Category: Jeremiah

[13:15] People of Israel, the Lord has spoken! Be humble and listen to him.

[13:16] Honor the Lord, your God, before he brings darkness, and you stumble on the mountains; before he turns into deep darkness the light you hoped for.

[13:17] If you will not listen, I will cry in secret because of your pride; I will cry bitterly, and my tears will flow because the Lord's people have been taken away as captives.

[13:18] The Lord said to me, “Tell the king and his mother to come down from their thrones, because their beautiful crowns have fallen from their heads.

[13:19] The towns of southern Judah are under siege; no one can get through to them. All the people of Judah have been taken away into exile.”

[13:20] Jerusalem, look! Your enemies are coming down from the north! Where are the people entrusted to your care, your people you were so proud of?

[13:21] What will you say when people you thought were your friends conquer you and rule over you? You will be in pain like a woman giving birth.

[13:22] If you ask why all this has happened to you—why your clothes have been torn off and you have been raped—it is because your sin is so terrible.

[13:23] Can people change the color of their skin, or a leopard remove its spots? If they could, then you that do nothing but evil could learn to do what is right.

[13:24] The Lord will scatter you like straw that is blown away by the desert wind.

[13:25] He has said that this will be your fate. This is what he has decided to do with you, because you have forgotten him and have trusted in false gods.

[13:26] The Lord himself will strip off your clothes and expose you to shame.

[13:27] He has seen you do the things he hates. He has seen you go after pagan gods on the hills and in the fields, like a man lusting after his neighbor's wife or like a stallion after a mare. People of Jerusalem, you are doomed! When will you ever be pure?

[14:1] The Lord said to me concerning the drought,

[14:2] “Judah is in mourning; its cities are dying, its people lie on the ground in sorrow, and Jerusalem cries out for help.

[14:3] The rich people send their servants for water; they go to the cisterns, but find no water; they come back with their jars empty. Discouraged and confused, they hide their faces.

[14:4] Because there is no rain and the ground is dried up, the farmers are sick at heart; they hide their faces.

[14:5] In the field the mother deer abandons her newborn fawn because there is no grass.

[14:6] The wild donkeys stand on the hilltops and pant for breath like jackals; their eyesight fails them because they have no food.

[14:7] My people cry out to me, ‘Even though our sins accuse us, help us, Lord, as you have promised. We have turned away from you many times; we have sinned against you.

[14:8] You are Israel's only hope; you are the one who saves us from disaster. Why are you like a stranger in our land, like a traveler who stays for only one night?

[14:9] Why are you like someone taken by surprise, like a soldier powerless to help? Surely, Lord, you are with us! We are your people; do not abandon us.’”

[14:10] The Lord says about these people, “They love to run away from me, and they will not control themselves. So I am not pleased with them. I will remember the wrongs they have done and punish them because of their sins.”

[14:11] The Lord said to me, “Do not ask me to help these people.

[14:12] Even if they fast, I will not listen to their cry for help; and even if they offer me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not be pleased with them. Instead, I will kill them in war and by starvation and disease.”

[14:13] Then I said, “Sovereign Lord, you know that the prophets are telling the people that there will be no war or starvation, because you have promised, they say, that there will be only peace in our land.”

[14:14] But the Lord replied, “The prophets are telling lies in my name; I did not send them, nor did I give them any orders or speak one word to them. The visions they talk about have not come from me; their predictions are worthless things that they have imagined.

[14:15] I, the Lord, tell you what I am going to do to those prophets whom I did not send but who speak in my name and say war and starvation will not strike this land—I will kill them in war and by starvation.

[14:16] The people to whom they have said these things will be killed in the same way. Their bodies will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, and there will be no one to bury them. This will happen to all of them—including their wives, their sons, and their daughters. I will make them pay for their wickedness.”

[14:17] The Lord commanded me to tell the people about my sorrow and to say: “May my eyes flow with tears day and night, may I never stop weeping, for my people are deeply wounded and are badly hurt.

[14:18] When I go out in the fields, I see the bodies of men killed in war; when I go into the towns, I see people starving to death. Prophets and priests carry on their work, but they don't know what they are doing.”

[14:19] Lord, have you completely rejected Judah? Do you hate the people of Zion? Why have you hurt us so badly that we cannot be healed? We looked for peace, but nothing good happened; we hoped for healing, but terror came instead.

[14:20] We have sinned against you, Lord; we confess our own sins and the sins of our ancestors.

[14:21] Remember your promises and do not despise us; do not bring disgrace on Jerusalem, the place of your glorious throne. Do not break the covenant you made with us.

[14:22] None of the idols of the nations can send rain; the sky by itself cannot make showers fall. We have put our hope in you, O Lord our God, because you are the one who does these things.

[15:1] Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were standing here pleading with me, I would not show these people any mercy. Make them go away; make them get out of my sight.

[15:2] When they ask you where they should go, tell them that I have said: Some are doomed to die by disease— that's where they will go! Others are doomed to die in war— that's where they will go! Some are doomed to die of starvation— that's where they will go! Others are doomed to be taken away as prisoners— that's where they will go!

[15:3] I, the Lord, have decided that four terrible things will happen to them: they will be killed in war; their bodies will be dragged off by dogs; birds will eat them, and wild animals will devour what is left over.

[15:4] I will make all the people of the world horrified at them because of what Hezekiah's son Manasseh did in Jerusalem when he was king of Judah.”

