Oct 25th

“I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy a lie in My name, saying, ‘I had a dream, I had a dream!’

How long? Is there anything in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy a lie, even these prophets of the deception of their own heart,

who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they recount to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal?

The prophet who has a dream may recount his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares Yahweh.

“Is not My word like fire?” declares Yahweh, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?

Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” declares Yahweh, “who steal My words from each other.

Behold, I am against the prophets,” declares Yahweh, “who take their tongues and declare, ‘Yahweh declares.’

Behold, I am against those who have prophesied lying dreams,” declares Yahweh, “and who recounted them and led My people astray by their lying and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them, and I did not command them, and they do not furnish this people the slightest benefit,” declares Yahweh.

“Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you, saying, ‘What is the oracle of Yahweh?’ then you shall say to them, ‘What oracle?’ Yahweh declares, ‘I will abandon you.’

Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say, ‘The oracle of Yahweh,’ I will bring punishment upon that man and his household.

Thus will each of you say to his neighbor and to his brother, ‘What has Yahweh answered?’ or, ‘What has Yahweh spoken?’

For you will no longer remember the oracle of Yahweh because every man’s own word will become the oracle, and you have perverted the words of the living God, Yahweh of hosts, our God.

Thus you will say to that prophet, ‘What has Yahweh answered you?’ and, ‘What has Yahweh spoken?’

For if you all say, ‘The oracle of Yahweh!’ surely thus says Yahweh, ‘Because you said this word, “The oracle of Yahweh!” I have also sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, ‘The oracle of Yahweh!’ ” ’

Therefore behold, I will surely forget you and abandon you, along with the city which I gave you and your fathers, so that you are out of My presence.

I will put an everlasting reproach on you and an everlasting humiliation which will not be forgotten.”

After Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had taken away into exile Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the officials of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon, Yahweh showed me: behold, two baskets of figs set before the temple of Yahweh!

One basket had very good figs, like first-ripe figs, and the other basket had very rotten figs which could not be eaten due to rottenness.

Then Yahweh said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the rotten figs, very rotten, which cannot be eaten due to rottenness.”

Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

“Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Like these good figs, so I will recognize as good the exiles of Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans.

For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will return them to this land; and I will build them up and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not uproot them.

I will give them a heart to know Me, for I am Yahweh; and they will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with their whole heart.

‘But like the rotten figs which cannot be eaten due to rottenness—indeed, thus says Yahweh—so I will give over Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials and the remnant of Jerusalem who remain in this land and the ones who inhabit the land of Egypt.

I will give them over to be a terror and an evil for all the kingdoms of the earth, as a reproach and a proverb, a byword and a curse in all places where I will banish them.

I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence upon them until they come to an end from being upon the land which I gave to them and their fathers.’ ”

The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (that was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon),

which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying,

“From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, these twenty-three years the word of Yahweh has come to me, and I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking, but you have not listened.

And Yahweh has sent to you all His slaves the prophets, rising up early and sending, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear,

saying, ‘Turn now everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your deeds, and live on the ground which Yahweh has given to you and your fathers forever and ever;

and do not walk after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands, and I will bring no evil against you.’

Yet you have not listened to Me,” declares Yahweh, “in order that you might provoke Me to anger with the work of your hands to your own evil demise.

“Therefore thus says Yahweh of hosts, ‘Because you have not listened to My words,

behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these surrounding nations; and I will devote them to destruction and make them an object of horror and of hissing and an everlasting waste place.

Moreover, I will make the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp, to perish from them.

This whole land will be a waste place and an object of horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

‘Then it will be when seventy years are fulfilled, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation,’ declares Yahweh, ‘for their iniquity, even the land of the Chaldeans; and I will make it an everlasting desolation.

I will bring upon that land all My words which I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book which Jeremiah has prophesied against all the nations.

—For many nations and great kings will make slaves of them, even them; and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the work of their hands—’ ”

For thus Yahweh, the God of Israel, says to me, “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it.

They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.”

Then I took the cup from the hand of Yahweh and made all the nations to whom Yahweh sent me drink it:

Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and its kings and its princes, to make them a waste place, an object of horror, an object of hissing, and a curse, as it is this day;

Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes, and all his people,

and all the foreign people, all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines (even Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod),

Edom, Moab, and the sons of Ammon,

and all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastlands which are beyond the sea,

and Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair,

and all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the foreign people who dwell in the desert,

and all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media,

and all the kings of the north, near and far, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the earth which are upon the face of the ground, and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.

Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need of anything to be written to you.

For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night.

While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman who is pregnant, and they will never escape.

But you, brothers, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief,

for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness;

so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be awake and sober.

For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.

But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.

For God has not appointed us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.

Therefore, comfort one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.

But we ask of you, brothers, that you know those who labor among you, and lead you in the Lord and admonish you,

and that you regard them very highly in love because of their work. Live in peace with one another.

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with everyone.

See that no one repays another with evil for evil, but always seek after that which is good for one another and for all people.

Rejoice always;

pray without ceasing;

in everything give thanks, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Do not quench the Spirit;

do not despise prophecies,

but examine all things; hold fast to that which is good;

abstain from every form of evil.