Hello, this is Father Paul, and I'm glad we're
taking this journey together to read the Bible
in a year. Today's reading is from the book of
Jeremiah, chapters 19 and 20. Chapter 19 Thus
says the Lord, Go and get a potter's earthen
flask, and take some of the elders of the people
and some of the elders of the priests, and go
out to the valley of the son of Hinnom, which
is by the entry of the potsherd gate, and proclaim
there the words that I will tell you, and say,
Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and
inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord
of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring
such a catastrophe on this place that whoever
hears of it, his ears will tingle. Because they
have forsaken me and made this an alien place,
because they have burned incense in it to other
gods, whom neither they, their fathers, nor the
kings of Judah have known. and have filled this
place with the blood of the innocents. They have
also built the high places of Baal, to burn their
sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which
I did not command or speak, nor did it come into
my mind. Therefore, behold, the days are coming,
says the Lord, that this place shall no more
be called Tophet, or the valley of the son of
Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter. And I will
make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem
in this place, and I will cause them to fall
by the sword before their enemies and by the
hands of those who seek their lives. Their corpses
I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven
and for the beasts of the earth. I will make
this city desolate and hissing. Everyone who
passes by it will be astonished and hiss because
of all its plagues. And I will cause them to
eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of
their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh
of his friend in the siege and in the desperation
with which their enemies and those who seek their
lives shall drive them to despair. Then you shall
break the flask in the sight of the men who go
with you and say to them, Thus says the Lord
of hosts, Even so I will break this people and
this city as one breaks a potter's vessel. which
cannot be made whole again and they shall bury
them in tophet till there is no place to bury
Thus I will do to this place, says the Lord,
and to its inhabitants, and make this city like
Tophet. And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses
of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the
place of Tophet, because of all the houses on
whose roofs they have burned incense to all the
hosts of heaven and poured out drink offerings
to other gods. Then Jeremiah came from Tophet,
where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and
he stood in the court of the Lord's house and
said to all the people, Thus says the Lord of
hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring
on this city and on all her towns all the doom
that I have pronounced against it, because they
have stiffened their necks that they might not
hear my words. Chapter 20 Now Peshur the son
of Emer, the priest who was also chief governor
in the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah
prophesied these things. Then Pashur struck Jeremiah
the prophet and put him in the stocks that were
in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the
house of the Lord. And it happened on the next
day that Pashur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks.
Then Jeremiah said to him, The Lord has not called
your name Pashur, but Magor Mesabib. For thus
says the Lord, Behold, I will make you a terror
to yourself and to all your friends, and they
shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and
your eyes shall see it. I will give all Judah
into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he
shall carry them captive to Babylon and slay
them with the sword. Moreover, I will deliver
all the wealth of this city, all its produce,
and all its precious things, all the treasures
of the kings of Judah, I will give into the hand
of their enemies, who will plunder them, seize
them, and carry them to Babylon. And you, Peshur,
and all who dwell in your house, shall go into
captivity. You shall go to Babylon, and there
you shall die, and be buried there, you and all
your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies.
O Lord, you induced me, and I was persuaded.
You are stronger than I, and have prevailed.
I am in derision daily. Everyone mocks me, for
when I spoke, I cried out, I shouted, violence
and plunder, because the word of the Lord was
made to me a reproach and a derision daily. Then
I said, I will not make mention of him, nor speak
any more in his name. But his word was in my
heart like a burning fire, shut up in my bones.
I was weary of holding it back, and I could not.
For I heard many mocking. Fear on every side.
Report, they say, and we will report it. All
my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying,
Perhaps he can be induced. Then we will prevail
against him, and we will take our revenge on
him. But the Lord is with me as a mighty, awesome
one. Therefore my persecutors will stumble and
will not prevail. They will be greatly ashamed,
for they will not prosper. Their everlasting
confusion will never be forgotten. But, O Lord
of hosts, you who test the righteous and see
the mind and heart, let me see your vengeance
on them, for I have pleaded my cause before you.
Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord, for he has
delivered the life of the poor from the hand
of evildoers. Cursed be the day in which I was
born. Let the day not be blessed in which my
mother bore me. Let the man be cursed who brought
news to my father, saying, A male child has been
born to you, making him very glad. And let that
man be like the cities, which the Lord overthrew
and did not relent. Let him hear the cry in the
morning and the shouting at noon, because he
did not kill me from the womb, that my mother
might have been my grave, and her womb always
enlarged. with me why did i come forth from the
womb to see labor and sorrow that my days should
be consumed with shame i hope you enjoyed today's
reading as much as i did and i look forward to
seeing you again tomorrow to continue on our
journey god bless you and have a great day