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 22 and 23. Chapter 22 Thus
says the Lord, Go down to the house of the king
of Judah, and there speak this word, and say,
Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, you
who sit on the throne of David, you and your
servants, and your people who enter these gates.
Thus says the Lord, execute judgment and righteousness,
and deliver the plundered out of the hand of
the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence
to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow,
nor shed innocent blood in this place. For if
you indeed do this thing, then you shall enter
the gates of this house, riding on horses and
in chariots, accompanied by servants and people,
kings who sit on the throne of David. But if
you will not hear these words, I swear by myself.
says the lord that this house shall become a
desolation for thus says the lord to the house
of the king of judah you are gilead to me the
head of lebanon yet i surely will make you a
wilderness cities which are not inhabited i will
prepare destroyers against you everyone with
his weapons they shall cut down your choice cedars
and cast them into the fire and many nations
will pass by this city and everyone will say
to his neighbor why has the lord done so to this
great city Then they will answer, because they
have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their
God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
Weep not for the dead, nor bemoan him. Weep bitterly
for him who goes away, for he shall return no
more, nor see his native country. For thus says
the Lord concerning Shalom, the son of Josiah,
king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah
his father, who went from this place, he shall
not return here any more. but he shall die in
the place where they have led him captive, and
shall see this land no more. Woe to him who builds
his house by unrighteousness and his chambers
by injustice, who uses his neighbor's service
without wages and gives him nothing for his work,
who says, I will build myself a wide house with
spacious chambers and cut out windows for it,
paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion.
Shall you reign because you enclose yourself
in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and
do justice and righteousness? Then it was well
with him. He judged the cause of the poor and
needy. Then it was well. Was not this knowing
me? Says the Lord. Yet your eyes and your heart
are for nothing but your covetousness, for shedding
innocent blood and practicing oppression and
violence. Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning
Jehuakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. They
shall not lament for him, saying, Alas, my brother,
or alas, my sister. They shall not lament for
him, saying, Alas, master, or alas, his glory.
He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey,
dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
Go up to Lebanon and cry out and lift up your
voice in Bashan. Cry from Abarim, for all your
lovers are destroyed. I spoke to you in your
prosperity, but you said I will not hear. This
has been your manner from your youth, that you
did not obey my voice. The wind shall eat up
all your rulers, and your lovers shall go into
captivity. Surely then you will be ashamed and
humiliated, for all your wickedness, O inhabitant
of Lebanon, making your nest in the cedars. How
gracious will you be when pangs come upon you,
like the pain of a woman in labor. As I live,
says the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim,
king of Judah, Were the signet on my right hand,
yet I would pluck you off, and I will give you
into the hand of those who seek your life, and
into the hand of those whose face you fear, the
hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and
the hand of the Chaldeans. So I will cast you
out, and your mother who bore you, into another
country where you were not born, and there you
shall die. But to the land to which they desire
to return, there they shall not return. Is this
man Coniah a despised broken idol, a vessel in
which is no pleasure? Why are they cast out,
he and his descendants, and cast into a land
which they do not know? O earth, earth, earth,
hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord,
write this man down as childless, a man who shall
not prosper in his days, for none of his descendants
shall prosper, sitting on the throne of David
and ruling anymore in Judah. Chapter 23 Woe to
the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep
of my pasture, says the Lord. Therefore, thus
says the Lord, God of Israel, against the shepherds
who feed my people, you have scattered my flock,
driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold,
I will attend to you for the evil of your doings,
says the Lord, but I will gather the remnant
of my flock out of all the countries where I
have driven them, and bring them back to their
folds, and they shall be fruitful and increase.
I will set up shepherds over them who will feed
them, and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed,
nor shall they be lacking, says the Lord. Behold,
the days are coming, says the Lord, that I will
raise to David a branch of righteousness. A king
shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment
and righteousness in the earth. In his days Judah
will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely.
