Bible in 90 Days

¹⁴ But foolish men without knowledge of God bow before their idols. It is a shameful business that these men are in, for what they make are frauds, gods without life or power in them. ¹⁵ All are worthless, silly; they will be crushed when their makers perish. ¹⁶ But the God of Jacob is not like these foolish idols. He is the Creator of all, and Israel is his chosen nation. The Lord Almighty is his name.

¹⁷ Pack your bags, he says. Get ready now to leave; the siege will soon begin. ¹⁸ For suddenly I’ll fling you from this land and pour great troubles down; at last you shall feel my wrath.

¹⁹ Desperate is my wound. My grief is great. My sickness is incurable, but I must bear it. ²⁰ My home is gone; my children have been taken away, and I will never see them again. There is no one left to help me rebuild my home. ²¹ The shepherds of my people have lost their senses; they no longer follow God nor ask his will. Therefore they perish, and their flocks are scattered. ²² Listen! Hear the terrible sound of great armies coming from the north. The cities of Judah shall become dens of jackals.

²³ O Lord, I know it is not within the power of man to map his life and plan his course— ²⁴ so you correct me, Lord; but please be gentle. Don’t do it in your anger, for I would die. ²⁵ Pour out your fury on the nations who don’t obey the Lord, for they have destroyed Israel and made a wasteland of this entire country.

11 ^1-3 Then the Lord spoke to Jeremiah once again and said:

Remind the men of Judah and all the people of Jerusalem that I made a contract with their fathers—and cursed is the man who does not heed it! ⁴ For I told them at the time I brought them out of slavery in Egypt that if they would obey me and do whatever I commanded them, then they and all their children would be mine and I would be their God. ⁵ And now, Israel, obey me, says the Lord, so that I can do for you the wonderful things I swore I would if you obeyed. I want to give you a land that “flows with milk and honey,” as it is today.

Then I replied, “So be it, Lord!”

⁶ Then the Lord said: Broadcast this message in Jerusalem’s streets—go from city to city throughout the land and say, Remember this agreement that your fathers made with God, and do all the things they promised him they would. ⁷ For I solemnly said to your fathers when I brought them out of Egypt—and have kept on saying it over and over again until this day: Obey my every command! ⁸ But your fathers didn’t do it. They wouldn’t even listen. Each followed his own stubborn will and his proud heart. Because they refused to obey, I did to them all the evils stated in the contract.

⁹ Again the Lord spoke to me and said: I have discovered a conspiracy against me among the men of Judah and Jerusalem. ¹⁰ They have returned to the sins of their fathers, refusing to listen to me and worshiping idols. The agreement I made with their fathers is broken and canceled. ¹¹ Therefore, the Lord says, I am going to bring calamity down upon them, and they shall not escape. Though they cry for mercy, I will not listen to their pleas. ¹² Then they will pray to their idols and burn incense before them, but that cannot save them from their time of anguish and despair. ¹³ O my people, you have as many gods as there are cities, and your altars of shame (your altars to burn incense to Baal) are along every street in Jerusalem.

¹⁴ Therefore, Jeremiah, pray no longer for this people, neither weep nor plead for them; for I will not listen to them when they are finally desperate enough to beg me for help. ¹⁵ What right do my beloved people have to come anymore to my Temple? For you have been unfaithful and worshiped other gods. Can promises and sacrifices now avert your doom and give you life and joy again?

¹⁶ The Lord used to call you his green olive tree, beautiful to see and full of good fruit; but now he has sent the fury of your enemies to burn you up and leave you broken and charred. ¹⁷ It is because of the wickedness of Israel and Judah in offering incense to Baal that the Lord Almighty who planted the tree has ordered it destroyed.

¹⁸ Then the Lord told me all about their plans and showed me their evil plots. ¹⁹ I had been as unsuspecting as a lamb or ox on the way to slaughter. I didn’t know that they were planning to kill me! “Let’s destroy this man and all his messages,” they said. “Let’s kill him so that his name will be forever forgotten.”

²⁰ O Lord Almighty, you are just. See the hearts and motives of these men. Repay them for all that they have planned! I look to you for justice.

^21-22 And the Lord replied, The men of the city of Anathoth shall be punished for planning to kill you. They will tell you not to prophesy in God’s name on pain of death. And so their young men shall die in battle; their boys and girls shall starve. ²³ Not one of these plotters of Anathoth shall survive, for I will bring a great disaster upon them. Their time has come.

