Jeremiah 13 - 14, Romans 6, Psalm 103

The Ruined Belt

13Thus Yahweh said to me, “Go and ^abuy yourself a linen belt and put it around your loins, but do not put it in water.” ²So I bought the belt in accordance with the ^aword of Yahweh and put it around my loins. ³Then the word of Yahweh came to me a second time, saying, ⁴“Take the belt that you have bought, which is around your loins, and arise, go to ¹the ^aEuphrates and hide it there in a crevice of the rock.” ⁵So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, ^aas Yahweh had commanded me. ⁶Now it happened that after many days Yahweh said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates and take from there the belt which I commanded you to hide there.” ⁷Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the belt from the place where I had hidden it; and behold, the belt was ruined; it was totally worthless.

⁸Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ⁹“Thus says Yahweh, ‘Just so will I ruin the ^apride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. ¹⁰‘This evil people, who ^arefuse to listen to My words, who ^bwalk in the stubbornness of their hearts and have walked after other gods to serve them and to worship them, let them be just like this belt which is totally worthless. ¹¹‘For as the belt clings to the loins of a man, so I made the whole household of Israel and the whole household of Judah ^acling to Me,’ declares Yahweh, ‘that they might be for Me a people, for a ^bname, for ^cpraise, and for beauty; but they ^ddid not listen.’

The Magnitude of Israel’s Iniquity

¹²“Therefore you are to say this word to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, “Every jug is to be filled with wine.”’ And they will say to you, ‘Do we not very well know that every jug is to be filled with wine?’ ¹³Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Behold, I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings that sit for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with ^adrunkenness! ¹⁴“I will ^ashatter them against each other, both the ^bfathers and the sons together,” declares Yahweh. “I will ^cnot spare nor show pity nor have compassion so as not to ruin them.”’”

¹⁵Listen and give ear, do not be ^ahaughty,For Yahweh has spoken.¹⁶^aGive glory to Yahweh your God,Before He brings ^bdarknessAnd before your ^cfeet ¹stumbleOn the dusky mountains;And while you are hoping for light,He makes it into the ^dshadow of deathAnd turns it into dense gloom.¹⁷But ^aif you will not listen to it,My soul will ^bcry in secret for such pride;And my eyes will bitterly weepAnd flow down with tearsBecause the ^cflock of Yahweh has been taken captive.¹⁸Say to the ^aking and the queen mother,“^bTake a lowly seat,For your beautiful ^ccrownHas come down from your head.”¹⁹The ^acities of the Negev have been closed up,And there is no one to open them;All ^bJudah has been taken away into exile,Wholly taken away into exile.²⁰“Lift up your eyes and seeThose coming ^afrom the north.Where is the ^bflock that was given you,Your beautiful sheep?²¹“What will you say when He appoints over you—And you yourself had taught them—Former ¹^,^acompanions to be head over you?Will not ^bpangs seize youLike a woman in childbirth?²²“If you ^asay in your heart,‘^bWhy have these things happened to me?’Because of the ^cmagnitude of your iniquity^dYour skirts have been uncoveredAnd your heels have suffered violence.²³“^aCan the Ethiopian change his skinOr the leopard his spots?Then you also can ^bdo goodWho are accustomed to doing evil.²⁴“Therefore I will ^ascatter them like chaff passing awayInto the wilderness ^bwind.²⁵“This is your ^alot, the portion measured to youFrom Me,” declares Yahweh,“Because you have ^bforgotten MeAnd trusted in lies.²⁶“So I Myself have also ^astripped your skirts off over your face,That your disgrace may be seen.²⁷“As for your ^aadulteries and your lustful neighings,The ^blewdness of your prostitutionOn the ^chills in the field,I have seen your detestable things.Woe to you, O Jerusalem!^dHow long will you not cleanse yourself?”

