The Coming Messiah: the Righteous Branch

1 “Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of My pasture! declares the LORD. 2 Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel concerning the shepherds who are tending My people: “You have scattered My flock and driven them away, and have not attended to them; behold, I am about to attend to you for the evil of your deeds, declares the LORD. 3 “Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock out of all the countries where I have driven them and bring them back to their pasture, and they will be fruitful and multiply. 4 “I will also raise up shepherds over them and they will tend them; and they will not be afraid any longer, nor be terrified, nor will any be missing, declares the LORD.

 5
“Behold, {the} days are coming, declares the LORD,
“When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch;
And He will reign as king and act wisely
And do justice and righteousness in the land. 6
“In His days Judah will be saved,
And Israel will dwell securely;
And this is His name by which He will be called,
`The LORD our righteousness.’

 7 “Therefore behold, {the} days are coming, declares the LORD, “when they will no longer say, `As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of Egypt,’ 8 but, `As the LORD lives, who brought up and led back the descendants of the household of Israel from {the} north land and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ Then they will live on their own soil.

False Prophets Denounced

 9
As for the prophets:
My heart is broken within me,
All my bones tremble;
I have become like a drunken man,
Even like a man overcome with wine,
Because of the LORD
And because of His holy words. 10
For the land is full of adulterers;
For the land mourns because of the curse.
The pastures of the wilderness have dried up.
Their course also is evil
And their might is not right. 11
“For both prophet and priest are polluted;
Even in My house I have found their wickedness, declares the LORD. 12
“Therefore their way will be like slippery paths to them,
They will be driven away into the gloom and fall down in it;
For I will bring calamity upon them,
The year of their punishment, declares the LORD.

 13
“Moreover, among the prophets of Samaria I saw an offensive thing:
They prophesied by Baal and led My people Israel astray. 14
“Also among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing:
The committing of adultery and walking in falsehood;
And they strengthen the hands of evildoers,
So that no one has turned back from his wickedness.
All of them have become to Me like Sodom,
And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

 15 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets,
`Behold, I am going to feed them wormwood
And make them drink poisonous water,
For from the prophets of Jerusalem
Pollution has gone forth into all the land.’

 16
Thus says the LORD of hosts,
“Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you.
They are leading you into futility;
They speak a vision of their own imagination,
Not from the mouth of the LORD. 17
“They keep saying to those who despise Me,
`The LORD has said, “You will have peace’;
And as for everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart,
They say, `Calamity will not come upon you.’ 18
“But who has stood in the council of the LORD,
That he should see and hear His word?
Who has given heed to His word and listened? 19
“Behold, the storm of the LORD has gone forth in wrath,
Even a whirling tempest;
It will swirl down on the head of the wicked. 20
“The anger of the LORD will not turn back
Until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart;
In the last days you will clearly understand it. 21
“I did not send {these} prophets,
But they ran.
I did not speak to them,
But they prophesied. 22
“But if they had stood in My council,
Then they would have announced My words to My people,
And would have turned them back from their evil way
And from the evil of their deeds.

 23
“Am I a God who is near, declares the LORD,
“And not a God far off? 24
“Can a man hide himself in hiding places
So I do not see him? declares the LORD.
“Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? declares the LORD.

 25 “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy falsely in My name, saying, `I had a dream, I had a dream!’ 26 “How long? Is there {anything} in the hearts of the prophets who prophesy falsehood, even {these} prophets of the deception of their own heart, 27 who intend to make My people forget My name by their dreams which they relate to one another, just as their fathers forgot My name because of Baal? 28 “The prophet who has a dream may relate {his} dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have {in common} with grain? declares the LORD. 29 “Is not My word like fire? declares the LORD, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock? 30 “Therefore behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, “who steal My words from each other. 31 “Behold, I am against the prophets, declares the LORD, “who use their tongues and declare, `{The Lord} declares.’ 32 “Behold, I am against those who have prophesied false dreams, declares the LORD, “and related them and led My people astray by their falsehoods and reckless boasting; yet I did not send them or command them, nor do they furnish this people the slightest benefit, declares the LORD.

 33 “Now when this people or the prophet or a priest asks you saying, `What is the oracle of the LORD?’ then you shall say to them, `What oracle?’ The LORD declares, `I will abandon you.’ 34 “Then as for the prophet or the priest or the people who say, `The oracle of the LORD,’ I will bring punishment upon that man and his household. 35 “Thus will each of you say to his neighbor and to his brother, `What has the LORD answered?’ or, `What has the LORD spoken?’ 36 “For you will no longer remember the oracle of the LORD, because every man’s own word will become the oracle, and you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God. 37 “Thus you will say to {that} prophet, `What has the LORD answered you?’ and, `What has the LORD spoken?’ 38 “For if you say, `The oracle of the LORD!’ surely thus says the LORD, `Because you said this word, “The oracle of the LORD! I have also sent to you, saying, “You shall not say, `The oracle of the LORD!” 39 “Therefore behold, I will surely forget you and cast you away from My presence, along with the city which I gave you and your fathers. 40 “I will put an everlasting reproach on you and an everlasting humiliation which will not be forgotten.

