October 23

John 7:1-13

Jesus at the Feast of Booths

[1] After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. [2] Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. [3] So his brothers said to him, “Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. [4] For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.” [5] For not even his brothers believed in him. [6] Jesus said to them, “My time has not yet come, but your time is always here. [7] The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it that its works are evil. [8] You go up to the feast. I am not going up to this feast, for my time has not yet fully come.” [9] After saying this, he remained in Galilee.

[10] But after his brothers had gone up to the feast, then he also went up, not publicly but in private. [11] The Jews were looking for him at the feast, and saying, “Where is he?” [12] And there was much muttering about him among the people. While some said, “He is a good man,” others said, “No, he is leading the people astray.” [13] Yet for fear of the Jews no one spoke openly of him.

1 Peter 4:12-19

Suffering as a Christian

[12] Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you. [13] But rejoice insofar as you share Christ’s sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. [14] If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. [15] But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a meddler. [16] Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. [17] For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? [18] And 

    “If the righteous is scarcely saved,

        what will become of the ungodly and the sinner?”

    [19] Therefore let those who suffer according to God’s will entrust their souls to a faithful Creator while doing good.

Song of Solomon 7

    [1] How beautiful are your feet in sandals,

        O noble daughter!

    Your rounded thighs are like jewels,

        the work of a master hand. 

    [2] 

    Your navel is a rounded bowl

        that never lacks mixed wine.

    Your belly is a heap of wheat,

        encircled with lilies. 

    [3] 

    Your two breasts are like two fawns,

        twins of a gazelle. 

    [4] 

    Your neck is like an ivory tower.

    Your eyes are pools in Heshbon,

        by the gate of Bath-rabbim.

    Your nose is like a tower of Lebanon,

        which looks toward Damascus. 

    [5] 

    Your head crowns you like Carmel,

        and your flowing locks are like purple;

        a king is held captive in the tresses.

    [6] 

    How beautiful and pleasant you are,

        O loved one, with all your delights! 

    [7] 

    Your stature is like a palm tree,

        and your breasts are like its clusters. 

    [8] 

    I say I will climb the palm tree

        and lay hold of its fruit.

    Oh may your breasts be like clusters of the vine,

        and the scent of your breath like apples, 

    [9] 

    and your mouth like the best wine.

She

    It goes down smoothly for my beloved,

        gliding over lips and teeth.

    [10] 

    I am my beloved’s,

        and his desire is for me.

The Bride Gives Her Love

    [11] Come, my beloved,

        let us go out into the fields

        and lodge in the villages; 

    [12] let us go out early to the vineyards

        and see whether the vines have budded,

    whether the grape blossoms have opened

        and the pomegranates are in bloom.

    There I will give you my love. 

    [13] The mandrakes give forth fragrance,

        and beside our doors are all choice fruits,

    new as well as old,

        which I have laid up for you, O my beloved.

Lamentations 2

The Lord Has Destroyed Without Pity

    [1] How the Lord in his anger

        has set the daughter of Zion under a cloud!

    He has cast down from heaven to earth

        the splendor of Israel;

    he has not remembered his footstool

        in the day of his anger.

    [2] The Lord has swallowed up without mercy

        all the habitations of Jacob;

    in his wrath he has broken down

        the strongholds of the daughter of Judah;

    he has brought down to the ground in dishonor

        the kingdom and its rulers.

    [3] He has cut down in fierce anger

        all the might of Israel;

    he has withdrawn from them his right hand

        in the face of the enemy;

    he has burned like a flaming fire in Jacob,

        consuming all around.

    [4] He has bent his bow like an enemy,

        with his right hand set like a foe;

    and he has killed all who were delightful in our eyes

        in the tent of the daughter of Zion;

    he has poured out his fury like fire.

    [5] The Lord has become like an enemy;

        he has swallowed up Israel;

    he has swallowed up all its palaces;

        he has laid in ruins its strongholds,

    and he has multiplied in the daughter of Judah

        mourning and lamentation.

    [6] He has laid waste his booth like a garden,

        laid in ruins his meeting place;

    the LORD has made Zion forget

        festival and Sabbath,

    and in his fierce indignation has spurned king and priest.

    [7] The Lord has scorned his altar,

        disowned his sanctuary;

    he has delivered into the hand of the enemy

        the walls of her palaces;

    they raised a clamor in the house of the LORD

        as on the day of festival.

