Philemon 1; Jeremiah 19; Jeremiah 20; Psalms 128

Philemon 1

1 Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy, our brother: To Philemon, our dear friend and co-worker,

2 to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church that meets in your house.

3 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

4 I always thank my God when I mention you in my prayers,

5 because I hear of your love and faith toward the Lord Jesus and for all the saints.

6 [I pray] that your participation in the faith may become effective through knowing every good thing that is in us for [the glory of] Christ.

7 For I have great joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, brother.

8 For this reason, although I have great boldness in Christ to command you to do what is right,

9 I appeal, instead, on the basis of love. I, Paul, as an elderly man and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus,

10 appeal to you for my child, whom I fathered while in chains-Onesimus.

11 Once he was useless to you, but now he is useful to both you and me.

12 I am sending him-a part of myself-back to you.

13 I wanted to keep him with me, so that in my imprisonment for the gospel he might serve me in your place.

14 But I didn't want to do anything without your consent, so that your good deed might not be out of obligation, but of your own free will.

15 For perhaps this is why he was separated [from you] for a brief time, so that you might get him back permanently,

16 no longer as a slave, but more than a slave-as a dearly loved brother. This is especially so to me, but even more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord.

17 So if you consider me a partner, accept him as you would me.

18 And if he has wronged you in any way, or owes you anything, charge that to my account.

19 I, Paul, write this with my own hand: I will repay it-not to mention to you that you owe me even your own self.

20 Yes, brother, may I have joy from you in the Lord; refresh my heart in Christ.

21 Since I am confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.

22 But meanwhile, also prepare a guest room for me, for I hope that through your prayers I will be restored to you.

23 Epaphras, my fellow prisoner in Christ Jesus, greets you, and so do

24 Mark, Aristarchus, Demas, and Luke, my co-workers.

25 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit.

Jeremiah 19

1 This is what the Lord says: "Go, buy a potter's clay jug. Take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests

2 and go out to the Valley of Hinnom near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Proclaim there the words I speak to you.

3 Say: Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will shudder

4 because they have abandoned Me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in it to other gods that they, their fathers, and the kings of Judah have never known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.

5 They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something I have never commanded or mentioned; I never entertained the thought.

6 "Therefore, take note! The days are coming"-[this is] the Lord's declaration-"when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

7 I will spoil the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those who want to take their life. I will provide their corpses as food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land.

8 I will make this city desolate, an object of scorn. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and scoff because of all its wounds.

9 I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and they will eat each other's flesh in the siege and distress that their enemies, those who want to take their life, inflict on them.

10 "Then you are to shatter the jug in the presence of the people traveling with you,

11 and you are to proclaim to them: This is what the Lord of Hosts says: I will shatter these people and this city, like one shatters a potter's jar that can never again be mended. They will bury in Topheth until there is no place left to bury.

12 I will do so to this place"-[this is] the declaration of the Lord-"and to its residents, making this city like Topheth.

13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will become impure like that place Topheth-all the houses on whose rooftops they have burned incense to the whole heavenly host and poured out drink offerings to other gods."

14 Jeremiah came back from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, stood in the courtyard of the Lord's temple, and proclaimed to all the people,

15 "This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: 'I am about to bring on this city-and on all its [dependent] villages-all the disaster that I spoke against it, for they have become obstinate, not obeying My words.' "

Jeremiah 20

1 Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

2 So Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate in the Lord's temple.

3 The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "The Lord does not call you Pashhur, but Magor-missabib,

4 for this is what the Lord says, 'I am about to make you a terror to both yourself and those you love. They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will deport them to Babylon and put them to the sword.

5 I will give away all the wealth of this city, all its products and valuables. Indeed, I will hand all the treasures of the kings of Judah over to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon.

6 As for you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, you will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon. There you will die, and there you will be buried, you and all your friends that you prophesied falsely to.' "

7 You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived. You seized me and prevailed. I am a laughingstock all the time; everyone ridicules me.

8 For whenever I speak, I cry out- I proclaim: Violence and destruction! because the word of the Lord has become for me constant disgrace and derision.

9 If I say: I won't mention Him or speak any longer in His name, His message becomes a fire burning in my heart, shut up in my bones. I become tired of holding it in, and I cannot prevail.

10 For I have heard the gossip of the multitudes, "Terror is on every side! Report [him]; let's report him!" Everyone I trusted watches for my fall. "Perhaps he will be deceived so that we might prevail against him and take our vengeance on him."

11 But the Lord is with me like a violent warrior. Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly shamed, an everlasting humiliation that will never be forgotten.

12 Lord of Hosts, testing the righteous and seeing the heart and mind, let me see Your vengeance on them, for I have presented my case to You.

13 Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord, for He rescues the life of the needy from the hand of evil people.

14 Cursed be the day on which I was born. The day my mother bore me- let it never be blessed.

15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, saying, "A male child is born to you," bringing him great joy.

16 Let that man be like the cities the Lord overthrew without compassion. Let him hear an outcry in the morning and a war cry at noontime

17 because he didn't kill me in the womb so that my mother might have been my grave, her womb eternally pregnant.

18 Why did I come out of the womb to see [only] struggle and sorrow, to end my life in shame?

Psalms 128

1 How happy is everyone who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways!

2 You will surely eat what your hands have worked for. You will be happy, and it will go well for you.

3 Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house, your sons, like young olive trees around your table.

4 In this very way the man who fears the Lord will be blessed.

5 May the Lord bless you from Zion, so that you will see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life,

6 and will see your children's children! Peace be with Israel.