Today’s Reading :  Lamentations 2 - 5  and  Revelation 20   (KJV)                                                                         

 

 

Lamentations 2

Lam 2:1  How hath the Lord covered the daughter of Zion with a cloud in his anger, and cast down from heaven unto the earth the beauty of Israel, and remembered not his footstool in the day of his anger!

Lam 2:2  The Lord hath swallowed up all the habitations of Jacob, and hath not pitied: he hath thrown down in his wrath the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he hath brought them down to the ground: he hath polluted the kingdom and the princes thereof.

Lam 2:3  He hath cut off in his fierce anger all the horn of Israel: he hath drawn back his right hand from before the enemy, and he burned against Jacob like a flaming fire, which devoureth round about.

Lam 2:4  He hath bent his bow like an enemy: he stood with his right hand as an adversary, and slew all that were pleasant to the eye in the tabernacle of the daughter of Zion: he poured out his fury like fire.

Lam 2:5  The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strongholds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.

Lam 2:6  And he hath violently taken away his tabernacle, as if it were of a garden: he hath destroyed his places of the assembly: the LORD hath caused the solemn feasts and sabbaths to be forgotten in Zion, and hath despised in the indignation of his anger the king and the priest.

Lam 2:7  The Lord hath cast off his altar, he hath abhorred his sanctuary, he hath given up into the hand of the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have made a noise in the house of the LORD, as in the day of a solemn feast.

Lam 2:8  The LORD hath purposed to destroy the wall of the daughter of Zion: he hath stretched out a line, he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying: therefore he made the rampart and the wall to lament; they languished together.

Lam 2:9  Her gates are sunk into the ground; he hath destroyed and broken her bars: her king and her princes are among the Gentiles: the law is no more; her prophets also find no vision from the LORD.

Lam 2:10  The elders of the daughter of Zion sit upon the ground, and keep silence: they have cast up dust upon their heads; they have girded themselves with sackcloth: the virgins of Jerusalem hang down their heads to the ground.

Lam 2:11  Mine eyes do fail with tears, my bowels are troubled, my liver is poured upon the earth, for the destruction of the daughter of my people; because the children and the sucklings swoon in the streets of the city.

Lam 2:12  They say to their mothers, Where is corn and wine? when they swooned as the wounded in the streets of the city, when their soul was poured out into their mothers' bosom.

Lam 2:13  What thing shall I take to witness for thee? what thing shall I liken to thee, O daughter of Jerusalem? what shall I equal to thee, that I may comfort thee, O virgin daughter of Zion? for thy breach is great like the sea: who can heal thee?

Lam 2:14  Thy prophets have seen vain and foolish things for thee: and they have not discovered thine iniquity, to turn away thy captivity; but have seen for thee false burdens and causes of banishment.

Lam 2:15  All that pass by clap their hands at thee; they hiss and wag their head at the daughter of Jerusalem, saying, Is this the city that men call The perfection of beauty, The joy of the whole earth?

Lam 2:16  All thine enemies have opened their mouth against thee: they hiss and gnash the teeth: they say, We have swallowed her up: certainly this is the day that we looked for; we have found, we have seen it.

Lam 2:17  The LORD hath done that which he had devised; he hath fulfilled his word that he had commanded in the days of old: he hath thrown down, and hath not pitied: and he hath caused thine enemy to rejoice over thee, he hath set up the horn of thine adversaries.

Lam 2:18  Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion, let tears run down like a river day and night: give thyself no rest; let not the apple of thine eye cease.

Lam 2:19  Arise, cry out in the night: in the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart like water before the face of the Lord: lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children, that faint for hunger in the top of every street.

Lam 2:20  Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom thou hast done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

Lam 2:21  The young and the old lie on the ground in the streets: my virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword; thou hast slain them in the day of thine anger; thou hast killed, and not pitied.