12 O Lord, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you to decide. Now let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil men so happy? ² You plant them. They take root and their business grows. Their profits multiply, and they are rich. They say, “Thank God!” But in their hearts they give no credit to you. ³ But as for me—Lord, you know my heart—you know how much it longs for you. (And I am poor,^[a] O Lord!) Lord, drag them off like helpless sheep to the slaughter. Judge them, O God!

⁴ How long must this land of yours put up with all their goings-on? Even the grass of the field groans and weeps over their wicked deeds! The wild animals and birds have moved away, leaving the land deserted. Yet the people say, “God won’t bring judgment on us. We’re perfectly safe!”

⁵ The Lord replied to me: If racing with mere men—these men of Anathoth—has wearied you, how will you race against horses, against the king, his court, and all his evil priests?^[b] If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in Jordan’s jungles? ⁶ Even your own brothers, your own family, have turned against you. They have plotted to call for a mob to lynch you. Don’t trust them, no matter how pleasantly they speak. Don’t believe them.

⁷ Then the Lord said: I have abandoned my people, my inheritance; I have surrendered my dearest ones to their enemies. ⁸ My people have roared at me like a lion of the forest, so I have treated them as though I hated them. ⁹ My people have fallen. I will bring upon them swarms of vultures and wild animals to pick the flesh from their corpses.

¹⁰ Many foreign rulers have ravaged my vineyard, trampling down the vines, and turning all its beauty into barren wilderness. ¹¹ They have made it desolate; I hear its mournful cry. The whole land is desolate and no one cares. ¹² Destroying armies plunder the land; the sword of the Lord devours from one end of the nation to the other; nothing shall escape. ¹³ My people have sown wheat but reaped thorns; they have worked hard, but it does them no good. They shall harvest a crop of shame, for the fierce anger of the Lord is upon them.

¹⁴ And now the Lord says this to the evil nations, the nations surrounding the land God gave his people Israel: See, I will force you from your land just as Judah will be forced from hers; ¹⁵ but afterwards I will return and have compassion on all of you and will bring you home to your own land again, each man to his inheritance. ¹⁶ And if these heathen nations quickly learn my people’s ways and claim me as their God instead of Baal (whom they taught my people to worship), then they shall be strong among my people. ¹⁷ But any nation refusing to obey me will be expelled again and finished, says the Lord.

13 The Lord said to me, Go and buy a linen loincloth and wear it, but don’t wash it—don’t put it in water at all. ² So I bought the loincloth and put it on. ³ Then the Lord’s message came to me again. This time he said, ⁴ Take the loincloth out to the Euphrates River and hide it in a hole in the rocks.

⁵ So I did; I hid it as the Lord had told me to. ⁶ Then, a long time afterwards, the Lord said: Go out to the river again and get the loincloth. ⁷ And I did; I dug it out of the hole where I had hidden it. But now it was mildewed and falling apart. It was utterly useless!

^8-9 Then the Lord said: This illustrates the way that I will rot the pride of Judah and Jerusalem. ¹⁰ This evil nation refuses to listen to me and follows its own evil desires, and worships idols; therefore, it shall become as this loincloth—good for nothing. ¹¹ Even as a loincloth clings to a man’s loins, so I made Judah and Israel to cling to me, says the Lord. They were my people, an honor to my name. But then they turned away.

¹² Tell them this: The Lord God of Israel says, All your wine jugs will be full of wine. And they will reply, Of course, you don’t need to tell us how prosperous we will be!^{[c] 13} Then tell them: That’s not what I mean.^[d] I mean that I will fill everyone living in this land with helpless bewilderment—from the king sitting on David’s throne, and the priests and the prophets, right on down to all the people. ¹⁴ And I will smash fathers and sons against each other, says the Lord. I will not let pity nor mercy spare them from utter destruction.

¹⁵ Oh, that you were not so proud and stubborn! Then you would listen to the Lord, for he has spoken. ¹⁶ Give glory to the Lord your God before it is too late, before he causes deep, impenetrable darkness to fall upon you so that you stumble and fall upon the dark mountains; then, when you look for light, you will find only terrible darkness. ¹⁷ Do you still refuse to listen? Then in loneliness my breaking heart shall mourn because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears because the Lord’s flock shall be carried away as slaves.

¹⁸ Say to the king and queen mother,^[e] Come down from your thrones and sit in the dust, for your glorious crowns are removed from your heads. They are no longer yours. ¹⁹ The cities of the Negeb to the south of Jerusalem have closed their gates against the enemy. They must defend themselves, for Jerusalem cannot help;^[f] and all Judah shall be taken away as slaves.

