Formation Journal Reading Plan

10:1 Woe to those who decree unrighteous decrees, and to the writers who write oppressive decrees;

10:2 to deprive the needy from justice, and to rob the poor among my people of their rights, that widows may be their spoil, and that they may make the fatherless their prey!

10:3 What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?

10:4 They will only bow down under the prisoners, and will fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

10:5 Alas Assyrian, the rod of my anger, the staff in whose hand is my indignation!

10:6 I will send him against a profane nation, and against the people who anger me will I give him a command to take the spoil and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.

10:7 However he doesn’t mean so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy, and to cut off not a few nations.

10:8 For he says, “Aren’t all of my princes kings?

10:9 Isn’t Calno like Carchemish? Isn’t Hamath like Arpad? Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?”

10:10 As my hand has found the kingdoms of the idols, whose engraved images exceeded those of Jerusalem and of Samaria;

10:11 shall I not, as I have done to Samaria and her idols, so do to Jerusalem and her idols?

10:12 Therefore it will happen that, when the Lord has performed his whole work on Mount Zion and on Jerusalem, I will punish the fruit of the willful proud heart of the king of Assyria, and the insolence of his haughty looks.

10:13 For he has said, “By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding: and I have removed the boundaries of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures. Like a valiant man I have brought down their rulers.

10:14 My hand has found the riches of the peoples like a nest, and like one gathers eggs that are abandoned, have I gathered all the earth. There was no one who moved their wing, or that opened their mouth, or chirped.”

10:15 Should an axe brag against him who chops with it? Should a saw exalt itself above him who saws with it? As if a rod should lift those who lift it up, or as if a staff should lift up someone who is not wood.

10:16 Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory a burning will be kindled like the burning of fire.

10:17 The light of Israel will be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame; and it will burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day.

10:18 He will consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body. It will be as when a standard bearer faints.

10:19 The remnant of the trees of his forest shall be few, so that a child could write their number.

10:20 It will come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and those who have escaped from the house of Jacob will no more again lean on him who struck them, but shall lean on Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

10:21 A remnant will return, even the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

10:22 For though your people, Israel, are like the sand of the sea, only a remnant of them will return. A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.

10:23 For the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will make a full end, and that determined, in the midst of all the earth.

10:24 Therefore the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, says “My people who dwell in Zion, don’t be afraid of the Assyrian, though he strike you with the rod, and lift up his staff against you, as Egypt did.

10:25 For yet a very little while, and the indignation against you will be accomplished, and my anger will be directed to his destruction.”

10:26 Yahweh of Armies will stir up a scourge against him, as in the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb. His rod will be over the sea, and he will lift it up like he did against Egypt.

10:27 It will happen in that day, that his burden will depart from off your shoulder, and his yoke from off your neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing oil.

10:28 He has come to Aiath. He has passed through Migron. At Michmash he stores his baggage.

10:29 They have gone over the pass. They have taken up their lodging at Geba. Ramah trembles. Gibeah of Saul has fled.

10:30 Cry aloud with your voice, daughter of Gallim! Listen, Laishah! You poor Anathoth!

10:31 Madmenah is a fugitive. The inhabitants of Gebim flee for safety.

10:32 This very day he will halt at Nob. He shakes his hand at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

10:33 Behold, the Lord, Yahweh of Armies, will lop the boughs with terror. The tall will be cut down, and the lofty will be brought low.

10:34 He will cut down the thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.

78:32 For all this they still sinned, and didn’t believe in his wondrous works.

78:33 Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

78:34 When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

78:35 They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.

78:36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.

78:37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

78:38 But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and didn’t destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and didn’t stir up all his wrath.

78:39 He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn’t come again.

78:40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!

78:41 They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

78:42 They didn’t remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

78:43 how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,

78:44 he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.

78:45 He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

78:46 He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.

78:47 He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.

78:48 He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

78:49 He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of angels of evil.

78:50 He made a path for his anger. He didn’t spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,

78:51 and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

78:52 But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

78:53 He led them safely, so that they weren’t afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

78:54 He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

78:55 He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

78:56 Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn’t keep his testimonies;

78:57 but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

78:58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

78:59 When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;

78:60 So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

78:61 and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary’s hand.

78:62 He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.

78:63 Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.

78:64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn’t weep.

78:65 Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

78:66 He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.

78:67 Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and didn’t choose the tribe of Ephraim,

78:68 But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.

78:69 He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.

78:70 He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

78:71 from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.

78:72 So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.

13:1 This is the third time I am coming to you. “At the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.”

13:2 I have said beforehand, and I do say beforehand, as when I was present the second time, so now, being absent, I write to those who have sinned before now, and to all the rest, that, if I come again, I will not spare;

13:3 seeing that you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me; who toward you is not weak, but is powerful in you.

13:4 For he was crucified through weakness, yet he lives through the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we will live with him through the power of God toward you.

13:5 Test your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don’t you know as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.

13:6 But I hope that you will know that we aren’t disqualified.

13:7 Now I pray to God that you do no evil; not that we may appear approved, but that you may do that which is honorable, though we are as reprobate.

13:8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth.

13:9 For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. And this we also pray for, even your perfecting.

13:10 For this cause I write these things while absent, that I may not deal sharply when present, according to the authority which the Lord gave me for building up, and not for tearing down.

13:11 Finally, brothers, rejoice. Be perfected, be comforted, be of the same mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.

13:12 Greet one another with a holy kiss.

13:13 All the saints greet you.

13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Amen.