Are they ashamed because they have done such disgusting things? No, they are not at all ashamed! They do not even know how to blush! So they will die just like others have died. ¹  They will be brought to ruin when I punish them, says the Lord.

So I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. There you must worship other gods day and night, for I will show you no mercy.’”

The person who gathers wealth by unjust means is like the partridge that broods over eggs but does not hatch them. ¹  Before his life is half over he will lose his ill-gotten gains. ²  At the end of his life it will be clear he was a fool.” ³ 

The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, ¹  when one of these people, or a prophet, or a priest asks you, ‘What burdensome message ²  do you have from the Lord?’ Tell them, ‘You are the burden, ³  and I will cast you away. ⁴  I, the Lord, affirm it! ⁵ 

They have turned away from me instead of turning to me. ¹  I tried over and over again ²  to instruct them, but they did not listen and respond to correction. ³ 

I sent my servants the prophets to you people over and over ¹  again warning you not to do this disgusting thing I hate. ² 

Kill all the farmers who sow the seed in the land of Babylon. Kill all those who wield the sickle at harvest time. ¹  Let all the foreigners return to their own people. Let them hurry back to their own lands to escape destruction by that enemy army. ² 

When you built your chamber at the head of every street and put up your pavilion in every public square, you were not like a prostitute, because you scoffed at payment. ¹ 

This is what the sovereign Lord says: “Here ¹  are the borders ²  you will observe as you allot the land to the twelve tribes of Israel. (Joseph will have two portions.) ³ 

The Babylonian tyrant ¹  pulls them all up with a fishhook; he hauls them in with his throw net. ²  When he catches ³  them in his dragnet, he is very happy. ⁴ 

“But all these nations will someday taunt him ¹  and ridicule him with proverbial sayings: ²  ‘The one who accumulates what does not belong to him is as good as dead ³  (How long will this go on?) ⁴  – he who gets rich by extortion!’ ⁵ 

From that time ¹  when one came expecting a heap of twenty measures, there were only ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty measures from it, there were only twenty.

so that it will not be obvious to others when you are fasting, but only to your Father who is in secret. And your Father, who sees in secret, will reward you.

The ¹  seed sown among thorns is the person who hears the word, but worldly cares and the seductiveness of wealth ²  choke the word, ³  so it produces nothing.

Let both grow together until the harvest. At ¹  harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned, but then ²  gather ³  the wheat into my barn.”’”

Then the one who had received the one talent came and said, ‘Sir, I knew that you were a hard man, harvesting where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed,

so that although they look they may look but not see, and although they hear they may hear but not understand, so they may not repent and be forgiven.” ¹ 

He ¹  saw them straining at the oars, because the wind was against them. As the night was ending, ²  he came to them walking on the sea, ³  for ⁴  he wanted to pass by them. ⁵ 

Then ¹  Jesus ²  left that place and went to the region of Judea and ³  beyond the Jordan River. ⁴  Again crowds gathered to him, and again, as was his custom, he taught them.

Then someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, ¹  put it on a stick, ²  and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Leave him alone! Let’s see if Elijah will come to take him down!”