Day 305 reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 13:1–13

¹A wise son heeds his father’s discipline, but a mocker does not listen to rebuke. ²From the fruit of his lips a man enjoys good things, but the desire of the faithless is violence. ³He who guards his mouth protects his life, but the one who opens his lips invites his own ruin. ⁴The slacker craves yet has nothing, but the soul of the diligent is fully satisfied. ⁵The righteous hate falsehood, but the wicked bring shame and disgrace. ⁶Righteousness guards the man of integrity, but wickedness undermines the sinner. ⁷One pretends to be rich, but has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth. ⁸Riches may ransom a man’s life, but a poor man hears no threat. ⁹The light of the righteous shines brightly, but the lamp of the wicked is extinguished. ¹⁰Arrogance leads only to strife, but wisdom is with the well-advised. ¹¹Dishonest wealth will dwindle, but what is earned through hard work will be multiplied. ¹²Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but desire fulfilled is a tree of life. ¹³He who despises instruction will pay the penalty, but the one who respects a command will be rewarded.

New Testament·1 Timothy 5:11–25

¹¹But refuse to enroll younger widows. For when their passions draw them away from Christ, they will want to marry, ¹²and thus will incur judgment because they are setting aside their first faith. ¹³At the same time they will also learn to be idle, going from house to house and being not only idle, but also gossips and busybodies, discussing things they should not mention. ¹⁴So I advise the younger widows to marry, have children, and manage their households, denying the adversary occasion for slander. ¹⁵For some have already turned aside to follow Satan. ¹⁶If any believing woman has dependent widows, she must assist them and not allow the church to be burdened, so that it can help the widows who are truly in need. ¹⁷Elders who lead effectively are worthy of double honor, especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching. ¹⁸For the Scripture says, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,” and, “The worker is worthy of his wages.” ¹⁹Do not entertain an accusation against an elder, except on the testimony of two or three witnesses. ²⁰But those who persist in sin should be rebuked in front of everyone, so that the others will stand in fear of sin. ²¹I solemnly charge you before God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels to maintain these principles without bias, and to do nothing out of partiality. ²²Do not be too quick in the laying on of hands and thereby share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure. ²³Stop drinking only water and use a little wine instead, because of your stomach and your frequent ailments. ²⁴The sins of some men are obvious, going ahead of them to judgment; but the sins of others do not surface until later. ²⁵In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even the ones that are inconspicuous cannot remain hidden.

Old Testament·Jeremiah 36–37

¹In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ²“Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you during the reign of Josiah until today. ³Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about all the calamity I plan to bring upon them, each of them will turn from his wicked way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.” ⁴So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and at the dictation of Jeremiah, Baruch wrote on a scroll all the words that the LORD had spoken to Jeremiah. ⁵Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch, “I am restricted; I cannot enter the house of the LORD; ⁶so you are to go to the house of the LORD on a day of fasting, and in the hearing of the people you are to read the words of the LORD from the scroll you have written at my dictation. Read them in the hearing of all the people of Judah who are coming from their cities. ⁷Perhaps they will bring their petition before the LORD, and each one will turn from his wicked way; for great are the anger and fury that the LORD has pronounced against this people.” ⁸So Baruch son of Neriah did everything that Jeremiah the prophet had commanded him. In the house of the LORD he read the words of the LORD from the scroll. ⁹Now in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a fast before the LORD was proclaimed to all the people of Jerusalem and all who had come there from the cities of Judah. ¹⁰From the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, which was in the upper courtyard at the opening of the New Gate of the house of the LORD, Baruch read from the scroll the words of Jeremiah in the hearing of all the people. ¹¹When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the scroll, ¹²he went down to the scribe’s chamber in the king’s palace, where all the officials were sitting: Elishama the scribe, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials. ¹³And Micaiah reported to them all the words he had heard Baruch read from the scroll in the hearing of the people. ¹⁴Then all the officials sent word to Baruch through Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, saying, “Bring the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people, and come here.” So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll and went to them. ¹⁵“Please sit down,” they said, “and read it in our hearing.” So Baruch read it in their hearing. ¹⁶When they had heard all these words, they turned to one another in fear and said to Baruch, “Surely we must report all these words to the king.” ¹⁷“Tell us now,” they asked Baruch, “how did you write all these words? Was it at Jeremiah’s dictation?” ¹⁸“It was at his dictation,” Baruch replied. “He recited all these words to me and I wrote them in ink on the scroll.” ¹⁹Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must hide yourselves and tell no one where you are.” ²⁰So the officials went to the king in the courtyard. And having stored the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, they reported everything to the king. ²¹Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and all the officials who were standing beside him. ²²Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in his winter quarters with a fire burning before him. ²³And as soon as Jehudi had read three or four columns, Jehoiakim would cut them off with a scribe’s knife and throw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll had been consumed by the fire. ²⁴Yet in hearing all these words, the king and his servants did not become frightened or tear their garments. ²⁵Even though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. ²⁶Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, as well as Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel, to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the LORD had hidden them. ²⁷After the king had burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: ²⁸“Take another scroll and rewrite on it the very words that were on the original scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah has burned. ²⁹You are to proclaim concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah that this is what the LORD says: You have burned the scroll and said, ‘Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon would surely come and destroy this land and deprive it of man and beast?’ ³⁰Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on David’s throne, and his body will be thrown out and exposed to heat by day and frost by night. ³¹I will punish him and his descendants and servants for their iniquity. I will bring on them, on the residents of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah, all the calamity about which I warned them but they did not listen.” ³²Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and at Jeremiah’s dictation he wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.

37Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made Zedekiah son of Josiah the king of Judah, and he reigned in place of Coniah son of Jehoiakim. ²But he and his officers and the people of the land refused to obey the words that the LORD had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet. ³Yet King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, to Jeremiah the prophet with the message, “Please pray to the LORD our God for us!” ⁴Now Jeremiah was free to come and go among the people, for they had not yet put him in prison. ⁵Pharaoh’s army had left Egypt, and when the Chaldeans who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report, they withdrew from Jerusalem. ⁶Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet: ⁷“This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says that you are to tell the king of Judah, who sent you to Me: Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which has marched out to help you, will go back to its own land of Egypt. ⁸Then the Chaldeans will return and fight against this city. They will capture it and burn it down. ⁹This is what the LORD says: Do not deceive yourselves by saying, ‘The Chaldeans will go away for good,’ for they will not! ¹⁰Indeed, if you were to strike down the entire army of the Chaldeans that is fighting against you, and only wounded men remained in their tents, they would still get up and burn this city down.” ¹¹When the Chaldean army withdrew from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh’s army, ¹²Jeremiah started to leave Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to claim his portion there among the people. ¹³But when he reached the Gate of Benjamin, the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, seized him and said, “You are deserting to the Chaldeans!” ¹⁴“That is a lie,” Jeremiah replied. “I am not deserting to the Chaldeans!” But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested Jeremiah and took him to the officials. ¹⁵The officials were angry with Jeremiah, and they beat him and placed him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for it had been made into a prison. ¹⁶So Jeremiah went into a cell in the dungeon and remained there a long time. ¹⁷Later, King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and received him in his palace, where he asked him privately, “Is there a word from the LORD?” “There is,” Jeremiah replied. “You will be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon.” ¹⁸Then Jeremiah asked King Zedekiah, “How have I sinned against you or your servants or these people, that you have put me in prison? ¹⁹Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, claiming, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or this land’? ²⁰But now please listen, O my lord the king. May my petition come before you. Do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, or I will die there.” ²¹So King Zedekiah gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread daily from the street of the bakers, until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.