Holy Bible
Jeremiah
Jeremiah 10
God and Idols
1Hear what the LORD says to you, people of Israel. 2This is what the LORD says:
“Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them.
3For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
4They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.
5Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk.
Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.”
6No one is like you, LORD; you are great, and your name is mighty in power.
7Who should not fear you,
King of the nations?
This is your due.
Among all the wise leaders of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.
8They are all senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols.
9Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz.
What the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed in blue and purple—all made by skilled workers.
10But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King.
When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath.
11“Tell them this: ‘These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’ ”[14]
12But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
13When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
14Everyone is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols.
The images he makes are a fraud; they have no breath in them.
15They are worthless, the objects of mockery; when their judgment comes, they will perish.
16He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things, including Israel, the people of his inheritance—the LORD Almighty is his name.
Coming Destruction
17Gather up your belongings to leave the land, you who live under siege.
18For this is what the LORD says:
“At this time I will hurl out those who live in this land;
I will bring distress on them so that they may be captured.”
19Woe to me because of my injury!
My wound is incurable!
Yet I said to myself,
“This is my sickness, and I must endure it.”
20My tent is destroyed; all its ropes are snapped.
My children are gone from me and are no more; no one is left now to pitch my tent or to set up my shelter.
21The shepherds are senseless and do not inquire of the LORD; so they do not prosper and all their flock is scattered.
22Listen! The report is coming—a great commotion from the land of the north!
It will make the towns of Judah desolate, a haunt of jackals.
Jeremiah’s Prayer
23LORD, I know that people’s lives are not their own; it is not for them to direct their steps.
24Discipline me, LORD, but only in due measure—not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing.
25Pour out your wrath on the nations that do not acknowledge you, on the peoples who do not call on your name.
For they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him completely and destroyed his homeland.
Jeremiah 11
The Covenant Is Broken
1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2“Listen to the terms of this covenant and tell them to the people of Judah and to those who live in Jerusalem. 3Tell them that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Cursed is the one who does not obey the terms of this covenant—4the terms I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the iron-smelting furnace.’ I said, ‘Obey me and do everything I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God. 5Then I will fulfill the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey’—the land you possess today.”
I answered, “Amen, LORD.”
6The LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Listen to the terms of this covenant and follow them. 7From the time I brought your ancestors up from Egypt until today, I warned them again and again, saying, “Obey me.” 8But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubbornness of their evil hearts. So I brought on them all the curses of the covenant I had commanded them to follow but that they did not keep.’ ”
9Then the LORD said to me, “There is a conspiracy among the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem. 10They have returned to the sins of their ancestors, who refused to listen to my words. They have followed other gods to serve them. Both Israel and Judah have broken the covenant I made with their ancestors. 11Therefore this is what the LORD says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them. 12The towns of Judah and the people of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they burn incense, but they will not help them at all when disaster strikes. 13You, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns; and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’
14“Do not pray for this people or offer any plea or petition for them, because I will not listen when they call to me in the time of their distress.
15“What is my beloved doing in my temple as she, with many others, works out her evil schemes?
Can consecrated meat avert your punishment?
When you engage in your wickedness, then you rejoice.[15]”
16The LORD called you a thriving olive tree with fruit beautiful in form.
But with the roar of a mighty storm he will set it on fire, and its branches will be broken.
17The LORD Almighty, who planted you, has decreed disaster for you, because the people of both Israel and Judah have done evil and aroused my anger by burning incense to Baal.
Plot Against Jeremiah
18Because the LORD revealed their plot to me, I knew it, for at that time he showed me what they were doing. 19I had been like a gentle lamb led to the slaughter; I did not realize that they had plotted against me, saying,
“Let us destroy the tree and its fruit; let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name be remembered no more.”
20But you, LORD Almighty, who judge righteously and test the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have committed my cause.
21Therefore this is what the LORD says about the people of Anathoth who are threatening to kill you, saying, “Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD or you will die by our hands”—22therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says: “I will punish them. Their young men will die by the sword, their sons and daughters by famine. 23Not even a remnant will be left to them, because I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.”
Jeremiah 12
Jeremiah’s Complaint
1You are always righteous, LORD, when I bring a case before you.
Yet I would speak with you about your justice:
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all the faithless live at ease?
2You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit.
You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.
3Yet you know me, LORD; you see me and test my thoughts about you.
Drag them off like sheep to be butchered!
Set them apart for the day of slaughter!
4How long will the land lie parched and the grass in every field be withered?
