I urge therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all men: for kings and all who are in high places, that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and reverence. 1 Timothy 2:1-2

Jeremiah 30-31

Jeremiah 30

Restoration of Israel and Judah

1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “The Lord, the God of Israel, says, ‘Write all the words that I have spoken to you in a book. 3 For the days are coming,’ says the Lord, ‘when I will reverse the captivity of my people Israel and Judah,’ says the Lord. ‘I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.’ ”

4 These are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah. 5 For the Lord says:

“We have heard a voice of trembling,
a voice of fear, and not of peace.
6 Ask now, and see
whether a man labors with child.
Why do I see every man
with his hands on his stomach,
like a woman in labor,
and every face has turned pale?
7 Alas! for that day will be awful,
so that none is like it.
It is the time of Jacob’s trouble,
but he will be saved from it.

8 It will come to pass in that day,
says the Lord of Hosts,
that I will break his yoke from off your neck
and will shatter your bonds.
Strangers will no longer make them their bondservants,
9 but they will serve the Lord their God,
and David their king
whom I will raise up to them.

10 Therefore do not be afraid,
O Jacob my servant, says the Lord.
Do not be dismayed, Israel.
For I will save you from afar
and save your offspring
from the land of their captivity.
Jacob will return
and will be quiet and at ease.
No one will make him afraid.
11 For I am with you, to save you,
says the Lord
for I will make a full end of all the nations
where I have scattered you,
but I will not make a full end of you,
but I will correct you in measure
and will in no way leave you unpunished.”

12 For the Lord says,

“Your hurt is incurable.
Your wound is grievous.
13 There is no one to plead your cause,
that you may be bandaged up.
You have no healing medicines.
14 All your lovers have forgotten you.
They do not seek you.
For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy,
with the chastisement of a cruel one,
for the magnitude of your iniquity,
because your sins were increased.

15 Why do you cry over your injury?
Your pain is incurable.
For the magnitude of your iniquity,
because your sins have increased,
I have done these things to you.

16 Therefore all those who devour you will be devoured.
All your adversaries, every one of them, will go into captivity.
Those who plunder you will be plundered.
I will make all who prey on you become prey.
17 For I will restore health to you,
and I will heal you of your wounds,” says the Lord,
“because they have called you an outcast,
saying, ‘It is Zion, whom no man seeks after.’ ”

The Restoration of Jacob

18 The Lord says:

“I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents,
and have compassion on his dwelling places.
The city will be built on its own hill,
and the palace will be inhabited in its own place.
19 Thanksgiving will proceed from them
with the sound of those who celebrate.
I will multiply them, and they will not be few,
I will also glorify them, and they will not be small.
20 Their children also will be as before,
and their congregation will be established before me.
I will punish all who oppress them.
21 Their leader will be one of them,
and their ruler will proceed from among them.
I will cause him to draw near, and he will approach me,
for who is he who has had the boldness to approach me?” says the Lord.

22 “You shall be my people,
and I will be your God.
23 The storm of the Lord, his wrath,
has gone out–a sweeping storm.
It will burst on the head of the wicked.
24 The fierce anger of the Lord will not return
until he has accomplished it,
and until he has performed the intentions of his heart.
In the latter days you will understand it.”

Jeremiah 31

Mourning Turned to Joy

1 “At that time,” says the Lord, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”

2 The Lord says,

“The people who survived the sword
found grace in the wilderness,
when Israel sought rest.”

3 From ancient times, the Lord appeared to Israel, saying,

“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love.
Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.
4 I will build you again, and you will be built,
O virgin of Israel.
You will again be adorned with your tambourines
and will go out in the dances with those who celebrate.
5 You will plant vineyards again on the mountains of Samaria.
The planters will plant and will enjoy its fruit.
6 For there will be a day that the watchmen on the hills of Ephraim cry,
‘Arise! Let us go up to Zion to the Lord our God.’ ”

7 For the Lord says,

“Sing with gladness for Jacob
and shout for the chief of the nations.
Publish, praise, and say,
‘O Lord, save your people,
the remnant of Israel!’

8 I will bring them from the north country
and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth,
along with the blind and the lame,
the woman with child and she who labors with child together.
They will return as a great company.
9 They will come with weeping.
I will lead them with petitions.
I will cause them to walk by rivers of waters,
in a straight way in which they will not stumble,
for I am a father to Israel.
Ephraim is my firstborn.

10 Hear the word of the Lord, you nations
and declare it in the distant islands. Say:

“He who scattered Israel will gather him and keep him,
as a shepherd does his flock.
11 For the Lord has ransomed Jacob
and redeemed him from the hand of him who was stronger than he.
12 They will come and sing in the height of Zion
and will flow to the goodness of God,
to the grain, to the new wine, to the oil,
and to the young of the flock and of the herd.
Their soul will be like a watered garden.
They will no longer mourn any more at all.
13 Then the virgin will rejoice with dancing,
the young men and the old together,
for I will turn their mourning into joy
and will give them comfort joy for their sorrow.
14 The soul of the priests, I will satiate with fatness,
and my people will be satisfied with my goodness,” says the Lord.