    [8] The LORD determined to lay in ruins

        the wall of the daughter of Zion;

    he stretched out the measuring line;

        he did not restrain his hand from destroying;

    he caused rampart and wall to lament;

        they languished together.

    [9] Her gates have sunk into the ground;

        he has ruined and broken her bars;

    her king and princes are among the nations;

        the law is no more,

    and her prophets find

        no vision from the LORD.

    [10] The elders of the daughter of Zion

        sit on the ground in silence;

    they have thrown dust on their heads

        and put on sackcloth;

    the young women of Jerusalem

        have bowed their heads to the ground.

    [11] My eyes are spent with weeping;

        my stomach churns;

    my bile is poured out to the ground

        because of the destruction of the daughter of my people,

    because infants and babies faint

        in the streets of the city.

    [12] They cry to their mothers,

        “Where is bread and wine?”

    as they faint like a wounded man

        in the streets of the city,

    as their life is poured out

        on their mothers’ bosom.

    [13] What can I say for you, to what compare you,

        O daughter of Jerusalem?

    What can I liken to you, that I may comfort you,

        O virgin daughter of Zion?

    For your ruin is vast as the sea;

        who can heal you?

    [14] Your prophets have seen for you

        false and deceptive visions;

    they have not exposed your iniquity

        to restore your fortunes,

    but have seen for you oracles

        that are false and misleading.

    [15] All who pass along the way

        clap their hands at you;

    they hiss and wag their heads

        at the daughter of Jerusalem:

    “Is this the city that was called

        the perfection of beauty,

        the joy of all the earth?”

    [16] All your enemies

        rail against you;

    they hiss, they gnash their teeth,

        they cry: “We have swallowed her!

    Ah, this is the day we longed for;

        now we have it; we see it!”

    [17] The LORD has done what he purposed;

        he has carried out his word,

    which he commanded long ago;

        he has thrown down without pity;

    he has made the enemy rejoice over you

        and exalted the might of your foes.

    [18] Their heart cried to the Lord.

        O wall of the daughter of Zion,

    let tears stream down like a torrent

        day and night!

    Give yourself no rest,

        your eyes no respite!

    [19] “Arise, cry out in the night,

        at the beginning of the night watches!

    Pour out your heart like water

        before the presence of the Lord!

    Lift your hands to him

        for the lives of your children,

    who faint for hunger

        at the head of every street.”

    [20] Look, O LORD, and see!

        With whom have you dealt thus?

    Should women eat the fruit of their womb,

        the children of their tender care?

    Should priest and prophet be killed

        in the sanctuary of the Lord?

    [21] In the dust of the streets

        lie the young and the old;

    my young women and my young men

        have fallen by the sword;

    you have killed them in the day of your anger,

        slaughtering without pity.

    [22] You summoned as if to a festival day

        my terrors on every side,

    and on the day of the anger of the LORD

        no one escaped or survived;

    those whom I held and raised

        my enemy destroyed.

October 22

John 6:60-71

The Words of Eternal Life

[60] When many of his disciples heard it, they said, “This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?” [61] But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them, “Do you take offense at this? [62] Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? [63] It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh is no help at all. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. [64] But there are some of you who do not believe.” (For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did not believe, and who it was who would betray him.) [65] And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

[66] After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. [67] So Jesus said to the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” [68] Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, [69] and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” [70] Jesus answered them, “Did I not choose you, the twelve? And yet one of you is a devil.” [71] He spoke of Judas the son of Simon Iscariot, for he, one of the twelve, was going to betray him.

1 Peter 4:1-11

Stewards of God’s Grace

[1] Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, [2] so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. [3] For the time that is past suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry. [4] With respect to this they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you; [5] but they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. [6] For this is why the gospel was preached even to those who are dead, that though judged in the flesh the way people are, they might live in the spirit the way God does.

[7] The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. [8] Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. [9] Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. [10] As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: [11] whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Song of Solomon 6

Others

    [1] Where has your beloved gone,

        O most beautiful among women?

    Where has your beloved turned,

        that we may seek him with you?

Together in the Garden of Love

She

    [2] My beloved has gone down to his garden

        to the beds of spices,

    to graze in the gardens

        and to gather lilies. 

    [3] I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine;

        he grazes among the lilies.

    Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other

He

    [4] You are beautiful as Tirzah, my love,

        lovely as Jerusalem,

        awesome as an army with banners. 

