Cast Your Care

Core Beliefs: Strengthening Your Spiritual Foundation

The Bible for Young Explorers: Exodus

Prepare to Quit Alcohol

Solitude & Silence

The Benefit of Doubt: How Confronting Your Deepest Questions Can Lead to a Richer Faith

Shatter the Stigma

Spiritual Beings

God's Design for the Church

Charis Bible College Fall Bible Reading Plan

The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

New International Version™  (Anglicised), Audio Edition

Holy Bible, New International Version™ (Anglicised), South Asian Audio Edition

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkJER">
 <div class="chapter ch34" data-usfm="JER.34">
 <div class="label">34</div><div class="s1">Warning to Zedekiah</div><div class="p"> 1While Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples in the empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2&#8220;This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, &#8216;This is what the Lord says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. 3You will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and given into his hands. You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon.</div><div class="p"> 4&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Yet hear the Lord&#8217;s promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the Lord says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; 5you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honor of your predecessors, the kings who ruled before you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, &#8220;Alas, master!&#8221; I myself make this promise, declares the Lord.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 6Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, 7while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out&#8212;Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left in Judah.</div><div class="s1">Freedom for Slaves</div><div class="p"> 8The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. 9Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage. 10So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. 11But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.</div><div class="p"> 12Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 13&#8220;This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said, 14&#8216;Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.&#8217;#34:14 Deut. 15:12 Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. 15Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. 16But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.</div><div class="p"> 17&#8220;Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim &#8216;freedom&#8217; for you, declares the Lord&#8212;&#8216;freedom&#8217; to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth. 18Those who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces. 19The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf, 20I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.</div><div class="p"> 21&#8220;I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. 22I am going to give the order, declares the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.&#8221;</div>
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 <div class="chapter ch35" data-usfm="JER.35">
 <div class="label">35</div><div class="s1">The Rekabites</div><div class="p"> 1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord during the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: 2&#8220;Go to the Rekabite family and invite them to come to one of the side rooms of the house of the Lord and give them wine to drink.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 3So I went to get Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons&#8212;the whole family of the Rekabites. 4I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the room of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah the man of God. It was next to the room of the officials, which was over that of Maaseiah son of Shallum the doorkeeper. 5Then I set bowls full of wine and some cups before the Rekabites and said to them, &#8220;Drink some wine.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 6But they replied, &#8220;We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jehonadab#35:6 Hebrew Jonadab, a variant of Jehonadab; here and often in this chapter son of Rekab gave us this command: &#8216;Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine. 7Also you must never build houses, sow seed or plant vineyards; you must never have any of these things, but must always live in tents. Then you will live a long time in the land where you are nomads.&#8217; 8We have obeyed everything our forefather Jehonadab son of Rekab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters have ever drunk wine 9or built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields or crops. 10We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed everything our forefather Jehonadab commanded us. 11But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded this land, we said, &#8216;Come, we must go to Jerusalem to escape the Babylonian#35:11 Or Chaldean and Aramean armies.&#8217; So we have remained in Jerusalem.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 12Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: 13&#8220;This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go and tell the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, &#8216;Will you not learn a lesson and obey my words?&#8217; declares the Lord. 14&#8216;Jehonadab son of Rekab ordered his descendants not to drink wine and this command has been kept. To this day they do not drink wine, because they obey their forefather&#8217;s command. But I have spoken to you again and again, yet you have not obeyed me. 15Again and again I sent all my servants the prophets to you. They said, &#8220;Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and reform your actions; do not follow other gods to serve them. Then you will live in the land I have given to you and your ancestors.