2“And although they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’
         Surely they swear falsely.”

3O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth?
         You have smitten them,
         But they did not weaken;
         You have consumed them,
         But they refused to take correction.
         They have made their faces harder than rock;
         They have refused to repent.

4Then I said, “They are only the poor,
         They are foolish;
         For they do not know the way of the LORD
         Or the ordinance of their God.

5“I will go to the great
         And will speak to them,
         For they know the way of the LORD
         And the ordinance of their God.”
         But they too, with one accord, have broken the yoke
         And burst the bonds.

6Therefore a lion from the forest will slay them,
         A wolf of the deserts will destroy them,
         A leopard is watching their cities.
         Everyone who goes out of them will be torn in pieces,
         Because their transgressions are many,
         Their apostasies are numerous.

7“Why should I pardon you?
         Your sons have forsaken Me
         And sworn by those who are not gods.
         When I had fed them to the full,
         They committed adultery
         And trooped to the harlot’s house.

8“They were well-fed lusty horses,
         Each one neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

9“Shall I not punish these people,” declares the LORD,
         “And on a nation such as this
         Shall I not avenge Myself?

10“Go up through her vine rows and destroy,
         But do not execute a complete destruction;
         Strip away her branches,
         For they are not the LORD’S.

11“For the house of Israel and the house of Judah
         Have dealt very treacherously with Me,” declares the LORD.

12They have lied about the LORD
         And said, “Not He;
         Misfortune will not come on us,
         And we will not see sword or famine.

13“The prophets are as wind,
         And the word is not in them.
         Thus it will be done to them!”

Judgment Proclaimed

14Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of hosts,
         “Because you have spoken this word,
         Behold, I am making My words in your mouth fire
         And this people wood, and it will consume them.

15“Behold, I am bringing a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel,” declares the LORD.
         “It is an enduring nation,
         It is an ancient nation,
         A nation whose language you do not know,
         Nor can you understand what they say.

16“Their quiver is like an open grave,
         All of them are mighty men.

17“They will devour your harvest and your food;
         They will devour your sons and your daughters;
         They will devour your flocks and your herds;
         They will devour your vines and your fig trees;
         They will demolish with the sword your fortified cities in which you trust.

      18“Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I will not make you a complete destruction. 19“It shall come about when they say, ‘Why has the LORD our God done all these things to us?’ then you shall say to them, ‘As you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you will serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’

20“Declare this in the house of Jacob
         And proclaim it in Judah, saying,

21‘Now hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
         Who have eyes but do not see;
         Who have ears but do not hear.

22‘Do you not fear Me?’ declares the LORD.
         ‘Do you not tremble in My presence?
         For I have placed the sand as a boundary for the sea,
         An eternal decree, so it cannot cross over it.
         Though the waves toss, yet they cannot prevail;
         Though they roar, yet they cannot cross over it.

23‘But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart;
         They have turned aside and departed.

24‘They do not say in their heart,
         “Let us now fear the LORD our God,
         Who gives rain in its season,
         Both the autumn rain and the spring rain,
         Who keeps for us
         The appointed weeks of the harvest.”

25‘Your iniquities have turned these away,
         And your sins have withheld good from you.

26‘For wicked men are found among My people,
         They watch like fowlers lying in wait;
         They set a trap,
         They catch men.

27‘Like a cage full of birds,
         So their houses are full of deceit;
         Therefore they have become great and rich.

28‘They are fat, they are sleek,
         They also excel in deeds of wickedness;
         They do not plead the cause,
         The cause of the orphan, that they may prosper;
         And they do not defend the rights of the poor.

29‘Shall I not punish these people?’ declares the LORD,
         ‘On a nation such as this
         Shall I not avenge Myself?’

30“An appalling and horrible thing
         Has happened in the land:

31The prophets prophesy falsely,
         And the priests rule on their own authority;
         And My people love it so!
         But what will you do at the end of it?

NASB ©1995

American Standard Version
And though they say, As Jehovah liveth; surely they swear falsely.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And though they say: The Lord liveth; this also they will swear falsely.

Darby Bible Translation
And if they say, As Jehovah liveth! surely they swear falsely.

English Revised Version
And though they say, As the LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.

Webster's Bible Translation
And though they say, The LORD liveth; surely they swear falsely.

World English Bible
Though they say, 'As Yahweh lives;' surely they swear falsely."

