Jeremiah 19 - 20

The Broken Jar

Thus says Yahweh, “Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jar, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. 2 Then go out to the valley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the potsherd gate, and there call out the words that I tell you 3 and say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am about to bring a calamity upon this place, at which the ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle. 4 Because they have forsaken Me and have made this a foreign place and have burned incense in it to other gods, that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent 5 and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever come upon My heart, 6 therefore, behold, days are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter. 7 I will empty out the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem to the point of destruction in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will give over their carcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. 8 I will also make this city an object of horror and of hissing; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and hiss because of all its slaughtering. 9 I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life will distress them.”’ 10 “Then you are to break the jar in the sight of the men who accompany you, 11 and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Just so will I break this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will bury in Topheth because there is no other place for burial. 12 This is what I will do to this place and its inhabitants,” declares Yahweh, “so as to make this city like Topheth. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like the place Topheth because of all the houses on whose rooftops they burned incense to all the heavenly host and poured out drink offerings to other gods.”’” 14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the house of Yahweh and said to all the people: 15 “Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Behold, I am about to bring on this city and all its towns the entire calamity that I have spoken against it because they have stiffened their necks so as not to hear My words.’”

Yahweh Speaks Against Pashhur

Then Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was ruling overseer in the house of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah prophesying these words; 2 and Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet struck and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate, which was by the house of Yahweh. 3 Now it happened that on the next day, Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks. And Jeremiah said to him, “Pashhur is not the name Yahweh has called you, but rather Magor-missabib. 4 For thus says Yahweh, ‘Behold, I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and while your eyes look on, they will fall by the sword of their enemies. So I will give over all Judah to the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take them away into exile to Babylon and will strike them down with the sword. 5 I will also give over all the wealth of this city, all the fruit of its labor, and all its precious things; even all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give over to the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, take them away, and bring them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity; and you will enter Babylon, and there you will die, and there you will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’”

Jeremiah Curses the Day He Was Born

O Yahweh, You have enticed me, and I was enticed;

You were stronger than I, and You prevailed.

I have become a laughingstock all day long;

Everyone mocks me.

For each time I speak, I cry aloud;

I call out violence and devastation

Because for me the word of Yahweh has resulted

In reproach and derision all day long.

But if I say, “I will not remember Him

Or speak anymore in His name,”

Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire

Shut up in my bones;

And I am weary of holding it in,

And I cannot prevail.

For I have heard the bad report of many,

“Terror on every side!

Denounce him; yes, let us denounce him!”

All my trusted friends,

Keeping watch for my fall, say:

“Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against him

And take our revenge on him.”

But Yahweh is with me like a ruthless mighty one;

Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.

They will be utterly ashamed, because they have not prospered,

With an everlasting dishonor that will not be forgotten.

Yet, O Yahweh of hosts, You who test the righteous,

Who see the mind and the heart;

Let me see Your vengeance on them,

For to You I have revealed my cause.

Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh!

For He has delivered the soul of the needy one

From the hand of evildoers.

Cursed be the day when I was born;

Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me!

Cursed be the man who brought the good news

To my father, saying,

“A baby boy has been born to you!”

And made him very glad.

But let that man be like the cities

Which Yahweh overthrew without relenting,

And let him hear an outcry in the morning

And a shout of war at noon,

Because he did not put me to death from the womb,

So that my mother would have been my grave,

And her womb ever pregnant.

Why did I ever come forth from the womb

To look on trouble and sorrow,

So that my days have been spent in shame?

Romans 9

God’s Chosen People, Israel

I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh, 4 who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, 5 whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. 6 But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; 7 nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s seed, but: “through Isaac your seed will be named.” 8 That is, the children of the flesh are not the children of God, but the children of the promise are considered as seed. 9 For this is the word of promise: “At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.” 10 And not only this, but there was Rebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; 11 for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that the purpose of God according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, 12 it was said to her, “The older shall serve the younger.” 13 Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” 14 What shall we say then? Is there any unrighteousness with God? May it never be! 15 For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” 16 So then it does not depend on the one who wills or the one who runs, but on God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, in order to demonstrate My power in you, and in order that My name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” 18 So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. 19 You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” 20 On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? Will the thing molded say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this”? 21 Or does not the potter have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 22 And what if God, wanting to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath having been prepared for destruction, 23 and in order that He might make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles? 25 As He says also in Hosea,

“I will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’

And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”

“And it shall be that in the place where it was said to them, ‘you are not My people,’

There they shall be called sons of the living God.”

27 And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved; 28 for the Lord will execute His word on the land, thoroughly and quickly.” 29 And just as Isaiah foretold,

“Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left to us a seed,

We would have become like Sodom, and would have resembled Gomorrah.”

30 What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, laid hold of righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; 31 but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not attain that law. 32 Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, 33 just as it is written,

“Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,

And the one who believes upon Him will not be put to shame.”

Psalm 105:25 - 105:45

He turned their heart to hate His people,

To deal craftily with His slaves.

He sent Moses His servant,

And Aaron, whom He had chosen.

They set forth the words of His signs among them,

And miracles in the land of Ham.

He sent darkness and made it dark;

And they did not rebel against His words.

He turned their waters into blood

And caused their fish to die.

Their land swarmed with frogs

Even in the chambers of their kings.

He spoke, and there came a swarm of flies

And gnats in all their territory.

He gave them hail for rain,

And flaming fire in their land.

He also struck down their vines and their fig trees,

And He shattered the trees of their territory.

He spoke, and locusts came,

And creeping locusts, without number,

And they ate up all vegetation in their land,

And they ate up the fruit of their ground.

He also struck down all the firstborn in their land,

The first of all their vigor.

Then He brought them out with silver and gold,

And there was none among His tribes who stumbled.

Egypt was glad when they went out,

For the dread of them had fallen upon them.

He spread a cloud for a covering,

And fire to give light by night.

They asked, and He brought quail,

And He satisfied them with the bread of heaven.

He opened the rock and water flowed out;

It ran in the dry places like a river.

For He remembered His holy word

With Abraham His servant;

And He brought His people out with joy,

His chosen ones with a shout of joy.

He gave them also the lands of the nations,

That they might take possession of the fruit of the peoples’ labor,

So that they might keep His statutes

And observe His laws,

Praise Yah!