    [5] Turn away your eyes from me,

        for they overwhelm me—

    Your hair is like a flock of goats

        leaping down the slopes of Gilead. 

    [6] Your teeth are like a flock of ewes

        that have come up from the washing;

    all of them bear twins;

        not one among them has lost its young. 

    [7] Your cheeks are like halves of a pomegranate

        behind your veil. 

    [8] There are sixty queens and eighty concubines,

        and virgins without number. 

    [9] My dove, my perfect one, is the only one,

        the only one of her mother,

        pure to her who bore her.

    The young women saw her and called her blessed;

        the queens and concubines also, and they praised her.

    [10] “Who is this who looks down like the dawn,

        beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun,

        awesome as an army with banners?”

    She

    [11] I went down to the nut orchard

        to look at the blossoms of the valley,

    to see whether the vines had budded,

        whether the pomegranates were in bloom. 

    [12] Before I was aware, my desire set me

        among the chariots of my kinsman, a prince.

    Others

    [13]  Return, return, O Shulammite,

        return, return, that we may look upon you.

Lamentations 1

How Lonely Sits the City

    [1] How lonely sits the city

        that was full of people!

    How like a widow has she become,

        she who was great among the nations!

    She who was a princess among the provinces

        has become a slave.

    [2] She weeps bitterly in the night,

        with tears on her cheeks;

    among all her lovers

        she has none to comfort her;

    all her friends have dealt treacherously with her;

        they have become her enemies.

    [3] Judah has gone into exile because of affliction

        and hard servitude;

    she dwells now among the nations,

        but finds no resting place;

    her pursuers have all overtaken her

        in the midst of her distress.

    [4] The roads to Zion mourn,

        for none come to the festival;

    all her gates are desolate;

        her priests groan;

    her virgins have been afflicted,

        and she herself suffers bitterly.

    [5] Her foes have become the head;

        her enemies prosper,

    because the LORD has afflicted her

        for the multitude of her transgressions;

    her children have gone away,

        captives before the foe.

    [6] From the daughter of Zion

        all her majesty has departed.

    Her princes have become like deer

        that find no pasture;

    they fled without strength

        before the pursuer.

    [7] Jerusalem remembers

        in the days of her affliction and wandering

    all the precious things

        that were hers from days of old.

    When her people fell into the hand of the foe,

        and there was none to help her,

    her foes gloated over her;

        they mocked at her downfall.

    [8] Jerusalem sinned grievously;

        therefore she became filthy;

    all who honored her despise her,

        for they have seen her nakedness;

    she herself groans

        and turns her face away.

    [9] Her uncleanness was in her skirts;

        she took no thought of her future;

    therefore her fall is terrible;

        she has no comforter.

    “O LORD, behold my affliction,

        for the enemy has triumphed!”

    [10] The enemy has stretched out his hands

        over all her precious things;

    for she has seen the nations

        enter her sanctuary,

    those whom you forbade

        to enter your congregation.

    [11] All her people groan

        as they search for bread;

    they trade their treasures for food

        to revive their strength.

    “Look, O LORD, and see,

        for I am despised.”

    [12] “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by?

        Look and see

    if there is any sorrow like my sorrow,

        which was brought upon me,

    which the LORD inflicted

        on the day of his fierce anger.

    [13] “From on high he sent fire;

        into my bones he made it descend;

    he spread a net for my feet;

        he turned me back;

    he has left me stunned,

        faint all the day long.

    [14] “My transgressions were bound into a yoke;

        by his hand they were fastened together;

    they were set upon my neck;

        he caused my strength to fail;

    the Lord gave me into the hands

        of those whom I cannot withstand.

    [15] “The Lord rejected

        all my mighty men in my midst;

    he summoned an assembly against me

        to crush my young men;

    the Lord has trodden as in a winepress

        the virgin daughter of Judah.

    [16] “For these things I weep;

        my eyes flow with tears;

    for a comforter is far from me,

        one to revive my spirit;

    my children are desolate,

        for the enemy has prevailed.”

    [17] Zion stretches out her hands,

        but there is none to comfort her;

    the LORD has commanded against Jacob

        that his neighbors should be his foes;

    Jerusalem has become

        a filthy thing among them.

    [18] “The LORD is in the right,

        for I have rebelled against his word;

    but hear, all you peoples,

        and see my suffering;

    my young women and my young men

        have gone into captivity.

