15Were they brought to shame because they had committed abominations (extremely disgusting and vile things)? No, they were not at all ashamed, nor could they blush [at their idolatry]. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; at the time that I punish them they shall be overthrown, says the Lord.

    16Thus says the Lord: Stand by the roads and look; and ask for the eternal paths, where the good, old way is; then walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it!^(A)

    17Also I set watchmen over you, saying, Hear and obey the sound of the trumpet! But they said, We will not listen or obey.

    18Therefore hear, O [Gentile] nations, and know, O congregation [of believing ones], what [great things I will do] to them.

    19Hear, O earth: behold, I am bringing evil upon this people, the fruit of their thoughts (their schemes and devices) because they have not listened and obeyed My words, and as for My law, they have rejected it.

    20To what purpose does frankincense come to Me from Sheba [in southwestern Arabia] and the sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, nor are your sacrifices sweet or pleasing to Me.

    21Therefore thus says the Lord: Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people. And the fathers and the sons together will stumble against them; the neighbor and his friend will perish.

    22Thus says the Lord: Behold, a people is coming from the north country, and a great nation is arousing itself from the ends of the earth.

    23They lay hold on bow and spear; they are cruel (ruthless and inhuman) and have no mercy. Their voice sounds like the roaring sea; they ride on horses, every one set in array as a man for battle against you, O Daughter of Zion!

    24We have heard the report of it; our hands become feeble and helpless. Anguish has taken hold of us, pangs like that of a woman in childbirth.

    25Go not out into the field nor walk on the road, for the enemy is armed with the sword; terror is on every side.

    26O daughter of my people [says Jeremiah], gird yourself with sackcloth and wallow in ashes; make mourning as for an only son, a most bitter lamentation, for the destroyer will suddenly come upon us [on prophet and people].

    27I [says the Lord] have set you [Jeremiah] as an assayer and a prover of ore among My people, that you may know and try their doings and be like a watchtower.

    28They are all the worst [kind] of rebels and utter and total revolters against God, going about publishing slander. They are [not gold and silver ore, but] bronze and iron; they are all corrupters.

    29The bellows blow fiercely, the lead is consumed by the fire; in vain do they continue refining, for the wicked [the dross] are not removed.

    30Men will call them reprobate and rejected silver [only dross, without good metal], because the Lord has rejected them.

   

Jeremiah 7

 1THE WORD that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying,

    2Stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.

    3Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

    4Trust not in the lying words [of the false prophets who maintain that God will protect Jerusalem because His temple is there], saying, This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.

    5For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly and truly execute justice between every man and his neighbor,

    6If you do not oppress the transient and the alien, the fatherless, and the widow or shed innocent blood [by oppression and by judicial murders] in [Jerusalem] or go after other gods to your own hurt,

    7Then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers to dwell in forever.

    8Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot benefit [so that you do not profit].

    9Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known,

    10And [then dare to] come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My ^[a]Name, and say, [By the discharge of this religious formality] we are set free!--only to go on with this wickedness and these abominations?

    11Has this house, which is called by My Name, become a den of robbers in your eyes [a place of retreat for you between acts of violence]? Behold, I Myself have seen it, says the Lord.

    12But go now to My place which was in Shiloh [in Ephraim], where I set My Name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel.^(B)

    13And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and [because] when I spoke to you persistently [even rising up early and speaking], you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer,

    14Therefore will I do to this house (the temple), which is called by My Name and in which you trust, to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.

    15And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole posterity of Ephraim.

    16Therefore do not pray for this people [of Judah] or lift up a cry or entreaty for them or make intercession to Me, for I will not listen to or hear you.

    17Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

    18The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes for the ^[b]queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger!

    19Am I the One Whom they provoke to anger? says the Lord. Is it not themselves [whom they provoke], to their own confusion and vexation and to their own shame?

    20Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.

    21Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the flesh [if you will. It will avail you nothing].

    22For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.

    23But this thing I did command them: Listen to and obey My voice, and I will be your God and you will be My people; and walk in the whole way that I command you, that it may be well with you.

    24But they would not listen to and obey Me or bend their ear [to Me], but followed the counsels and the stubborn promptings of their own evil hearts and minds, and they turned their backs and went in reverse instead of forward.

