A tough slog

Well, I am in the home stretch of my read-through-the-Bible program this year and found the books of Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel to be a tough slog. Not so much that they are difficult to understand (although a real Bible study in any one of these books would take a while), but that they are so depressing. The days of Israel's greatness were absolutely in the past and the false prophets/religion and captivity were set in so hard it makes me wonder how they ever got out of it. Obviously the books of Esther, Nehemiah, and Ezra (and to a lesser extent Daniel) talk about the restoration of Israel by God Himself after his wrath was full (or as full as it could get save the work of His Son), but what a dark and gloomy picture these books paint. No wonder Jeremiah wept so bitterly.

On a related note I have found the NIV to be a much easier read than the NASB. I know this is a big "duh" for most folks, and the NASB is still my preferred translation, but I have been enjoying the NIV for the read through so far. Thankfully they both originate from the same manuscripts so the source is not the issue as much as the phrasing.

It is actually quite funny, but I can tell where the NIV and the NASB will differ as I am reading through the passages in the NIV. Some of the words and phrases are a bit "too colloquial" in the NIV to be included in the NASB. Which begs the question as to why they were excluded in the NASB but that just begins to make my head hurt as I think about it.

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