²⁰ See the armies marching from the north! Where is your flock, Jerusalem,^[g] your beautiful flock he gave you to take care of? ²¹ How will you feel when he sets your allies over you as your rulers? You will writhe in pain like a woman having a child. ²² And if you ask yourself, Why is all this happening to me? It is because of the grossness of your sins; that is why you have been raped and destroyed by the invading army. ²³ Can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin? or a leopard take away his spots? Nor can you who are so used to doing evil now start being good.

^24-25 Because you have put me out of your mind and put your trust in false gods, I will scatter you as chaff is scattered by the fierce winds off the desert. This then is your allotment, that which is due you, which I have measured out especially for you. ²⁶ I myself will expose you to utter shame. ²⁷ I am keenly aware of your apostasy, your faithlessness to me, and your abominable idol worship in the fields and on the hills. Woe upon you, O Jerusalem! How long before you will be pure?

14 This message came to Jeremiah from the Lord, explaining why he was holding back the rain:

² Judah mourns; business has ground to a halt; all the people prostrate themselves to the earth, and a great cry rises from Jerusalem. ³ The nobles send servants for water from the wells, but the wells are dry. The servants return, baffled and desperate, and cover their heads in grief. ⁴ The ground is parched and cracked for lack of rain; the farmers are afraid. ⁵ The deer deserts her fawn because there is no grass. ⁶ The wild donkeys stand upon the bare hills panting like thirsty jackals. They strain their eyes looking for grass to eat, but there is none to be found.

⁷ O Lord, we have sinned against you grievously, yet help us for the sake of your own reputation! ⁸ O Hope of Israel, our Savior in times of trouble, why are you as a stranger to us, as one passing through the land who is merely stopping for the night? ⁹ Are you also baffled? Are you helpless to save us? O Lord, you are right here among us, and we carry your name; we are known as your people. O Lord, don’t desert us now!

¹⁰ But the Lord replies: You have loved to wander far from me and have not tried to follow in my paths. Now I will no longer accept you as my people; now I will remember all the evil you have done and punish your sins.

¹¹ The Lord told me again: Don’t ask me anymore to bless this people. Don’t pray for them anymore. ¹² When they fast, I will not pay any attention; when they present their offerings and sacrifices to me, I will not accept them. What I will give them in return is war and famine and disease.

¹³ Then I said, O Lord God, their prophets are telling them that all is well—that no war or famine will come. They tell the people you will surely send them peace, that you will bless them.

¹⁴ Then the Lord said: The prophets are telling lies in my name. I didn’t send them or tell them to speak or give them any message. They prophesy of visions and revelations they have never seen nor heard; they speak foolishness concocted out of their own lying hearts. ¹⁵ Therefore, the Lord says, I will punish these lying prophets who have spoken in my name though I did not send them, who say no war shall come nor famine. By war and famine they themselves shall die! ¹⁶ And the people to whom they prophesy—their bodies shall be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem, victims of famine and war; there shall be no one to bury them. Husbands, wives, sons, and daughters—all will be gone. For I will pour out terrible punishment upon them for their sins.

¹⁷ Therefore, tell them this: Night and day my eyes shall overflow with tears; I cannot stop my crying, for my people have been run through with a sword and lie mortally wounded on the ground. ¹⁸ If I go out in the fields, there lie the bodies of those the sword has killed; and if I walk in the streets, there lie those dead from starvation and disease. And yet the prophets and priests alike have made it their business to travel through the whole country, reassuring everyone that all is well, speaking of things they know nothing about.

¹⁹ “O Lord,” the people will cry, “have you completely rejected Judah? Do you abhor Jerusalem? Even after punishment, will there be no peace? We thought, Now at last he will heal us and bind our wounds. But no peace has come, and there is only trouble and terror everywhere. ²⁰ O Lord, we confess our wickedness, and that of our fathers too. ²¹ Do not hate us, Lord, for the sake of your own name. Do not disgrace yourself and the throne of your glory by forsaking your promise to bless us! ²² What heathen god can give us rain? Who but you alone, O Lord our God, can do such things as this? Therefore we will wait for you to help us.”

15 Then the Lord said to me, Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me pleading for these people, even then I wouldn’t help them—away with them! Get them out of my sight! ² And if they say to you, But where can we go? Tell them the Lord says: Those who are destined for death, to death; those who must die by the sword, to the sword; those doomed to starvation, to famine; and those for captivity, to captivity. ³ I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, says the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and the vultures and wild animals to finish up what’s left. ⁴ Because of the wicked things Manasseh, son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem, I will punish you so severely that your fate will horrify the peoples of the world.