    25Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent to you all My servants the prophets, sending them daily, early and late.

    26Yet the people would not listen to and obey Me or bend their ears [to Me], but stiffened their necks and behaved worse than their fathers.

    27Speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to and obey you; also call to them, but they will not answer you.

    28Yet you shall say to them, This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God or receive instruction and correction and warning; truth and faithfulness have perished and have completely vanished from their mouths.

    29Cut off your hair [your crown, O Jerusalem] and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights, for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.

    30For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight, says the Lord; they have set their abominations (extremely disgusting and shamefully vile things) in the house which is called by My Name to defile it.

    31And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire [in honor of Molech, the fire god]--which I did not command, nor did it come into My mind or heart.^(C)

    32Therefore, behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when it shall no more be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom [son of Hinnom], but the Valley of Slaughter, for [in bloody warfare] they will bury in Topheth till there is no more room and no place else to bury.^(D)

    33And the dead bodies of this people will be meat for the fowls of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and none will frighten them away.

    34Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land will become a waste.

   

Jeremiah 8

 1AT THAT time, says the Lord, [the Babylonian army will break open the sepulchers, and] they shall bring out the ^[c]bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its princes, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves.

    2And they will [carelessly] scatter [the corpses] before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which [the dead] have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked and which they have sought, inquired of, and required and which they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered, or be buried; they shall be like ^[d]dung upon the face of the earth.

    3And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family (nation), who remain in all the places to which I have driven them, says the Lord of hosts.

    4Moreover, you [Jeremiah] shall say to them, Thus says the Lord: Shall men fall and not rise up again? Shall one turn away [from God] and not repent and return [to Him]?

    5Why then is this people of Jerusalem turned away with a perpetual turning away [from Me]? They hold fast to ^[e]deceit (idolatry); they refuse to repent and return [to God].

    6I have listened and heard, but they have not spoken aright; no man repents of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? Everyone turns to his [individual] course, as the horse rushes like a torrent into battle.

    7[Even the migratory birds are punctual to their seasons.] Yes, the stork [excelling in the great height of her flight] in the heavens knows her appointed times [of migration], and the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane observe the time of their return. But My people do not know the law of the Lord [which the lower animals instinctively recognize in so far as it applies to them].

   

Footnotes:

1. Jeremiah 7:10 See footnote on Deut. 12:5.
2. Jeremiah 7:18 A goddess of fertility, probably the Babylonian title for Ishtar. She is identified with the planet Venus. Offerings to this goddess included cakes made in the shape of a star (Jer. 44:19).
3. Jeremiah 8:1 "Of the motive of the disinterment [on the part of the Babylonian conquerors] the prophet says nothing. He had certainly no idea of its being the search for booty. He has in mind only the justice of God [which is concerned with punishment or penalties upon the rebellious people of God]" (Johan P. Lange, A Commentary).
4. Jeremiah 8:2 "Observe the irony. The stars look powerlessly down on the bones of their worshipers--while these send up a stench!" (Johan P. Lange, A Commentary).
5. Jeremiah 8:5 Idolatry is deceitful and false because in their idolatry men and women worship what is false, and it merely deludes the worshipers and causes them to believe a lie.

Cross references:

1. Jeremiah 6:16 : Matt 11:29
2. Jeremiah 7:12 : I Sam 4:10-18
3. Jeremiah 7:31 : Lev 18:21; Josh 15:8; II Kings 16:2-3; 21:1, 6; Isa 30:33
4. Jeremiah 7:32 : Jer 19:6

8See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men's ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah).

    9For in Him the whole fullness of Deity (the Godhead) continues to dwell in bodily form [giving complete expression of the divine nature].

    10And you ^[a]are in Him, made full and having come to fullness of life [in Christ you too are filled with the Godhead--Father, Son and Holy Spirit--and reach full spiritual stature]. And He is the Head of all rule and authority [of every angelic principality and power].

    11In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, but in a [spiritual] circumcision [performed by] Christ by stripping off the body of the flesh (the whole corrupt, carnal nature with its passions and lusts).

    12[Thus ^[b]you were circumcised when] you were buried with Him in [your] baptism, in which you were also raised with Him [^[c]to a new life] through [your] faith in the working of God [^[d]as displayed] when He raised Him up from the dead.