15 The Lord says:

“A voice is heard in Ramah,
lamentation and bitter weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children.
She refuses to be comforted for her children,
because they are no more.”

16 The Lord says:

“Refrain your voice from weeping,
and your eyes from tears,
for your work will be rewarded,” says the Lord.
“They will come back from the land of the enemy.
17 There is hope for your future,” says the Lord.
“Your children will return to their own territory.

18 “I have surely heard Ephraim grieving thus,

‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised,
like an untrained calf.

Restore me, and I will be restored,
for you are the Lord my God.
19 After I returned, I repented.
After that I was instructed.
I struck my thigh.
I was ashamed, yes, confounded,
because I bore the reproach of my youth.’

20 Is Ephraim my dear son?
Is he a darling child?
For as often as I speak against him,
I still earnestly remember him.
Therefore my heart yearns for him.
I will surely have mercy on him,” says the Lord.

21 “Set up road signs.
Make guideposts.
Set your heart toward the highway,
the way by which you went.
Turn back, virgin of Israel.
Turn back to these your cities.
22 How long will you go here and there,
you backsliding daughter?
For the Lord has created a new thing on the earth,
like a woman protecting a man.”

23 The Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Yet again they will use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I reverse their captivity: ‘The Lord bless you, habitation of righteousness, mountain of holiness.’ 24 Judah and all its cities will dwell in it together, the farmers and those who go about with flocks. 25 For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful heart.”

A New Covenant

26 On this I awakened and saw and my sleep was sweet to me.

27 “The days are coming,” says the Lord, “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and with the seed of animal. 28 It will happen that, as I have watched over them to pluck up and to break down and to overthrow and to destroy and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant,” says the Lord.

29 “In those days they will no longer say,

‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

30 But everyone will die for his own iniquity. Every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge.

31 The days are coming, says the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant
with the house of Israel,
and with the house of Judah.
32 It will not be according to the covenant
that I made with their fathers
in the day that I took them by the hand
to bring them out of the land of Egypt,
which covenant of mine they broke,
although I was a husband to them,” says the Lord.

33 “But this is the covenant that I will make
with the house of Israel
after those days,” says the Lord,
“I will put my law in their inward parts
and I will write it in their heart.
I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
34 They will no longer each teach his neighbor
and every man teach his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’
for they will all know me,
from their least to their greatest,” says the Lord,
“for I will forgive their iniquity,
and I will remember their sin no more.”

35 The Lord, who gives the sun as a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars as a light by night, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar. The Lord of Hosts is his name, says:

36 “If these ordinances depart from before me,” says the Lord,
“then the offspring of Israel also will cease
from being a nation before me forever.”

37 The Lord says:

“If heaven above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath,
then I will also cast off all the offspring of Israel
for all that they have done,” says the Lord.

38 “The days are coming,” says the Lord, “when the city will be rebuilt to the Lord from the tower of Hananel to the gate of the corner. 39 The measuring line will once again stretch out to the hill Gareb and will turn toward Goah. 40 The whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields to the brook Kidron, to the corner of the horse gate toward the east, will be holy to the Lord. It will never again be uprooted or cast down.”

1 Timothy 2

A Call to Prayer

1 I urge therefore, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all men: 2 for kings and all who are in high places, that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and reverence. 3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, 4 who desires all people to be saved and come to full knowledge of the truth.

5 For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6 who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony in its own times, 7 to which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle—I am telling the truth in Christ, not lying—a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

8 I desire therefore that the men in every place pray, lifting up holy hands without anger and doubting.

Instructions to Women

9 In the same way, I want women also to adorn themselves in decent clothing, with modesty and propriety, not just with braided hair, gold, pearls, or expensive clothing, 10 but with good works, which is appropriate for women professing godliness. 11 Let a woman learn in quietness with full submission. 12 But I do not permit a woman to teach, nor to exercise authority over a man, but to be in quietness. 13 For Adam was formed first, then Eve. 14 Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, has fallen into disobedience, 15 but she will be saved through her childbearing, if they continue in faith, love, and sanctification with sobriety.

Psalm 87

Mourning Turned to Joy

A Psalm by the sons of Korah; a Song.

1 His foundation is in the holy mountains.

2 The Lord loves the gates of Zion
more than all the dwellings of Jacob.
3 Glorious things are spoken about you, city of God.

Selah.

4 I will record Rahab and Babylon among those who acknowledge me.
Philistia, Tyre, and also Ethiopia:
“This one was born there.”

5 Yes, of Zion it will be said,
“This one and that one was born in her,”
the Most High himself will establish her.

6 The Lord will count, when he writes up the peoples,
“This one was born there.”

Selah.

7 Those who sing as well as those who dance say,
“All my fountains are in you.”

Proverbs 25:18-19

18 A man who gives false testimony against his neighbor
is like a club, a sword, or a sharp arrow.
19 Confidence in someone unfaithful in time of trouble
is like a bad tooth or a lame foot.

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