Family by Choice: God’s Heart for Family Beyond Biology

A Teen's Guide To: Victory in Christ

Why Trust the Bible?

More Than Money

We Are Family

Renew: To Transform, Be Transformed by God’s Mercy

Encounter: People Jesus Met, Then and Now

Enfolded: A Reflection on God’s Psalm 91 Promises

Wisdom in the Word

Can I Trust the Bible?

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 ch29" data-usfm="JER.29">
 <div class="label">29</div><div class="s1">A Letter to the Exiles</div><div class="p"> 1This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles and to the priests, the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2(This was after King Jehoiachin#29:2 Hebrew Jeconiah, a variant of Jehoiachin and the queen mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the skilled workers and the artisans had gone into exile from Jerusalem.) 3He entrusted the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon. It said:</div><div class="pm"> 4This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5&#8220;Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. 7Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.&#8221; 8Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: &#8220;Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. 9They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,&#8221; declares the Lord.</div><div class="pm"> 10This is what the Lord says: &#8220;When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my good promise to bring you back to this place. 11For I know the plans I have for you,&#8221; declares the Lord, &#8220;plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you,&#8221; declares the Lord, &#8220;and will bring you back from captivity.#29:14 Or will restore your fortunes I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you,&#8221; declares the Lord, &#8220;and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.&#8221;</div><div class="pm"> 15You may say, &#8220;The Lord has raised up prophets for us in Babylon,&#8221; 16but this is what the Lord says about the king who sits on David&#8217;s throne and all the people who remain in this city, your fellow citizens who did not go with you into exile&#8212; 17yes, this is what the Lord Almighty says: &#8220;I will send the sword, famine and plague against them and I will make them like figs that are so bad they cannot be eaten. 18I will pursue them with the sword, famine and plague and will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth, a curse#29:18 That is, their names will be used in cursing (see verse 22); or, others will see that they are cursed. and an object of horror, of scorn and reproach, among all the nations where I drive them. 19For they have not listened to my words,&#8221; declares the Lord, &#8220;words that I sent to them again and again by my servants the prophets. And you exiles have not listened either,&#8221; declares the Lord.</div><div class="pm"> 20Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, all you exiles whom I have sent away from Jerusalem to Babylon. 21This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, who are prophesying lies to you in my name: &#8220;I will deliver them into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he will put them to death before your very eyes. 22Because of them, all the exiles from Judah who are in Babylon will use this curse: &#8216;May the Lord treat you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon burned in the fire.&#8217; 23For they have done outrageous things in Israel; they have committed adultery with their neighbors&#8217; wives, and in my name they have uttered lies&#8212;which I did not authorize. I know it and am a witness to it,&#8221; declares the Lord.</div><div class="s1">Message to Shemaiah</div><div class="p"> 24Tell Shemaiah the Nehelamite, 25&#8220;This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: You sent letters in your own name to all the people in Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the other priests. You said to Zephaniah, 26&#8216;The Lord has appointed you priest in place of Jehoiada to be in charge of the house of the Lord; you should put any maniac who acts like a prophet into the stocks and neck-irons. 27So why have you not reprimanded Jeremiah from Anathoth, who poses as a prophet among you? 28He has sent this message to us in Babylon: It will be a long time. Therefore build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 29Zephaniah the priest, however, read the letter to Jeremiah the prophet. 30Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 31&#8220;Send this message to all the exiles: &#8216;This is what the Lord says about Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, even though I did not send him, and has persuaded you to trust in lies, 32this is what the Lord says: I will surely punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. He will have no one left among this people, nor will he see the good things I will do for my people, declares the Lord, because he has preached rebellion against me.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkJOB">
 <div class="chapter ch14" data-usfm="JOB.14">
 <div class="label">14</div><div class="q1"> 1&#8220;Mortals, born of woman,</div><div class="q2">are of few days and full of trouble.</div><div class="q1"> 2They spring up like flowers and wither away;</div><div class="q2">like fleeting shadows, they do not endure.</div><div class="q1"> 3Do you fix your eye on them?</div><div class="q2">Will you bring them#14:3 Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac; Hebrew me before you for judgment?</div><div class="q1"> 4Who can bring what is pure from the impure?</div><div class="q2">No one!</div><div class="q1"> 5A person&#8217;s days are determined;</div><div class="q2">you have decreed the number of his months</div><div class="q2">and have set limits he cannot exceed.</div><div class="q1"> 6So look away from him and let him alone,</div><div class="q2">till he has put in his time like a hired laborer.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 7&#8220;At least there is hope for a tree:</div><div class="q2">If it is cut down, it will sprout again,</div><div class="q2">and its new shoots will not fail.</div><div class="q1"> 8Its roots may grow old in the ground</div><div class="q2">and its stump die in the soil,</div><div class="q1"> 9yet at the scent of water it will bud</div><div class="q2">and put forth shoots like a plant.</div><div class="q1"> 10But a man dies and is laid low;</div><div class="q2">he breathes his last and is no more.</div><div class="q1"> 11As the water of a lake dries up</div><div class="q2">or a riverbed becomes parched and dry,</div><div class="q1"> 12so he lies down and does not rise;</div><div class="q2">till the heavens are no more, people will not awake</div><div class="q2">or be roused from their sleep.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 13&#8220;If only you would hide me in the grave</div><div class="q2">and conceal me till your anger has passed!</div><div class="q1">If only you would set me a time</div><div class="q2">and then remember me!</div><div class="q1"> 14If someone dies, will they live again?</div><div class="q2">All the days of my hard service</div><div class="q2">I will wait for my renewal#14:14 Or release to come.</div><div class="q1"> 15You will call and I will answer you;</div><div class="q2">you will long for the creature your hands have made.</div><div class="q1"> 16Surely then you will count my steps</div><div class="q2">but not keep track of my sin.</div><div class="q1"> 17My offenses will be sealed up in a bag;</div><div class="q2">you will cover over my sin.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 18&#8220;But as a mountain erodes and crumbles</div><div class="q2">and as a rock is moved from its place,</div><div class="q1"> 19as water wears away stones</div><div class="q2">and torrents wash away the soil,</div><div class="q2">so you destroy a person&#8217;s hope.</div><div class="q1"> 20You overpower them once for all, and they are gone;</div><div class="q2">you change their countenance and send them away.</div><div class="q1"> 21If their children are honored, they do not know it;</div><div class="q2">if their offspring are brought low, they do not see it.</div><div class="q1"> 22They feel but the pain of their own bodies</div><div class="q2">and mourn only for themselves.&#8221;</div>
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