The Ruined Loincloth
1 Thus says the Lord to me, “Go and buy a linen loincloth and qput it around your waist, and do not dip it in water.” 2 So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the Lord, and put it around my waist. 3 And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, 4 “Take the loincloth that you have bought, which is around your waist, and arise, rgo to the Euphrates and hide it there in sa cleft of the rock.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord commanded me. 6 And after many days the Lord said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there qthe loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.” 7 Then I went to the Euphrates, and dug, and I took qthe loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. And behold, the loincloth was tspoiled; it was ugood for nothing.
8 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 9 “Thus says the Lord: vEven so will I spoil the pride of Judah and the great wpride of Jerusalem. 10 This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, xwho stubbornly follow their own heart and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is ugood for nothing. 11 For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, ythat they might be for me a people, za name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen.
The Jars Filled with Wine
12 “You shall speak to them this word: ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, “Every jar shall be filled with wine.”’ And they will say to you, ‘Do we not indeed know that aevery jar will be filled with wine?’ 13 Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord: bBehold, I will fill with drunkenness all the inhabitants of this land: cthe kings who sit on David’s throne, dthe priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 14 And I will edash them one against another, fathers and sons together, declares the Lord. I will not pity or spare or have compassion, that I should not destroy them.’”
Exile Threatened
15 Hear and give ear; be not proud,
for the Lord has spoken.
16 fGive glory to the Lord your God
gbefore he brings darkness,
before your feet stumble
on the twilight mountains,
and gwhile you look for light
he turns it into gloom
and makes it hdeep darkness.
17 But if you will not listen,
imy soul will weep in secret for your pride;
my eyes will weep bitterly and run down with tears,
because the Lord’s flock has been taken captive.
18 Say to jthe king and jthe queen mother:
“Take a lowly seat,
for kyour beautiful crown
has come down from your head.”
19 lThe cities of the Negeb are shut up,
with none to open them;
all Judah is taken into exile,
wholly taken into exile.
20 “Lift up your eyes mand see
those who come from the north.
Where is the flock that was given you,
your beautiful flock?
21 What will you say when they set as head over you
those whom you yourself have taught to be friends to you?
nWill not pangs take hold of you
like those of a woman in labor?
22 And if you say in your heart,
o‘Why have these things come upon me?’
it is for the greatness of your iniquity
that pyour skirts are lifted up
and you suffer violence.
23 qCan the Ethiopian change his skin
or qthe leopard his spots?
Then also you can do good
who are accustomed to do evil.
24 I will scatter you1 rlike chaff
driven by the wind from the desert.
25 sThis is your lot,
the portion I have measured out to you, declares the Lord,
because tyou have forgotten me
and trusted in lies.
26 pI myself will lift up your skirts over your face,
and your shame will be seen.
27 I have seen uyour abominations,
your adulteries and vneighings, your lewd whorings,
won the hills in the field.
Woe to you, O Jerusalem!
How long will it be xbefore you are made clean?”
Famine, Sword, and Pestilence
1 The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning ythe drought:
2 z“Judah mourns,
and aher gates languish;
her people lament on the ground,
and bthe cry of Jerusalem goes up.
3 Her nobles send their servants for water;
they come to the cisterns;
they find no water;
they return with their vessels empty;
they are cashamed and confounded
and dcover their heads.
4 Because of the ground that is dismayed,
since there is eno rain on the land,
the farmers are ashamed;
they cover their heads.
5 Even fthe doe in the field forsakes her newborn fawn
because there is no grass.
6 gThe wild donkeys stand on the bare heights;
they pant for air like jackals;
their eyes fail
because there is no vegetation.
7 “Though our iniquities testify against us,
act, O Lord, hfor your name’s sake;
ifor our backslidings are many;
jwe have sinned against you.
8 kO you hope of Israel,
its savior in time of trouble,
why should you be like a stranger in the land,
like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?
9 Why should you be like a man confused,
llike a mighty warrior who cannot save?
Yet myou, O Lord, are in the midst of us,
and nwe are called by your name;
odo not leave us.”
10 Thus says the Lord concerning this people:
“They have loved to wander thus;
they have not restrained their feet;
ptherefore the Lord does not accept them;
qnow he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.”
11 The Lord said to me: r“Do not pray for the welfare of this people. 12 Though they fast, I will not hear their cry, sand though they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them tby the sword, by famine, and by pestilence.”
Lying Prophets
13 Then I said: “Ah, Lord God, behold, the prophets usay to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’” 14 And the Lord said to me: “The vprophets are prophesying lies in my name. wI did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a lying vision, xworthless divination, and ythe deceit of their own minds. 15 Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name although wI did not send them, and who say, t‘Sword and famine shall not come upon this land’: zBy sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed. 16 And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and sword, awith none to bury them—them, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. For I will pour out their evil upon them.
