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OCTOBER 19
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be eaten, they were so bad. Then the LORD
said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?”
And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good;
23:29 like a fire…hammer. God’s word has and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten,
irresistible qualities to prevail over the decep- they are so bad.”
tion in the shepherds’false messages. 4 Again the word of the LORD came to me, say-
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ing, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel:
‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge
those who are carried away captive from Judah,
“And like a hammer that breaks the whom I have sent out of this place for their own
rock in pieces? 6
good, into the land of the Chaldeans. For I will
set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring
30 “Therefore behold, I am against the
prophets,” says the LORD, “who steal My words them back to this land; I will build them and not
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every one from his neighbor. Behold, I am pull them down, and I will plant them and not
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against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who use pluck them up. Then I will give them a heart to
their tongues and say, ‘He says.’ Behold, I am know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be
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against those who prophesy false dreams,” says My people, and I will be their God, for they
shall return to Me with their whole heart.
the LORD, “and tell them, and cause My people to 8 ‘And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten,
err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did they are so bad’—surely thus says the LORD—
not send them or command them; therefore they ‘so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah,
shall not profit this people at all,” says the LORD.
“So when these people or the prophet or the
33 his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who
priest ask you, saying, ‘What is the oracle of the remain in this land, and those who dwell in the
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land of Egypt. I will deliver them to trouble
LORD?’ you shall then say to them, ‘What ora- into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their
cle?’ I will even forsake you,” says the LORD. harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt
34 “And as for the prophet and the priest and the and a curse, in all places where I shall drive
people who say, ‘The oracle of the LORD!’ I will them. And I will send the sword, the famine,
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even punish that man and his house. Thus and the pestilence among them, till they are
every one of you shall say to his neighbor, and
consumed from the land that I gave to them
every one to his brother, ‘What has the LORD and their fathers.’ ”
answered?’ and, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’
And the oracle of the LORD you shall mention Psalm 119:17–24
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no more. For every man’s word will be his ora-
cle, for you have perverted the words of the liv- C GIMEL
ing God, the LORD of hosts, our God. Thus you 17 Deal bountifully with Your servant,
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shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the LORD That I may live and keep Your word.
answered you?’ and, ‘What has the LORD spo- 18 Open my eyes, that I may see
ken?’ But since you say, ‘The oracle of the Wondrous things from Your law.
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LORD!’ therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Because 19 I am a stranger in the earth;
you say this word, “The oracle of the LORD!” and Do not hide Your commandments
I have sent to you, saying, “Do not say, ‘The ora- from me.
cle of the LORD!’ ” therefore behold, I, even I, 20 My soul breaks with longing
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will utterly forget you and forsake you, and the For Your judgments at all times.
city that I gave you and your fathers, and will 21 You rebuke the proud— the cursed,
cast you out of My presence. And I will bring an Who stray from Your commandments.
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everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual 22 Remove from me reproach and
shame, which shall not be forgotten.’ ” contempt,
The LORD showed me, and there were
24 two baskets of figs set before the temple
of the LORD, after Nebuchadnezzar king of
Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah
the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the 119:18 Open my eyes. Perhaps this is the
princes of Judah with the craftsmen and supreme prayer that a student of Scripture
smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought could speak since it confesses the student’s
them to Babylon. One basket had very good inadequacy and the divine Author’s sufficiency
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figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the (vv.98,99,105,130).
other basket had very bad figs which could not
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