⁵ Who will feel sorry for you, Jerusalem? Who will weep for you? Who will even bother to ask how you are? ⁶ You have forsaken me and turned your backs upon me. Therefore, I will clench my fists against you to destroy you. I am tired of always giving you another chance. ⁷ I will sift you at the gates of your cities and take from you all that you hold dear, and I will destroy my own people because they refuse to turn back to me from all their evil ways. ⁸ There shall be countless widows; at noontime I will bring death to the young men and sorrow to their mothers. I will cause anguish and terror to fall upon them suddenly. ⁹ The mother of seven sickens and faints, for all her sons are dead. Her sun is gone down while it is yet day. She sits childless now, disgraced, for all her children have been killed.

¹⁰ Then Jeremiah said, “What sadness is mine, my mother; oh, that I had died at birth. For I am hated everywhere I go. I am neither a creditor soon to foreclose nor a debtor refusing to pay—yet they all curse me. ¹¹ Well, let them curse! Lord, you know how I have pled with you on their behalf—how I have begged you to spare these enemies of mine.”

^12-13 Can a man break bars of northern iron or bronze? This people’s stubborn will can’t be broken either. So, because of all your sins against me, I will deliver your wealth and treasures as loot to the enemy. ¹⁴ I will have your enemies take you as slaves to a land where you have never been before, for my anger burns like fire, and it shall consume you.

¹⁵ Then Jeremiah replied, “Lord, you know it is for your sake that I am suffering. They are persecuting me because I have proclaimed your word to them. Don’t let them kill me! Rescue me from their clutches, and give them what they deserve! ¹⁶ Your words are what sustain me; they are food to my hungry soul. They bring joy to my sorrowing heart and delight me. How proud I am to bear your name, O Lord. ^17-18 I have not joined the people in their merry feasts. I sit alone beneath the hand of God. I burst with indignation at their sins. Yet you have failed me in my time of need! You have let them keep right on with all their persecutions. Will they never stop hurting me? Your help is as uncertain as a seasonal mountain brook—sometimes a flood, sometimes as dry as a bone.”

¹⁹ The Lord replied: “Stop this foolishness and talk some sense! Only if you return to trusting me will I let you continue as my spokesman. You are to influence them, not let them influence you! ²⁰ They will fight against you like a besieging army against a high city wall. But they will not conquer you, for I am with you to protect and deliver you, says the Lord. ²¹ Yes, I will certainly deliver you from these wicked men and rescue you from their ruthless hands.”

16 On yet another occasion God spoke to me, and said:

² You must not marry and have children here. ³ For the children born in this city and their mothers and fathers ⁴ shall die from terrible diseases. No one shall mourn for them or bury them, but their bodies shall lie on the ground to rot and fertilize the soil. They shall die from war and famine, and their bodies shall be picked apart by vultures and wild animals. ⁵ Do not mourn or weep for them, for I have removed my protection and my peace from them—taken away my loving-kindness and my mercies. ⁶ Both great and small shall die in this land, unburied and unmourned, and their friends shall not cut themselves nor shave their heads as signs of sorrow (as is their heathen custom). ⁷ No one shall comfort the mourners with a meal nor send them a cup of wine expressing grief for their parents’ death.

⁸ As a sign to them of these sad days ahead,^[h] don’t you join them anymore in their feasts and parties—don’t even eat a meal with them. ⁹ For the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: In your own lifetime, before your very eyes, I will end all laughter in this land—the happy songs, the marriage feasts, the songs of bridegrooms and of brides.

¹⁰ And when you tell the people all these things and they ask, “Why has the Lord decreed such terrible things against us? What have we done to merit such treatment? What is our sin against the Lord our God?” ¹¹ tell them the Lord’s reply is this: Because your fathers forsook me. They worshiped other gods and served them; they did not keep my laws, ¹² and you have been worse than your fathers were! You follow evil to your hearts’ content and refuse to listen to me. ¹³ Therefore, I will throw you out of this land and chase you into a foreign land where neither you nor your fathers have been before, and there you can go ahead and worship your idols all you like—and I will grant you no favors!

^14-15 But there will come a glorious day, says the Lord, when the whole topic of conversation will be that God is bringing his people home from a nation in the north, and from many other lands where he had scattered them. You will look back no longer to the time when I rescued you from your slavery in Egypt. That mighty miracle will scarcely be mentioned anymore. Yes, I will bring you back again, says the Lord, to this same land I gave your fathers.