17 “You shall say to them this word:
b‘Let my eyes run down with tears night and day,
and let them not cease,
for the virgin cdaughter of my people is shattered with a great wound,
dwith a very grievous blow.
18 eIf I go out into the field,
behold, those pierced by the sword!
eAnd if I enter the city,
behold, the diseases of famine!
fFor both prophet and priest ply their trade through the land
and have no knowledge.’”
19 gHave you utterly rejected Judah?
Does your soul loathe Zion?
Why have you struck us down
hso that there is no healing for us?
iWe looked for peace, but no good came;
ifor a time of healing, but behold, terror.
20 jWe acknowledge our wickedness, O Lord,
and the iniquity of our fathers,
jfor we have sinned against you.
21 Do not spurn us, kfor your name’s sake;
do not dishonor your glorious throne;
lremember and do not break your covenant with us.
22 Are there any among mthe false gods of the nations nthat can bring rain?
Or can the heavens give showers?
Are you not he, O Lord our God?
We set our hope on you,
ofor you do all these things.
Book Five
Let the Redeemed of the Lord Say So
1 gOh give thanks to the Lord, hfor he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever!
2 Let ithe redeemed of the Lord say so,
whom he has jredeemed from trouble1
3 and kgathered in from the lands,
from the east and from the west,
from the north and from the south.
4 Some lwandered in desert wastes,
finding no way mto a city to dwell in;
5 hungry and thirsty,
their soul nfainted within them.
6 Then they ocried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He led them by pa straight way
till they reached ma city to dwell in.
8 qLet them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
9 For he rsatisfies the longing soul,
sand the hungry soul he fills with good things.
10 tSome sat in darkness and in uthe shadow of death,
prisoners in vaffliction and in irons,
11 for they whad rebelled against the words of God,
and xspurned the counsel of the Most High.
12 So he bowed their hearts down with hard labor;
they fell down, ywith none to help.
13 zThen they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
14 He brought them out of adarkness and the shadow of death,
and bburst their bonds apart.
15 cLet them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
16 For he dshatters the doors of bronze
and cuts in two the bars of iron.
17 Some were efools through their sinful ways,
and because of their iniquities suffered affliction;
18 fthey loathed any kind of food,
and they gdrew near to hthe gates of death.
19 iThen they cried to the Lord in their trouble,
and he delivered them from their distress.
20 He jsent out his word and khealed them,
and ldelivered them from their destruction.
21 mLet them thank the Lord for his steadfast love,
for his wondrous works to the children of man!
22 And let them noffer sacrifices of thanksgiving,
Life in the Spirit
1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.1 2 For the law of hthe Spirit of life ihas set you2 free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For jGod has done what the law, kweakened by the flesh, lcould not do. mBy sending his own Son nin the likeness of sinful flesh and ofor sin,3 he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that pthe righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, qwho walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For rthose who live according to the flesh set their minds on sthe things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on tthe things of the Spirit. 6 For to set uthe mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is vhostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; windeed, it cannot. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact xthe Spirit of God dwells in you. yAnyone who does not have zthe Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10 But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of ahim who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus4 from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies bthrough his Spirit who dwells in you.
Heirs with Christ
12 So then, brothers,5 we are debtors, cnot to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you dput to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are eled by the Spirit of God are fsons6 of God. 15 For gyou did not receive hthe spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of iadoption as sons, by whom we cry, j“Abba! Father!” 16 kThe Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then lheirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, mprovided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
Future Glory
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time nare not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for othe revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation pwas subjected to futility, not willingly, but qbecause of him who subjected it, in hope 21 that rthe creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that sthe whole creation thas been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have uthe firstfruits of the Spirit, vgroan inwardly as wwe wait eagerly for adoption as sons, xthe redemption of our bodies. 24 For yin this hope we were saved. Now zhope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we await for it with patience.
26 Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For bwe do not know what to pray for as we ought, but cthe Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. 27 And dhe who searches hearts knows what is ethe mind of the Spirit, because7 the Spirit fintercedes for the saints gaccording to the will of God. 28 And we know that for those who love God all things work together hfor good,8 for ithose who are called according to his purpose. 29 For those whom he jforeknew he also kpredestined lto be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be mthe firstborn among many brothers. 30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also njustified, and those whom he justified he also oglorified.
God’s Everlasting Love
31 What then shall we say to these things? pIf God is for us, who can be9 against us? 32 qHe who did not spare his own Son but rgave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? sIt is God who justifies. 34 tWho is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—uwho is at the right hand of God, vwho indeed is interceding for us.10 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,
w“For your sake xwe are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
37 No, in all these things we are more than yconquerors through zhim who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
