July 27
Jeremiah 52 & John 7
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Jeremiah 52

Chapter 52

52:1Zedekiah was 21 years old when he became king and reigned 11 years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. 2Zedekiah did what was evil in the Lord's sight just as Jehoiakim had done. 3Because of the Lord's anger, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that He finally banished them from His presence. Nevertheless, Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4In the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall all around it. 5The city was under siege until King Zedekiah's eleventh year.
6By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the people of the land had no food. 7Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled. They left the city by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king's garden, though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. They made their way along the route to the Arabah. 8The Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah's entire army was scattered from him. 9The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.
10At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah's sons before his eyes and also slaughtered the Judean commanders. 11Then he blinded Zedekiah and bound him with bronze chains. The king of Babylon brought Zedekiah to Babylon, where he kept him in custody until his dying day.
12On the tenth day of the fifth month-which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon-Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, entered Jerusalem as the representative of the king of Babylon. 13He burned the Lord's temple, the king's palace, all the houses of Jerusalem, and all the houses of the nobles. 14The whole Chaldean army with the commander of the guards tore down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem. 15Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, deported some of the poorest of the people, as well as the rest of the people who were left in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. 16But some of the poorest people of the land Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, left to be vinedressers and farmers.
17Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars for the Lord's temple and the water carts and the bronze reservoir that were in the Lord's temple, and carried all the bronze to Babylon. 18They took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. 19The commander of the guards took away the bowls, firepans, sprinkling basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and drink offering bowls-whatever was gold or silver.
20As for the two pillars, the one reservoir, and the 12 bronze bulls under the water carts that King Solomon had made for the Lord's temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. 21One pillar was 27 feet tall, had a circumference of 18 feet, was hollow-four fingers thick- 22and had a bronze capital on top of it. One capital, encircled by bronze latticework and pomegranates, stood 7?2 feet high. The second pillar was the same, with pomegranates. 23Each capital had 96 pomegranates all around it. All the pomegranates around the latticework numbered 100.
24The commander of the guards also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three doorkeepers. 25From the city he took a court official who had been appointed over the warriors; seven trusted royal aides found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army, who enlisted the people of the land for military duty; and 60 men from the common people who were found within the city. 26Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from its land.
28These are the people Nebuchadnezzar deported: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews; 29in his eighteenth year, 832 people from Jerusalem; 30in Nebuchadnezzar's twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, the commander of the guards, deported 745 Jews. All together 4,600 people were deported.
31On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judah's King Jehoiachin, Evil-merodach king of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison. 32He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 33So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and he dined regularly in the presence of the king of Babylon for the rest of his life. 34As for his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, for the rest of his life.

John 7

Chapter 7

7:1After this, Jesus traveled in Galilee, since He did not want to travel in Judea because the Jews were trying to kill Him. 2The Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, 3so His brothers said to Him, "Leave here and go to Judea so Your disciples can see Your works that You are doing. 4For no one does anything in secret while he's seeking public recognition. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world." 5(For not even His brothers believed in Him.)
6Jesus told them, "My time has not yet arrived, but your time is always at hand. 7The world cannot hate you, but it does hate Me because I testify about it-that its deeds are evil. 8Go up to the festival yourselves. I'm not going up to the festival yet, because My time has not yet fully come." 9After He had said these things, He stayed in Galilee.
10After His brothers had gone up to the festival, then He also went up, not openly but secretly. 11The Jews were looking for Him at the festival and saying, "Where is He?" 12And there was a lot of discussion about Him among the crowds. Some were saying, "He's a good man." Others were saying, "No, on the contrary, He's deceiving the people." 13Still, nobody was talking publicly about Him because they feared the Jews.
14When the festival was already half over, Jesus went up into the temple complex and began to teach. 15Then the Jews were amazed and said, "How does He know the Scriptures, since He hasn't been trained?"
16Jesus answered them, "My teaching isn't Mine but is from the One who sent Me. 17If anyone wants to do His will, he will understand whether the teaching is from God or if I am speaking on My own. 18The one who speaks for himself seeks his own glory. But He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and there is no unrighteousness in Him. 19Didn't Moses give you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law! Why do you want to kill Me?"
20"You have a demon!" the crowd responded. "Who wants to kill You?"
21"I did one work, and you are all amazed," Jesus answered. 22"Consider this: Moses has given you circumcision-not that it comes from Moses but from the fathers-and you circumcise a man on the Sabbath. 23If a man receives circumcision on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses won't be broken, are you angry at Me because I made a man entirely well on the Sabbath? 24Stop judging according to outward appearances; rather judge according to righteous judgment."
25Some of the people of Jerusalem were saying, "Isn't this the man they want to kill? 26Yet, look! He's speaking publicly and they're saying nothing to Him. Can it be true that the authorities know He is the Messiah? 27But we know where this man is from. When the Messiah comes, nobody will know where He is from."
28As He was teaching in the temple complex, Jesus cried out, "You know Me and you know where I am from. Yet I have not come on My own, but the One who sent Me is true. You don't know Him; 29I know Him because I am from Him, and He sent Me."
30Then they tried to seize Him. Yet no one laid a hand on Him because His hour had not yet come. 31However, many from the crowd believed in Him and said, "When the Messiah comes, He won't perform more signs than this man has done, will He?"
32The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about Him, so the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple police to arrest Him.
33Then Jesus said, "I am only with you for a short time. Then I'm going to the One who sent Me. 34You will look for Me, but you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come."
35Then the Jews said to one another, "Where does He intend to go so we won't find Him? He doesn't intend to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks and teach the Greeks, does He? 36What is this remark He made: 'You will look for Me, and you will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come'?"
37On the last and most important day of the festival, Jesus stood up and cried out, "If anyone is thirsty, he should come to Me and drink! 38The one who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, will have streams of living water flow from deep within him." 39He said this about the Spirit. Those who believed in Jesus were going to receive the Spirit, for the Spirit had not yet been received because Jesus had not yet been glorified.
40When some from the crowd heard these words, they said, "This really is the Prophet!" 41Others said, "This is the Messiah!" But some said, "Surely the Messiah doesn't come from Galilee, does He? 42Doesn't the Scripture say that the Messiah comes from David's offspring and from the town of Bethlehem, where David once lived?" 43So a division occurred among the crowd because of Him. 44Some of them wanted to seize Him, but no one laid hands on Him.
45Then the temple police came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who asked them, "Why haven't you brought Him?"
46The police answered, "No man ever spoke like this!"
47Then the Pharisees responded to them: "Are you fooled too? 48Have any of the rulers or Pharisees believed in Him? 49But this crowd, which doesn't know the law, is accursed!"
50Nicodemus-the one who came to Him previously, being one of them-said to them, 51"Our law doesn't judge a man before it hears from him and knows what he's doing, does it?"
52"You aren't from Galilee too, are you?" they replied. "Investigate and you will see that no prophet arises from Galilee."
53[So each one went to his house.

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