Add parallel Print Page Options

Troubles for Judah

15 Then the Lord said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with these people. Send them away from Me and let them go! And when they ask you, ‘Where should we go?’ then tell them, ‘The Lord says, “Those who are to die, to death, and those who are to be killed by the sword, to the sword. Those who are to go hungry, to hunger, and those who are to be taken away as prisoners, to be taken away.’ I will set over them four kinds of destroyers,” says the Lord: “The sword to kill, the dogs to take away, and the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the earth to eat and destroy. I will make them an object of much fear and hate among all the nations of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

“Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem, or who will have sorrow for you? Who will turn aside to ask about your well-being? You have turned away from Me,” says the Lord. “You keep going back into sin. So I will put out My hand against you and destroy you. I am tired of having pity on you! I will throw them to the wind like straw at the gates of the land. I will take their children from them. I will destroy My people. For they did not turn from their ways. Their women whose husbands have died will be as many as the sand of the seas. At noon I will bring a destroyer against the mothers of young men. I will bring suffering and fear to them all at once. She who gave birth to seven sons will become weak and die. Her sun will set while it is still day, and she will be put to shame. I will give the rest of them to the sword in front of those who hate them,” says the Lord.

Jeremiah Complains

10 It is bad for me, my mother, that you have given birth to me! I am a man of trouble and fighting to all the land. No one owes money to me, and I do not owe money to others, yet every one curses me. 11 The Lord said, “For sure I will set you free for a good reason. For sure I will make those who hate you ask of you in times of trouble and suffering.

12 “Can anyone crush iron, iron from the north, or brass? 13 I will give your money and riches to those who fight against you, without a price, because of all your sins in all your land. 14 I will make those who hate you bring your riches into a land you do not know. For My anger has started a fire that will burn you.”

15 O Lord, You understand. Remember me and visit me. And punish those who make it hard for me. Do not take me away, for You are slow to be angry. Know that because of You I suffer and am put to shame. 16 Your words were found and I ate them. And Your words became a joy to me and the happiness of my heart. For I have been called by Your name, O Lord God of All. 17 I did not sit with those who were having fun, and I was not full of joy. I sat alone because Your hand was upon me. For You had filled me with hate for their sin. 18 Why is there no end to my pain? And why will my hurt not be healed? Will You be to me like a river that flows with water some of the time and is dry at other times?

The Lord’s Answer

19 So the Lord says, “If you return, then I will let you take your place again, standing before Me. And if you take out what is of worth from what is of no worth, then you will speak for Me. Let these people turn to you, but you must not turn to them. 20 Then I will make you like a strong wall of brass to these people. Even if they fight against you, they will not get power over you. For I am with you to save you and bring you out of trouble,” says the Lord. 21 “I will take you from the hand of the sinful. And I will free you from the hand of those who would hurt you.”

16 The Word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Do not get married or have sons or daughters in this place.” For this is what the Lord says about the sons and daughters born in this land, and about their mothers who give birth to them, and their fathers who gave them life in this land: “They will die of bad diseases. No one will cry for them or bury them. They will be as animal waste on the ground, destroyed by sword and hunger. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the earth.”

For the Lord says, “Do not go into a house where the people have lost a loved one. Do not go to cry or to comfort them. For I have taken My peace, My loving-kindness and My pity from these people,” says the Lord. “Both great men and small will die in this land. They will not be buried. No one will cry for them. And no one will cut himself or cut off his hair for them. No one will give food to comfort those who sorrow for the dead. And no one will give them the cup of comfort to drink even for the death of their father or mother. Do not go into a house where they are eating much and sit with them to eat and drink.” For the Lord of All, the God of Israel, says, “Before your eyes and in your time, I am going to bring an end to the voice of joy, the voice of happiness, the voice of the man to be married and the voice of the bride in this place.

10 “When you tell these people all these words, they will say to you, ‘Why has the Lord said all these bad things will happen to us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we done against the Lord our God?’ 11 Then you tell them, ‘It is because your fathers before you have turned away from Me,’ says the Lord. ‘They have followed other gods and served them and worshiped them. But they have left Me and have not kept My Law. 12 And you have sinned even more than your fathers before you. For see, each one of you is following the strong-will of his own sinful heart instead of listening to Me. 13 So I will throw you out of this land into a land which you and your fathers have not known. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’

God Will Bring Israel Back

14 “So the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, Who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt.’ 15 But it will be said, ‘As the Lord lives, Who brought the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had sent them.’ For I will return them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.