Because those who live in it are wicked, the animals and birds have perished.
Moreover, the people are saying,
“He will not see what happens to us.”
God’s Answer
5“If you have raced with men on foot and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble[16] in safe country, how will you manage in the thickets by[17] the Jordan?
6Your relatives, members of your own family—even they have betrayed you; they have raised a loud cry against you.
Do not trust them, though they speak well of you.
7“I will forsake my house, abandon my inheritance;
I will give the one I love into the hands of her enemies.
8My inheritance has become to me like a lion in the forest.
She roars at me; therefore I hate her.
9Has not my inheritance become to me like a speckled bird of prey that other birds of prey surround and attack?
Go and gather all the wild beasts; bring them to devour.
10Many shepherds will ruin my vineyard and trample down my field; they will turn my pleasant field into a desolate wasteland.
11It will be made a wasteland, parched and desolate before me; the whole land will be laid waste because there is no one who cares.
12Over all the barren heights in the desert destroyers will swarm, for the sword of the LORD will devour from one end of the land to the other; no one will be safe.
13They will sow wheat but reap thorns; they will wear themselves out but gain nothing.
They will bear the shame of their harvest because of the LORD’s fierce anger.”
14This is what the LORD says: “As for all my wicked neighbors who seize the inheritance I gave my people Israel, I will uproot them from their lands and I will uproot the people of Judah from among them. 15But after I uproot them, I will again have compassion and will bring each of them back to their own inheritance and their own country. 16And if they learn well the ways of my people and swear by my name, saying, ‘As surely as the LORD lives’—even as they once taught my people to swear by Baal—then they will be established among my people. 17But if any nation does not listen, I will completely uproot and destroy it,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 13
A Linen Belt
1This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy a linen belt and put it around your waist, but do not let it touch water.” 2So I bought a belt, as the LORD directed, and put it around my waist.
3Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time: 4“Take the belt you bought and are wearing around your waist, and go now to Perath[18] and hide it there in a crevice in the rocks.” 5So I went and hid it at Perath, as the LORD told me.
6Many days later the LORD said to me, “Go now to Perath and get the belt I told you to hide there.” 7So I went to Perath and dug up the belt and took it from the place where I had hidden it, but now it was ruined and completely useless.
8Then the word of the LORD came to me: 9“This is what the LORD says: ‘In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem. 10These wicked people, who refuse to listen to my words, who follow the stubbornness of their hearts and go after other gods to serve and worship them, will be like this belt—completely useless! 11For as a belt is bound around the waist, so I bound all the people of Israel and all the people of Judah to me,’ declares the LORD, ‘to be my people for my renown and praise and honor. But they have not listened.’
Wineskins
12“Say to them: ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Every wineskin should be filled with wine.’ And if they say to you, ‘Don’t we know that every wineskin should be filled with wine?’ 13then tell them, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am going to fill with drunkenness all who live in this land, including the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets and all those living in Jerusalem. 14I will smash them one against the other, parents and children alike, declares the LORD. I will allow no pity or mercy or compassion to keep me from destroying them.’ ”
Threat of Captivity
15Hear and pay attention, do not be arrogant, for the LORD has spoken.
16Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings the darkness, before your feet stumble on the darkening hills.
You hope for light, but he will turn it to utter darkness and change it to deep gloom.
17If you do not listen,
I will weep in secret because of your pride; my eyes will weep bitterly, overflowing with tears, because the LORD’s flock will be taken captive.
18Say to the king and to the queen mother,
“Come down from your thrones, for your glorious crowns will fall from your heads.”
19The cities in the Negev will be shut up, and there will be no one to open them.
All Judah will be carried into exile, carried completely away.
20Look up and see those who are coming from the north.
Where is the flock that was entrusted to you, the sheep of which you boasted?
21What will you say when the LORD sets over you those you cultivated as your special allies?
Will not pain grip you like that of a woman in labor?
22And if you ask yourself,
“Why has this happened to me?”—it is because of your many sins that your skirts have been torn off and your body mistreated.
23Can an Ethiopian[19] change his skin or a leopard its spots?
Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.
24“I will scatter you like chaff driven by the desert wind.
25This is your lot, the portion I have decreed for you,” declares the LORD,
“because you have forgotten me and trusted in false gods.
26I will pull up your skirts over your face that your shame may be seen—
27your adulteries and lustful neighings, your shameless prostitution!
I have seen your detestable acts on the hills and in the fields.
Woe to you, Jerusalem!
How long will you be unclean?”