&#8221; But you have not paid attention or listened to me. 16The descendants of Jehonadab son of Rekab have carried out the command their forefather gave them, but these people have not obeyed me.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 17&#8220;Therefore this is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: &#8216;Listen! I am going to bring on Judah and on everyone living in Jerusalem every disaster I pronounced against them. I spoke to them, but they did not listen; I called to them, but they did not answer.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 18Then Jeremiah said to the family of the Rekabites, &#8220;This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: &#8216;You have obeyed the command of your forefather Jehonadab and have followed all his instructions and have done everything he ordered.&#8217; 19Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: &#8216;Jehonadab son of Rekab will never fail to have a descendant to serve me.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div>
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 <div class="chapter ch36" data-usfm="JER.36">
 <div class="label">36</div><div class="s1">Jehoiakim Burns Jeremiah&#8217;s Scroll</div><div class="p"> 1In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2&#8220;Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah till now. 3Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, they will each turn from their wicked ways; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and while Jeremiah dictated all the words the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll. 5Then Jeremiah told Baruch, &#8220;I am restricted; I am not allowed to go to the Lord&#8217;s temple. 6So you go to the house of the Lord on a day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll the words of the Lord that you wrote as I dictated. Read them to all the people of Judah who come in from their towns. 7Perhaps they will bring their petition before the Lord and will each turn from their wicked ways, for the anger and wrath pronounced against this people by the Lord are great.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 8Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do; at the Lord&#8217;s temple he read the words of the Lord from the scroll. 9In the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a time of fasting before the Lord was proclaimed for all the people in Jerusalem and those who had come from the towns of Judah. 10From the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper courtyard at the entrance of the New Gate of the temple, Baruch read to all the people at the Lord&#8217;s temple the words of Jeremiah from the scroll.</div><div class="p"> 11When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll, 12he went down to the secretary&#8217;s room in the royal palace, where all the officials were sitting: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Akbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials. 13After Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read to the people from the scroll, 14all the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to say to Baruch, &#8220;Bring the scroll from which you have read to the people and come.&#8221; So Baruch son of Neriah went to them with the scroll in his hand. 15They said to him, &#8220;Sit down, please, and read it to us.&#8221;</div><div class="p">So Baruch read it to them. 16When they heard all these words, they looked at each other in fear and said to Baruch, &#8220;We must report all these words to the king.&#8221; 17Then they asked Baruch, &#8220;Tell us, how did you come to write all this? Did Jeremiah dictate it?&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 18&#8220;Yes,&#8221; Baruch replied, &#8220;he dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them in ink on the scroll.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 19Then the officials said to Baruch, &#8220;You and Jeremiah, go and hide. Don&#8217;t let anyone know where you are.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 20After they put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they went to the king in the courtyard and reported everything to him. 21The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it to the king and all the officials standing beside him. 22It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him. 23Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe&#8217;s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. 24The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes. 25Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. 26Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the Lord had hidden them.</div><div class="p"> 27After the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah&#8217;s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 28&#8220;Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up. 29Also tell Jehoiakim king of Judah, &#8216;This is what the Lord says: You burned that scroll and said, &#8220;Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon would certainly come and destroy this land and wipe from it both man and beast?&#8221; 30Therefore this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on the throne of David; his body will be thrown out and exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night. 31I will punish him and his children and his attendants for their wickedness; I will bring on them and those living in Jerusalem and the people of Judah every disaster I pronounced against them, because they have not listened.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 32So Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkJER">
