Jeremiah 33-36

Contemporary English Version

The Lord Promises To Give the Land Back to His People

33 ^1-2 I was still being held prisoner in the courtyard of the palace guards when the Lord told me:

I am the Lord, and I created the whole world.^{[a] 3} Ask me, and I will tell you things that you don't know and can't find out.

^4-5 Many of the houses in Jerusalem and some of the buildings at the royal palace have been torn down to be used in repairing the walls to keep out the Babylonian attackers.^[b] Now there are empty spaces where the buildings once stood. But I am furious, and these spaces will be filled with the bodies of the people I kill. The people of Jerusalem will cry out to me for help, but they are evil, and I will ignore their prayers.

⁶ Then someday, I will heal this place and my people as well, and let them enjoy unending peace.^{[c] 7} I will give this land to Israel and Judah once again, and I will make them as strong as they were before. ⁸ They sinned and rebelled against me, but I will forgive them and take away their guilt. ⁹ When that happens, all nations on earth will see the good things I have done for Jerusalem, and how I have given it complete peace. The nations will celebrate and praise and honor me, but they will also tremble with fear because of the powerful things I have done.

¹⁰ Jeremiah, you say that this land is a desert without people or animals, and for now, you are right. The towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem are deserted, and people and animals are nowhere to be seen. But someday you will hear ^11 (A) happy voices and the sounds of parties and wedding celebrations. And when people come to my temple to offer sacrifices to thank me, you will hear them say:

The land will once again be productive. ^12-13 Now it is empty, without people or animals. But when that time comes, shepherds will take care of their flocks in pastures near every town in the hill country, in the foothills to the west, in the Southern Desert, in the land of the Benjamin tribe, and around Jerusalem and the towns of Judah.

I, the Lord, have spoken.

The Lord's Wonderful Promise

^14 (B) The Lord said:

I made a wonderful promise to Israel and Judah,^[d] and the days are coming when I will keep it.

^17 (C) The king of Israel will be one of David's descendants, ^18 (D) and there will always be priests from the Levi tribe serving at my altar and offering sacrifices to please me and to give thanks.^[e]

¹⁹ Then the Lord told me:

²⁰ I, the Lord, have an agreement with day and night, so they always come at the right time. You can't break the agreement I made with them, ²¹ and you can't break the agreements I have made with David's family and with the priests from the Levi tribe who serve at my altar. A descendant of David will always rule as king of Israel, ²² and there will be more descendants of David and of the priests from the Levi tribe than stars in the sky or grains of sand on the beach.

²³ The Lord also said:

²⁴ You've heard foreigners insult my people by saying, “The Lord chose Israel and Judah, but now he has rejected them, and they are no longer a nation.”

²⁵ Jeremiah, I will never break my agreement with the day and the night or let the sky and the earth stop obeying my commands. ²⁶ In the same way, I will never reject the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob or break my promise that they will always have a descendant of David as their king. I will be kind to my people Israel, and they will be successful again.

Jeremiah Warns Zedekiah

34 ^(E) King Nebuchadnezzar^[f] had a large army made up of people from every kingdom in his empire. He and his army were attacking Jerusalem and all the nearby towns, when the Lord told me ² to say to King Zedekiah:^[g]

I am the Lord, and I am going to let Nebuchadnezzar capture this city and burn it down. ³ You will be taken prisoner and brought to Nebuchadnezzar, and he will speak with you face to face. Then you will be led away to Babylonia.

⁴ Zedekiah, I promise that you won't die in battle. ⁵ You will die a peaceful death. People will mourn when you die, and they will light bonfires in your honor, just as they did for your ancestors, the kings who ruled before you.

⁶ I went to Zedekiah and told him what the Lord had said. ⁷ Meanwhile, the king of Babylonia was trying to break through the walls of Lachish, Azekah, and Jerusalem, the only three towns of Judah that had not been captured.

The People Break a Promise

^8-10 King Zedekiah,^[h] his officials, and everyone else in Jerusalem made an agreement to free all Hebrew^[i] men and women who were slaves. No Jew would keep another as a slave. And so, all the Jewish slaves were given their freedom.

