Jeremiah 6; Jeremiah 7; Jeremiah 8; 1 Timothy 5

1 Escape, people of Benjamin, get out of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, sound the alarm in Beth-haccherem; for disaster looms from the north, massive devastation.

2 You are like a lovely pasture, Daughter Zion.

3 Shepherds come to her with their flocks. They pitch their tents around her and graze in their place.

4 "Prepare for battle against her; get ready; let's attack by noon! Oh, no! Daylight is fading, and the evening shadows lengthen.

5 Get ready, let's attack by night and destroy her fortresses!"

6 The LORD of heavenly forces proclaims: Cut down her trees, and build siege ramps against Jerusalem. This city must be held accountable, for there's nothing but oppression in her midst.

7 As a well brings forth fresh water, she brings forth evil. Violence and destruction are heard within her; injury and wounds are ever before me.

8 Hear me out, Jerusalem, or else I'll turn away from you and reduce you to ruins, a land unfit to live in.

9 This is what the LORD of heavenly forces says: From top to bottom, let them harvest the remaining few in Israel. Pick clean every last grape on the vine!

10 To whom can I speak and warn? How can I get someone's attention? Their ears are shut tight, so they won't hear. They are ashamed of the LORD's word and take no pleasure in it.

11 But I'm filled with the LORD's rage and am tired of holding it in. Pour it out on the children in the streets and on the youths gathered together; husband with wife will be trapped, as will those old and gray.

12 Their homes will be turned over to others, their fields and wives as well. I will stretch out my hand against the people of this land, declares the LORD.

13 From the least to the greatest, each is eager to profit; from prophet to priest, each trades in dishonesty.

14 They treat the wound of my people as if it were nothing: "All is well, all is well," they insist, when in fact nothing is well.

15 They should be ashamed of their detestable practices, but they have no shame; they don't even blush! Therefore, they will fall among the fallen and stumble when I bring disaster, declares the LORD.

16 The LORD proclaims: Stop at the crossroads and look around; ask for the ancient paths. Where is the good way? Then walk in it and find a resting place for yourselves. But you said, "We won't go!"

17 Still, I have appointed watchmen to warn you. But you said, "We won't listen!"

18 Therefore, pay attention, nations; take notice, assembly, what is ahead of them.

19 Pay attention, earth: I'm bringing disaster upon my people, the fruit of their own devices, because they have ignored my words and they have rejected my teaching.

20 What use to me is incense from Sheba or sweet cane from a faraway land? Your entirely burned offerings won't buy your pardon; your sacrifices won't appease me.

21 Therefore, the LORD proclaims: I'm putting obstacles before this people, and both parents and children will stumble over them; neighbor and friend alike will perish.

22 The LORD proclaims: An army is on the move from the northern regions; a great nation is roused from the ends of the earth.

23 Equipped with bow and spear, they are cruel; they show no mercy. Their horsemen sound like the roaring sea, arrayed in battle formation against you, Daughter Zion.

24 We have heard reports of them and are panic-stricken; distress overwhelms us, pain like that of a woman in labor.

25 Don't go out into the field! Don't walk on the road! The enemies' sword terrorizes at every turn.

26 My people, put on funeral clothes and roll in ashes; weep and wail as for an only child, because the destroyer will suddenly descend upon us.

27 I have made you a tester of metals, to examine my people to know and prove their ways.

28 They are tin and iron; they are headstrong and rebellious. They live to slander. They act corruptly—every last one!

29 The bellows roar; the lead is consumed. Yet the refining fails; the impurities remain.

30 They are called "rejected silver," for the LORD has rejected them.

1 Jeremiah received the LORD's word:

2 Stand near the gate of the LORD's temple and proclaim there this message: Listen to the LORD's word, all you of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD.

3 This is what the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, says: Improve your conduct and your actions, and I will dwell with you in this place.