¹⁶ Now I am sending for many fishermen to fish you from the deeps where you are hiding from my wrath. I am sending for hunters to chase you down like deer in the forests or mountain goats on inaccessible crags. Wherever you run to escape my judgment, I will find you and punish you. ¹⁷ For I am closely watching you, and I see every sin. You cannot hope to hide from me.

¹⁸ And I will punish you doubly for all your sins because you have defiled my land with your detestable idols and filled it up with all your evil deeds.

¹⁹ O Lord, my Strength and Fortress, my Refuge in the day of trouble, nations from around the world will come to you saying, “Our fathers have been foolish, for they have worshiped worthless idols! ²⁰ Can men make God? The gods they made are not real gods at all.”

²¹ And when they come in that spirit, I will show them^[i] my power and might and make them understand at last that I alone am God.

17 My people sin as though commanded to, as though their evil were laws chiseled with an iron pen or diamond point upon their stony hearts or on the corners of their altars. ^2-3 Their youths do not forget to sin, worshiping idols beneath each tree, high in the mountains or in the open country down below. And so I will give all your treasures to your enemies as the price that you must pay for all your sins. ⁴ And the wonderful heritage I reserved for you will slip out of your hand, and I will send you away as slaves to your enemies in distant lands. For you have kindled a fire of my anger that shall burn forever.

⁵ The Lord says: Cursed is the man who puts his trust in mortal man and turns his heart away from God. ⁶ He is like a stunted shrub in the desert, with no hope for the future; he lives on the salt-encrusted plains in the barren wilderness; good times pass him by forever.

⁷ But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord and has made the Lord his hope and confidence. ⁸ He is like a tree planted along a riverbank, with its roots reaching deep into the water—a tree not bothered by the heat nor worried by long months of drought. Its leaves stay green, and it goes right on producing all its luscious fruit.

⁹ The heart is the most deceitful thing there is and desperately wicked. No one can really know how bad it is! ¹⁰ Only the Lord knows! He searches all hearts and examines deepest motives so he can give to each person his right reward, according to his deeds—how he has lived.

¹¹ Like a bird that fills her nest with young she has not hatched and which will soon desert her and fly away, so is the man who gets his wealth by unjust means. Sooner or later he will lose his riches and at the end of his life become a poor old fool.

¹² But our refuge is your throne, eternal, high, and glorious. ¹³ O Lord, the Hope of Israel, all who turn away from you shall be disgraced and shamed; they are registered for earth and not for glory, for they have forsaken the Lord, the Fountain of living waters. ¹⁴ Lord, you alone can heal me, you alone can save, and my praises are for you alone.

¹⁵ Men scoff at me and say, “What is this word of the Lord you keep talking about? If these threats of yours are really from God, why don’t they come true?”

¹⁶ Lord, I don’t want the people crushed by terrible calamity. The plan is yours, not mine. It is your message I’ve given them, not my own. I don’t want them doomed! ¹⁷ Lord, don’t desert me now! You alone are my hope. ¹⁸ Bring confusion and trouble on all who persecute me, but give me peace. Yes, bring double destruction upon them!

¹⁹ Then the Lord said to me, Go and stand in the gates of Jerusalem, first at the gate where the king goes out, and then at each of the other gates, ²⁰ and say to all the people: Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah and all the people of this nation, and all you citizens of Jerusalem. ^21-22 The Lord says: Take warning and live; do no unnecessary^[j] work on the Sabbath day, but make it a holy day. I gave this commandment to your fathers, ²³ but they didn’t listen or obey. They stubbornly refused to pay attention and be taught.

²⁴ But if you obey me, says the Lord, and refuse to work on the Sabbath day and keep it separate, special and holy, ²⁵ then this nation shall continue forever. There shall always be descendants of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem; there shall always be kings and princes riding in pomp and splendor among the people, and this city shall remain forever. ²⁶ And from all around Jerusalem and from the cities of Judah and Benjamin, from the Negeb and from the lowlands west of Judah, the people shall come with their burnt offerings and grain offerings and incense, bringing their sacrifices to praise the Lord in his Temple.

²⁷ But if you will not listen to me, if you refuse to keep the Sabbath holy, if on the Sabbath you bring in loads of merchandise through these gates of Jerusalem, just as on other days, then I will set fire to these gates. The fire shall spread to the palaces and utterly destroy them, and no one shall be able to put out the raging flames.

