November 17
Nehemiah 1-2 & 2Peter 2
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Nehemiah 1-2

Chapter 1

1:1The words of Nehemiah son of Hacaliah:
During the month of Chislev in the twentieth year, when I was in the fortress city of Susa, 2Hanani, one of my brothers, arrived with men from Judah, and I questioned them about Jerusalem and the Jewish remnant that had survived the exile. 3They said to me, "The remnant in the province, who survived the exile, are in great trouble and disgrace. Jerusalem's wall has been broken down, and its gates have been burned down."
4When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven. 5I said,
Yahweh, the God of heaven, the great and awe-inspiring God who keeps His gracious covenant with those who love Him and keep His commands,
6let Your eyes be open and Your ears be attentive to hear Your servant's prayer that I now pray to You day and night for Your servants, the Israelites. I confess the sins we have committed against You. Both I and my father's house have sinned.
7We have acted corruptly toward You and have not kept the commands, statutes, and ordinances You gave Your servant Moses.
8Please remember what You commanded Your servant Moses: "If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the peoples.
9But if you return to Me and carefully observe My commands, even though your exiles were banished to the ends of the earth, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place where I chose to have My name dwell."
10They are Your servants and Your people. You redeemed them by Your great power and strong hand.
11Please, Lord, let Your ear be attentive to the prayer of Your servant and to that of Your servants who delight to revere Your name. Give Your servant success today, and have compassion on him in the presence of this man.
At the time, I was the king's cupbearer.

Chapter 2

2:1During the month of Nisan in the twentieth year of King Artaxerxes, when wine was set before him, I took the wine and gave it to the king. I had never been sad in his presence, 2so the king said to me, "Why are you sad, when you aren't sick? This is nothing but depression."
I was overwhelmed with fear 3and replied to the king, "May the king live forever! Why should I not be sad when the city where my ancestors are buried lies in ruins and its gates have been destroyed by fire?"
4Then the king asked me, "What is your request?"
So I prayed to the God of heaven 5and answered the king, "If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor with you, send me to Judah and to the city where my ancestors are buried, so that I may rebuild it."
6The king, with the queen seated beside him, asked me, "How long will your journey take, and when will you return?" So I gave him a definite time, and it pleased the king to send me.
7I also said to the king: "If it pleases the king, let me have letters written to the governors of the region west of the Euphrates River, so that they will grant me safe passage until I reach Judah. 8And let me have a letter written to Asaph, keeper of the king's forest, so that he will give me timber to rebuild the gates of the temple's fortress, the city wall, and the home where I will live." The king granted my requests, for I was graciously strengthened by my God.
9I went to the governors of the region west of the Euphrates and gave them the king's letters. The king had also sent officers of the infantry and cavalry with me. 10When Sanballat the Horonite and Tobiah the Ammonite official heard that someone had come to seek the well-being of the Israelites, they were greatly displeased.
11After I arrived in Jerusalem and had been there three days, 12I got up at night and took a few men with me. I didn't tell anyone what my God had laid on my heart to do for Jerusalem. The only animal I took was the one I was riding. 13I went out at night through the Valley Gate toward the Serpent's Well and the Dung Gate, and I inspected the walls of Jerusalem that had been broken down and its gates that had been destroyed by fire. 14I went on to the Fountain Gate and the King's Pool, but farther down it became too narrow for my animal to go through. 15So I went up at night by way of the valley and inspected the wall. Then heading back, I entered through the Valley Gate and returned. 16The officials did not know where I had gone or what I was doing, for I had not yet told the Jews, priests, nobles, officials, or the rest of those who would be doing the work. 17So I said to them, "You see the trouble we are in. Jerusalem lies in ruins and its gates have been burned down. Come, let's rebuild Jerusalem's wall, so that we will no longer be a disgrace." 18I told them how the gracious hand of my God had been on me, and what the king had said to me.
They said, "Let's start rebuilding," and they were encouraged to do this good work.
19When Sanballat the Horonite, Tobiah the Ammonite official, and Geshem the Arab heard about this, they mocked and despised us, and said, "What is this you're doing? Are you rebelling against the king?"
20I gave them this reply, "The God of heaven is the One who will grant us success. We, His servants, will start building, but you have no share, right, or historic claim in Jerusalem."

2Peter 2

Chapter 2

2:1But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, and will bring swift destruction on themselves. 2Many will follow their unrestrained ways, and the way of truth will be blasphemed because of them. 3They will exploit you in their greed with deceptive words. Their condemnation, pronounced long ago, is not idle, and their destruction does not sleep.
4For if God didn't spare the angels who sinned but threw them down into Tartarus and delivered them to be kept in chains of darkness until judgment; 5and if He didn't spare the ancient world, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others, when He brought a flood on the world of the ungodly; 6and if He reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes and condemned them to ruin, making them an example to those who were going to be ungodly; 7and if He rescued righteous Lot, distressed by the unrestrained behavior of the immoral 8(for as he lived among them, that righteous man tormented himself day by day with the lawless deeds he saw and heard)- 9then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10especially those who follow the polluting desires of the flesh and despise authority.
Bold, arrogant people! They do not tremble when they blaspheme the glorious ones; 11however, angels, who are greater in might and power, do not bring a slanderous charge against them before the Lord. 12But these people, like irrational animals-creatures of instinct born to be caught and destroyed-speak blasphemies about things they don't understand, and in their destruction they too will be destroyed, 13suffering harm as the payment for unrighteousness. They consider it a pleasure to carouse in the daytime. They are spots and blemishes, delighting in their deceptions as they feast with you. 14They have eyes full of adultery and are always looking for sin. They seduce unstable people and have hearts trained in greed. Children under a curse! 15They have gone astray by abandoning the straight path and have followed the path of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness 16but received a rebuke for his transgression: A donkey that could not talk spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet's irrationality.
17These people are springs without water, mists driven by a whirlwind. The gloom of darkness has been reserved for them. 18For by uttering boastful, empty words, they seduce, with fleshly desires and debauchery, people who have barely escaped from those who live in error. 19They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption, since people are enslaved to whatever defeats them. 20For if, having escaped the world's impurity through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in these things and defeated, the last state is worse for them than the first. 21For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy command delivered to them. 22It has happened to them according to the true proverb: A dog returns to its own vomit, and, "a sow, after washing itself, wallows in the mud."

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