Jeremiah 14
Drought, Famine, Sword
1This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
2“Judah mourns, her cities languish; they wail for the land, and a cry goes up from Jerusalem.
3The nobles send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns but find no water.
They return with their jars unfilled; dismayed and despairing, they cover their heads.
4The ground is cracked because there is no rain in the land; the farmers are dismayed and cover their heads.
5Even the doe in the field deserts her newborn fawn because there is no grass.
6Wild donkeys stand on the barren heights and pant like jackals; their eyes fail for lack of food.”
7Although our sins testify against us, do something, LORD, for the sake of your name.
For we have often rebelled; we have sinned against you.
8You who are the hope of Israel, its Savior in times of distress, why are you like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who stays only a night?
9Why are you like a man taken by surprise, like a warrior powerless to save?
You are among us, LORD, and we bear your name; do not forsake us!
10This is what the LORD says about this people:
“They greatly love to wander; they do not restrain their feet.
So the LORD does not accept them; he will now remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.”
11Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people. 12Although they fast, I will not listen to their cry; though they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will destroy them with the sword, famine and plague.”
13But I said, “Alas, Sovereign LORD! The prophets keep telling them, ‘You will not see the sword or suffer famine. Indeed, I will give you lasting peace in this place.’ ”
14Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries[20] and the delusions of their own minds. 15Therefore this is what the LORD says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name: I did not send them, yet they are saying, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine. 16And the people they are prophesying to will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them, their wives, their sons and their daughters. I will pour out on them the calamity they deserve.
17“Speak this word to them:
“ ‘Let my eyes overflow with tears night and day without ceasing; for the Virgin Daughter, my people, has suffered a grievous wound, a crushing blow.
18If I go into the country,
I see those slain by the sword; if I go into the city,
I see the ravages of famine.
Both prophet and priest have gone to a land they know not.’ ”
19Have you rejected Judah completely?
Do you despise Zion?
Why have you afflicted us so that we cannot be healed?
We hoped for peace but no good has come, for a time of healing but there is only terror.
20We acknowledge our wickedness, LORD, and the guilt of our ancestors; we have indeed sinned against you.
21For the sake of your name do not despise us; do not dishonor your glorious throne.
Remember your covenant with us and do not break it.
22Do any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain?
Do the skies themselves send down showers?
No, it is you, LORD our God.
Therefore our hope is in you, for you are the one who does all this.
Jeremiah 15
1Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before me, my heart would not go out to this people. Send them away from my presence! Let them go! 2And if they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ tell them, ‘This is what the LORD says:
“ ‘Those destined for death, to death; those for the sword, to the sword; those for starvation, to starvation; those for captivity, to captivity.’
3“I will send four kinds of destroyers against them,” declares the LORD, “the sword to kill and the dogs to drag away and the birds and the wild animals to devour and destroy. 4I will make them abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.
5“Who will have pity on you, Jerusalem?
Who will mourn for you?
Who will stop to ask how you are?
6You have rejected me,” declares the LORD.
“You keep on backsliding.
So I will reach out and destroy you;
I am tired of holding back.
7I will winnow them with a winnowing fork at the city gates of the land.
I will bring bereavement and destruction on my people, for they have not changed their ways.
8I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea.
At midday I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of their young men; suddenly I will bring down on them anguish and terror.
9The mother of seven will grow faint and breathe her last.
Her sun will set while it is still day; she will be disgraced and humiliated.
I will put the survivors to the sword before their enemies,” declares the LORD.
10Alas, my mother, that you gave me birth, a man with whom the whole land strives and contends!
I have neither lent nor borrowed, yet everyone curses me.
11The LORD said,
“Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose; surely I will make your enemies plead with you in times of disaster and times of distress.
12“Can a man break iron—iron from the north—or bronze?
13“Your wealth and your treasures
I will give as plunder, without charge, because of all your sins throughout your country.
14I will enslave you to your enemies
in[21] a land you do not know, for my anger will kindle a fire that will burn against you.”
15LORD, you understand; remember me and care for me.
Avenge me on my persecutors.
You are long-suffering—do not take me away; think of how I suffer reproach for your sake.
16When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear your name,
LORD God Almighty.
17I never sat in the company of revelers, never made merry with them;
I sat alone because your hand was on me and you had filled me with indignation.
18Why is my pain unending and my wound grievous and incurable?
You are to me like a deceptive brook, like a spring that fails.
19Therefore this is what the LORD says:
“If you repent, I will restore you that you may serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will be my spokesman.
Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them.
20I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you,” declares the LORD.
