Category: Jeremiah

[17:5] The Lord says, “I will condemn those who turn away from me and put their trust in human beings, in the strength of mortals.

[17:6] He is like a bush in the desert, which grows in the dry wasteland, on salty ground where nothing else grows. Nothing good ever happens to him.

[17:7] “But I will bless the person who puts his trust in me.

[17:8] He is like a tree growing near a stream and sending out roots to the water. It is not afraid when hot weather comes, because its leaves stay green; it has no worries when there is no rain; it keeps on bearing fruit.

[17:9] “Who can understand the human heart? There is nothing else so deceitful; it is too sick to be healed.

[17:10] I, the Lord, search the minds and test the hearts of people. I treat each of them according to the way they live, according to what they do.”

[17:11] The person who gets money dishonestly is like a bird that hatches eggs it didn't lay. In the prime of life he will lose his riches, and in the end he is nothing but a fool.

[17:12] Our Temple is like a glorious throne, standing on a high mountain from the beginning.

[17:13] Lord, you are Israel's hope; all who abandon you will be put to shame. They will disappear like names written in the dust, because they have abandoned you, the Lord, the spring of fresh water.

[17:14] Lord, heal me and I will be completely well; rescue me and I will be perfectly safe. You are the one I praise!

[17:15] The people say to me, “Where are those threats the Lord made against us? Let him carry them out now!”

[17:16] But, Lord, I never urged you to bring disaster on them; I did not wish a time of trouble for them. Lord, you know this; you know what I have said.

[17:17] Do not be a terror to me; you are my place of safety when trouble comes.

[17:18] Bring disgrace on those who persecute me, but spare me, Lord. Fill them with terror, but do not terrify me. Bring disaster on them and break them to pieces.

[17:19] The Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, go and announce my message at the People's Gate, through which the kings of Judah enter and leave the city; then go to all the other gates of Jerusalem.

[17:20] Tell the kings and all the people of Judah and everyone who lives in Jerusalem and enters these gates, to listen to what I say.

[17:21] Tell them that if they love their lives, they must not carry any load on the Sabbath; they must not carry anything in through the gates of Jerusalem

[17:22] or carry anything out of their houses on the Sabbath. They must not work on the Sabbath; they must observe it as a sacred day, as I commanded their ancestors.

[17:23] Their ancestors did not listen to me or pay any attention. Instead, they became stubborn; they would not obey me or learn from me.

[17:24] “Tell these people that they must obey all my commands. They must not carry any load in through the gates of this city on the Sabbath. They must observe the Sabbath as a sacred day and must not do any work at all.

[17:25] Then their kings and princes will enter the gates of Jerusalem and have the same royal power that David had. Together with the people of Judah and of Jerusalem, they will ride in chariots and on horses, and the city of Jerusalem will always be filled with people.

[17:26] People will come from the towns of Judah and from the villages around Jerusalem; they will come from the territory of Benjamin, from the foothills, from the mountains, and from southern Judah. They will bring to my Temple burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, as well as thank offerings.

[17:27] But they must obey me and observe the Sabbath as a sacred day. They must not carry any load through the gates of Jerusalem on that day, for if they do, I will set the gates of Jerusalem on fire. Fire will burn down the palaces of Jerusalem, and no one will be able to put it out.”

[18:1] The Lord said to me,

[18:2] “Go down to the potter's house, where I will give you my message.”

[18:3] So I went there and saw the potter working at his wheel.

[18:4] Whenever a piece of pottery turned out imperfect, he would take the clay and make it into something else.

[18:5] Then the Lord said to me,

[18:6] “Don't I have the right to do with you people of Israel what the potter did with the clay? You are in my hands just like clay in the potter's hands.

[18:7] If at any time I say that I am going to uproot, break down, or destroy any nation or kingdom,

[18:8] but then that nation turns from its evil, I will not do what I said I would.

[18:9] On the other hand, if I say that I am going to plant or build up any nation or kingdom,

[18:10] but then that nation disobeys me and does evil, I will not do what I said I would.

[18:11] Now then, tell the people of Judah and of Jerusalem that I am making plans against them and getting ready to punish them. Tell them to stop living sinful lives—to change their ways and the things they are doing.

[18:12] They will answer, ‘No, why should we? We will all be just as stubborn and evil as we want to be.’”

[18:13] The Lord says, “Ask every nation if such a thing has ever happened before. The people of Israel have done a terrible thing!

[18:14] Are Lebanon's rocky heights ever without snow? Do its cool mountain streams ever run dry?

[18:15] Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to idols. They have stumbled in the way they should go; they no longer follow the old ways; they walk on unmarked paths.

[18:16] They have made this land a thing of horror, to be despised forever. All who pass by will be shocked at what they see; they will shake their heads in amazement.

[18:17] I will scatter my people before their enemies, like dust blown by the east wind. I will turn my back on them; I will not help them when the disaster comes.”

[18:18] Then the people said, “Let's do something about Jeremiah! There will always be priests to instruct us, the wise to give us counsel, and prophets to proclaim God's message. Let's bring charges against him and stop listening to what he says.”

[18:19] So I prayed, “Lord, hear what I am saying and listen to what my enemies are saying about me.

[18:20] Is evil the payment for good? Yet they have dug a pit for me to fall in. Remember how I came to you and spoke on their behalf, so that you would not deal with them in anger.

[18:21] But now, Lord, let their children starve to death; let them be killed in war. Let the women lose their husbands and children; let the men die of disease and the young men be killed in battle.

[18:22] Send a mob to plunder their homes without warning; make them cry out in terror. They have dug a pit for me to fall in and have set traps to catch me.

[18:23] But, Lord, you know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their evil or pardon their sin. Throw them down in defeat and deal with them while you are angry.”