    [19] “I called to my lovers,

        but they deceived me;

    my priests and elders

        perished in the city,

    while they sought food

        to revive their strength.

    [20] “Look, O LORD, for I am in distress;

        my stomach churns;

    my heart is wrung within me,

        because I have been very rebellious.

    In the street the sword bereaves;

        in the house it is like death.

    [21] “They heard my groaning,

        yet there is no one to comfort me.

    All my enemies have heard of my trouble;

        they are glad that you have done it.

    You have brought the day you announced;

        now let them be as I am.

    [22] “Let all their evildoing come before you,

        and deal with them

    as you have dealt with me

        because of all my transgressions;

    for my groans are many,

        and my heart is faint.”

You Are Called to Invest in Eternal Treasure

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” MATTHEW 6:19-21

 

PONDER THIS

Growing up, I played football. I put a lot of expense into football—and I’m not talking about money. I’m talking about blood, sweat, and tears I left on the football field. We won some championships; I got to be the team captain; and we won some awards. But that effort, that sacrifice, only brought rewards that faded or were lost over time.

Here's the treasure that will never fade: souls that come to know Jesus. Let Congress make the laws. Let the president try to run the nation. Let the Hollywood stars have the fame. Let those guys play football. But if you are wise, you will win souls. When you get to the bottom line, Jesus came to Earth because “the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). You can have that same purpose because you follow Him. His way is your way, and His calling is your calling. Come to Jesus and then go tell others. Invest in an eternal treasure.

What are some things you are investing in right now? Do they have eternal value?

Who can you share the gospel with or show the love of Christ to this week?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray for people you know who do not know Christ; do something for them to show God’s love.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Hedonism for Husbands and Wives

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (Ephesians 5:24–25)

There is a pattern of love in marriage ordained by God.

The roles of husband and wife are not the same. The husband is to take his special cues from Christ as the head of the church. The wife is to take her special cues from God’s design for the church as submissive to Christ.

In doing this, the sinful and damaging results of the fall begin to be reversed. The fall twisted man’s loving headship into hostile domination in some men, and lazy indifference in others. The fall twisted woman’s intelligent, willing submission into manipulative obsequiousness in some women, and brazen insubordination in others.

The redemption we anticipated when the Messiah finally came in Jesus Christ was not the dismantling of the created order of loving headship and willing submission, but a recovery of it. Wives, redeem your fallen submission by modeling it after God’s intention for a joyful church! Husbands, redeem your fallen headship by modeling it after God’s intention for the lavishly loving Christ!

I find in Ephesians 5:21–33 these two things: (1) the display of Christian Hedonism in marriage and (2) the direction its impulses should take.

Wives, seek your joy in the joy of your husband by affirming and honoring his God-ordained role as “head” or leader in your relationship. Husbands, seek your joy in the joy of your wife by accepting the responsibility to lead as Christ led the church and gave himself for her.

I would like to bear witness to God’s goodness in my life. I discovered Christian Hedonism the same year I got married, in 1968. Since then, Noël and I, in obedience to Jesus Christ, have pursued as passionately as we can the deepest, most lasting joys possible. All too imperfectly, all too half-heartedly at times, we have stalked our own joy in the joy of each other.

And we can testify together after over 50 years of marriage: For those who marry, this is the path to the heart’s desire. For us, marriage has been a matrix for Christian Hedonism. As each pursues joy in the joy of the other and fulfills a God-ordained role, the mystery of marriage as a parable of Christ and the church becomes manifest for his great glory and for our great joy.

John Piper 

Am I Willing to Submit to You?

 

“And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.” EPHESIANS 5:18-21

 

PONDER THIS

The Bible commands us to love. This love is not optional, but it’s not automatic either. If it were automatic, we wouldn’t be commanded to do it. In the Old Testament we’re told to love. But in the New Testament Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34). This new commandment is that we are to love as He loved; that is, with a new quality.

We lay our lives down for one another. Christians are to submit ourselves to God first, then to one another. Biblical submission is one equal willingly and lovingly placing himself or herself under the authority of another equal so that God may be glorified. The various members of my body have to submit to the other parts of my body sometimes. We’re in the Body of Christ, and we care for one another. Therefore, I must sometimes submit to you, and you must submit to one another. We all will come to a time when it is right to submit and right for somebody to lead. Every part of our old selves, including our self-centeredness, is crucified with Christ, and we need to learn how to yield to, love, and to submit to one another.

