Reading for August 24th

 Read Jeremiah 31.31-40. In 31.31-40: New covenant. The poems about the restored family are followed by a brief but potent claim that there will be a new way of relating within the covenant family. God will make a new covenant with them. God and Israel will live in renewed fidelity. In verse 34: Everyone from the least to the greatest will know God. In verses 35-40: The cosmos itself and the fixed order or creation will be a sign of that fidelity, and Jerusalem will be rebuilt and never overthrown. Comments or Questions..

Reading for August 23rd

 Read Jeremiah 31.15-30. In 31.15-30: Rachel's comfort. Rachel (Gen 27-35), perhaps symbolizing God's first wife (3.7-11), weeps for her lost children and receives the breathtaking news that they will return. In verses 18-20: Her son, actually her grandson, repents like the children (3.22-25), and God receives him back. In verses 21-22: God addresses wife Israel and asks how long it will be before she repents. The poem ends with a puzzling claim that God has done a new thing: a woman encompasses a man, perhaps an image of Rachel embracing her returning child. In verses 23-26: The woman maybe Jerusalem encompassing the people returning from exile. In verses 27-28: Perhaps wife Rachel encompasses a man sexually to give birth the a new generation. Comments or Questions..

Reading for August 22nd

 Read Jeremiah 31.1-14. All Israel, both north and south, will be reunited. In verses 3-4: Survivors will return, covenant will be restored, and God will take back wife Israel, now called a virgin, no loner a harlot. She will be like Miram, leading the dance (Ex 15.20-21). In verse 9: Echoing the children's return (3.2-25), God takes them back and promises to be a father to them. In verses 10-14: Everyone in the society will participate in life that will be fertile and joyous on Zion. Comments or Questions..

Reading for August 21st

 Read Jeremiah 30.18-24. In verses 18-22: God speaks to Jacob and refers also to Jerusalem, the city that will be rebuilt. Both northern and southern kingdoms are reunited in a poetic outburst concerning thanksgiving and new life. In verses 23-24: The national tragedy receives a summary interpretation. Divine wrath will one day end, and the audience will understand it in the future. Comments or Questions..

Reading for August 20th

 Read Jeremiah 30.12- 17. In a poetic movement similar to vv.5-11, this poem also moves unexpectedly from desperation to salvation, but the images shift from panic to woundedness and healing. The one addressed is daughter Zion, God's  unfaithful wife (2.1-3.25). God now pities her in her abandonment. Comments or Questions..

Reading for August 19th

 Little book of consolation

Chs. 30-33: These chapters combine poetry (chs. 30-31) and prose 9chs. (32-33) to depict a harmonious, idealized future for Israel and Judah. The placement of these chapters of hope and healing toward the center of the book is puzzling. Stories and poems of accusation and conflict surround them as if to temper the hope of these echapters create. This structure may reflect the situation of the exilic audience, for whom escape from captivity remains a distant possibility. The chapters create a vision of what lies ahead, but they do not present a program for escape. Instead, they create unimagined possibilities that may help the community to endure for a new day.

Chs. 30-31 Restoration. The poems create a vision of a future nation in which northern and southern kingdoms are restored and reunited in Jerusalem.Some poems collected address male Jacob/ Israel. Jacob is the name used for the northern kingdom of Israel, and also the name of the ancestor of all the twelve tribes (Den 29-30). Other poems address female figures representing Judah, Zion, or Rachel one of Jacob's wives and mother of a northern and southern tribe. These names bring together both northern and southern kingdoms.

Read Jeremiah 30.1-11. In verse 2: God's command that Jeremiah write these words in a book makes it possible for Jeremiah to communicate with the exiles even though he is not with them. In verses 5-7: Images of panic and pain describe the distress for Jacob. In verses 8-11: Without explanation, hope replaces terror. God will remove the yoke of servitude from them, restore relationship with them, and raise up a king for them. Comments or Questions..

Reading for August 18th

 Read Jeremiah 29.21-32. In verses 21-23: Two false prophets among the exiles, Ahab and Zedekiah, will die like Hananiah under the deuteronomistic curse (Duet 18.20). In verses 24-32; Shemaiah, one of the exiles, writes to the high priest in Jerusalem that he should silence Jeremiah. Jeremiah curses him as a false prophet like Hananiah. Comments or Questions..