JEREMIAH 49:
Having heard bad news about Egypt, Philistia, and Moab, we now hear the bad news for the nations of Ammon and Edom, the city of Damascus, and the nations of Kedar, Hazor, and Elam.
Translation note:
32 [I, the Lord, say,] “Take their camels and all their livestock! I will scatter in every direction those people who cut their hair short, and I will bring disaster on them from every side.
Proverbs 10a:
From here on in Proverbs we’ll go a bit slower, by half chapters, because each verse is a separate gem of wisdom. Almost all of these verses are examples of Hebrew parallelism. This means that the two lines of a couplet mutually comment on each other. Let’s take verse 2 as an example:
Tainted wealth has no lasting value,
but right living can save your life. (NLT)
‘Tainted wealth’ in the first line is a contrast with ‘right living’ in the second. Solomon shows by this that doing things to obtain wealth dishonestly must not be considered ‘right living’. ‘No lasting value’ and ‘can save your life’ also comment on each other in an opposing way. Not only will tainted wealth quickly disappear, but it is dangerous for your life. You could get killed trying to get tainted wealth. And matching the lines in the opposite direction, if you want to gain lasting profit and prosperity, the way is by ‘right living’.
1JOHN 3:
At the close of chapter 2, John was speaking to us about living like God’s children. Let’s review the last two verses of chapter 2 before reading chapter 3:
28 Yes, my children, remain in union with [Christ//him], so that when he appears we may be full of courage and need not hide in shame from him on the Day he comes.
29 You know that Christ is righteous; you should know, then, that everyone who does what is right is God's child.
Translation notes:
8 Whoever continues to sin belongs to the Devil, because the Devil has sinned from the very beginning. The Son of God appeared for this very reason, to destroy what the Devil [has//had] done.
14 We know that we have left death and come over into life; we know [that//it] because we love others. Those who do not love are still under the power of death.
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