    13And you who were dead in trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh (your sensuality, your sinful carnal nature), [God] brought to life together with [Christ], having [freely] forgiven us all our transgressions,

    14Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared ^[e]completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross.

    15[God] disarmed the principalities and powers that were ranged against us and made a bold display and public example of them, in triumphing over them in Him and in it [the cross].

    16Therefore let no one sit in judgment on you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a New Moon or a Sabbath.

    17Such [things] are only the shadow of things that are to come, and they have only a symbolic value. But the reality (the substance, the solid fact of what is foreshadowed, the body of it) belongs to Christ.

    18Let no one defraud you by acting as an umpire and declaring you unworthy and disqualifying you for the prize, insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, taking his stand on visions [he claims] he has seen, vainly puffed up by his sensuous notions and inflated by his unspiritual thoughts and fleshly conceit,

    19And not holding fast to the Head, from Whom the entire body, supplied and knit together by means of its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

    20If then you have died with Christ to material ways of looking at things and have escaped from the world's crude and elemental notions and teachings of externalism, why do you live as if you still belong to the world? [Why do you submit to rules and regulations?--such as]

    21Do not handle [this], Do not taste [that], Do not even touch [them],

    22Referring to things all of which perish with being used. To do this is to follow human precepts and doctrines.^(A)

    23Such [practices] have indeed the outward appearance [that popularly passes] for wisdom, in promoting self-imposed rigor of devotion and delight in self-humiliation and severity of discipline of the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh (the lower nature). [Instead, they do not honor God but serve only to indulge the flesh.]

   

Footnotes:

1. Colossians 2:10 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
2. Colossians 2:12 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies: "The aorist tense puts the burial as contemporaneous with the circumcision."
3. Colossians 2:12 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
4. Colossians 2:12 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.
5. Colossians 2:14 Marvin Vincent, Word Studies.

Cross references:

1. Colossians 2:22 : Isa 29:13

Psalm 78

A skillful song, or a didactic or reflective poem, of Asaph.

 1GIVE EAR, O my people, to my teaching; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

    2I will open my mouth in a parable (in instruction by numerous examples); I will utter dark sayings of old [that hide important truth]--^(A)

    3Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

    4We will not hide them from their children, but we will tell to the generation to come the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, and His might, and the wonderful works that He has performed.

    5For He established a testimony (an express precept) in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, commanding our fathers that they should make [the great facts of God's dealings with Israel] known to their children,

    6That the generation to come might know them, that the children still to be born might arise and recount them to their children,

    7That they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but might keep His commandments

    8And might not be as their fathers--a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their hearts aright nor prepared their hearts to know God, and whose spirits were not steadfast and faithful to God.

    9The children of Ephraim were armed and carrying bows, yet they turned back in the day of battle.

    10They kept not the covenant of God and refused to walk according to His law

    11And forgot His works and His wonders that He had shown them.

    12Marvelous things did He in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan [where Pharaoh resided].

    13He divided the [Red] Sea and caused them to pass through it, and He made the waters stand like a heap.^(B)

    14In the daytime also He led them with a [pillar of] cloud and all the night with a light of fire.^(C)

    15He split rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink abundantly as out of the deep.

    16He brought streams also out of the rock [at Rephidim and Kadesh] and caused waters to run down like rivers.^(D)

    17Yet they still went on to sin against Him by provoking and rebelling against the Most High in the wilderness (in the land of drought).

    18And they tempted God in their hearts by asking for food according to their [selfish] desire and appetite.

    19Yes, they spoke against God; they said, Can God furnish [the food for] a table in the wilderness?

    20Behold, He did smite the rock so that waters gushed out and the streams overflowed; but can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for His people?

    21Therefore, when the Lord heard, He was [full of] wrath; a fire was kindled against Jacob, His anger mounted up against Israel,

    22Because in God they believed not [they relied not on Him, they adhered not to Him], and they trusted not in His salvation (His power to save).

    23Yet He commanded the clouds above and opened the doors of heaven;

    24And He rained down upon them manna to eat and gave them heaven's grain.^(E)

    25Everyone ate the bread of the mighty [man ate angels' food]; God sent them meat in abundance.

    26He let forth the east