Jeremiah 49, 2 Corinthians 1 - 2, Psalm 122

Word Against Ammon

49Concerning the sons of ^aAmmon. Thus says Yahweh: “Does Israel have no sons?Or has he no one who can take possession?Why then has ¹Malcam taken possession of GadAnd his people settled in its cities?

²“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” declares Yahweh,“That I will cause a ¹^,^atrumpet blast of war to be heardAgainst ^bRabbah of the sons of Ammon;And it will become a desolate heap,And her ^ctowns will be set on fire.Then Israel will take ^dpossession of his possessors,”Says Yahweh.³“Wail, O ^aHeshbon, for ^bAi has been destroyed!Cry out, O daughters of Rabbah,^cGird yourselves with sackcloth and lament,And rush back and forth inside the walls;For ¹Malcam will ^dgo into exileTogether with his priests and his princes.⁴“How ^aboastful you are about the valleys!Your valley is flowing away,O ^bfaithless daughterWho trusts in her ^ctreasures, saying,‘^dWho will come against me?’⁵“Behold, I am going to bring ^adread upon you,”Declares Lord Yahweh of hosts,“From all around you;And each of you will be ^bbanished ¹headlong,With no one to gather the ^cone who flees.⁶“But afterward I will ¹^,^areturnThe ²fortunes of the sons of Ammon,”Declares Yahweh.

Word Against Edom

⁷Concerning ^aEdom.Thus says Yahweh of hosts,“Is there no longer any ^bwisdom in ^cTeman?Has counsel been lost to the understanding?Has their wisdom decayed?⁸“Flee away, turn back, inhabit the depths,O inhabitants of ^aDedan,For I ¹will bring the ^bdisaster of Esau upon himAt the time I ²punish him.⁹“^aIf grape gatherers came to you,Would they not have gleanings remain?If thieves came by night,They would ruin only ¹until they had enough.¹⁰“But I have ^astripped Esau bare;I have uncovered his hiding places,So that he will not be able to conceal himself;His seed has been destroyed along with his ¹relativesAnd his neighbors, and ^bhe is no more.¹¹“Leave your ¹^,^aorphans behind, I will keep them alive;And let your ^bwidows trust in Me.”

¹²For thus says Yahweh, “Behold, those who are not under judgment to drink the ^acup will certainly drink it, but are you the one who will go ^bcompletely unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but you will certainly drink it. ¹³“For I have ^asworn by Myself,” declares Yahweh, “that ^bBozrah will become an ^cobject of horror, a reproach, a ruin, and an imprecation; and all its cities will become perpetual ¹ruins.”

¹⁴I have ^aheard a message from Yahweh,And an ^benvoy is sent among the nations, saying,“^cGather yourselves together and come against her,And rise up for battle!”¹⁵“For behold, I have made you small among the nations,Despised among men.¹⁶“As for the terror of you,The arrogance of your heart has deceived you,O you who dwell in the clefts of ¹the ^arock,Who seize the height of the hill.Though you make your nest as ^bhigh as an eagle’s,I will ^cbring you down from there,” declares Yahweh.

¹⁷“Edom will become ¹an ^aobject of horror; everyone who passes by it will ²be horrified and will ^bhiss at all its wounds. ¹⁸“Like the ^aoverthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah with its neighbors,” says Yahweh, “^bno one will live there, nor will a son of man sojourn in it. ¹⁹“^aBehold, one will come up like a lion from the ¹^,^bthickets of the Jordan against an enduring pasture; for in an instant I will make him run away from it, and whoever is ^cchosen I shall appoint over it. For who is ^dlike Me, and who will ²summon Me into court? And who then is the shepherd ^ewho can stand against Me?”

²⁰Therefore hear the ^acounsel of Yahweh which He has counseled against Edom, and His purposes which He has purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: surely they will drag them off, even the little ones of the flock; surely He will make their pasture ^bdesolate because of them. ²¹The ^aearth has quaked at the noise of their downfall. There is an outcry! The noise of it has been heard at the ¹Red Sea. ²²Behold, ¹He will mount up and ^aswoop like an eagle and spread out His wings ²against Bozrah; and the ^bhearts of the mighty men of Edom in that day will be like the heart of a woman in labor.

