At 30 mins before Sunset tonight Monday 12 August 2024 is the start of a 25 hour fast - The Ninth of Av - Tisha B'Av

The Readings are given here below:- Sorry no audio

The Fall of Jerusalem 586BC Jeremiah 59:1-2

In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem, and besieged it.

In the eleventh year of Zedekiah, in the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the city was penetrated.

The Fall of Jerusalem 586BC Recounted Jeremiah 52:1-6

​Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem.

His mother's name was Hamutal the daughter of Jeremiah of Libnah. 

He also did evil in the sight of the LORD,
according to all that Jehoiakim had done.

For because of the anger of the LORD this happened in Jerusalem and Judah,
till He finally cast them out from His presence.
Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.

Now it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, on the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army came against Jerusalem and encamped against it; and they built a siege wall against it all around.

So the city was besieged until the eleventh year of King Zedekiah.

By the fourth month, on the ninth day of the month, the famine had become so severe in the city that there was no food for the people of the land.


Now in the fifth month, on the tenth day of the month (which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon), Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, who served the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem.

He burned the house of the LORD and the king's house; all the houses of Jerusalem, that is, all the houses of the great, he burned with fire.

Psalm 30:11-13
Hear, O LORD, and have mercy on me; LORD, be my helper!"

​ You have turned for me my mourning into dancing;
You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness,

​To the end that my glory may sing praise to You and not be silent.

O LORD my God,
I will give thanks to You forever.

Jeremiah Response is Lamentations
Ending in Chapter 5

Restore Us to Yourself,
O Lord Remember,
O LORD,
what has come upon us;
Look, and behold our reproach!

Our inheritance has been turned over to aliens,
And our houses to foreigners.

We have become orphans and waifs,
​Our mothers are like widows.

We pay for the water we drink,
And our wood comes at a price. 

They pursue at our heels;
We labor and have no rest.

We have given our hand to the Egyptians And the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread.

Our fathers sinned and are no more,
But we bear their iniquities.

Servants rule over us;
There is none to deliver us from their hand.

We get our bread at the risk of our lives,
Because of the sword in the wilderness.

Our skin is hot as an oven,
Because of the fever of famine.

They ravished the women in Zion,
The maidens in the cities of Judah.

Princes were hung up by their hands,
And elders were not respected.
Young men ground at the millstones;
Boys staggered under loads of wood.

The elders have ceased gathering at the gate,
And the young men from their music.

The joy of our heart has ceased;
Our dance has turned into mourning.

The crown has fallen from our head.
Woe to us, for we have sinned!

Because of this our heart is faint;
Because of these things our eyes grow dim;
Because of Mount Zion which is desolate,
With foxes walking about on it.

You, O LORD, remain forever;
Your throne from generation to generation.

Why do You forget us forever,
And forsake us for so long a time?

Turn us back to You, O LORD,
and we will be restored;
Renew our days as of old,
Unless You have utterly rejected us,
And are very angry with us!
​