Yahweh Will Not Listen to Their Cry

14That which came as the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah in regard to the ^adrought:

²“Judah mourns,And ^aher gates languish;They sit on the ground ^bin mourning,And the ^coutcry of Jerusalem has gone up.³“Their mighty ones have ^asent their ¹underlings for water;They have come to the ^btrenches and found no water.They have returned with their vessels empty;They have been ^cput to shame and dishonored,And they ^dcover their heads.⁴“Because the ^aground is ¹dismayed,For there has been ^bno rain on the land,The ^cfarmers have been put to shame;They have covered their heads.⁵“For even the doe in the field has given birth only to forsake her youngBecause there is ^ano grass.⁶“The ^awild donkeys stand on the bare heights;They pant for air like jackals;Their eyes failFor there is ^bno vegetation.⁷“Although our ^ainiquities answer against us,O Yahweh, act ^bfor Your name’s sake!Truly our ^cacts of faithlessness have been many;We have ^dsinned against You.⁸“O ^aHope of Israel,Its ^bSavior in ^ctime of distress,Why are You like a sojourner in the landOr like a traveler who has pitched his tent to lodge for the night?⁹“Why are You like a man confused,Like a mighty man who ^acannot save?Yet ^bYou are in our midst, O Yahweh,And we are ^ccalled by Your name;Do not leave us!”

¹⁰Thus says Yahweh to this people, “Even so they have ^aloved to wander; they have not ^bkept their feet in check. Therefore Yahweh does ^cnot accept them; now He will ^dremember their iniquity and punish their sins.” ¹¹So Yahweh said to me, “^aDo not pray for the good of this people. ¹²“When they fast, I am ^anot going to listen to their cry; and when they offer ^bburnt offering and grain offering, I am not going to accept them. Rather I am going to ^cmake an end of them by the ^dsword, famine, and pestilence.”

Lying Prophets

¹³But, “Ah, Lord Yahweh!” I said, “Behold, the prophets are saying to them, ‘You ^awill not see the sword nor will you have famine, but I will give you true ^bpeace in this place.’” ¹⁴Then Yahweh said to me, “The ^aprophets are prophesying lies in My name. ^bI have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a ^cvision of lies, divination, futility, and the deception of their own hearts. ¹⁵“Therefore thus says Yahweh concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them—yet they keep saying, ‘There will be no sword or famine in this land’—^aby that sword and famine those prophets shall ¹meet their end! ¹⁶“The people also to whom they are prophesying will be ^athrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to ^bbury them—neither them, nor their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters—for I will ^cpour out their own evil on them.

¹⁷“And you will say this word to them,‘^aLet my eyes flow down with tears night and day,And let them not cease,For the virgin ^bdaughter of my people has been shattered with a mighty shattering,With a sorely ^csick wound.¹⁸‘If I ^ago out to the field,Behold, those ¹slain with the sword!Or if I enter the city,Behold, diseases of famine!For ^bboth prophet and priestHave gone around as merchants in the land that they do not know.’”¹⁹Have You completely ^arejected Judah?Or ¹have You loathed Zion?Why have You stricken us so that ^bthere is no healing for us?We ^choped for peace, but there was no good;And for a time of healing, but behold, terror!²⁰We ^aknow our wickedness, O Yahweh,The iniquity of our fathers, for ^bwe have sinned against You.²¹Do not ¹despise us, ^afor Your own name’s sake;Do not disgrace the ^bthrone of Your glory;Remember and do not break Your covenant with us.²²Are there any among the ¹^,^aidols of the nations who ^bgive rain?Or can the heavens give showers?Is it not You, O Yahweh our God?Therefore we ²^,^chope in You,For You are the one who has done all these things.