When was the last time you loved someone in a sacrificial way?

Who has exemplified loving others in a sacrificial way? How could you imitate that example?

PRACTICE THIS

Love someone in a sacrificial way this week; challenge yourself to do that every week.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

The Mystery of Marriage

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31–32)

Here in Ephesians 5:31 Paul is quoting Genesis 2:24, which Moses spoke — and Jesus said God spoke through Moses (Matthew 19:5) — “A man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Paul says this word of God, spoken before the fall into sin, is a reference to Christ and the church and contains therefore a great mystery.

What this implies is that when God engaged to create man and woman and to ordain the union of marriage, he didn’t roll the dice or draw straws or flip a coin as to how they might be related to each other. He patterned marriage very purposefully after the relationship between his Son and the church, which he had planned from all eternity.

Therefore, marriage is a mystery — it contains and conceals a meaning far greater than what we see on the outside. God created man male and female and ordained marriage so that the eternal covenant relationship between Christ and his church would be imaged forth in the marriage union.

The inference Paul draws from this mystery is that the roles of husband and wife in marriage are not arbitrarily assigned, but are rooted in the distinctive roles of Christ and his church.

Those of us who are married need to ponder again and again how mysterious and wonderful it is that God grants us in marriage the privilege to image forth stupendous divine realities infinitely bigger and greater than ourselves.

This mystery of Christ and the church is the foundation of the pattern of love that Paul describes for marriage. It is not enough to say that each spouse should pursue his or her own joy in the joy of the other. That is true. But it is not enough. It is also important to say that husbands and wives should consciously copy the relationship God intended for Christ and the church. That is, each should seek to live after the distinctive model of God’s pure and glad design for Christ and the church.

I hope you will take this seriously whether you are single or married, old or young. The revelation of the covenant-keeping Christ and his covenant-keeping church hangs on it.

John Piper 

October 21

John 6:41-59

[41] So the Jews grumbled about him, because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.” [42] They said, “Is not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How does he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?” [43] Jesus answered them, “Do not grumble among yourselves. [44] No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. [45] It is written in the Prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me—[46] not that anyone has seen the Father except he who is from God; he has seen the Father. [47] Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. [48] I am the bread of life. [49] Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. [50] This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. [51] I am the living bread that came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever. And the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”

[52] The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” [53] So Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. [54] Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. [55] For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. [56] Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. [57] As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me. [58] This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like the bread the fathers ate, and died. Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” [59] Jesus said these things in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum.

1 Peter 3:13-22

[13] Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? [14] But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, [15] but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, [16] having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. [17] For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

[18] For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, [19] in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, [20] because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water. [21] Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, [22] who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.

Song of Solomon 5

He

    [1] I came to my garden, my sister, my bride,

        I gathered my myrrh with my spice,

        I ate my honeycomb with my honey,

        I drank my wine with my milk.

Others

    Eat, friends, drink,

        and be drunk with love!

The Bride Searches for Her Beloved

She

    [2] I slept, but my heart was awake.

    A sound! My beloved is knocking.

    “Open to me, my sister, my love,

        my dove, my perfect one,

    for my head is wet with dew,

        my locks with the drops of the night.” 

    [3] I had put off my garment;

        how could I put it on?

    I had bathed my feet;

        how could I soil them? 

    [4] My beloved put his hand to the latch,

        and my heart was thrilled within me. 

    [5] I arose to open to my beloved,

        and my hands dripped with myrrh,

    my fingers with liquid myrrh,

        on the handles of the bolt. 

    [6] I opened to my beloved,

        but my beloved had turned and gone.

    My soul failed me when he spoke.

    I sought him, but found him not;

        I called him, but he gave no answer. 

    [7] The watchmen found me

        as they went about in the city;

    they beat me, they bruised me,

        they took away my veil,

        those watchmen of the walls. 

    [8] I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem,

        if you find my beloved,

    that you tell him

        I am sick with love.

    Others

    [9] What is your beloved more than another beloved,

        O most beautiful among women?

    What is your beloved more than another beloved,

        that you thus adjure us?

    The Bride Praises Her Beloved

She

    [10] My beloved is radiant and ruddy,

        distinguished among ten thousand. 