4 Don't trust in lies: "This is the LORD's temple! The LORD's temple! The LORD's temple!"

5 No, if you truly reform your ways and your actions; if you treat each other justly;

6 if you stop taking advantage of the immigrant, orphan, or widow; if you don't shed the blood of the innocent in this place, or go after other gods to your own ruin,

7 only then will I dwell with you in this place, in the land that I gave long ago to your ancestors for all time.

8 And yet you trust in lies that will only hurt you.

9 Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, sacrifice to Baal and go after other gods that you don't know,

10 and then come and stand before me in this temple that bears my name, and say, "We are safe," only to keep on doing all these detestable things?

11 Do you regard this temple, which bears my name, as a hiding place for criminals? I can see what's going on here, declares the LORD.

12 Just go to my sanctuary in Shiloh, where I let my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.

13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, because you haven't listened when I spoke to you again and again or responded when I called you,

14 I will do to this temple that bears my name and on which you rely, the place that I gave to you and your ancestors, just as I did to Shiloh.

15 I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out the rest of your family, all the people of Ephraim.

16 As for you, don't pray for these people, don't cry out or plead for them, and don't intercede with me, for I won't listen to you.

17 Can't you see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

18 The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make sacrificial cakes for the queen of heaven. And to offend me all the more, they pour out drink offerings to foreign gods.

19 But am I the one they are really offending? declares the LORD. Aren't they in fact humiliating themselves?

20 Therefore, this is what the LORD God says: I'm going to pour out my fierce anger on this place, on humans and beasts, on the trees of the field and the crops of the fertile land. It will burn and not go out.

21 This is what the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, says: Add your entirely burned offerings to your sacrifices and eat them yourselves!

22 On the day I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I didn't say a thing—I gave no instructions—about entirely burned offerings or sacrifices.

23 Rather, this is what I required of them: Obey me so that I may become your God and you may become my people. Follow the path I mark out for you so that it may go well with you.

24 But they didn't listen or pay attention. They followed their willful and evil hearts and went backward rather than forward.

25 From the moment your ancestors left the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent you all my servants the prophets—day after day.

26 But they didn't listen to me or pay attention; they were stubborn and did more harm than their ancestors.

27 When you tell them all this, they won't listen to you. When you call to them, they won't respond.

28 Therefore, say to them: This nation neither obeys the LORD its God nor accepts correction; truth has disappeared; it has vanished from their lips.

29 Cut off your hair and cast it away; grieve on the well-traveled paths. The LORD has rejected you and has cast off a generation that provokes his anger.

30 The people of Judah have done what displeases me, declares the LORD. They have corrupted the temple that bears my name by setting up their disgusting idols.

31 They have built shrines at Topheth in the Ben-hinnom Valley to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, although I never commanded such a thing, nor did it ever cross my mind.

32 So now the time is coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer speak of Topheth or the Ben-hinnom Valley, but the Carnage Valley. They will bury in Topheth until no space is left.

33 The corpses of this people will be food for birds and wild animals, with no one to drive them off.

34 I will silence the sound of joy and delight as well as the voice of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, for the country will be reduced to a wasteland.

1 At that time, declares the LORD, the bones of the kings of Judah and its officers, the bones of the priests and the prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be taken from their graves

2 and exposed to the sun, the moon, and the whole heavenly forces, which they have loved and served and which they have followed, consulted, and worshipped. Their bones won't be gathered for reburial but will become like refuse lying on the ground.

3 The survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life, wherever I have scattered them, declares the LORD of heavenly forces.

4 Say to them, The LORD proclaims: When people fall down, don't they get up? When they turn aside, don't they turn back?

5 Why then does this people, rebellious Jerusalem, persistently turn away from me? They cling to deceit and refuse to return.

6 I have listened carefully but haven't heard a word of truth from them. No one regrets their wrongdoing; no one says, "What have I done?" Everyone turns to their own course, like a stallion dashing into the thick of battle.

7 Even the stork in the sky knows the seasons, and the dove, swallow, and crane return in due time. But my people don't know the LORD's ways.