18 Here is another message to Jeremiah from the Lord:

² Go down to the shop where clay pots and jars are made, and I will talk to you there. ³ I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. ⁴ But the jar that he was forming didn’t turn out as he wished, so he kneaded it into a lump and started again.

⁵ Then the Lord said: ⁶ O Israel, can’t I do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. ⁷ Whenever I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be taken up and destroyed, ⁸ then if that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned. ⁹ And if I announce that I will make a certain nation strong and great, ¹⁰ but then that nation changes its mind, turns to evil, and refuses to obey me, then I, too, will change my mind and not bless that nation as I had said I would.

¹¹ Therefore, go and warn all Judah and Jerusalem, saying: Hear the word of the Lord. I am planning evil against you now instead of good; turn back from your evil paths and do what is right.

¹² But they replied, “Don’t waste your breath. We have no intention whatever of doing what God says. We will continue to live as we want to, free from any restraint, full of stubbornness and wickedness!”

¹³ Then the Lord said: Even among the heathen, no one has ever heard of such a thing! My people have done something too horrible to understand. ¹⁴ The snow never melts high up in the Lebanon mountains. The cold, flowing streams from the crags of Mount Hermon never run dry. ¹⁵ These can be counted on. But not my people! For they have deserted me and turned to foolish idols. They have turned away from the ancient highways of good and walk the muddy paths of sin. ¹⁶ Therefore, their land shall become desolate, so that all who pass by will gasp and shake their heads in amazement at its utter desolation. ¹⁷ I will scatter my people before their enemies as the east wind scatters dust; and in all their trouble I will turn my back on them and refuse to notice their distress.

¹⁸ Then the people said, “Come, let’s get rid of Jeremiah. We have our own priests and wise men and prophets—we don’t need his advice. Let’s silence him that he may speak no more against us, nor bother us again.”

¹⁹ O Lord, help me! See what they are planning to do to me! ²⁰ Should they repay evil for good? They have set a trap to kill me, yet I spoke well of them to you and tried to defend them from your anger. ²¹ Now, Lord, let their children starve to death and let the sword pour out their blood! Let their wives be widows and be bereft of all their children! Let their men die in epidemics and their youths die in battle! ²² Let screaming be heard from their homes as troops of soldiers come suddenly upon them, for they have dug a pit for me to fall in, and they have hidden traps along my path. ²³ Lord, you know all their murderous plots against me. Don’t forgive them, don’t blot out their sin, but let them perish before you; deal with them in your anger.

19 ^1-2 The Lord said, Buy a clay jar and take it out into the valley of Ben-hinnom by the east gate of the city. Take some of the elders of the people and some of the older priests with you, and speak to them whatever words I give you.

³ Then the Lord spoke to them and said: Listen to the word of the Lord, kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem! The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will bring terrible evil upon this place, so terrible that the ears of those who hear it will prickle. ⁴ For Israel has forsaken me and turned this valley into a place of shame and wickedness. The people burn incense to idols—idols that neither this generation nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah have worshiped before—and they have filled this place with the blood of innocent children. ⁵ They have built high altars to Baal, and there they burn their sons in sacrifice—a thing I never commanded them nor even thought of!

⁶ The day is coming, says the Lord, when this valley shall no longer be called Topheth or Ben-hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter. ⁷ For I will upset the battle plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and I will let invading armies kill you here and leave your dead bodies for vultures and wild animals to feed upon. ⁸ And I will wipe Jerusalem off the earth, so that everyone going by will gasp with astonishment at all that I have done to her. ⁹ I will see to it that your enemies lay siege to the city until all food is gone and those trapped inside begin to eat their own children and friends.

¹⁰ And now, Jeremiah, as these men watch, smash the jar you brought with you, ¹¹ and say to them, This is the message to you from the Lord Almighty: As this jar lies shattered, so I will shatter the people of Jerusalem; and as this jar cannot be mended, neither can they. The slaughter shall be so great that there won’t be room enough for decent burial anywhere, and their bodies shall be heaped in this valley. ¹² And as it will be in this valley, so it will be in Jerusalem. For I will fill Jerusalem with dead bodies too. ¹³ And I will defile all the homes in Jerusalem, including the palace of the kings of Judah—wherever incense has been burned upon the roofs to your star gods, and libations poured out to them.

¹⁴ As Jeremiah returned from Topheth where he had delivered this message, he stopped in front of the Temple of the Lord and said to all the people, ¹⁵ The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I will bring upon this city and her surrounding towns all the evil I have promised because you have stubbornly refused to listen to the Lord.

