ARKCODEX
Jeremiah
Ch. 20–21
Jeremiah's Conflict with Pashhur the Priest
1When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was the chief officer of the Temple, heard me proclaim these things,
2he had me beaten and placed in chains near the upper Benjamin Gate in the Temple.
3The next morning, after Pashhur had released me from the chains, I said to him, “The Lord did not name you Pashhur. The name he has given you is ‘Terror Everywhere.’
4The Lord himself has said, ‘I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to your friends, and you will see them all killed by the swords of their enemies. I am going to put all the people of Judah under the power of the king of Babylonia; he will take some away as prisoners to his country and put others to death.
5I will also let their enemies plunder all the wealth of this city and seize all its possessions and property, even the treasures of the kings of Judah, and carry everything off to Babylonia.
6As for you, Pashhur, you and all your family will also be captured and taken off to Babylonia. There you will die and be buried, along with all your friends to whom you have told so many lies.’”
Jeremiah Complains to the Lord
7Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived. You are stronger than I am, and you have overpowered me. Everyone makes fun of me; they laugh at me all day long.
8Whenever I speak, I have to cry out and shout, “Violence! Destruction!” Lord, I am ridiculed and scorned all the time because I proclaim your message.
9But when I say, “I will forget the Lord and no longer speak in his name,” then your message is like a fire burning deep within me. I try my best to hold it in, but can no longer keep it back.
10I hear everybody whispering, “Terror is everywhere! So let's report him to the authorities!” Even my close friends wait for my downfall. “Perhaps he can be tricked,” they say; “then we can catch him and get revenge.”
11But you, Lord, are on my side, strong and mighty, and those who persecute me will fail. They will be disgraced forever, because they cannot succeed. Their disgrace will never be forgotten.
12But, Almighty Lord, you test people justly; you know what is in their hearts and minds. So let me see you take revenge on my enemies, for I have placed my cause in your hands.
13Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! He rescues the oppressed from the power of evil people.
14Curse the day I was born! Forget the day my mother gave me birth!
15Curse the one who made my father glad by bringing him the news, “It's a boy! You have a son!”
16May he be like those cities that the Lord destroyed without mercy. May he hear cries of pain in the morning and the battle alarm at noon,
17for not killing me before I was born. Then my mother's womb would have been my grave.
18Why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow, to end my life in disgrace?
Jeremiah 21
Jerusalem's Defeat Is Predicted
1King Zedekiah of Judah sent to me Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah with this request:
2“Please speak to the Lord for us, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army are besieging the city. Maybe the Lord will perform one of his miracles for us and force Nebuchadnezzar to retreat.”
3Then the Lord spoke to me, and I told those who had been sent to me
4to tell Zedekiah that the Lord, the God of Israel, had said, “Zedekiah, I am going to defeat your army that is fighting against the king of Babylonia and his army. I will pile up your soldiers' weapons in the center of the city.
5I will fight against you with all my might, my anger, my wrath, and my fury.
6I will kill everyone living in this city; people and animals alike will die of a terrible disease.
7But as for you, your officials, and the people who survive the war, the famine, and the disease—I will let all of you be captured by King Nebuchadnezzar and by your enemies, who want to kill you. Nebuchadnezzar will put you to death. He will not spare any of you or show mercy or pity to any of you. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
8Then the Lord told me to say to the people, “Listen! I, the Lord, am giving you a choice between the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death.
9Anyone who stays in the city will be killed in war or by starvation or disease. But those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians, who are now attacking the city, will not be killed; they will at least escape with their life.
10I have made up my mind not to spare this city, but to destroy it. It will be given over to the king of Babylonia, and he will burn it to the ground. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
Judgment on the Royal House of Judah
11-12The Lord told me to give this message to the royal house of Judah, the descendants of David: “Listen to what I, the Lord, am saying. See that justice is done every day. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. If you don't, the evil you are doing will make my anger burn like a fire that cannot be put out.
13You, Jerusalem, are sitting high above the valleys, like a rock rising above the plain. But I will fight against you. You say that no one can attack you or break through your defenses.
14But I will punish you for what you have done. I will set your palace on fire, and the fire will burn down everything around it. I, the Lord, have spoken.”