8 How can you say, "We are wise; we possess the LORD's Instruction," when the lying pen of the scribes has surely distorted it?

9 The wise will be shamed and shocked when they are caught. Look, they have rejected the LORD's word; what kind of wisdom is that?

10 Therefore, I will give their wives to others and their fields to their captors. From the least to the greatest, all are eager to profit. From prophet to priest, all trade in falsehood.

11 They treat the wound of my people as if it were nothing: "All is well, all is well," they insist, when in fact nothing is well.

12 They should be ashamed of their detestable practices, but they have no shame; they don't even blush! Therefore, they will fall among the fallen and stumble when disaster arrives, declares the LORD.

13 I will put an end to them, declares the LORD; there are no grapes on the vine, no figs on the tree, only withered leaves. They have squandered what I have given them!

14 Why are we sitting here? Come, let's go to the fortified towns and meet our doom there. The LORD our God has doomed us by giving us poisoned water to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD!

15 We longed for relief, but received none; for a time of healing, but found only terror.

16 The snorting of their horses can be heard as far as Dan; the neighing of their stallions makes the whole land tremble. They come to devour the land and everything in it, towns and people alike.

17 See, I'm sending serpents against you, vipers that you can't charm, and they will bite you, declares the LORD.

18 No healing, only grief; my heart is broken.

19 Listen to the weeping of my people all across the land: "Isn't the LORD in Zion? Is her king no longer there?" Why then did they anger me with their images, with pointless foreign gods?

20 "The harvest is past, the summer has ended, yet we aren't saved."

21 Because my people are crushed, I am crushed; darkness and despair overwhelm me.

22 Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then have my people not been restored to health?

1 Don't correct an older man, but encourage him like he's your father; treat younger men like your brothers,

2 treat older women like your mother, and treat younger women like your sisters with appropriate respect.

3 Take care of widows who are truly needy.

4 But if a particular widow has children or grandchildren, they should first learn to respect their own family and repay their parents, because this pleases God.

5 A widow who is truly needy and all alone puts her hope in God and keeps on going with requests and prayers, night and day.

6 But a widow who tries to live a life of luxury is dead even while she is alive.

7 Teach these things so that the families will be without fault.

8 But if someone doesn't provide for their own family, and especially for a member of their household, they have denied the faith. They are worse than those who have no faith.

9 Put a widow on the list who is older than 60 years old and who was faithful to her husband.

10 She should have a reputation for doing good: raising children, providing hospitality to strangers, washing the feet of the saints, helping those in distress, and dedicating herself to every kind of good thing.

11 But don't accept younger widows for the list. When their physical desires distract them from Christ, they will want to get married.

12 Then they will be judged for setting aside their earlier commitment.

13 Also, they learn to be lazy by going from house to house. They are not only lazy, but they also become gossips and busybodies, talking about things they shouldn't.

14 So I want younger widows to marry, have children, and manage their homes so that they won't give the enemy any reason to slander us. (

15 Some have already turned away to follow Satan.)

16 If any woman who is a believer has widows in her family, she should take care of them and not burden the church, so that it can help other widows who are truly needy.

17 Elders who lead well should be paid double, especially those who work with public speaking and teaching.

18 The scripture says, Don't put a muzzle on an ox while it treads grain, and Workers deserve their pay.

19 Don't accept an accusation made against an elder unless it is confirmed by two or three witnesses.

20 Discipline those who are sinning in front of everyone so that all the others will be afraid.

21 I charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to follow these practices without bias, and without playing favorites.

22 Don't rush to commission anyone to leadership, and don't participate in the sins of others. Keep yourself morally pure.

23 Don't drink water anymore, but use a little wine because of your stomach problems and your frequent illnesses.

24 The sins of some people are obvious, and the sins are judged before the people must face judgment, but the sins of other people show up later.

25 In the same way, the good that people do is also obvious and can't be hidden.