[19:1] The Lord told me to go and buy a clay jar. He also told me to take some of the elders of the people and some of the older priests,

[19:2] and to go through Potsherd Gate out to Hinnom Valley. There I was to proclaim the message that he would give me.

[19:3] The Lord told me to say, “Kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem, listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, have to say. I am going to bring such a disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will be stunned.

[19:4] I am going to do this because the people have abandoned me and defiled this place by offering sacrifices here to other gods—gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah have known anything about. They have filled this place with the blood of innocent people,

[19:5] and they have built altars for Baal in order to burn their children in the fire as sacrifices. I never commanded them to do this; it never even entered my mind.

[19:6] So then, the time will come when this place will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley. Instead, it will be known as Slaughter Valley.

[19:7] In this place I will frustrate all the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will let their enemies triumph over them and kill them in battle. I will give their corpses to the birds and the wild animals as food.

[19:8] I will bring such terrible destruction on this city that everyone who passes by will be shocked and amazed.

[19:9] The enemy will surround the city and try to kill its people. The siege will be so terrible that the people inside the city will eat one another and even their own children.”

[19:10] Then the Lord told me to break the jar in front of those who had gone with me

[19:11] and to tell them that the Lord Almighty had said, “I will break this people and this city, and it will be like this broken clay jar that cannot be put together again. People will bury their dead even in Topheth because there will be nowhere else to bury them.

[19:12] I promise that I will make this city and its inhabitants like Topheth.

[19:13] The houses of Jerusalem, the houses of the kings of Judah, and indeed all the houses on whose roofs incense has been burned to the stars and where wine has been poured out as an offering to other gods—they will all be as unclean as Topheth.”

[19:14] Then I left Topheth, where the Lord had sent me to proclaim his message. I went and stood in the court of the Temple and told all the people

[19:15] that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said, “I am going to bring on this city and on every nearby town all the punishment that I said I would, because you are stubborn and will not listen to what I say.”

[20:1] When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was the chief officer of the Temple, heard me proclaim these things,

[20:2] he had me beaten and placed in chains near the upper Benjamin Gate in the Temple.

[20:3] The next morning, after Pashhur had released me from the chains, I said to him, “The Lord did not name you Pashhur. The name he has given you is ‘Terror Everywhere.’

[20:4] The Lord himself has said, ‘I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to your friends, and you will see them all killed by the swords of their enemies. I am going to put all the people of Judah under the power of the king of Babylonia; he will take some away as prisoners to his country and put others to death.

[20:5] I will also let their enemies plunder all the wealth of this city and seize all its possessions and property, even the treasures of the kings of Judah, and carry everything off to Babylonia.

[20:6] As for you, Pashhur, you and all your family will also be captured and taken off to Babylonia. There you will die and be buried, along with all your friends to whom you have told so many lies.’”

[20:7] Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived. You are stronger than I am, and you have overpowered me. Everyone makes fun of me; they laugh at me all day long.

[20:8] Whenever I speak, I have to cry out and shout, “Violence! Destruction!” Lord, I am ridiculed and scorned all the time because I proclaim your message.

[20:9] But when I say, “I will forget the Lord and no longer speak in his name,” then your message is like a fire burning deep within me. I try my best to hold it in, but can no longer keep it back.

[20:10] I hear everybody whispering, “Terror is everywhere! So let's report him to the authorities!” Even my close friends wait for my downfall. “Perhaps he can be tricked,” they say; “then we can catch him and get revenge.”

[20:11] But you, Lord, are on my side, strong and mighty, and those who persecute me will fail. They will be disgraced forever, because they cannot succeed. Their disgrace will never be forgotten.

[20:12] But, Almighty Lord, you test people justly; you know what is in their hearts and minds. So let me see you take revenge on my enemies, for I have placed my cause in your hands.

[20:13] Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! He rescues the oppressed from the power of evil people.

[20:14] Curse the day I was born! Forget the day my mother gave me birth!

[20:15] Curse the one who made my father glad by bringing him the news, “It's a boy! You have a son!”

[20:16] May he be like those cities that the Lord destroyed without mercy. May he hear cries of pain in the morning and the battle alarm at noon,

[20:17] for not killing me before I was born. Then my mother's womb would have been my grave.

[20:18] Why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow, to end my life in disgrace?

[21:1] King Zedekiah of Judah sent to me Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah with this request:

[21:2] “Please speak to the Lord for us, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army are besieging the city. Maybe the Lord will perform one of his miracles for us and force Nebuchadnezzar to retreat.”

[21:3] Then the Lord spoke to me, and I told those who had been sent to me

[21:4] to tell Zedekiah that the Lord, the God of Israel, had said, “Zedekiah, I am going to defeat your army that is fighting against the king of Babylonia and his army. I will pile up your soldiers' weapons in the center of the city.

[21:5] I will fight against you with all my might, my anger, my wrath, and my fury.

[21:6] I will kill everyone living in this city; people and animals alike will die of a terrible disease.

[21:7] But as for you, your officials, and the people who survive the war, the famine, and the disease—I will let all of you be captured by King Nebuchadnezzar and by your enemies, who want to kill you. Nebuchadnezzar will put you to death. He will not spare any of you or show mercy or pity to any of you. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

[21:8] Then the Lord told me to say to the people, “Listen! I, the Lord, am giving you a choice between the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death.

[21:9] Anyone who stays in the city will be killed in war or by starvation or disease. But those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians, who are now attacking the city, will not be killed; they will at least escape with their life.

[21:10] I have made up my mind not to spare this city, but to destroy it. It will be given over to the king of Babylonia, and he will burn it to the ground. I, the Lord, have spoken.”