 <div class="chapter ch37" data-usfm="JER.37">
 <div class="label">37</div><div class="s1">Jeremiah in Prison</div><div class="p"> 1Zedekiah son of Josiah was made king of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; he reigned in place of Jehoiachin#37:1 Hebrew Koniah, a variant of Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim. 2Neither he nor his attendants nor the people of the land paid any attention to the words the Lord had spoken through Jeremiah the prophet.</div><div class="p"> 3King Zedekiah, however, sent Jehukal son of Shelemiah with the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to Jeremiah the prophet with this message: &#8220;Please pray to the Lord our God for us.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4Now Jeremiah was free to come and go among the people, for he had not yet been put in prison. 5Pharaoh&#8217;s army had marched out of Egypt, and when the Babylonians#37:5 Or Chaldeans; also in verses 8, 9, 13 and 14 who were besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they withdrew from Jerusalem.</div><div class="p"> 6Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah the prophet: 7&#8220;This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of me, &#8216;Pharaoh&#8217;s army, which has marched out to support you, will go back to its own land, to Egypt. 8Then the Babylonians will return and attack this city; they will capture it and burn it down.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 9&#8220;This is what the Lord says: Do not deceive yourselves, thinking, &#8216;The Babylonians will surely leave us.&#8217; They will not! 10Even if you were to defeat the entire Babylonian#37:10 Or Chaldean; also in verse 11 army that is attacking you and only wounded men were left in their tents, they would come out and burn this city down.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 11After the Babylonian army had withdrawn from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh&#8217;s army, 12Jeremiah started to leave the city to go to the territory of Benjamin to get his share of the property among the people there. 13But when he reached the Benjamin Gate, the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, arrested him and said, &#8220;You are deserting to the Babylonians!&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 14&#8220;That&#8217;s not true!&#8221; Jeremiah said. &#8220;I am not deserting to the Babylonians.&#8221; But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested Jeremiah and brought him to the officials. 15They were angry with Jeremiah and had him beaten and imprisoned in the house of Jonathan the secretary, which they had made into a prison.</div><div class="p"> 16Jeremiah was put into a vaulted cell in a dungeon, where he remained a long time. 17Then King Zedekiah sent for him and had him brought to the palace, where he asked him privately, &#8220;Is there any word from the Lord?&#8221;</div><div class="p">&#8220;Yes,&#8221; Jeremiah replied, &#8220;you will be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 18Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, &#8220;What crime have I committed against you or your attendants or this people, that you have put me in prison? 19Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, &#8216;The king of Babylon will not attack you or this land&#8217;? 20But now, my lord the king, please listen. Let me bring my petition before you: Do not send me back to the house of Jonathan the secretary, or I will die there.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 21King Zedekiah then gave orders for Jeremiah to be placed in the courtyard of the guard and given a loaf of bread from the street of the bakers each day until all the bread in the city was gone. So Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.</div>
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 <div class="chapter ch38" data-usfm="JER.38">
 <div class="label">38</div><div class="s1">Jeremiah Thrown Into a Cistern</div><div class="p"> 1Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jehukal#38:1 Hebrew Jukal, a variant of Jehukal son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malkijah heard what Jeremiah was telling all the people when he said, 2&#8220;This is what the Lord says: &#8216;Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague, but whoever goes over to the Babylonians#38:2 Or Chaldeans; also in verses 18, 19 and 23 will live. They will escape with their lives; they will live.&#8217; 3And this is what the Lord says: &#8216;This city will certainly be given into the hands of the army of the king of Babylon, who will capture it.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 4Then the officials said to the king, &#8220;This man should be put to death. He is discouraging the soldiers who are left in this city, as well as all the people, by the things he is saying to them. This man is not seeking the good of these people but their ruin.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 5&#8220;He is in your hands,&#8221; King Zedekiah answered. &#8220;The king can do nothing to oppose you.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 6So they took Jeremiah and put him into the cistern of Malkijah, the king&#8217;s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah by ropes into the cistern; it had no water in it, only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.</div><div class="p"> 7But Ebed-Melek, a Cushite,#38:7 Probably from the upper Nile region an official#38:7 Or a eunuch in the royal palace, heard that they had put Jeremiah into the cistern. While the king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate, 8Ebed-Melek went out of the palace and said to him, 9&#8220;My lord the king, these men have acted wickedly in all they have done to Jeremiah the prophet. They have thrown him into a cistern, where he will starve to death when there is no longer any bread in the city.