Now this is his name by which he will be called,
the Lord our righteousness. Therefore, behold,
the days are coming, says the Lord, that they
shall no longer say, as the Lord lives, who brought
up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,
but as the Lord lives, who brought up and led
the descendants of the house of Israel from the
north country and from all the countries where
I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their
own land. My heart within me is broken because
of the prophets. All my bones shake. I am like
a drunken man and like a man whom wine has overcome.
because of the lord and because of his holy words
for the land is full of adulterers for because
of a curse the land mourns the pleasant places
of the wilderness are dried up their course of
life is evil and their might is not right for
both prophet and priest are profane yes in my
house i have found their wickedness says the
lord therefore their way shall be to them like
slippery ways in the darkness they shall be driven
on and fall in them for I will bring disaster
on them. The year of their punishment, says the
Lord, and I have seen folly in the prophets of
Samaria. They prophesied by Baal and caused my
people Israel to err. Also I have seen a horrible
thing in the prophets of Jerusalem. They commit
adultery and walk in lies. They also strengthen
the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns
back from his wickedness. All of them are like
Sodom to me, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah.
Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts concerning
the prophets, Behold, I will feed them with warm
wood, and make them drink the water of Gaul.
For from the prophets of Jerusalem profaneness
has gone out into all the land. Thus says the
Lord of hosts, Do not listen to the words of
the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you
worthless. They speak a vision of their own heart,
not from the mouth of the Lord. They continually
say to those who despise me, The Lord has said,
you shall have peace. And to everyone who walks
according to the dictates of his own heart, they
say, no evil shall come upon you. For who has
stood in the counsel of the Lord, and has perceived
and heard his word? Who has marked his word and
heard it? behold a whirlwind of the lord has
gone forth in fury a violent whirlwind it will
fall violently on the head of the wicked the
anger of the lord will not turn back until he
has executed and performed the thoughts of his
heart in the latter days you will understand
it perfectly i have not sent these prophets yet
they ran I have not spoken to them, yet they
prophesied. But if they had stood in my counsel
and had caused my people to hear my words, then
they would have turned them from their evil way
and from the evil of their doings. Am I a God
near at hand, says the Lord, and not a God afar
off? Can anyone hide himself in secret places,
so I shall not see him, says the Lord? Do I not
fill heaven and earth, says the Lord? I have
heard what the prophets have said. who prophesy
lies in my name, saying, I have dreamed, I have
dreamed. How long will this be in the heart of
the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed, they
are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,
who try to make my people forget my name by their
dreams, which everyone tells his neighbor, as
their fathers forgot my name for Baal. The prophet
who has a dream, let him tell a dream. And he
who has my word, let him speak my word faithfully.
What is the chaff to the wheat? says the lord
is not my word like a fire says the lord and
like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces
therefore behold i am against the prophets says
the lord who steal my words everyone from his
neighbor behold i am against the prophets says
the lord who use their tongues and say he says
Behold, I am against those who prophesy false
dreams, says the Lord, and tell them and cause
my people to err by their lies and by their recklessness.
Yet I did not send them or command them. Therefore
they shall not profit this people at all, says
the Lord. So when these people, or the prophet
or the priest, ask you, saying, What is the oracle
of the Lord? You shall then say to them, What
oracle? I will even forsake you, says the Lord.
And as for the prophet and the priest and the
people who say, The oracle of the Lord, I will
even punish that man and his house. Thus every
one of you shall say to his neighbor and everyone
to his brother, What has the Lord answered? And
what has the Lord spoken? And the oracle of the
Lord you shall mention no more. For every man's
word will be his oracle. For you have perverted
the words of the living God, the Lord of hosts.
our god thus you shall say to the prophet what
has the lord answered you and what has the lord
spoken but since you say the oracle of the lord
therefore thus says the lord because you say
this word the oracle of the lord and i have sent
to you saying do not say the oracle of the lord
therefore behold i even i will utterly forget
you and forsake you and the city that i gave
you and your fathers and will cast you out of
my presence and I will bring an everlasting reproach
upon you, and a perpetual shame which shall not
be forgotten. 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.