    [11] His head is the finest gold;

        his locks are wavy,

        black as a raven. 

    [12] His eyes are like doves

        beside streams of water,

    bathed in milk,

        sitting beside a full pool. 

    [13] His cheeks are like beds of spices,

        mounds of sweet-smelling herbs.

    His lips are lilies,

        dripping liquid myrrh. 

    [14] His arms are rods of gold,

        set with jewels.

    His body is polished ivory,

        bedecked with sapphires. 

    [15] His legs are alabaster columns,

        set on bases of gold.

    His appearance is like Lebanon,

        choice as the cedars. 

    [16] His mouth is most sweet,

        and he is altogether desirable.

    This is my beloved and this is my friend,

        O daughters of Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 52

The Fall of Jerusalem Recounted

[1] Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. [2] And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, according to all that Jehoiakim had done. [3] For because of the anger of the LORD it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he cast them out from his presence. 

And Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.  [4] And in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came with all his army against Jerusalem, and laid siege to it. And they built siegeworks all around it. [5] So the city was besieged till the eleventh year of King Zedekiah. [6] On the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land. [7] Then a breach was made in the city, and all the men of war fled and went out from the city by night by the way of a gate between the two walls, by the king’s garden, and the Chaldeans were around the city. And they went in the direction of the Arabah. [8] But the army of the Chaldeans pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho, and all his army was scattered from him. [9] Then they captured the king and brought him up to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him. [10] The king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and also slaughtered all the officials of Judah at Riblah. [11] He put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him in chains, and the king of Babylon took him to Babylon, and put him in prison till the day of his death.

The Temple Burned

[12] In the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month—that was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon—Nebuzaradan the captain of the bodyguard, who served the king of Babylon, entered Jerusalem. [13] And he burned the house of the LORD, and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down. [14] And all the army of the Chaldeans, who were with the captain of the guard, broke down all the walls around Jerusalem. [15] And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive some of the poorest of the people and the rest of the people who were left in the city and the deserters who had deserted to the king of Babylon, together with the rest of the artisans. [16] But Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and plowmen.

[17] And the pillars of bronze that were in the house of the LORD, and the stands and the bronze sea that were in the house of the LORD, the Chaldeans broke in pieces, and carried all the bronze to Babylon. [18] And they took away the pots and the shovels and the snuffers and the basins and the dishes for incense and all the vessels of bronze used in the temple service; [19] also the small bowls and the fire pans and the basins and the pots and the lampstands and the dishes for incense and the bowls for drink offerings. What was of gold the captain of the guard took away as gold, and what was of silver, as silver. [20] As for the two pillars, the one sea, the twelve bronze bulls that were under the sea, and the stands, which Solomon the king had made for the house of the LORD, the bronze of all these things was beyond weight. [21] As for the pillars, the height of the one pillar was eighteen cubits, its circumference was twelve cubits, and its thickness was four fingers, and it was hollow. [22] On it was a capital of bronze. The height of the one capital was five cubits. A network and pomegranates, all of bronze, were around the capital. And the second pillar had the same, with pomegranates. [23] There were ninety-six pomegranates on the sides; all the pomegranates were a hundred upon the network all around.

The People Exiled to Babylon

[24] And the captain of the guard took Seraiah the chief priest, and Zephaniah the second priest and the three keepers of the threshold; [25] and from the city he took an officer who had been in command of the men of war, and seven men of the king’s council, who were found in the city; and the secretary of the commander of the army, who mustered the people of the land; and sixty men of the people of the land, who were found in the midst of the city. [26] And Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. [27] And the king of Babylon struck them down and put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah was taken into exile out of its land.

[28] This is the number of the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away captive: in the seventh year, 3,023 Judeans; [29] in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar he carried away captive from Jerusalem 832 persons; [30] in the twenty-third year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried away captive of the Judeans 745 persons; all the persons were 4,600.

Jehoiachin Released from Prison

[31] And in the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Jehoiachin king of Judah, in the twelfth month, on the twenty-fifth day of the month, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the year that he began to reign, graciously freed Jehoiachin king of Judah and brought him out of prison. [32] And he spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat above the seats of the kings who were with him in Babylon. [33] So Jehoiachin put off his prison garments. And every day of his life he dined regularly at the king’s table, [34] and for his allowance, a regular allowance was given him by the king, according to his daily needs, until the day of his death, as long as he lived.