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

6^aWhat shall we say then? Are we to ^bcontinue in sin so that grace may increase? ²^aMay it never be! How shall we who ^bdied to sin still live in it? ³Or do you not know that all of us who were ^abaptized into ^bChrist Jesus were baptized into His death? ⁴Therefore we were ^aburied with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was ^braised from the dead through the ^cglory of the Father, so we too might walk in ^dnewness of life. ⁵For ^aif we have become ¹united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be ²in the likeness of His resurrection, ⁶knowing this, that our ^aold man was ^bcrucified with Him, in order that our ^cbody of sin might be ¹done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; ⁷for ^ahe who has died has been ¹justified from sin.

⁸Now ^aif we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, ⁹knowing that Christ, having been ^araised from the dead, ¹is never to die again; ^bdeath no longer is master over Him. ¹⁰For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all, but the life that He lives, He lives to God. ¹¹Even so consider yourselves to be ^adead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

¹²Therefore do not let sin ^areign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, ¹³and do not go on ^apresenting your members to sin as ¹instruments of unrighteousness, but ^bpresent yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as ²instruments of righteousness to God. ¹⁴For ^asin shall not ^bbe master over you, for ^cyou are not under law but ^dunder grace.

Slaves of Righteousness

¹⁵What then? ^aShall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? ^bMay it never be! ¹⁶Do you not ^aknow that when you go on presenting yourselves to someone as ^bslaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of ^csin ¹leading to death, or of obedience ²leading to righteousness? ¹⁷But ^athanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you obeyed from the heart that ^bpattern of teaching to which you were ^cgiven over, ¹⁸and having been ^afreed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness. ¹⁹^aI am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just ^bas you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, ¹leading to further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, ²leading to sanctification.

²⁰For ^awhen you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. ²¹Therefore what ¹^,^abenefit were you then having ²from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is ^bdeath. ²²But now having been ^afreed from sin and ^benslaved to God, you have your ¹^,^cbenefit, ²leading to sanctification, and ^dthe end, eternal life. ²³For the wages of ^asin is death, but the gracious gift of God is ^beternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Bless Yahweh, O My Soul

103

Of David.

^aBless Yahweh, O my soul,And all that is within me, bless His ^bholy name.²Bless Yahweh, O my soul,And ^aforget none of His benefits;³Who ^apardons all your iniquities,Who ^bheals all your diseases;⁴Who ^aredeems your life from the pit,Who ^bcrowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;⁵Who ^asatisfies your ¹years with good things,So that your youth is ^brenewed like the eagle.⁶Yahweh ^aperforms righteous deedsAnd judgments for all who are ^boppressed.⁷He ^amade known His ways to Moses,His ^bacts to the sons of Israel.⁸Yahweh is ^acompassionate and gracious,^bSlow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.⁹He ^awill not always contend with us,And He will not ^bkeep His anger forever.¹⁰He has ^anot dealt with us according to our sins,And He has not rewarded us according to our iniquities.¹¹For as high ^aas the heavens are above the earth,So great is His lovingkindness toward those who ¹fear Him.¹²As far as the east is from the west,So far has He ^aremoved our transgressions from us.¹³^aAs a father has compassion on his children,So Yahweh has compassion on those who ¹fear Him.¹⁴For ^aHe Himself knows ¹our form;He ^bremembers that we are but ^cdust.¹⁵As for man, his days are ^alike grass;As a ^bflower of the field, so he flowers.¹⁶When the ^awind has passed over it, it is no more,And its ^bplace acknowledges it no longer.¹⁷But the ^alovingkindness of Yahweh is from everlasting to everlasting on those who ¹fear Him,And His ²righteousness ^bto children’s children,¹⁸To ^athose who keep His covenantAnd remember His precepts to do them.¹⁹Yahweh has established His ^athrone in the heavens,And His ^bkingdom rules over ¹all.²⁰Bless Yahweh, you ^aHis angels,^bMighty in strength, who ^cperform His word,^dObeying the voice of His word!²¹Bless Yahweh, all you ^aHis hosts,You ^bwho serve Him, doing His will.²²Bless Yahweh, ^aall you works of His,In all places of His rule;Bless Yahweh, O my soul!