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 10Then the king commanded Ebed-Melek the Cushite, &#8220;Take thirty men from here with you and lift Jeremiah the prophet out of the cistern before he dies.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 11So Ebed-Melek took the men with him and went to a room under the treasury in the palace. He took some old rags and worn-out clothes from there and let them down with ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. 12Ebed-Melek the Cushite said to Jeremiah, &#8220;Put these old rags and worn-out clothes under your arms to pad the ropes.&#8221; Jeremiah did so, 13and they pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern. And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard.</div><div class="s1">Zedekiah Questions Jeremiah Again</div><div class="p"> 14Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah the prophet and had him brought to the third entrance to the temple of the Lord. &#8220;I am going to ask you something,&#8221; the king said to Jeremiah. &#8220;Do not hide anything from me.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 15Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, &#8220;If I give you an answer, will you not kill me? Even if I did give you counsel, you would not listen to me.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 16But King Zedekiah swore this oath secretly to Jeremiah: &#8220;As surely as the Lord lives, who has given us breath, I will neither kill you nor hand you over to those who want to kill you.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 17Then Jeremiah said to Zedekiah, &#8220;This is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: &#8216;If you surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, your life will be spared and this city will not be burned down; you and your family will live. 18But if you will not surrender to the officers of the king of Babylon, this city will be given into the hands of the Babylonians and they will burn it down; you yourself will not escape from them.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 19King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, &#8220;I am afraid of the Jews who have gone over to the Babylonians, for the Babylonians may hand me over to them and they will mistreat me.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 20&#8220;They will not hand you over,&#8221; Jeremiah replied. &#8220;Obey the Lord by doing what I tell you. Then it will go well with you, and your life will be spared. 21But if you refuse to surrender, this is what the Lord has revealed to me: 22All the women left in the palace of the king of Judah will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon. Those women will say to you:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;They misled you and overcame you&#8212;</div><div class="q2">those trusted friends of yours.</div><div class="q1">Your feet are sunk in the mud;</div><div class="q2">your friends have deserted you.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 23&#8220;All your wives and children will be brought out to the Babylonians. You yourself will not escape from their hands but will be captured by the king of Babylon; and this city will#38:23 Or and you will cause this city to be burned down.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 24Then Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, &#8220;Do not let anyone know about this conversation, or you may die. 25If the officials hear that I talked with you, and they come to you and say, &#8216;Tell us what you said to the king and what the king said to you; do not hide it from us or we will kill you,&#8217; 26then tell them, &#8216;I was pleading with the king not to send me back to Jonathan&#8217;s house to die there.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 27All the officials did come to Jeremiah and question him, and he told them everything the king had ordered him to say. So they said no more to him, for no one had heard his conversation with the king.</div><div class="p"> 28And Jeremiah remained in the courtyard of the guard until the day Jerusalem was captured.</div><div class="s1">The Fall of Jerusalem</div><div class="p">This is how Jerusalem was taken:</div>
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 <div class="label">2</div><div class="s1">Moral Benefits of Wisdom</div><div class="q1"> 1My son, if you accept my words</div><div class="q2">and store up my commands within you,</div><div class="q1"> 2turning your ear to wisdom</div><div class="q2">and applying your heart to understanding&#8212;</div><div class="q1"> 3indeed, if you call out for insight</div><div class="q2">and cry aloud for understanding,</div><div class="q1"> 4and if you look for it as for silver</div><div class="q2">and search for it as for hidden treasure,</div><div class="q1"> 5then you will understand the fear of the Lord</div><div class="q2">and find the knowledge of God.</div><div class="q1"> 6For the Lord gives wisdom;</div><div class="q2">from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.</div><div class="q1"> 7He holds success in store for the upright,</div><div class="q2">he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless,</div><div class="q1"> 8for he guards the course of the just</div><div class="q2">and protects the way of his faithful ones.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 9Then you will understand what is right and just</div><div class="q2">and fair&#8212;every good path.</div><div class="q1"> 10For wisdom will enter your heart,</div><div class="q2">and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.</div><div class="q1"> 11Discretion will protect you,</div><div class="q2">and understanding will guard you.