Daniel
Ch. 1–2
The Young Men at Nebuchadnezzar's Court
1In the third year that Jehoiakim was king of Judah, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia attacked Jerusalem and surrounded the city.
2The Lord let him capture King Jehoiakim and seize some of the Temple treasures. He took some prisoners back with him to the temple of his gods in Babylon, and put the captured treasures in the temple storerooms.
3The king ordered Ashpenaz, his chief official, to select from among the Israelite exiles some young men of the royal family and of the noble families.
4They had to be handsome, intelligent, well-trained, quick to learn, and free from physical defects, so that they would be qualified to serve in the royal court. Ashpenaz was to teach them to read and write the Babylonian language.
5The king also gave orders that every day they were to be given the same food and wine as the members of the royal court. After three years of this training they were to appear before the king.
6Among those chosen were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, all of whom were from the tribe of Judah.
7The chief official gave them new names: Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
8Daniel made up his mind not to let himself become ritually unclean by eating the food and drinking the wine of the royal court, so he asked Ashpenaz to help him,
9and God made Ashpenaz sympathetic to Daniel.
10Ashpenaz, however, was afraid of the king, so he said to Daniel, “The king has decided what you are to eat and drink, and if you don't look as fit as the other young men, he may kill me.”
11So Daniel went to the guard whom Ashpenaz had placed in charge of him and his three friends.
12“Test us for ten days,” he said. “Give us vegetables to eat and water to drink.
13Then compare us with the young men who are eating the food of the royal court, and base your decision on how we look.”
14He agreed to let them try it for ten days.
15When the time was up, they looked healthier and stronger than all those who had been eating the royal food.
16So from then on the guard let them continue to eat vegetables instead of what the king provided.
17God gave the four young men knowledge and skill in literature and philosophy. In addition, he gave Daniel skill in interpreting visions and dreams.
18At the end of the three years set by the king, Ashpenaz took all the young men to Nebuchadnezzar.
19The king talked with them all, and Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah impressed him more than any of the others. So they became members of the king's court.
20No matter what question the king asked or what problem he raised, these four knew ten times more than any fortuneteller or magician in his whole kingdom.
21Daniel remained at the royal court until Cyrus, the emperor of Persia, conquered Babylonia.
Daniel 2
Nebuchadnezzar's Dream
1In the second year that Nebuchadnezzar was king, he had a dream. It worried him so much that he couldn't sleep,
2so he sent for his fortunetellers, magicians, sorcerers, and wizards to come and explain the dream to him. When they came and stood before the king,
3he said to them, “I'm worried about a dream I've had. I want to know what it means.”
4They answered the king in Aramaic, “May Your Majesty live forever! Tell us your dream, and we will explain it to you.”
5The king said to them, “I have made up my mind that you must tell me the dream and then tell me what it means. If you can't, I'll have you torn limb from limb and make your houses a pile of ruins.
6But if you can tell me both the dream and its meaning, I will reward you with gifts and great honor. Now then, tell me what the dream was and what it means.”
7They answered the king again, “If Your Majesty will only tell us what the dream was, we will explain it.”
8At that, the king exclaimed, “Just as I thought! You are trying to gain time, because you see that I have made up my mind
9to give all of you the same punishment if you don't tell me the dream. You have agreed among yourselves to go on telling me lies because you hope that in time things will change. Tell me what the dream was, and then I will know that you can also tell me what it means.”
10The advisers replied, “There is no one on the face of the earth who can tell Your Majesty what you want to know. No king, not even the greatest and most powerful, has ever made such a demand of his fortunetellers, magicians, and wizards.
11What Your Majesty is asking for is so difficult that no one can do it for you except the gods, and they do not live among human beings.”
12At that, the king flew into a rage and ordered the execution of all the royal advisers in Babylon.
13So the order was issued for all of them to be killed, including Daniel and his friends.
God Shows Daniel What the Dream Means
14Then Daniel went to Arioch, commander of the king's bodyguard, who had been ordered to carry out the execution. Choosing his words carefully,
15he asked Arioch why the king had issued such a harsh order. So Arioch told Daniel what had happened.
16Daniel went at once and obtained royal permission for more time, so that he could tell the king what the dream meant.
17Then Daniel went home and told his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah what had happened.
18He told them to pray to the God of heaven for mercy and to ask him to explain the mystery to them so that they would not be killed along with the other advisers in Babylon.
