Saturday in Season after Pentecost

31Verse 31. Then David ordered Joab and all the people with him, “Tear your clothes, put on sackcloth, and mourn before Abner.” And King David himself walked behind the funeral bier. 32Verse 32. When they buried Abner in Hebron, the king wept aloud at Abner’s tomb, and all the people wept. 33Verse 33. And the king sang this lament for Abner: “Should Abner die the death of a fool? 34Verse 34. Your hands were not bound, your feet were not fettered. As a man falls before the wicked, so also you fell.” And all the people wept over him even more. 35Verse 35. Then all the people came and urged David to eat something while it was still day, but David took an oath, saying, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if I taste bread or anything else before the sun sets!” 36Verse 36. All the people took note and were pleased. In fact, everything the king did pleased them. 37Verse 37. So on that day all the troops and all Israel were convinced that the king had no part in the murder of Abner son of Ner. 38Verse 38. Then the king said to his servants, “Do you not realize that a great prince has fallen today in Israel?

27Verse 27. When you tell them all these things, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer. 28Verse 28. Therefore you must say to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the voice of the LORD their God and would not receive correction. Truth has perished; it has disappeared from their lips. 29Verse 29. Cut off your hair and throw it away. Raise up a lamentation on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’ 30Verse 30. For the people of Judah have done evil in My sight, declares the LORD. They have set up their abominations in the house that bears My Name, and so have defiled it. 31Verse 31. They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire — something I never commanded, nor did it even enter My mind. 32Verse 32. So behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when this place will no longer be called Topheth and the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. For they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. 33Verse 33. The corpses of this people will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to scare them away. 34Verse 34. I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sounds of joy and gladness and the voices of the bride and bridegroom, for the land will become a wasteland.”