21“I will save you from the hands of the wicked and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel.”
Jeremiah 16
Day of Disaster
1Then the word of the LORD came to me: 2“You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place.” 3For this is what the LORD says about the sons and daughters born in this land and about the women who are their mothers and the men who are their fathers: 4“They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like dung lying on the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.”
5For this is what the LORD says: “Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people,” declares the LORD. 6“Both high and low will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, and no one will cut themselves or shave their head for the dead. 7No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn for the dead—not even for a father or a mother—nor will anyone give them a drink to console them.
8“And do not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink. 9For this is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Before your eyes and in your days I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in this place.
10“When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the LORD decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the LORD our God?’ 11then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors forsook me,’ declares the LORD, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law. 12But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me. 13So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
14“However, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ 15but it will be said, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors.
16“But now I will send for many fishermen,” declares the LORD, “and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks. 17My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes. 18I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols.”
19LORD, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in time of distress, to you the nations will come from the ends of the earth and say,
“Our ancestors possessed nothing but false gods, worthless idols that did them no good.
20Do people make their own gods?
Yes, but they are not gods!”
21“Therefore I will teach them—this time I will teach them my power and might.
Then they will know that my name is the LORD.
Jeremiah 17
1“Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars.
2Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles[22] beside the spreading trees and on the high hills.
3My mountain in the land and your[23] wealth and all your treasures
I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country.
4Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you.
I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever.”
5This is what the LORD says:
“Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who draws strength from mere flesh and whose heart turns away from the LORD.
6That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes.
They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
7“But blessed is the one who trusts in the LORD, whose confidence is in him.
8They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
9The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
10“I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”
11Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay are those who gain riches by unjust means.
When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them, and in the end they will prove to be fools.
12A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
13LORD, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame.
Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the LORD, the spring of living water.
14Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.
15They keep saying to me,
“Where is the word of the LORD?
Let it now be fulfilled!”
16I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair.
What passes my lips is open before you.
17Do not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster.
18Let my persecutors be put to shame, but keep me from shame; let them be terrified, but keep me from terror.
Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction.
Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy
19This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and stand at the Gate of the People,[24] through which the kings of Judah go in and out; stand also at all the other gates of Jerusalem. 20Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah and all people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem who come through these gates. 21This is what the LORD says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. 22Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors. 23Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline. 24But if you are careful to obey me, declares the LORD, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it, 25then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this city with their officials. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever. 26People will come from the towns of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin and the western foothills, from the hill country and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the LORD. 27But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.’ ”
Jeremiah 18
At the Potter’s House
1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2“Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
5Then the word of the LORD came to me. 6He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. 7If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. 9And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 10and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.
11“Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the LORD says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’ 12But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.’ ”
13Therefore this is what the LORD says:
“Inquire among the nations:
Who has ever heard anything like this?
A most horrible thing has been done by Virgin Israel.
14Does the snow of Lebanon ever vanish from its rocky slopes?
Do its cool waters from distant sources ever stop flowing?[25]
15Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to worthless idols, which made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths.
They made them walk in byways, on roads not built up.
16Their land will be an object of horror and of lasting scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads.
17Like a wind from the east,
I will scatter them before their enemies;
I will show them my back and not my face in the day of their disaster.”
18They said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah; for the teaching of the law by the priest will not cease, nor will counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophets. So come, let’s attack him with our tongues and pay no attention to anything he says.”
19Listen to me, LORD; hear what my accusers are saying!
20Should good be repaid with evil?
Yet they have dug a pit for me.
Remember that I stood before you and spoke in their behalf to turn your wrath away from them.
21So give their children over to famine; hand them over to the power of the sword.
Let their wives be made childless and widows; let their men be put to death, their young men slain by the sword in battle.
22Let a cry be heard from their houses when you suddenly bring invaders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.
23But you, LORD, know all their plots to kill me.
Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight.
Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.
Jeremiah 19
1This is what the LORD says: “Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests 2and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, 3and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. 4For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. 5They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. 6So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
7“ ‘In this place I will ruin[26] the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who want to kill them, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds and the wild animals. 8I will devastate this city and make it an object of horror and scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds. 9I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemies will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.’
10“Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching, 11and say to them, ‘This is what the LORD Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. 12This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the LORD. I will make this city like Topheth. 13The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth—all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.’ ”
14Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the LORD’s temple and said to all the people, 15“This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.’ ”
Jeremiah 20
Jeremiah and Pashhur
1When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the official in charge of the temple of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, 2he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the LORD’s temple. 3The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD’s name for you is not Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. 4For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword. 5I will deliver all the wealth of this city into the hands of their enemies—all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away as plunder and carry it off to Babylon. 6And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’ ”
Jeremiah’s Complaint
7You deceived[27] me, LORD, and I was deceived[28]; you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me.
8Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the LORD has brought me insult and reproach all day long.
9But if I say, “I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,” his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
indeed, I cannot.
10I hear many whispering,
“Terror on every side!
Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!”
All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying,
“Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him.”
11But the LORD is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten.
12LORD Almighty, you who examine the righteous and probe the heart and mind, let me see your vengeance on them, for to you I have committed my cause.
13Sing to the LORD!
Give praise to the LORD!
He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.
14Cursed be the day I was born!
May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
15Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying,
“A child is born to you—a son!”
16May that man be like the towns the LORD overthrew without pity.
May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon.
17For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever.
18Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?
Jeremiah 21
God Rejects Zedekiah’s Request
1The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. They said: 2“Inquire now of the LORD for us because Nebuchadnezzar[29] king of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the LORD will perform wonders for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from us.”
3But Jeremiah answered them, “Tell Zedekiah, 4‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I am about to turn against you the weapons of war that are in your hands, which you are using to fight the king of Babylon and the Babylonians[30] who are outside the wall besieging you. And I will gather them inside this city. 5I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in furious anger and in great wrath. 6I will strike down those who live in this city—both man and beast—and they will die of a terrible plague. 7After that, declares the LORD, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the people in this city who survive the plague, sword and famine, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to their enemies who want to kill them. He will put them to the sword; he will show them no mercy or pity or compassion.’
8“Furthermore, tell the people, ‘This is what the LORD says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. 9Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you will live; they will escape with their lives. 10I have determined to do this city harm and not good, declares the LORD. It will be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will destroy it with fire.’
11“Moreover, say to the royal house of Judah, ‘Hear the word of the LORD. 12This is what the LORD says to you, house of David:
“ ‘Administer justice every morning; rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done—burn with no one to quench it.
13I am against you, Jerusalem, you who live above this valley on the rocky plateau, declares the LORD—you who say, “Who can come against us?
Who can enter our refuge?”
14I will punish you as your deeds deserve, declares the LORD.
I will kindle a fire in your forests that will consume everything around you.’ ”
Jeremiah 22
Judgment Against Wicked Kings
1This is what the LORD says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there: 2‘Hear the word of the LORD to you, king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you, your officials and your people who come through these gates. 3This is what the LORD says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if you are careful to carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by their officials and their people. 5But if you do not obey these commands, declares the LORD, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin.’ ”
6For this is what the LORD says about the palace of the king of Judah:
“Though you are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon,
I will surely make you like a wasteland, like towns not inhabited.
7I will send destroyers against you, each man with his weapons, and they will cut up your fine cedar beams and throw them into the fire.
8“People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this great city?’ 9And the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’ ”
10Do not weep for the dead king or mourn his loss;
rather, weep bitterly for him who is exiled, because he will never return nor see his native land again.
11For this is what the LORD says about Shallum[31] son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah but has gone from this place: “He will never return. 12He will die in the place where they have led him captive; he will not see this land again.”
13“Woe to him who builds his palace by unrighteousness, his upper rooms by injustice, making his own people work for nothing, not paying them for their labor.
14He says, ‘I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms.’
So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red.
15“Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar?
Did not your father have food and drink?
He did what was right and just, so all went well with him.
16He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well.
Is that not what it means to know me?” declares the LORD.
17“But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion.”
18Therefore this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah:
“They will not mourn for him:
‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’
They will not mourn for him:
‘Alas, my master! Alas, his splendor!’
19He will have the burial of a donkey—dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem.”
20“Go up to Lebanon and cry out, let your voice be heard in Bashan, cry out from Abarim, for all your allies are crushed.
21I warned you when you felt secure, but you said, ‘I will not listen!’
This has been your way from your youth; you have not obeyed me.
22The wind will drive all your shepherds away, and your allies will go into exile.
Then you will be ashamed and disgraced because of all your wickedness.
23You who live in ‘Lebanon,[32]’ who are nestled in cedar buildings, how you will groan when pangs come upon you, pain like that of a woman in labor!
24“As surely as I live,” declares the LORD, “even if you, Jehoiachin[33] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off. 25I will deliver you into the hands of those who want to kill you, those you fear—Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Babylonians.[34] 26I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die. 27You will never come back to the land you long to return to.”