Word Against Damascus

²³Concerning ^aDamascus.“^bHamath and ^cArpad are put to shame,For they have heard a bad report;They are ^dmelting away.There is anxiety by the sea,It ^ecannot be quieted.²⁴“Damascus has become limp in their hands;She has turned away to flee,And panic has taken hold of her;^aDistress and pangs have seized herLike a woman in childbirth.²⁵“How ¹the ^acity of praise has not been forsaken,The town of My joy!²⁶“Therefore, her ^ayoung men will fall in her open squares,And all the men of war will be ¹silenced in that day,” declares Yahweh of hosts.²⁷“I will ^aset fire to the wall of Damascus,And it will devour the ¹fortified towers of ^bBen-hadad.”

Word Against Kedar and Hazor

²⁸Concerning ^aKedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon struck down. Thus says Yahweh, “Arise, go up to KedarAnd destroy the ¹^,^bmen of the east.

²⁹“They will take away their tents and their flocks;They will carry off for themselvesTheir tent ^acurtains, all their goods, and their ^bcamels,And they will call out to one another, ‘^cTerror on every side!’³⁰“Run away, flee earnestly! Inhabit the depths,O inhabitants of Hazor,” declares Yahweh;“For ^aNebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has taken counsel against youAnd purposed a purpose against you.³¹“Arise, go up against a nation which is ^aat ease,Which inhabits its land securely,” declares Yahweh.“It has ^bno gates or bars;They ^cdwell alone.³²“Their camels will become plunder,And their many cattle for spoil,And I will ^ascatter to all the winds those who ^bcut the corners of their hair;And I will bring their ¹disaster from every side,” declares Yahweh.³³“Hazor will become a ^ahaunt of jackals,A desolation forever;No one will inhabit there,Nor will a son of man sojourn in it.”

Word Against Elam

³⁴That which came as the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah the prophet concerning ^aElam, ^bin the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, saying:

³⁵“Thus says Yahweh of hosts,‘Behold, I am going to ^abreak the bow of Elam,The ¹finest of their might.³⁶‘I will bring upon Elam the ^afour windsFrom the four ends of heaven,And I will ^bscatter them to all these winds;And there will be no nationTo which the banished ones of Elam will not go.³⁷‘So I will ¹shatter Elam before their enemiesAnd before those who seek their lives;And I will ^abring calamity upon them,Even My ^bburning anger,’ declares Yahweh,‘And I will ^csend out the sword after themUntil I have consumed them.³⁸‘Then I will set My throne in ElamAnd cause king and princes from there to perish,’Declares Yahweh.³⁹‘But it will be in the last daysThat I will ¹^,^areturn the ²fortunes of Elam,’”Declares Yahweh.

God of All Comfort

1Paul, ^aan apostle of ^bChrist Jesus ^cby the will of God, and ^dTimothy our brother, To ^ethe church of God which is at ^fCorinth with all the ¹saints who are throughout Achaia:

²^aGrace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

³^aBlessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and ^bGod of all comfort, ⁴who ^acomforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in ¹any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. ⁵For just ^aas the sufferings of Christ abound to us, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. ⁶But whether we are afflicted, it is ^afor your comfort and salvation; or whether we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is working in your perseverance in the same sufferings which we also suffer. ⁷And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that ^aas you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.

⁸For ^awe do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of our ^baffliction which came to us in ¹^,^cAsia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even to live. ⁹¹Indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not have confidence in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; ¹⁰who ^arescued us from so great a peril of death, and will rescue us, ¹He ^bon whom we have set our hope. And He will yet rescue us, ¹¹you also joining in ^ahelping us through your prayers on our behalf, so that thanks may be given on our behalf by ^bmany persons for the gracious gift bestowed on us through the prayers of many.

Paul’s Change of Plans

¹²For our boasting is this: the testimony of ^aour conscience, that in ¹holiness and ^bgodly sincerity, ^cnot in fleshly wisdom but in the grace of God, we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially toward you. ¹³For we write nothing else to you than what you read and understand, and I hope you will understand ^auntil the end, ¹⁴just as you also partially did understand us, that we are your reason for boasting as you also are ours, in ^athe day of our Lord Jesus.