20 Now when Pashhur (son of Immer), the priest in charge of the Temple of the Lord, heard what Jeremiah was saying, ² he arrested Jeremiah and had him whipped and put in the stocks at Benjamin Gate near the Temple. ³ He left him there all night.

The next day when Pashhur finally released him, Jeremiah said, “Pashhur, the Lord has changed your name. He says from now on to call you ‘The Man Who Lives in Terror.’ ⁴ For the Lord will send terror on you and all your friends, and you will see them die by the swords of their enemies. I will hand over Judah to the king of Babylon, says the Lord, and he shall take away these people as slaves to Babylon and kill them. ⁵ And I will let your enemies loot Jerusalem. All the famed treasures of the city, with the precious jewels and gold and silver of your kings, shall be carried off to Babylon. ⁶ And as for you, Pashhur, you and all your family and household shall become slaves in Babylon and die there—you and those to whom you lied when you prophesied that everything would be all right.”

⁷ O Lord, you deceived me when you promised me your help. I have to give them your messages because you are stronger than I am, but now I am the laughingstock of the city, mocked by all. ⁸ You have never once let me speak a word of kindness to them; always it is disaster and horror and destruction. No wonder they scoff and mock and make my name a household joke. ⁹ And I can’t quit! For if I say I’ll never again mention the Lord—never more speak in his name—then his word in my heart is like fire that burns in my bones, and I can’t hold it in any longer. ¹⁰ Yet on every side I hear their whispered threats and am afraid. “We will report,” they say. Even those who were my friends are watching me, waiting for a fatal slip. “He will trap himself,” they say, “and then we will get our revenge on him.”

¹¹ But the Lord stands beside me like a great warrior, and before him, the Mighty, Terrible One, they shall stumble. They cannot defeat me; they shall be shamed and thoroughly humiliated, and they shall have a stigma upon them forever. ¹² O Lord Almighty, who knows those who are righteous and examines the deepest thoughts of hearts and minds, let me see your vengeance on them. For I have committed my cause to you. ¹³ Therefore, I will sing out in thanks to the Lord! Praise him! For he has delivered me, poor and needy, from my oppressors.

¹⁴ Yet, cursed be the day that I was born! ¹⁵ Cursed be the man who brought my father the news that a son was born. ¹⁶ Let that messenger be destroyed like the cities of old which God overthrew without mercy. Terrify him all day long with battle shouts ¹⁷ because he did not kill me at my birth! Oh, that I had died within my mother’s womb, that it had been my grave! ¹⁸ Why was I ever born? For my life has been but trouble and sorrow and shame.

21 Then King Zedekiah sent Pashhur (son of Malchiah) and Zephaniah the priest (son of Maaseiah) to Jeremiah and begged, “Ask the Lord to help us, for Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, has declared war on us! ² Perhaps the Lord will be gracious to us and do a mighty miracle as in olden times^[k] and force Nebuchadnezzar to withdraw his forces.”

^3-4 Jeremiah replied, “Go back to King Zedekiah and tell him the Lord God of Israel says, I will make all your weapons useless against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans besieging you. In fact, I will bring your enemies right into the heart of this city, ⁵ and I myself will fight against you, for I am very angry. ⁶ And I will send a terrible plague on this city, and both men and animals shall die. ⁷ And finally I will deliver King Zedekiah himself and all the remnant left in the city into the hands of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, to slaughter them without pity or mercy.

⁸ “Tell these people: This is what the Lord says! Take your choice of life or death! ⁹ Stay here in Jerusalem and die—slaughtered by your enemies, killed by starvation and disease—or go out and surrender to the Chaldean army and live. ¹⁰ For I have set my face against this city; I will be its enemy and not its friend, says the Lord. It shall be captured by the king of Babylon and he shall reduce it to ashes.

¹¹ “And to the king of Judah, the Lord says: ¹² I am ready to judge you because of all the evil you are doing. Quick! Give justice to these you judge! Begin doing what is right before my burning fury flashes out upon you like a fire no man can quench. ¹³ I will fight against this city of Jerusalem that boasts, ‘We are safe; no one can touch us here!’ ¹⁴ And I myself will destroy you for your sinfulness, says the Lord. I will light a fire in the forests that will burn up everything in its path.”

22 Then the Lord said to me: Go over and speak directly to the king of Judah and say, ² Listen to this message from God, O king of Judah, sitting on David’s throne; and let your servants and your people listen too.