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 12Wisdom will save you from the ways of wicked men,</div><div class="q2">from men whose words are perverse,</div><div class="q1"> 13who have left the straight paths</div><div class="q2">to walk in dark ways,</div><div class="q1"> 14who delight in doing wrong</div><div class="q2">and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,</div><div class="q1"> 15whose paths are crooked</div><div class="q2">and who are devious in their ways.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 16Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman,</div><div class="q2">from the wayward woman with her seductive words,</div><div class="q1"> 17who has left the partner of her youth</div><div class="q2">and ignored the covenant she made before God.#2:17 Or covenant of her God</div><div class="q1"> 18Surely her house leads down to death</div><div class="q2">and her paths to the spirits of the dead.</div><div class="q1"> 19None who go to her return</div><div class="q2">or attain the paths of life.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 20Thus you will walk in the ways of the good</div><div class="q2">and keep to the paths of the righteous.</div><div class="q1"> 21For the upright will live in the land,</div><div class="q2">and the blameless will remain in it;</div><div class="q1"> 22but the wicked will be cut off from the land,</div><div class="q2">and the unfaithful will be torn from it.</div>
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 <div class="label">5</div><div class="s1">Widows, Elders and Slaves</div><div class="p"> 1Do not rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2older women as mothers, and younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.</div><div class="p"> 3Give proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. 4But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this is pleasing to God. 5The widow who is really in need and left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to pray and to ask God for help. 6But the widow who lives for pleasure is dead even while she lives. 7Give the people these instructions, so that no one may be open to blame. 8Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.</div><div class="p"> 9No widow may be put on the list of widows unless she is over sixty, has been faithful to her husband, 10and is well known for her good deeds, such as bringing up children, showing hospitality, washing the feet of the Lord&#8217;s people, helping those in trouble and devoting herself to all kinds of good deeds.</div><div class="p"> 11As for younger widows, do not put them on such a list. For when their sensual desires overcome their dedication to Christ, they want to marry. 12Thus they bring judgment on themselves, because they have broken their first pledge. 13Besides, they get into the habit of being idle and going about from house to house. And not only do they become idlers, but also busybodies who talk nonsense, saying things they ought not to. 14So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander. 15Some have in fact already turned away to follow Satan.</div><div class="p"> 16If any woman who is a believer has widows in her care, she should continue to help them and not let the church be burdened with them, so that the church can help those widows who are really in need.</div><div class="p"> 17The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. 18For Scripture says, &#8220;Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain,&#8221;#5:18 Deut. 25:4 and &#8220;The worker deserves his wages.&#8221;#5:18 Luke 10:7 19Do not entertain an accusation against an elder unless it is brought by two or three witnesses. 20But those elders who are sinning you are to reprove before everyone, so that the others may take warning. 21I charge you, in the sight of God and Christ Jesus and the elect angels, to keep these instructions without partiality, and to do nothing out of favoritism.</div><div class="p"> 22Do not be hasty in the laying on of hands, and do not share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.</div><div class="p"> 23Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.</div><div class="p"> 24The sins of some are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them; the sins of others trail behind them. 25In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not obvious cannot remain hidden forever.</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="label">6</div><div class="p"> 1All who are under the yoke of slavery should consider their masters worthy of full respect, so that God&#8217;s name and our teaching may not be slandered. 2Those who have believing masters should not show them disrespect just because they are fellow believers. Instead, they should serve them even better because their masters are dear to them as fellow believers and are devoted to the welfare#6:2 Or and benefit from the service of their slaves.</div><div class="s1">False Teachers and the Love of Money</div><div class="p">These are the things you are to teach and insist on. 3If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, 4they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions 5and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.</div><div class="p"> 6But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.</div><div class="s1">Final Charge to Timothy</div><div class="p"> 11But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15which God will bring about in his own time&#8212;God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"> 17Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.</div><div class="p"> 20Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care. Turn away from godless chatter and the opposing ideas of what is falsely called knowledge, 21which some have professed and in so doing have departed from the faith.</div><div class="p">Grace be with you all.</div>
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