28Is this man Jehoiachin a despised, broken pot, an object no one wants?
Why will he and his children be hurled out, cast into a land they do not know?
29O land, land, land, hear the word of the LORD!
30This is what the LORD says:
“Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah.”
Jeremiah 23
The Righteous Branch
1“Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!” declares the LORD. 2Therefore this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to the shepherds who tend my people: “Because you have scattered my flock and driven them away and have not bestowed care on them, I will bestow punishment on you for the evil you have done,” declares the LORD. 3“I myself will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and will bring them back to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and increase in number. 4I will place shepherds over them who will tend them, and they will no longer be afraid or terrified, nor will any be missing,” declares the LORD.
5“The days are coming,” declares the LORD,
“when I will raise up for David[35] a righteous Branch, a King who will reign wisely and do what is just and right in the land.
6In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.
This is the name by which he will be called:
The LORD Our Righteous Savior.
7“So then, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when people will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’ 8but they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the descendants of Israel up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ Then they will live in their own land.”
Lying Prophets
9Concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken within me; all my bones tremble.
I am like a drunken man, like a strong man overcome by wine, because of the LORD and his holy words.
10The land is full of adulterers; because of the curse[36] the land lies parched and the pastures in the wilderness are withered.
The prophets follow an evil course and use their power unjustly.
11“Both prophet and priest are godless; even in my temple I find their wickedness,” declares the LORD.
12“Therefore their path will become slippery; they will be banished to darkness and there they will fall.
I will bring disaster on them in the year they are punished,” declares the LORD.
13“Among the prophets of Samaria
I saw this repulsive thing:
They prophesied by Baal and led my people Israel astray.
14And among the prophets of Jerusalem
I have seen something horrible:
They commit adultery and live a lie.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that not one of them turns from their wickedness.
They are all like Sodom to me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”
15Therefore this is what the LORD Almighty says concerning the prophets:
“I will make them eat bitter food and drink poisoned water, because from the prophets of Jerusalem ungodliness has spread throughout the land.”
16This is what the LORD Almighty says:
“Do not listen to what the prophets are prophesying to you; they fill you with false hopes.
They speak visions from their own minds, not from the mouth of the LORD.
17They keep saying to those who despise me,
‘The LORD says: You will have peace.’
And to all who follow the stubbornness of their hearts they say, ‘No harm will come to you.’
18But which of them has stood in the council of the LORD to see or to hear his word?
Who has listened and heard his word?
19See, the storm of the LORD will burst out in wrath, a whirlwind swirling down on the heads of the wicked.
20The anger of the LORD will not turn back until he fully accomplishes the purposes of his heart.
In days to come you will understand it clearly.
21I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message;
I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied.
22But if they had stood in my council, they would have proclaimed my words to my people and would have turned them from their evil ways and from their evil deeds.
23“Am I only a God nearby,” declares the LORD,
“and not a God far away?
24Who can hide in secret places so that I cannot see them?” declares the LORD.
“Do not I fill heaven and earth?” declares the LORD.
25“I have heard what the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They say, ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ 26How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets, who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? 27They think the dreams they tell one another will make my people forget my name, just as their ancestors forgot my name through Baal worship. 28Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the LORD. 29“Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?
30“Therefore,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words supposedly from me. 31Yes,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and yet declare, ‘The LORD declares.’ 32Indeed, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” declares the LORD. “They tell them and lead my people astray with their reckless lies, yet I did not send or appoint them. They do not benefit these people in the least,” declares the LORD.
False Prophecy
33“When these people, or a prophet or a priest, ask you, ‘What is the message from the LORD?’ say to them, ‘What message? I will forsake you, declares the LORD.’ 34If a prophet or a priest or anyone else claims, ‘This is a message from the LORD,’ I will punish them and their household. 35This is what each of you keeps saying to your friends and other Israelites: ‘What is the LORD’s answer?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ 36But you must not mention ‘a message from the LORD’ again, because each one’s word becomes their own message. So you distort the words of the living God, the LORD Almighty, our God. 37This is what you keep saying to a prophet: ‘What is the LORD’s answer to you?’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken?’ 38Although you claim, ‘This is a message from the LORD,’ this is what the LORD says: You used the words, ‘This is a message from the LORD,’ even though I told you that you must not claim, ‘This is a message from the LORD.’ 39Therefore, I will surely forget you and cast you out of my presence along with the city I gave to you and your ancestors. 40I will bring on you everlasting disgrace—everlasting shame that will not be forgotten.”