¹¹ But those slave owners changed their minds and forced their former slaves back into slavery.

¹² That's when the Lord told me to say to the people:

¹³ I am the Lord God of Israel, and I made an agreement with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, where they had been slaves. ^14 (F) As part of this agreement, you must let a Hebrew slave go free after six years of service.

Your ancestors did not obey me, ^15-16 but you decided to obey me and do the right thing by setting your Hebrew slaves completely free. You even went to my temple, and in my name you made an agreement to set them free. But you have abused my name, because you broke that agreement and forced your former slaves back into slavery.

¹⁷ You have disobeyed me by not giving your slaves their freedom. So I will give you freedom—the freedom to die in battle or from disease or hunger. I will make you disgusting to all other nations on earth.

¹⁸ You asked me to be a witness when you made the agreement to set your slaves free. And as part of the ceremony you cut a calf into two parts, then walked between the parts. But you people of Jerusalem have broken that agreement as well as my agreement with Israel. So I will do to you what you did to that calf. ^19-20 I will let your enemies take all of you prisoner, including the leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the royal officials, the priests, and everyone else who walked between the two parts of the calf. These enemies will kill you and leave your bodies lying on the ground as food for birds and wild animals.

^21-22 These enemies are King Nebuchadnezzar^[j] of Babylonia and his army. They have stopped attacking Jerusalem, but they want to kill King Zedekiah and his high officials. So I will command them to return and attack again. This time they will conquer the city and burn it down, and they will capture Zedekiah and his officials. I will also let them destroy the towns of Judah, so that no one can live there any longer.

Learn a Lesson from the Rechabites

35 ^(G) When Jehoiakim^[k] was king of Judah, the Lord told me, ² “Go to the Rechabite clan and invite them to meet you in one of the side rooms^[l] of the temple. When they arrive, offer them a drink of wine.”

³ So I went to Jaazaniah,^[m] the leader of the clan, and I invited him and all the men of his clan. ⁴ I brought them into the temple courtyard and took them upstairs to a room belonging to the prophets who were followers of Hanan son of Igdaliah. It was next to a room belonging to some of the officials, and that room was over the one belonging to Maaseiah, a priest who was one of the high officials in the temple.^[n]

⁵ I set out some large bowls full of wine together with some cups, and then I said to the Rechabites, “Have some wine!”

⁶ But they answered:

No! The ancestor of our clan, Jonadab son of Rechab,^[o] made a rule that we must obey. He said, “Don't ever drink wine ⁷ or build houses or plant crops and vineyards. Instead, you must always live in tents and move from place to place. If you obey this command, you will live a long time.”

^8-10 Our clan has always obeyed Jonadab's command. To this very day, we and our wives and sons and daughters don't drink wine or build houses or plant vineyards or crops. And we have lived in tents, ¹¹ except now we have to live inside Jerusalem because Nebuchadnezzar^[p] has taken over the countryside with his army from Babylonia and Syria.

^12-13 Then the Lord told me to say to the people of Judah and Jerusalem:

I, the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, want you to learn a lesson ¹⁴ from the Rechabite clan. Their ancestor Jonadab told his descendants never to drink wine, and to this very day they have obeyed him. But I have spoken to you over and over, and you haven't obeyed me! ¹⁵ You refused to listen to my prophets, who kept telling you, “Stop doing evil and worshiping other gods! Start obeying the Lord, and he will let you live in this land he gave your ancestors.”

¹⁶ The Rechabites have obeyed the command of their ancestor Jonadab, but you have not obeyed me, ¹⁷ your God. I am the Lord All-Powerful, and I warned you about the terrible things that would happen to you if you did not listen to me. But you have ignored me, so now disaster will strike you. I, the Lord, have spoken.

The Lord Makes a Promise to the Rechabites

¹⁸ Then the Lord told me to say to the Rechabite clan:

“I am the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel. You have obeyed your ancestor Jonadab, ¹⁹ so I promise that your clan will be my servants and will never die out.”