Young's Literal Translation
And if they say, 'Jehovah liveth,' Surely to a falsehood they swear.A Question for the Beginning
'What will ye do in the end?'--JER. v. 31. I find that I preached to the young from this text just thirty years since--nearly a generation ago. How few of my then congregation are here to-night! how changed they and I are! and how much nearer the close we have drifted! How many of the young men and women of that evening have gone to meet the end, and how many of them have wrecked their lives because they would not face and answer this question! Ah, dear young friends, if I could bring some of the …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Storming the Battlements
Jerusalem had sinned against God; she had rebelled against the most High, had set up for herself false gods, and bowed before them; and when God threatened her with chastisement, she built around herself strong battlements and bastions. She said "I am safe and secure. What though Jehovah hath gone away, I will trust in the gods of nations. Though the Temple is cast down, yet we will rely upon these bulwarks and strong fortifications that we have erected." "Ah!" says God, "Jerusalem, I will punish …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

God's Barriers against Man's Sin
I am slowly rallying. My great struggle now is with weakness. I feel as if my frail bark had weathered a heavy storm which has made every timber creak. Do not attribute this illness to my having laboured too hard for my Master. For his dear sake, I would that I may yet be able to labour more. Such toils as might be hardly noticed in the ramp for the service of one's country, would excite astonishment in the church for the service of our God. And now, I entreat you for love's sake to continue in prayer …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858

Tithing
"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in Mine house, and prove Me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it" (Mal. 3:10). Down deep in the heart of every Christian there is undoubtedly the conviction that he ought to tithe. There is an uneasy feeling that this is a duty which has been neglected, or, if you prefer it, a privilege that has not been …
Arthur W. Pink—Tithing

How those who Fear Scourges and those who Contemn them are to be Admonished.
(Admonition 14.) Differently to be admonished are those who fear scourges, and on that account live innocently, and those who have grown so hard in wickedness as not to be corrected even by scourges. For those who fear scourges are to be told by no means to desire temporal goods as being of great account, seeing that bad men also have them, and by no means to shun present evils as intolerable, seeing they are not ignorant how for the most part good men also are touched by them. They are to be admonished …
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

The Purpose in the Coming of Jesus.
God Spelling Himself out in Jesus: change in the original language--bother in spelling Jesus out--sticklers for the old forms--Jesus' new spelling of old words. Jesus is God following us up: God heart-broken--man's native air--bad choice affected man's will--the wrong lane--God following us up. The Early Eden Picture, Genesis 1:26-31. 2:7-25: unfallen man--like God--the breath of God in man--a spirit, infinite, eternal--love--holy--wise--sovereign over creation, Psalm 8:5-8--in his own will--summary--God's …
S. D. Gordon—Quiet Talks about Jesus

Purposes of God.
In discussing this subject I shall endeavor to show, I. What I understand by the purposes of God. Purposes, in this discussion, I shall use as synonymous with design, intention. The purposes of God must be ultimate and proximate. That is, God has and must have an ultimate end. He must purpose to accomplish something by his works and providence, which he regards as a good in itself, or as valuable to himself, and to being in general. This I call his ultimate end. That God has such an end or purpose, …
Charles Grandison Finney—Systematic Theology

"And Hereby we do Know that we Know Him, if we Keep his Commandments. "
1 John ii. 3.--"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." This age pretends to much knowledge beyond former ages, knowledge, I say, not only in other natural arts and sciences, but especially in religion. Whether there be any great advancement in other knowledge, and improvement of that which was, to a further extent and clearness, I cannot judge, but I believe there is not much of it in this nation, nor do we so much pretend to it. But, we talk of the enlargements of …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Covenanting According to the Purposes of God.
Since every revealed purpose of God, implying that obedience to his law will be given, is a demand of that obedience, the announcement of his Covenant, as in his sovereignty decreed, claims, not less effectively than an explicit law, the fulfilment of its duties. A representation of a system of things pre-determined in order that the obligations of the Covenant might be discharged; various exhibitions of the Covenant as ordained; and a description of the children of the Covenant as predestinated …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Medes and the Second Chaldaean Empire
THE FALL OF NINEVEH AND THE RISE OF THE CHALDAEAN AND MEDIAN EMPIRES--THE XXVIth EGYPTIAN DYNASTY: CYAXARES, ALYATTES, AND NEBUCHADREZZAR. The legendary history of the kings of Media and the first contact of the Medes with the Assyrians: the alleged Iranian migrations of the Avesta--Media-proper, its fauna and flora; Phraortes and the beginning of the Median empire--Persia proper and the Persians; conquest of Persia by the Medes--The last monuments of Assur-bani-pal: the library of Kouyunjik--Phraortes …
G. Maspero—History Of Egypt, Chaldaea, Syria, Babylonia, and Assyria, V 8

"If So be that the Spirit of God Dwell in You. Now if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ, He is None of His. "
Rom. viii. 9.--"If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." "But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth?" 2 Chron. vi. 18. It was the wonder of one of the wisest of men, and indeed, considering his infinite highness above the height of heavens, his immense and incomprehensible greatness, that the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, and then the baseness, emptiness, and worthlessness of man, it may be a wonder to the …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

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