This word came to Yirmeyahu from ADONAI after N'vuzar'adan the commander of the guard had let him leave Ramah, after having taken him, bound in chains, with all the captives from Yerushalayim and Y'hudah that had been carried off to Bavel.

2 The commander of the guard took Yirmeyahu and said to him, "ADONAI your God decreed this disaster for this place,

3 and ADONAI has brought it about; he has done what he said he would do, because you people sinned against ADONAI and did not listen to what he said; that is why this has come upon you.

4 Now, today, I am freeing you from the chains on your hand. If it seems good to you to come with me to Bavel, come; and I will look after you well. But if it seems not good to you to come with me to Bavel, then don't - the entire land is in front of you: wherever it seems good and right for you to go, go there."

5 Before Yirmeyahu could answer, [N'vuzar'adan said,] "Go back then to G'dalyahu the son of Achikam, the son of Shafan, whom the king of Bavel has made governor over the cities of Y'hudah, and live with him among the people; or go wherever it seems right for you to go." The commander of the guard gave him provisions and a gift, and dismissed him.

6 Yirmeyahu then went to G'dalyahu the son of Achikam in Mitzpah and lived with him among the people who were left in the land.

7 Now when all the field force commanders and their men heard that the king of Bavel had made G'dalyahu the son of Achikam governor in the land and had committed to his care men, women, children and some of the poorest people in the land of those who had not been carried captive to Bavel;

8 they approached G'dalyahu in Mitzpah - in particular, Yishma'el the son of N'tanyahu, Yochanan and Yonatan the sons of Kareach, S'rayah the son of Tanchumet, the sons of 'Efai the N'tofati and Y'zanyahu the son of the Ma'akhati, they and their men.

9 G'dalyahu the son of Achikam, the son of Shafan, swore to them and their men, "Don't be afraid to serve the Kasdim. Live in the land, serve the king of Bavel; and things will go well with you.

10 As for me, I will live in Mitzpah and be responsible to the Kasdim who come to us. But you - harvest wine, summer fruits and olive oil; put them in your containers; and live in your cities that you have taken over."

11 Likewise, when all the Judeans who were in Mo'av, in Edom, among the people of 'Amon, and in all the other countries heard that the king of Bavel had left a remnant in Y'hudah and had appointed G'dalyahu the son of Achikam, the son of Shafan, to govern them;

12 then all the Judeans returned from all the places where they had been driven and came to the land of Y'hudah, to G'dalyahu in Mitzpah, and harvested wine and summer fruit in great abundance.

13 Yochanan the son of Kareach and all the field force commanders came to G'dalyahu in Mitzpah

14 and said to him, "Are you aware that Ba'alis the king of the people of 'Amon has sent Yishma'el the son of N'tanyahu to take your life?" But G'dalyahu the son of Achikam did not believe them.

15 Then Yochanan the son of Kareach spoke privately with G'dalyahu in Mitzpah: "Please, let me go, and I will kill Yishma'el the son of N'tanyahu; no one will know. Why let him assassinate you? Moreover, if he does, all the Judeans gathered around you will scatter; and the remnant of Y'hudah will perish."

16 But G'dalyahu the son of Achikam said to Yochanan the son of Kareach, "Don't do it. What you are saying about Yishma'el is not true."

Psalm 138

1 By David: I give you thanks with all my heart. Not to idols, but to you I sing praise.

2 I bow down toward your holy temple and give thanks to your name for your grace and truth; for you have made your word [even] greater than the whole of your reputation.

3 When I called, you answered me, you made me bold and strong.

4 All the kings of the earth will thank you, ADONAI, when they hear the words you have spoken.

5 They will sing about ADONAI's ways, "Great is the glory of ADONAI!"

6 For though ADONAI is high, he cares for the lowly; while the proud he perceives from afar.

7 You keep me alive when surrounded by danger; you put out your hand when my enemies rage; with your right hand you save me.

8 ADONAI will fulfill his purpose for me. Your grace, ADONAI, continues forever. Don't abandon the work of your hands!

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