King Jehoiakim Burns Jeremiah's First Scroll

36 ^(H) During the fourth year that Jehoiakim^[q] son of Josiah^[r] was king of Judah, the Lord said to me, “Jeremiah, ² since the time Josiah was king, I have been speaking to you about Israel, Judah, and the other nations. Now, get a scroll^[s] and write down everything I have told you, ³ then read it to the people of Judah. Maybe they will stop sinning when they hear what terrible things I plan for them. And if they turn back to me, I will forgive them.”

⁴ I sent for Baruch son of Neriah and asked him to help me. I repeated everything the Lord had told me, and Baruch wrote it all down on a scroll. ⁵ Then I said,

Baruch, the officials refuse to let me go into the Lord's temple, ⁶ so you must go instead. Wait for the next holy day when the people of Judah come to the temple to pray and to go without eating.^[t] Then take this scroll to the temple and read it aloud. ⁷ The Lord is furious, and if the people hear how he is going to punish them, maybe they will ask to be forgiven.

^8-10 In the ninth month^[u] of the fifth year that Jehoiakim was king, the leaders set a day when everyone who lived in Jerusalem or who was visiting there had to pray and go without eating. So Baruch took the scroll to the upper courtyard of the temple. He went over to the side of the courtyard and stood in a covered area near New Gate, where he read the scroll aloud.

This covered area belonged to Gemariah,^[v] one of the king's highest officials. ¹¹ Gemariah's son Micaiah was there and heard Baruch read what the Lord had said. ¹² When Baruch finished reading, Micaiah went down to the palace. His father Gemariah was in the officials' room, meeting with the rest of the king's officials, including Elishama, Delaiah, Elnathan, and Zedekiah.^{[w] 13} Micaiah told them what he had heard Baruch read to the people. ¹⁴ Then the officials sent Jehudi and Shelemiah^[x] to tell Baruch, “Bring us that scroll.”

When Baruch arrived with the scroll, ¹⁵ the officials said, “Please sit down and read it to us,” which he did. ¹⁶ After they heard what was written on the scroll, they were worried and said to each other, “The king needs to hear this!” Turning to Baruch, they asked, ¹⁷ “Did someone tell you what to write on this scroll?”

¹⁸ “Yes, Jeremiah did,” Baruch replied. “I wrote down just what he told me.”

¹⁹ The officials said, “You and Jeremiah must go into hiding, and don't tell anyone where you are going.”

^20-22 The officials put the scroll in Elishama's room and went to see the king, who was in one of the rooms where he lived and worked during the winter. It was the ninth month^[y] of the year, so there was a fire burning in the fireplace,^[z] and the king was sitting nearby. After the officials told the king about the scroll, he sent Jehudi to get it. Then Jehudi started reading the scroll to the king and his officials. ^23-25 But every time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king would tell him to cut them off with his penknife and throw them in the fire. Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah begged the king not to burn the scroll, but he ignored them, and soon there was nothing left of it.

The king and his servants listened to what was written on the scroll, but they were not the least bit afraid, and they did not tear their clothes in sorrow.^[aa]

²⁶ The king told his son Jerahmeel to take Seraiah and Shelemiah^[ab] and to go arrest Baruch and me.^[ac] But the Lord kept them from finding us.

Jeremiah's Second Scroll

²⁷ I had told Baruch what to write on that first scroll,^[ad] but King Jehoiakim^[ae] had burned it. So the Lord told me ²⁸ to get another scroll and write down everything that had been on the first one. ²⁹ Then he told me to say to King Jehoiakim:

Not only did you burn Jeremiah's scroll, you had the nerve to ask why he had written that the king of Babylonia would attack and ruin the land, killing all the people and even the animals. ³⁰ So I, the Lord, promise that you will be killed and your body thrown out on the ground. The sun will beat down on it during the day, and the frost will settle on it at night. And none of your descendants will ever be king of Judah. ³¹ You, your children, and your servants are evil, and I will punish everyone of you. I warned you and the people of Judah and Jerusalem that I would bring disaster, but none of you have listened. So now you are doomed!

³² After the Lord finished speaking to me, I got another scroll and gave it to Baruch. Then I told him what to write, so this second scroll would contain even more than was on the scroll Jehoiakim had burned.