Monday in Season after Pentecost

12Verse 12. But they will reply, ‘It is hopeless. We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’” 13Verse 13. Therefore this is what the LORD says: “Inquire among the nations: Who has ever heard things like these? Virgin Israel has done a most terrible thing. 14Verse 14. Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave its rocky slopes? Or do its cool waters flowing from a distance ever run dry? 15Verse 15. Yet My people have forgotten Me. They burn incense to worthless idols that make them stumble in their ways, leaving the ancient roads to walk on rutted bypaths instead of on the highway. 16Verse 16. They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads. 17Verse 17. I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind. I will show them My back and not My face in the day of their calamity.” 18Verse 18. Then some said, “Come, let us make plans against Jeremiah, for the law will never be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the wise, nor an oracle to the prophet. Come, let us denounce him and pay no heed to any of his words.” 19Verse 19. Attend to me, O LORD. Hear what my accusers are saying! 20Verse 20. Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You to speak good on their behalf, to turn Your wrath from them. 21Verse 21. Therefore, hand their children over to famine; pour out the power of the sword upon them. Let their wives become childless and widowed; let their husbands be slain by disease, their young men struck down by the sword in battle. 22Verse 22. Let a cry be heard from their houses when You suddenly bring raiders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet. 23Verse 23. But You, O LORD, know all their deadly plots against me. Do not wipe out their guilt or blot out their sin from Your sight. Let them be overthrown before You; deal with them in the time of Your anger.

24Verse 24. Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Avva, Hamath, and Sepharvaim and settled them in the towns of Samaria to replace the Israelites. They took possession of Samaria and lived in its towns. 25Verse 25. Now when the settlers first lived there, they did not worship the LORD, so He sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26Verse 26. So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The peoples that you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the requirements of the God of the land. Because of this, He has sent lions among them, which are indeed killing them off.” 27Verse 27. Then the king of Assyria commanded: “Send back one of the priests you carried off from Samaria, and have him go back to live there and teach the requirements of the God of the land.” 28Verse 28. Thus one of the priests they had carried away came and lived in Bethel, and he began to teach them how they should worship the LORD. 29Verse 29. Nevertheless, the people of each nation continued to make their own gods in the cities where they had settled, and they set them up in the shrines that the people of Samaria had made on the high places. 30Verse 30. The men of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31Verse 31. the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim. 32Verse 32. So the new residents worshiped the LORD, but they also appointed for themselves priests of all sorts to serve in the shrines of the high places. 33Verse 33. They worshiped the LORD, but they also served their own gods according to the customs of the nations from which they had been carried away. 34Verse 34. To this day they are still practicing their former customs. None of them worship the LORD or observe the statutes, ordinances, laws, and commandments that the LORD gave the descendants of Jacob, whom He named Israel. 35Verse 35. For the LORD had made a covenant with the Israelites and commanded them, “Do not worship other gods or bow down to them; do not serve them or sacrifice to them. 36Verse 36. Instead, worship the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm. You are to bow down to Him and offer sacrifices to Him. 37Verse 37. And you must always be careful to observe the statutes, ordinances, laws, and commandments He wrote for you. Do not worship other gods. 38Verse 38. Do not forget the covenant I have made with you. Do not worship other gods, 39Verse 39. but worship the LORD your God, and He will deliver you from the hands of all your enemies.” 40Verse 40. But they would not listen, and they persisted in their former customs. 41Verse 41. So these nations worshiped the LORD but also served their idols, and to this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their fathers did.