Jeremiah 1:4-10 (NRSV)
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany
4Now the word of the LORD came to me saying,
5"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
and before you were born I consecrated you;
I appointed you a prophet to the nations."
6Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Truly I do not know how to speak, for I am only a boy." 7But the LORD said to me,
"Do not say, 'I am only a boy';
for you shall go to all to whom I send you,
and you shall speak whatever I command you.
8Do not be afraid of them,
for I am with you to deliver you,
says the LORD."
9Then the LORD put out his hand and touched my mouth; and the LORD said to me,
"Now I have put my words in your mouth.
10See, today I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms,
to pluck up and to pull down,
to destroy and to overthrow,
to build and to plant."
If you return to me, if you remove your abominations from my presence, ...then nations shall be blessed by him, - Daily Bible Reading: Saturday, January 15, 2022
Jeremiah 4:1-4 (NRSV)
1If you return, O Israel,
says the LORD,
if you return to me,
if you remove your abominations from my presence,
and do not waver,
2and if you swear, "As the LORD lives!"
in truth, in justice, and in uprightness,
then nations shall be blessed by him,
and by him they shall boast.
3For thus says the LORD to the people of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem:
Break up your fallow ground,
and do not sow among thorns.
4Circumcise yourselves to the LORD,
remove the foreskin of your hearts,
O people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem,
or else my wrath will go forth like fire,
and burn with no one to quench it,
because of the evil of your doings.
Return, O faithless children, I will heal your faithlessness. - Daily Bible Reading: Friday, January 14, 2022
Jeremiah 3:19-25 (NRSV)
19I thought how I would set you among my children,
and give you a pleasant land,
the most beautiful heritage of all the nations.
And I thought you would call me, My Father,
and would not turn from following me.
20Instead, as a faithless wife leaves her husband,
so you have been faithless to me, O house of Israel,
says the LORD.
21A voice on the bare heights is heard,
the plaintive weeping of Israel's children,
because they have perverted their way,
they have forgotten the LORD their God:
22Return, O faithless children,
I will heal your faithlessness.
"Here we come to you;
for you are the LORD our God.
23Truly the hills are a delusion,
the orgies on the mountains.
Truly in the LORD our God
is the salvation of Israel.
24But from our youth the shameful thing has devoured all for which our ancestors had labored, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25Let us lie down in our shame, and let our dishonor cover us; for we have sinned against the LORD our God, we and our ancestors, from our youth even to this day; and we have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God."
You have polluted the land with your whoring and wickedness. - Daily Bible Reading: Thursday, January 13, 2022
Jeremiah 3:1-5 (NRSV)
1If a man divorces his wife
and she goes from him
and becomes another man's wife,
will he return to her?
Would not such a land be greatly polluted?
You have played the whore with many lovers;
and would you return to me?
says the LORD.
2Look up to the bare heights, and see!
Where have you not been lain with?
By the waysides you have sat waiting for lovers,
like a nomad in the wilderness.
You have polluted the land
with your whoring and wickedness.
3Therefore the showers have been withheld,
and the spring rain has not come;
yet you have the forehead of a whore,
you refuse to be ashamed.
4Have you not just now called to me,
"My Father, you are the friend of my youth —
5will he be angry forever,
will he be indignant to the end?"
This is how you have spoken,
but you have done all the evil that you could.
ELCA's daily Bible readings are chosen from "Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings," prepared by Consultation on the Common Texts, © 2005.
All text is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyrighted, 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches USA, and is used by permission. All rights reserved.