19Then that same night the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision, and he praised the God of heaven:
20“God is wise and powerful! Praise him forever and ever.
21He controls the times and the seasons; he makes and unmakes kings; it is he who gives wisdom and understanding.
22He reveals things that are deep and secret; he knows what is hidden in darkness, and he himself is surrounded by light.
23I praise you and honor you, God of my ancestors. You have given me wisdom and strength; you have answered my prayer and shown us what to tell the king.”
Daniel Tells the King the Dream and Explains It
24So Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had commanded to execute the royal advisers. He said to him, “Don't put them to death. Take me to the king, and I will tell him what his dream means.”
25At once Arioch took Daniel into King Nebuchadnezzar's presence and told the king, “I have found one of the Jewish exiles who can tell Your Majesty the meaning of your dream.”
26The king said to Daniel (who was also called Belteshazzar), “Can you tell me what I dreamed and what it means?”
27Daniel replied, “Your Majesty, there is no wizard, magician, fortuneteller, or astrologer who can tell you that.
28But there is a God in heaven, who reveals mysteries. He has informed Your Majesty what will happen in the future. Now I will tell you the dream, the vision you had while you were asleep.
29“While Your Majesty was sleeping, you dreamed about the future; and God, who reveals mysteries, showed you what is going to happen.
30Now, this mystery was revealed to me, not because I am wiser than anyone else, but so that Your Majesty may learn the meaning of your dream and understand the thoughts that have come to you.
31“Your Majesty, in your vision you saw standing before you a giant statue, bright and shining, and terrifying to look at.
32Its head was made of the finest gold; its chest and arms were made of silver; its waist and hips of bronze,
33its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay.
34While you were looking at it, a great stone broke loose from a cliff without anyone touching it, struck the iron and clay feet of the statue, and shattered them.
35At once the iron, clay, bronze, silver, and gold crumbled and became like the dust on a threshing place in summer. The wind carried it all away, leaving not a trace. But the stone grew to be a mountain that covered the whole earth.
36“This was the dream. Now I will tell Your Majesty what it means.
37Your Majesty, you are the greatest of all kings. The God of heaven has made you emperor and given you power, might, and honor.
38He has made you ruler of all the inhabited earth and ruler over all the animals and birds. You are the head of gold.
39After you there will be another empire, not as great as yours, and after that a third, an empire of bronze, which will rule the whole earth.
40And then there will be a fourth empire, as strong as iron, which shatters and breaks everything. And just as iron shatters everything, it will shatter and crush all the earlier empires.
41You also saw that the feet and the toes were partly clay and partly iron. This means that it will be a divided empire. It will have something of the strength of iron, because there was iron mixed with the clay.
42The toes—partly iron and partly clay—mean that part of the empire will be strong and part of it weak.
43You also saw that the iron was mixed with the clay. This means that the rulers of that empire will try to unite their families by intermarriage, but they will not be able to, any more than iron can mix with clay.
44At the time of those rulers the God of heaven will establish a kingdom that will never end. It will never be conquered, but will completely destroy all those empires and then last forever.
45You saw how a stone broke loose from a cliff without anyone touching it and how it struck the statue made of iron, bronze, clay, silver, and gold. The great God is telling Your Majesty what will happen in the future. I have told you exactly what you dreamed, and have given you its true meaning.”
The King Rewards Daniel
46Then King Nebuchadnezzar bowed to the ground and gave orders for sacrifices and offerings to be made to Daniel.
47The king said, “Your God is the greatest of all gods, the Lord over kings, and the one who reveals mysteries. I know this because you have been able to explain this mystery.”
48Then he gave Daniel a high position, presented him with many splendid gifts, put him in charge of the province of Babylon, and made him the head of all the royal advisers.
49At Daniel's request the king put Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in charge of the affairs of the province of Babylon; Daniel, however, remained at the royal court.
Proverbs
Ch. 15
25The Lord will destroy the homes of arrogant men, but he will protect a widow's property.
26The Lord hates evil thoughts, but he is pleased with friendly words.
27Try to make a profit dishonestly, and you get your family in trouble. Don't take bribes and you will live longer.
28Good people think before they answer. Evil people have a quick reply, but it causes trouble.