[15:5] The Lord says, “Who will pity you, people of Jerusalem, and who will grieve over you? Who will stop long enough to ask how you are?

[15:6] You people have rejected me; you have turned your backs on me. So I reached out and crushed you because I was tired of controlling my anger.

[15:7] In every town in the land I threw you to the wind like straw. I destroyed you, my people, I killed your children because you did not stop your evil ways.

[15:8] There are more widows in your land than grains of sand by the sea. I killed your young men in their prime and made their mothers suffer. I suddenly struck them with anguish and terror.

[15:9] The mother who lost her seven children has fainted, gasping for breath. Her daylight has turned to darkness; she is disgraced and sick at heart. I will let your enemies kill those of you who are still alive. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

[15:10] What an unhappy man I am! Why did my mother bring me into the world? I have to quarrel and argue with everyone in the land. I have not lent any money or borrowed any; yet everyone curses me.

[15:11] Lord, may all their curses come true if I have not served you well, if I have not pleaded with you on behalf of my enemies when they were in trouble and distress. (

[15:12] No one can break iron, especially the iron from the north that is mixed with bronze.)

[15:13] The Lord said to me, “I will send enemies to carry away the wealth and treasures of my people, in order to punish them for the sins they have committed throughout the land.

[15:14] I will make them serve their enemies in a land they know nothing about, because my anger is like fire, and it will burn forever.”

[15:15] Then I said, “Lord, you understand. Remember me and help me. Let me have revenge on those who persecute me. Do not be so patient with them that they succeed in killing me. Remember that it is for your sake that I am insulted.

[15:16] You spoke to me, and I listened to every word. I belong to you, Lord God Almighty, and so your words filled my heart with joy and happiness.

[15:17] I did not spend my time with other people, laughing and having a good time. In obedience to your orders I stayed by myself and was filled with anger.

[15:18] Why do I keep on suffering? Why are my wounds incurable? Why won't they heal? Do you intend to disappoint me like a stream that goes dry in the summer?”

[15:19] To this the Lord replied, “If you return, I will take you back, and you will be my servant again. If instead of talking nonsense you proclaim a worthwhile message, you will be my prophet again. The people will come back to you, and you will not need to go to them.

[15:20] I will make you like a solid bronze wall as far as they are concerned. They will fight against you, but they will not defeat you. I will be with you to protect you and keep you safe.

[15:21] I will rescue you from the power of wicked and violent people. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

[16:1] Again the Lord spoke to me and said,

[16:2] “Do not marry or have children in a place like this.

[16:3] I will tell you what is going to happen to the children who are born here and to their parents.

[16:4] They will die of terrible diseases, and no one will mourn for them or bury them. Their bodies will lie like piles of manure on the ground. They will be killed in war or die of starvation, and their bodies will be food for the birds and the wild animals.

[16:5] “You must not enter a house where there is mourning. Do not grieve for anyone. I will no longer bless my people with peace or show them love and mercy.

[16:6] The rich and the poor will die in this land, but no one will bury them or mourn for them. Not one of you will gash yourself or shave your head to show your grief.

[16:7] No one will eat or drink with anyone to offer comfort when a loved one dies. No one will show sympathy, not even for someone who has lost a father or mother.

[16:8] “Do not enter a house where people are feasting. Do not sit down with them to eat and drink.

[16:9] Listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, have to say. I will silence the sounds of joy and gladness and the happy sounds of wedding feasts. The people here will live to see this happen.

[16:10] “When you tell them all this, they will ask you why I have decided to punish them so harshly. They will ask what crime they are guilty of and what sin they have committed against the Lord their God.

[16:11] Then tell them that the Lord has said, ‘Your ancestors turned away from me and worshiped and served other gods. They abandoned me and did not obey my teachings.

[16:12] But you have done even worse than your ancestors. All of you are stubborn and evil, and you do not obey me.

[16:13] So then, I will throw you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your ancestors have ever known. And there you will serve other gods day and night, and I will show you no mercy.’”

[16:14] The Lord says, “The time is coming when people will no longer swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.

[16:15] Instead, they will swear by me as the living God who brought the people of Israel out of a northern land and out of all the other countries where I had scattered them. I will bring them back to their own country, to the land that I gave their ancestors. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

[16:16] The Lord says, “I am sending for many fishermen to come and catch these people. Then I will send for many hunters to hunt them down on every mountain and hill and in the caves among the rocks.

[16:17] I see everything they do. Nothing is hidden from me; their sins do not escape my sight.

[16:18] I will make them pay double for their sin and wickedness, because they have defiled my land with idols that are as lifeless as corpses, and have filled it with their false gods.”

[16:19] Lord, you are the one who protects me and gives me strength; you help me in times of trouble. Nations will come to you from the ends of the earth and say, “Our ancestors had nothing but false gods, nothing but useless idols.

[16:20] Can people make their own gods? No, if they did, those would not really be gods.”

[16:21] “So then,” says the Lord, “once and for all I will make the nations know my power and my might; they will know that I am the Lord.”

[17:1] The Lord says, “People of Judah, your sin is written with an iron pen; it is engraved on your hearts with a diamond point and carved on the corners of your altars.

[17:2] Your people worship at the altars and the symbols that have been set up for the goddess Asherah by every green tree and on the hilltops

[17:3] and on the mountains in the open country. I will have your enemies take away your wealth and your treasures because of all the sins you have committed throughout your land.

[17:4] You will have to give up the land I gave you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land you know nothing about, because my anger is like a fire, and it will burn forever.”