Lam 2:22  Thou hast called as in a solemn day my terrors round about, so that in the day of the LORD's anger none escaped nor remained: those that I have swaddled and brought up hath mine enemy consumed.

 

Lamentations 3

Lam 3:1  I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

Lam 3:2  He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

Lam 3:3  Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

Lam 3:4  My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.

Lam 3:5  He hath built against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.

Lam 3:6  He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

Lam 3:7  He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy.

Lam 3:8  Also when I cry and shout, he shutteth out my prayer.

Lam 3:9  He hath enclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath made my paths crooked.

Lam 3:10  He was unto me as a bear lying in wait, and as a lion in secret places.

Lam 3:11  He hath turned aside my ways, and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate.

Lam 3:12  He hath bent his bow, and set me as a mark for the arrow.

Lam 3:13  He hath caused the arrows of his quiver to enter into my reins.

Lam 3:14  I was a derision to all my people; and their song all the day.

Lam 3:15  He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.

Lam 3:16  He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.

Lam 3:17  And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace: I forgot prosperity.

Lam 3:18  And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the LORD:

Lam 3:19  Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

Lam 3:20  My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

Lam 3:21  This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

Lam 3:22  It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

Lam 3:23  They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

Lam 3:24  The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

Lam 3:25  The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

Lam 3:26  It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.

Lam 3:27  It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

Lam 3:28  He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.

Lam 3:29  He putteth his mouth in the dust; if so be there may be hope.

Lam 3:30  He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him: he is filled full with reproach.

Lam 3:31  For the Lord will not cast off forever:

Lam 3:32  But though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies.

Lam 3:33  For he doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men.

Lam 3:34  To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth,

Lam 3:35  To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High,

Lam 3:36  To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

Lam 3:37  Who is he that saith, and it cometh to pass, when the Lord commandeth it not?

Lam 3:38  Out of the mouth of the most High proceedeth not evil and good?

Lam 3:39  Wherefore doth a living man complain, a man for the punishment of his sins?

Lam 3:40  Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD.

Lam 3:41  Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

Lam 3:42  We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

Lam 3:43  Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us: thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.

Lam 3:44  Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.

Lam 3:45  Thou hast made us as the offscouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

Lam 3:46  All our enemies have opened their mouths against us.

Lam 3:47  Fear and a snare is come upon us, desolation and destruction.

Lam 3:48  Mine eye runneth down with rivers of water for the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Lam 3:49  Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission,

Lam 3:50  Till the LORD look down, and behold from heaven.

Lam 3:51  Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.

Lam 3:52  Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.

Lam 3:53  They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

Lam 3:54  Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

Lam 3:55  I called upon thy name, O LORD, out of the low dungeon.

Lam 3:56  Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

Lam 3:57  Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

Lam 3:58  O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

Lam 3:59  O LORD, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

Lam 3:60  Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.

Lam 3:61  Thou hast heard their reproach, O LORD, and all their imaginations against me;

Lam 3:62  The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

Lam 3:63  Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their music.

Lam 3:64  Render unto them a recompense, O LORD, according to the work of their hands.

Lam 3:65  Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.

Lam 3:66  Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the LORD.

 

Lamentations 4

Lam 4:1  How is the gold become dim! how is the most fine gold changed! the stones of the sanctuary are poured out in the top of every street.

Lam 4:2  The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter!

Lam 4:3  Even the sea monsters draw out the breast, they give suck to their young ones: the daughter of my people is become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness.

Lam 4:4  The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst: the young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them.

Lam 4:5  They that did feed delicately are desolate in the streets: they that were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills.

Lam 4:6  For the punishment of the iniquity of the daughter of my people is greater than the punishment of the sin of Sodom, that was overthrown as in a moment, and no hands stayed on her.

Lam 4:7  Her Nazarites were purer than snow, they were whiter than milk, they were more ruddy in body than rubies, their polishing was of sapphire:

Lam 4:8  Their visage is blacker than a coal; they are not known in the streets: their skin cleaveth to their bones; it is withered, it is become like a stick.