³ The Lord says: Be fair-minded. Do what is right! Help those in need of justice! Quit your evil deeds! Protect the rights of aliens and immigrants, orphans and widows; stop murdering the innocent! ⁴ If you put an end to all these terrible deeds you are doing, then I will deliver this nation and once more give kings to sit on David’s throne, and there shall be prosperity for all. ⁵ But if you refuse to pay attention to this warning, I swear by my own name, says the Lord, that this palace shall become a shambles.

⁶ For this is the Lord’s message concerning the palace: You are as beloved to me as fruitful Gilead and the green forests of Lebanon; but I will destroy you and leave you deserted and uninhabited. ⁷ I will call for a wrecking crew to bring out its tools to dismantle you. They will tear out all of your fine cedar beams and throw them on the fire. ⁸ Men from many nations will pass by the ruins of this city and say to one another, “Why did the Lord do it? Why did he destroy such a great city?” ⁹ And the answer will be, “Because the people living here forgot the Lord their God and violated his agreement with them, for they worshiped idols.”

¹⁰ Don’t weep for the dead! Instead weep for the captives led away! For they will never return to see their native land again. ¹¹ For the Lord says this about Jehoahaz who succeeded his father^[l] King Josiah and was taken away as a captive: ¹² He shall die in a distant land^[m] and never again see his own country.

¹³ And woe to you, King Jehoiakim,^[n] for you are building your great palace with forced labor. By not paying wages you are building injustice into its walls and oppression into its doorframes and ceilings. ¹⁴ You say, “I will build a magnificent palace with huge rooms and many windows, paneled throughout with fragrant cedar and painted a lovely red.” ¹⁵ But a beautiful palace does not make a great king! Why did your father Josiah reign so long? Because he was just and fair in all his dealings. That is why God blessed him. ¹⁶ He saw to it that justice and help were given the poor and the needy and all went well for him. This is how a man lives close to God. ¹⁷ But you! You are full of selfish greed and all dishonesty! You murder the innocent, oppress the poor, and reign with ruthlessness.

¹⁸ Therefore this is God’s decree of punishment against King Jehoiakim, who succeeded his father Josiah on the throne: His family will not weep for him when he dies. His subjects will not even care that he is dead. ¹⁹ He shall be buried like a dead donkey—dragged out of Jerusalem and thrown on the garbage dump beyond the gate! ²⁰ Weep, for your allies are gone. Search for them in Lebanon; shout for them at Bashan; seek them at the fording points of Jordan. See, they are all destroyed. Not one is left to help you! ²¹ When you were prosperous, I warned you, but you replied, “Don’t bother me.” Since childhood you have been that way—you just won’t listen! ²² And now all your allies have disappeared with a puff of wind; all your friends are taken off as slaves. Surely at last you will see your wickedness and be ashamed. ²³ It’s very nice to live graciously in a beautiful palace among the cedars of Lebanon, but soon you will cry and groan in anguish—anguish as of a woman in labor.

^24-25 And as for you, Coniah,^[o] son of Jehoiakim king of Judah—even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off and give you to those who seek to kill you, of whom you are so desperately afraid—to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and his mighty army. ²⁶ I will throw you and your mother out of this country, and you shall die in a foreign land. ²⁷ You will never again return to the land of your desire. ²⁸ This man Coniah is like a discarded, broken dish. He and his children will be exiled to distant lands.

²⁹ O earth, earth, earth! Hear the word of the Lord! ³⁰ The Lord says: Record this man Coniah as childless, for none of his children shall ever sit upon the throne of David or rule in Judah.^[p] His life will amount to nothing.

23 The Lord declares:

I will send disaster upon the leaders of my people—the shepherds of my sheep—for they have destroyed and scattered the very ones they were to care for. ² Instead of leading my flock to safety, you have deserted them and driven them to destruction. And now I will pour out judgment upon you for the evil you have done to them. ³ And I will gather together the remnant of my flock from wherever I have sent them and bring them back into their own fold, and they shall be fruitful and increase. ⁴ And I will appoint responsible shepherds to care for them, and they shall not need to be afraid again; all of them shall be accounted for continually.

^5-6 For the time is coming, says the Lord, when I will place a righteous Branch upon King David’s throne. He shall be a King who shall rule with wisdom and justice and cause righteousness to prevail everywhere throughout the earth.^[q] And this is his name: The Lord Our Righteousness. At that time Judah will be saved and Israel will live in peace.

⁷ In that day people will no longer say when taking an oath, “As the Lord lives who rescued the people of Israel from the land of Egypt,” ⁸ but they will say, “As the Lord lives who brought the Jews back to their own land of Israel from the countries to which he had exiled them.”