Lamentations 1
1 Now it came to pass that after Israel was taken captive and Jerusalem became desolate, Jeremiah sat weeping; and he lamented this song of grief over Jerusalem and said:
“How does the city now sit alone,
She who was full of people?
She has become like a widow,
She who was multiplied among the nations,
She who was ruling among the countries.
She has become subject to tribute.
2 “She weeps bitterly in the night;
She sheds tears on her cheeks.
Yet among all her lovers there is no one who comforts her.
All who love her have dealt treacherously with her.
They have become her enemies.
3 “Judea has gone into captivity
Because of her humiliation and harsh servitude.
She dwells among the Gentiles;
She finds no rest.
All who pursue her overtake her in the midst of her distress.
4 “The roads of Zion mourn,
Because no one comes to the feast.
All her gates are destroyed,
Her priests groan,
Her virgins are led away,
And she is embittered in herself.
5 “Her oppressors have become the master,
And her enemies prosper;
For the Lord humbled her
Because of the greatness of her ungodliness.
Her infants have gone into captivity in the presence of the oppressor.
6 “From the daughter of Zion
All her beauty has departed.
Her princes have become like rams
That find no pasture,
And they journey in weakness
Before the face of the pursuer.
7 “Jerusalem remembers her days of humiliation and rejection.
She remembers all her objects of desire,
What she had in days of old,
When her people fell into the hand of the oppressor,
When there was no one to help her.
When her enemies saw this, they laughed at her deportation.
8 “Jerusalem sinned grievously;
Therefore, she became a storm-tossed sea.
All who glorified her have humiliated her,
For they saw her shameful acts,
And indeed, she groans and turns away.
9 “Her uncleanness is at her feet.
She did not remember her last things,
And she lowered her boasting tone.
There is no one who comforts her.
‘O Lord, behold my humiliation,
For the enemy has been exalted.’
10 “The oppressor has spread his hand
Over all the objects of her desire,
For she sees the Gentiles entering her sanctuary,
Those whom You commanded not to enter Your church.
11 “All her people groan
And seek for bread.
They gave the objects of their desire for food
To stay alive.
‘O Lord, behold, and have regard for me,
For I am treated shamefully.
12 ‘All you who pass by, do not turn away,
And see if there is any pain like my pain
Which has happened to me.
The Lord who spoke by me
Humiliated me in the day of His fierce anger.
13 ‘From His lofty place He sent fire
And brought it into my bones.
He spread a net for my feet
And turned me back.
He caused me to perish
And to be in great pain all the day.
14 ‘He kept watch on my profane acts;
They are entangled together with my hands;
They come up about my neck.
My strength weakens,
For the Lord has caused my hands to be in pain.
I shall be unable to stand.
15 ‘The Lord drove off all my mighty ones from my midst.
He summoned an appointed time against me
To crush my chosen men.
The Lord trod a winepress for the virgin daughter of Judah,
And for these I weep.
16 ‘My eyes pour down tears,
For He who comforts me
And restores my soul
Is gone far from me.
My children have perished
Because the enemy has prevailed.’
17 “Zion has spread out her hands,
But there is no one who comforts her.
The Lord commanded concerning Jacob;
His oppressors are around him,
And Jerusalem has become as an unclean woman in their midst.
18 ‘The Lord is righteous,
For I provoked His mouth.
Hear now, all peoples,
And behold my pain;
For My virgins and my young men have gone into captivity.
19 ‘I called my lovers,
But they deceived me.
My priests and my elders
Ended their life in the city,
For they sought food for themselves
To revive their lives;
But they found none.
20 ‘Behold, O Lord, for I am afflicted.
My stomach is troubled,
And my heart is upset within me;
For I have rebelled exceedingly.
From without, the sword has deprived me of my children,
As death has here at home.
21 ‘Hear now, because I groan;
There is no one who comforts me.
All my enemies heard of my calamities,
And they rejoiced,
Because You brought it about.
You brought on the day;
You set the appointed time,
For they have become like me.
22 ‘So let all their evil come before Your face,
And do to them as they did to me
Concerning all my sins.
My groaning is great,
And my heart is grieved.’
Psalm 118:129–144
129 Wondrous are Your testimonies;
For this reason my soul searches them out.
130 The revelation of Your words gives light,
And it causes children to understand.
131 I opened my mouth and drew in my breath,
For I longed for Your commandments.
132 Look upon me and have mercy on me,
According to the judgment of those who love Your name.
133 Direct my steps according to Your teaching
And let no lawlessness rule over me.
134 Ransom me from the slander of men,
And I will keep Your commandments.
135 Make Your face shine upon Your servant
And teach me Your ordinances.
136 My eyes poured down streams of tears
Because they did not keep Your law.
137 Righteous are You, O Lord,
And upright is Your judgment.
138 You commanded Your testimonies exceedingly
In righteousness and truth.
139 The zeal of Your house caused me to yearn for home,
For my enemies forgot Your words.
140 Your teaching is exceedingly purified in fire,
And Your servant loves it.
141 I am young, and beheld as nothing,
But I have not forgotten Your ordinances.
142 Your righteousness is righteousness forever,
And Your law is truth.
143 Affliction and trouble found me,
But Your commandments are my meditation.
144 Your testimonies are righteousness forever;
Give me understanding, and I shall live.
Proverbs 26:24–29
24 Money given with deceit is like a sharp piece of broken pottery;
So smooth lips hide a heart that causes pain.
25 A weeping enemy promises everything with his lips,
But in his heart he devises deceits.
26 If your enemy entreats you with a loud voice,
Do not consent, for there are seven vices in his soul.
27 He who hides enmity contrives deceit,
But being well known in the assemblies, he exposes his own sins.
28 He who digs a pit for his neighbor shall fall into it,
And he who rolls a stone rolls it upon himself.
29 A lying tongue hates the truth,
And an unguarded mouth causes confusion.
2 Peter 2
1 But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who bought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction.
2 And many will follow their destructive ways, because of whom the way of truth will be blasphemed.
3 By covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words; for a long time their judgment has not been idle, and their destruction does not slumber.
Doom of False Teachers
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;
5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;
6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;
7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked
8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)—
9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,
10 and especially those who walk according to the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and despise authority. They are presumptuous, self-willed. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries,
11 whereas angels, who are greater in power and might, do not bring a reviling accusation against them before the Lord.
Depravity of False Teachers
12 But these, like natural brute beasts made to be caught and destroyed, speak evil of the things they do not understand, and will utterly perish in their own corruption,
13 and will receive the wages of unrighteousness, as those who count it pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, carousing in their own deceptions while they feast with you,
14 having eyes full of adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. They have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children.
15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;
16 but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.
17 These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
Deceptions of False Teachers
18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who have actually escaped from those who live in error.
19 While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
20 For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning.
21 For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
22 But it has happened to them according to the true proverb: “A dog returns to his own vomit,” and, “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire.”