Jeremiah 19 - 20, Romans 9, Psalm 105:25-45

The Broken Jar

19Thus says Yahweh, “Go and buy a ^apotter’s earthenware ^bjar, and take some of the ^celders of the people and some of the ^delders of the priests. ²“Then go out to the ^avalley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the potsherd gate, and there ^bcall out the words that I tell you ³and say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, O ^akings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am about to bring a ^bcalamity upon this place, at which the ^cears of everyone that hears of it will tingle. ⁴“Because they have ^aforsaken Me and have ^bmade this a foreign place and have burned incense in it to ^cother gods, that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the ^dblood of the innocent ⁵and have built the ^ahigh places of Baal to burn their ^bsons 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, ⁶therefore, behold, ^adays are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when this place will no longer be called ^bTopheth or ^cthe valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter. ⁷“I will ^aempty out the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem to the point of destruction in this place, and ^bI 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 ^ccarcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. ⁸“I will also make this city an ^aobject of horror and of hissing; ^beveryone who passes by it will be ¹horrified and hiss because of all its ²slaughtering. ⁹“I will make them ^aeat 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 ^ajar in the sight of the men who accompany you, ¹¹and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Just so will I ^abreak this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will ^bbury in Topheth ¹because 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 ^ahouses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be ^bdefiled like the place Topheth because of all the ^chouses on whose rooftops they burned incense to ^dall the heavenly host and ^epoured out drink offerings to other gods.”’”

¹⁴Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where Yahweh had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the ^acourt 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 ^astiffened their necks so ^bas not to hear My words.’”

Yahweh Speaks Against Pashhur

20Then Pashhur the priest, the son of ^aImmer, who was ^bruling overseer in the house of Yahweh, heard Jeremiah prophesying these words; ²and Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet ^astruck and put him in the ^bstocks that were at the upper ^cBenjamin Gate, which was by the house of Yahweh. ³Now 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 ^acalled you, but rather ¹^,^bMagor-missabib. ⁴“For thus says Yahweh, ‘Behold, I am going to make you a ^aterror to yourself and to all your friends; and while ^byour eyes look on, they will fall by the sword of their enemies. So I will ^cgive over all Judah to the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will take them away into ^dexile to Babylon and will strike them down with the sword. ⁵‘I will also give over all the ^awealth 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 ^bhand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, take them away, and bring them to Babylon. ⁶‘And you, ^aPashhur, 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 ^bfriends to whom you have ^cprophesied lies.’”

Jeremiah Curses the Day He Was Born

⁷O Yahweh, You have enticed me, and I was enticed;You were ^astronger than I, and You prevailed.I have become a ^blaughingstock all day long;Everyone ^cmocks me.⁸For each time I speak, I cry aloud;I ^acall out violence and devastationBecause for me the ^bword of Yahweh has ¹resultedIn reproach and derision all day long.⁹But if I say, “I will not ^aremember HimOr speak anymore in His name,”Then in ^bmy heart it becomes like a burning fireShut up in my bones;And I am weary of holding it in,And ^cI cannot prevail.¹⁰For ^aI have heard the bad report of many,“^bTerror on every side!^cDenounce him; yes, let us denounce him!”¹All my ^dtrusted friends,Keeping watch for my fall, say:“Perhaps he will be ²deceived, so that we may ^eprevail against himAnd take our revenge on him.”¹¹But ^aYahweh is with me like a ruthless mighty one;Therefore my ^bpersecutors will stumble and not prevail.They will be utterly ashamed, because they have not prospered,With an ^ceverlasting dishonor that will not be forgotten.¹²Yet, O Yahweh of hosts, You who ^atest the righteous,Who see the ¹mind and the heart;Let me ^bsee Your vengeance on them,For ^cto You I have revealed my cause.¹³^aSing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh!For He has ^bdelivered the soul of the needy oneFrom the hand of evildoers.¹⁴Cursed be the ^aday when I was born;Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me!¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought the good newsTo my father, saying,“A ¹^,^ababy boy has been born to you!”And made him very glad.¹⁶But let that man be like the citiesWhich Yahweh ^aoverthrew without ¹relenting,And let him hear an ^boutcry in the morningAnd a ²shout of war at noon,¹⁷Because he did not ^aput me to death from the womb,So that my mother would have been my grave,And her womb ever pregnant.¹⁸Why did I ever come forth from the wombTo ^alook on trouble and sorrow,So that my ^bdays have been spent in ^cshame?

God’s Chosen People, Israel

9^aI am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, ²that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. ³For ^aI could ¹wish that I myself were ^baccursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen ^caccording to the flesh, ⁴who are ^aIsraelites, to whom belongs ^bthe adoption as sons, and ^cthe glory and ^dthe covenants and ^ethe giving of the Law and ^fthe temple service and the promises, ⁵whose are ^athe fathers, and ^bfrom whom is the ¹Christ according to the flesh, ^cwho is ^dGod over all, ^eblessed ²forever. Amen.

⁶But it is not as though ^athe word of God has failed. ^bFor they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; ⁷nor are they all children ^abecause they are Abraham’s seed, but: “¹^,^bthrough Isaac your seed will be named.” ⁸That is, the children of the flesh are not the ^achildren of God, but the ^bchildren of the promise are considered as seed. ⁹For this is the word of promise: “^aAt this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.” ¹⁰^aAnd not only this, but there was ^bRebekah also, when she had conceived twins by one man, our father Isaac; ¹¹for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that the ^apurpose of God according to His choice would ¹stand, not ²because of works but ³because of Him who calls, ¹²it was said to her, “^aThe older shall serve the younger.” ¹³Just as it is written, “^aJacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”

¹⁴^aWhat shall we say then? ^bIs there any unrighteousness with God? ^cMay it never be! ¹⁵For He says to Moses, “^aI will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ¹⁶So then it does not depend on the one who wills or the one who ^aruns, but on ^bGod who has mercy. ¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “^aFor this very purpose I raised you up, in order to demonstrate My power in you, and in order that My name might be proclaimed ¹throughout the whole earth.” ¹⁸So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He ^ahardens whom He desires.

¹⁹^aYou will say to me then, “^bWhy does He still find fault? For ^cwho resists His will?” ²⁰On the contrary, who are you, ^aO man, who ^banswers back to God? ^cWill the thing molded say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this”? ²¹Or does not the potter have authority over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel ¹for honorable use and another ²for dishonorable use? ²²And ¹what if God, wanting to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much ^apatience vessels of wrath ^bhaving been prepared for destruction, ²³and in order that He might make known ^athe riches of His glory upon ^bvessels of mercy, which He ^cprepared beforehand for glory— ²⁴even us, whom He also ^acalled, ^bnot from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles? ²⁵As He says also in Hosea, “^aI will call those who were not My people, ‘My people,’And her who was not beloved, ‘beloved.’”

²⁶“^aAnd 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 ^bthe living God.”

²⁷And Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “^aThough the number of the sons of Israel be ^blike the sand of the sea, it is ^cthe remnant that will be saved; ²⁸^afor the Lord will execute His word on the land, ¹thoroughly and ²quickly.” ²⁹And just as Isaiah foretold, “^aUnless ^bthe Lord of ¹Sabaoth had left to us a seed,^cWe would have become like Sodom, and would have ²resembled Gomorrah.”

³⁰^aWhat shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, laid hold of righteousness, even ^bthe righteousness which is ¹by faith; ³¹but Israel, ^apursuing a law of righteousness, did not ^battain that law. ³²Why? Because they did not pursue it ¹by faith, but as though it were ²by works. They stumbled over ^athe stumbling stone, ³³just as it is written, “^aBehold, I am laying in Zion ^ba stone of stumbling and a rock of offense,^cAnd the one who believes upon Him ^dwill not be put to shame.”

²⁵He ^aturned their heart to hate His people,To ^bdeal craftily with His slaves.²⁶He ^asent Moses His servant,And ^bAaron, whom He had chosen.²⁷They ^aset forth the words of His signs among them,And miracles in the land of Ham.²⁸He ^asent darkness and made it dark;And they did not ^brebel against His words.²⁹He ^aturned their waters into bloodAnd caused their fish to die.³⁰Their land swarmed with ^afrogsEven in the ^bchambers of their kings.³¹He spoke, and there came a ^aswarm of fliesAnd ^bgnats in all their territory.³²He ¹gave them ^ahail for rain,And flaming fire in their land.³³He also ^astruck down their vines and their fig trees,And He shattered the trees of their territory.³⁴He spoke, and ^alocusts came,And creeping locusts, without number,³⁵And ¹they ate up all vegetation in their land,And ²they ate up the fruit of their ground.³⁶He also ^astruck down all the firstborn in their land,The ^bfirst of all their vigor.³⁷Then He brought them out with ^asilver and gold,And there was none among His tribes who stumbled.³⁸Egypt was ^aglad when they went out,For the ^bdread of them had fallen upon them.³⁹He spread a ^acloud for a ¹covering,And ^bfire to give light by night.⁴⁰¹They ^aasked, and He brought ^bquail,And He satisfied them with the ²^,^cbread of heaven.⁴¹He opened the ¹rock and ^awater flowed out;²It ran in the dry places like a river.⁴²For He ^aremembered His holy wordWith Abraham His servant;⁴³And He brought His people out with joy,His chosen ones with a shout of ^ajoy.⁴⁴He ^agave them also the lands of the ¹nations,That they ^bmight take possession of the fruit of the peoples’ labor,⁴⁵So that they might ^akeep His statutesAnd observe His laws,¹Praise Yah!