¹⁵And in this confidence I intended at first to ^acome to you, so that you might receive ¹^,^bgrace twice; ¹⁶¹that is, to ^apass ²your way into ^bMacedonia, and again from Macedonia to come to you, and by you to be ^chelped on my journey to Judea. ¹⁷Therefore, was I vacillating when I intended to do this? Or what I purpose, do I purpose ^aaccording to the flesh, so that with me there will be yes, yes and no, no at the same time? ¹⁸But as ^aGod is faithful, ^bour word to you is not yes and no. ¹⁹For ^athe Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and ^bSilvanus and ^cTimothy—was not yes and no, but has become yes ^din Him. ²⁰For ^aas many as are the promises of God, ^bin Him they are yes. Therefore also through Him is ^cour Amen to the glory of God through us. ²¹Now He who ^aestablishes us with you in Christ and ^banointed us is God, ²²who also ^asealed us and ^bgave the ¹pledge of the Spirit in our hearts.

²³But ^aI call God as witness ¹to my soul, that ^bto spare you I did not come again to ^cCorinth. ²⁴Not that we ^alord it over your faith, but are workers with you for your joy; for in your faith you are ^bstanding firm.

2But I determined this ¹for my own sake, that I ^awould not come to you again in sorrow. ²For if I ^acause you sorrow, who then makes me glad but the one whom I made sorrowful? ³And this is the very thing I ^awrote you, so that ^bwhen I came, I would not have sorrow from those who ought to make me rejoice; having ^cconfidence in you all that my joy would be the joy of you all. ⁴For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I ^awrote to you with many tears; not so that you would be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have abundantly for you.

Forgive and Love the Sinner

⁵But ^aif any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in some degree—¹in order not to say too much—to all of you. ⁶Sufficient for such a one is ^athis punishment which was inflicted by the majority, ⁷so that on the contrary you should rather ^agraciously forgive and comfort him, lest such a one be swallowed up by excessive sorrow. ⁸Therefore I encourage you to reaffirm your love for him. ⁹For to this end also ^aI wrote, so that I might ^bknow your proven character, whether you are ^cobedient in all things. ¹⁰But one whom you graciously forgive anything, I graciously forgive also. For indeed what I have graciously forgiven, if I have graciously forgiven anything, I did it for your sakes ^ain the presence of Christ, ¹¹so that no advantage would be taken of us by ^aSatan, for ^bwe are not ignorant of his schemes.

¹²Now when I came to ^aTroas for the ^bgospel of Christ and when a ^cdoor was opened for me in the Lord, ¹³I ^ahad no rest for my spirit, not finding ^bTitus my brother. But ^csaying farewell to them, I went on to ^dMacedonia.

¹⁴^aBut thanks be to God, who always ^bleads us in triumphal procession in Christ, and manifests through us the ^caroma of the ^dknowledge of Him in every place. ¹⁵For we are a ^afragrance of Christ to God among ^bthose who are being saved and among those who are perishing; ¹⁶^ato the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is ^bsufficient for these things? ¹⁷For we are not like many, ¹^,^apeddling the word of God, but ^bas from sincerity, but as from God, ^cin the sight of God, we speak in Christ.

Go to the House of Yahweh

122

A Song of Ascents. Of David.

I was glad when they said to me,“Let us ^ago to the house of Yahweh.”²Our feet are standingWithin your ^agates, O Jerusalem,³Jerusalem, which is ^abuiltAs a city ^bjoined altogether;⁴To which the tribes, the tribes of Yah, ^ago up—A testimony for Israel—To give thanks to the name of Yahweh.⁵For there, ^athrones sit for judgment,The thrones of the house of David.⁶Pray for the ^apeace of Jerusalem:“May they prosper who ^blove you.⁷“May peace be within your ^awalls,And tranquility within your ^bpalaces.”⁸For the sake of my ^abrothers and my friends,I will now say, “^bMay peace be within you.”⁹For the sake of the house of Yahweh our God,I will ^aseek your good.