The Punishment That Is Coming

16 “See, I am going to send for many fishermen,” says the Lord, “and they will fish for them. After this I will send for many men who hunt. And they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes in the rocks. 17 For I see all their ways. They are not hidden from My face, and their sin is not hidden from My eyes. 18 And I will pay them back twice as much for their wrong-doing and their sin, because they have made My land unclean. They have filled My land with the bodies of their hated false gods and with sinful things offered to them.”

Jeremiah’s Prayer

19 O Lord, my strength and my strong-place, my safe place in the day of trouble, nations will come to You from the ends of the earth and say, “Our fathers have received nothing but lies, only things that have no worth and do not help them.” 20 Can man make his own gods? What man makes is not gods!

21 “So I am going to make them know. This time I will make them know My power and My strength. And they will know that My name is the Lord.”

Judah’s Sin and the Punishment

17 The sin of Judah is written down with pen of iron and with a sharp diamond. It is written on their hearts and on the horns of their altars. Even their children remember their altars and their wooden female goddesses of Asherah by green trees and on the high hills. O My mountain in the country, I will give your money and all your riches to those who fight against you. I will give your high places as the price of your sin through all your land. And you yourself will let your land go that I gave you. I will make you serve those who hate you in a land which you do not know. For you have made My an-ger start a fire which will burn forever.

The Lord says, “Cursed is the man who trusts in man, who trusts in the flesh for his strength, and whose heart turns away from the Lord. For he will be like a bush in the desert and will not see when good comes. He will live in dry wastes in the desert, in a land of salt where no other people live. Good will come to the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is in the Lord. He will be like a tree planted by the water, that sends out its roots by the river. It will not be afraid when the heat comes but its leaves will be green. It will not be troubled in a dry year, or stop giving fruit.

“The heart is fooled more than anything else, and is very sinful. Who can know how bad it is? 10 I the Lord look into the heart, and test the mind. I give to each man what he should have because of his ways and because of the fruit that comes from his works. 11 As a bird that sits on eggs which it has not laid, so is he who gets rich by doing wrong. When his life is half over, they will leave him, and in the end he will be a fool.”

12 A beautiful throne on high from the beginning is our holy place. 13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who leave You will be put to shame. Those who turn away from You will be written in the earth, because they have left the Lord, the well of living water.

Jeremiah Prays for Help

14 Heal me, O Lord, and I will be healed. Save me and I will be saved. For You are my praise. 15 They say to me, “Where is the Word of the Lord? Let it come now!” 16 But as for me, I have not run away from being a shepherd who follows You. And I have not been hoping for the day of trouble. You know what I said was spoken in front of You. 17 Do not make me afraid of You. You are my safe place in the day of trouble. 18 Let those who make it hard for me be put to shame, but do not let me be put to shame. Let them be afraid, but do not let me be afraid. Bring on them a day of trouble, and destroy them with twice as much!

Keeping the Day of Rest Holy

19 The Lord said to me, “Go and stand in the people’s gate, through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, and also in all the gates of Jerusalem. 20 And say to them, ‘Listen to the Word of the Lord, kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all people of Jerusalem who come in through these gates. 21 The Lord says, “Be careful for your lives. Do not carry any load on the Day of Rest or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem. 22 Do not bring a load out of your houses on the Day of Rest or do any work. But keep the Day of Rest holy, as I told your fathers before you. 23 Yet they did not listen or hear, but made their necks hard and would not change their ways.

24 “Listen to Me,” says the Lord, “and bring no load through the city gates on the Day of Rest. Keep the Day of Rest holy by doing no work on it. 25 Then kings and their sons will come through the city gates who will sit on the throne of David. They will come in war-wagons and on horses, with the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem. And people will live in this city forever. 26 People will come in from the cities of Judah and from the places around Jerusalem. They will come from the land of Benjamin, from the valleys, from the hill country, and from the Negev. They will bring burnt gifts, animals to kill on the altar in worship, grain gifts, special perfume, and gifts of thanks to the house of the Lord. 27 But if you do not listen to Me, to keep the Day of Rest holy by not carrying a load when coming through the gates of Jerusalem on the Day of Rest, then I will start a fire in its gates. And it will burn up the beautiful houses of the kings of Jerusalem and will not be stopped.”’”