Jeremiah 5:20–6:21

20   Declare this in the house of Jacob;
    proclaim it in Judah:
21   “Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
    who have eyes, but see not,
    who have ears, but hear not.
22   Do you not fear me? declares the LORD.
    Do you not tremble before me?
  I placed the sand as the boundary for the sea,
    a perpetual barrier that it cannot pass;
  though the waves toss, they cannot prevail;
    though they roar, they cannot pass over it.
23   But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
    they have turned aside and gone away.
24   They do not say in their hearts,
    ‘Let us fear the LORD our God,
  who gives the rain in its season,
    the autumn rain and the spring rain,
  and keeps for us
    the weeks appointed for the harvest.’
25   Your iniquities have turned these away,
    and your sins have kept good from you.
26   For wicked men are found among my people;
    they lurk like fowlers lying in wait.
  They set a trap;
    they catch men.
27   Like a cage full of birds,
    their houses are full of deceit;
  therefore they have become great and rich;
28     they have grown fat and sleek.
  They know no bounds in deeds of evil;
    they judge not with justice
  the cause of the fatherless, to make it prosper,
    and they do not defend the rights of the needy.
29   Shall I not punish them for these things?
      declares the LORD,
    and shall I not avenge myself
    on a nation such as this?”
30   An appalling and horrible thing
    has happened in the land:
31   the prophets prophesy falsely,
    and the priests rule at their direction;
  my people love to have it so,
    but what will you do when the end comes?

6:1   Flee for safety, O people of Benjamin,
    from the midst of Jerusalem!
  Blow the trumpet in Tekoa,
    and raise a signal on Beth-haccherem,
  for disaster looms out of the north,
    and great destruction.
2   The lovely and delicately bred I will destroy,
    the daughter of Zion.
3   Shepherds with their flocks shall come against her;
    they shall pitch their tents around her;
    they shall pasture, each in his place.
4   “Prepare war against her;
    arise, and let us attack at noon!
  Woe to us, for the day declines,
    for the shadows of evening lengthen!
5   Arise, and let us attack by night
    and destroy her palaces!”
6   For thus says the LORD of hosts:
  “Cut down her trees;
    cast up a siege mound against Jerusalem.
  This is the city that must be punished;
    there is nothing but oppression within her.
7   As a well keeps its water fresh,
    so she keeps fresh her evil;
  violence and destruction are heard within her;
    sickness and wounds are ever before me.
8   Be warned, O Jerusalem,
    lest I turn from you in disgust,
  lest I make you a desolation,
    an uninhabited land.”
9   Thus says the LORD of hosts:
  “They shall glean thoroughly as a vine
    the remnant of Israel;
  like a grape gatherer pass your hand again
    over its branches.”
10   To whom shall I speak and give warning,
    that they may hear?
  Behold, their ears are uncircumcised,
    they cannot listen;
  behold, the word of the LORD is to them an object of scorn;
    they take no pleasure in it.
11   Therefore I am full of the wrath of the LORD;
    I am weary of holding it in.
  “Pour it out upon the children in the street,
    and upon the gatherings of young men, also;
  both husband and wife shall be taken,
    the elderly and the very aged.
12   Their houses shall be turned over to others,
    their fields and wives together,
  for I will stretch out my hand
    against the inhabitants of the land,”
      declares the LORD.
13   “For from the least to the greatest of them,
    everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
  and from prophet to priest,
    everyone deals falsely.
14   They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
    saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
    when there is no peace.
15   Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
    No, they were not at all ashamed;
    they did not know how to blush.
  Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
    at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,”
      says the LORD.
16   Thus says the LORD:
  “Stand by the roads, and look,
    and ask for the ancient paths,
  where the good way is; and walk in it,
    and find rest for your souls.
  But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’
17   I set watchmen over you, saying,
    ‘Pay attention to the sound of the trumpet!’
  But they said, ‘We will not pay attention.’
18   Therefore hear, O nations,
    and know, O congregation, what will happen to them.
19   Hear, O earth; behold, I am bringing disaster upon this people,
    the fruit of their devices,
  because they have not paid attention to my words;
    and as for my law, they have rejected it.
20   What use to me is frankincense that comes from Sheba,
    or sweet cane from a distant land?
  Your burnt offerings are not acceptable,
    nor your sacrifices pleasing to me.
21   Therefore thus says the LORD:
  ‘Behold, I will lay before this people
    stumbling blocks against which they shall stumble;
  fathers and sons together,
    neighbor and friend shall perish.’”

Philippians 1:12–19

12 I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, 13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. 14 And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.

15 Some indeed preach Christ from envy and rivalry, but others from good will. 16 The latter do it out of love, knowing that I am put here for the defense of the gospel. 17 The former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not sincerely but thinking to afflict me in my imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that I rejoice.

Yes, and I will rejoice, 19 for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance,