Reading for August 4th

 Read Jeremiah 22.6b-30. In 22.6b-30: Fate of kings and nation. Verse 6 connects all these poems to kings. In verses 7-9: Punishment will come upon them and the city will be destroyed. In verses 10-11: King Josiah and his son Jehoahaz, also known as Shallum, both met tragic fates. Josiah dies in battle (2 Kings 23.28-30), but sadder still is the fate of  Jehoahaz, who is exiled from the land. In verses 13-19: This poem contrasts good King Josiah with his son, the bad king Jehoiakim. Josiah is a true king because he does justice; his son exploits the people for his own benefit. In verses 20-23: These verses address an unidentified female ("you" is feminine in the Hebrew text) who is sent outside Israel to neighboring Lebanon. This location is puzzling, but the woman seems to be God's unfaithful wife, who has refused to listen. In verses 24-30: God promises to hurl into Babylonian exile King Jehoiakim's son, King Jehoiachin, here called Coniah. In verse 30: With him, kingship will end. Comments or Questions..

Reading for August 3rd

Kings and prophets

21.11-23.8: The leaders, royal and religious, receive blame for corruption, for injustice, and for turning away from God. Earlier chapters focused on failures of the whole community,but here the leaders alone fail and lead the nation to ruin. 

 Read Jeremiah 21.11-22.6a. In 21.11-22.6a: Justice. In 21.11-14: The poem addresses the kings by the house of David, referring to all the kings who occupied the Davidic throne (1 Sam 7). The role of the king is to administer justice. If the kings fail, then the fire of divine wrath will destroy them. In 22.1-6a: A prose passage elaborates on the obligations of the kings to do justice for the afflicted. Comments or Questions..

Reading for August 2nd

 THE INVASION'S AFTERMATH

CHS. 21-25: These loosely connected chapters assume that the nation has already been invaded by Babylon. So far, the book has presented captivity only in symbolic terms, but the invasion is described more realistically in 21.1-10. These chapters focus on survival in the battle's aftermath. Prose narratives offer advice to survivors (21.1-10; 24.1-10). Poems explain how the invasion happened blaming kings and prophets (21.11-23.40). National survival is promised (25.1-14) and international justice foretold (25.15-38). The voice of the narrator is more prominent than in previous chapters, and these chapters refer more directly to historical dates and persons than do earlier chapters.

Read Jeremiah 21.1-10. In 21.1-10: The attack. In verses 1-2: Jeremiah presents a prophecy to messengers sent to him by King Zedekiah of Judah. Zedekiah hopes that God will send the Babylonians and their king, Nebuchadnezzar aways as in the past (Isa 36-37). In verses 3-7: But instead of sending the Babylonians (called Chaldeans) away, God will will bring them into the city and fight against Judah. In verses 8-9: In language that appears also in Deut 30.10-11, the text urges them to "choose life." To live, they must surrender to Babylon. Comments or Questions..-

Reading for August 1st

 Read Jeremiah 20.14-18: In 20.14-18: A curse. Jeremiah curses the day of his birth, like Job (Job 3). This curse closes the section on the covenant's destruction that was begun by the curse against the nation in ch. 11. Jeremiah's curse speaks of the tragedy of his mission to announce disaster so that he wishes he had never been born. If his life represents that of the people, his captivity, the fulfillment of his word and his curse enact and bring about their captivity. Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 31st

 Read Jeremiah 20.7-13. In 20.7-13: Jeremiah's fifth confession. Jeremiah blames his captivity on God, who has given him words of terror to announce. In verse 9: Jeremiah tried to withhold his message of violence, but it was like fire: He could not hold it in. Jeremiah's message is not his own but is from God alone. In verses 11-13: Jeremiah remembers God is with him and that the word will be accomplished. Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 30th

 Read Jeremiah 20.1-6.  In 20.1-6: Jeremiah's captivity. The book does not yet report the invasion of Jerusalem but instead, portrays the disaster symbolically. Jeremiah himself is captured in the Temple by the high priest. In verses 4-6: That event becomes the occasion for Jeremiah's announcement that Babylon, mentioned for the first time in the book, will invade and destroy Judah and that the high priest and his supporters will go into captivity. Comments or Questions..

Reading for July 29th

 Read Jeremiah 19.1-15. In 19.1-15: The broken pot. Jeremiah performs a symbolic action in which he breaks an earthenware jug in front of the elders and priests to represent the nation. He summarizes their idolatries, their sins, and their refusals to listen. In verse 15; Then he announces the fulfillment of the long promised disaster. Comments or Questions..