Lam 4:9  They that be slain with the sword are better than they that be slain with hunger: for these pine away, stricken through for want of the fruits of the field.

Lam 4:10  The hands of the pitiful women have sodden their own children: they were their meat in the destruction of the daughter of my people.

Lam 4:11  The LORD hath accomplished his fury; he hath poured out his fierce anger, and hath kindled a fire in Zion, and it hath devoured the foundations thereof.

Lam 4:12  The kings of the earth, and all the inhabitants of the world, would not have believed that the adversary and the enemy should have entered into the gates of Jerusalem.

Lam 4:13  For the sins of her prophets, and the iniquities of her priests, that have shed the blood of the just in the midst of her,

Lam 4:14  They have wandered as blind men in the streets, they have polluted themselves with blood, so that men could not touch their garments.

Lam 4:15  They cried unto them, Depart ye; it is unclean; depart, depart, touch not: when they fled away and wandered, they said among the heathen, They shall no more sojourn there.

Lam 4:16  The anger of the LORD hath divided them; he will no more regard them: they respected not the persons of the priests, they favoured not the elders.

Lam 4:17  As for us, our eyes as yet failed for our vain help: in our watching we have watched for a nation that could not save us.

Lam 4:18  They hunt our steps, that we cannot go in our streets: our end is near, our days are fulfilled; for our end is come.

Lam 4:19  Our persecutors are swifter than the eagles of the heaven: they pursued us upon the mountains, they laid wait for us in the wilderness.

Lam 4:20  The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the LORD, was taken in their pits, of whom we said, Under his shadow we shall live among the heathen.

Lam 4:21  Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.

Lam 4:22  The punishment of thine iniquity is accomplished, O daughter of Zion; he will no more carry thee away into captivity: he will visit thine iniquity, O daughter of Edom; he will discover thy sins.

 

Lamentations 5

Lam 5:1  Remember, O LORD, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach.

Lam 5:2  Our inheritance is turned to strangers, our houses to aliens.

Lam 5:3  We are orphans and fatherless, our mothers are as widows.

Lam 5:4  We have drunken our water for money; our wood is sold unto us.

Lam 5:5  Our necks are under persecution: we labour, and have no rest.

Lam 5:6  We have given the hand to the Egyptians, and to the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

Lam 5:7  Our fathers have sinned, and are not; and we have borne their iniquities.

Lam 5:8  Servants have ruled over us: there is none that doth deliver us out of their hand.

Lam 5:9  We got our bread with the peril of our lives because of the sword of the wilderness.

Lam 5:10  Our skin was black like an oven because of the terrible famine.

Lam 5:11  They ravished the women in Zion, and the maids in the cities of Judah.

Lam 5:12  Princes are hanged up by their hand: the faces of elders were not honoured.

Lam 5:13  They took the young men to grind, and the children fell under the wood.

Lam 5:14  The elders have ceased from the gate, the young men from their music.

Lam 5:15  The joy of our heart is ceased; our dance is turned into mourning.

Lam 5:16  The crown is fallen from our head: woe unto us, that we have sinned!

Lam 5:17  For this our heart is faint; for these things our eyes are dim.

Lam 5:18  Because of the mountain of Zion, which is desolate, the foxes walk upon it.

Lam 5:19  Thou, O LORD, remainest forever; thy throne from generation to generation.

Lam 5:20  Wherefore dost thou forget us forever, and forsake us so long time?

Lam 5:21  Turn thou us unto thee, O LORD, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

Lam 5:22  But thou hast utterly rejected us; thou art very wroth against us.

 

Revelation 20

Rev 20:1  And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

Rev 20:2  And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

Rev 20:3  And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years should be fulfilled: and after that he must be loosed a little season.

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.

Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,

Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night forever and ever

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.

Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.