Warning of Jerusalem’s Fall

1 Thus says the LORD, “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and there speak this word 2 and say, `Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, who sits on David’s throne, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates. 3 `Thus says the LORD, “Do justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been robbed from the power of {his} oppressor. Also do not mistreat {or} do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place. 4 “For if you men will indeed perform this thing, then kings will enter the gates of this house, sitting in David’s place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, {even the king} himself and his servants and his people. 5 “But if you will not obey these words, I swear by Myself, declares the LORD, “that this house will become a desolation.’ 6 For thus says the LORD concerning the house of the king of Judah:
“You are {like} Gilead to Me,
{Like} the summit of Lebanon;
Yet most assuredly I will make you like a wilderness,
{Like} cities which are not inhabited. 7
“For I will set apart destroyers against you,
Each with his weapons;
And they will cut down your choicest cedars
And throw {them} on the fire.

 8 “Many nations will pass by this city; and they will say to one another, `Why has the LORD done thus to this great city?’ 9 “Then they will answer, `Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.’

 10
Do not weep for the dead or mourn for him,
{But} weep continually for the one who goes away;
For he will never return
Or see his native land.

 11 For thus says the LORD in regard to Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in the place of Josiah his father, who went forth from this place, “He will never return there; 12 but in the place where they led him captive, there he will die and not see this land again.

Messages about the Kings

 13
“Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness
And his upper rooms without justice,
Who uses his neighbor’s services without pay
And does not give him his wages, 14
Who says, `I will build myself a roomy house
With spacious upper rooms,
And cut out its windows,
Paneling {it} with cedar and painting {it} bright red.’ 15
“Do you become a king because you are competing in cedar?
Did not your father eat and drink
And do justice and righteousness?
Then it was well with him. 16
“He pled the cause of the afflicted and needy;
Then it was well.
Is not that what it means to know Me?
Declares the LORD. 17
“But your eyes and your heart
Are {intent} only upon your own dishonest gain,
And on shedding innocent blood
And on practicing oppression and extortion.

 18 Therefore thus says the LORD in regard to Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah,
“They will not lament for him:
`Alas, my brother!’ or, `Alas, sister!’
They will not lament for him:
`Alas for the master!’ or, `Alas for his splendor!’ 19
“He will be buried with a donkey’s burial,
Dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem. 20
“Go up to Lebanon and cry out,
And lift up your voice in Bashan;
Cry out also from Abarim,
For all your lovers have been crushed. 21
“I spoke to you in your prosperity;
But you said, `I will not listen!’
This has been your practice from your youth,
That you have not obeyed My voice. 22
“The wind will sweep away all your shepherds,
And your lovers will go into captivity;
Then you will surely be ashamed and humiliated
Because of all your wickedness. 23
“You who dwell in Lebanon,
Nested in the cedars,
How you will groan when pangs come upon you,
Pain like a woman in childbirth!

 24 “As I live, declares the LORD, “even though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet {ring} on My right hand, yet I would pull you off; 25 and I will give you over into the hand of those who are seeking your life, yes, into the hand of those whom you dread, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans. 26 “I will hurl you and your mother who bore you into another country where you were not born, and there you will die. 27 “But as for the land to which they desire to return, they will not return to it. 28
“Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered jar?
Or is he an undesirable vessel?
Why have he and his descendants been hurled out
And cast into a land that they had not known? 29
“O land, land, land,
Hear the word of the LORD!

 30 “Thus says the LORD,
`Write this man down childless,
A man who will not prosper in his days;
For no man of his descendants will prosper
Sitting on the throne of David
Or ruling again in Judah.’

Jeremiah’s Message for Zedekiah

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, 2 “Please inquire of the LORD on our behalf, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is warring against us; perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all His wonderful acts, so that {the enemy} will withdraw from us.

 3 Then Jeremiah said to them, “You shall say to Zedekiah as follows: 4 `Thus says the LORD God of Israel, “Behold, I am about to turn back the weapons of war which are in your hands, with which you are warring against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the wall; and I will gather them into the center of this city. 5 “I Myself will war against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, even in anger and wrath and great indignation. 6 “I will also strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they will die of a great pestilence. 7 “Then afterwards, declares the LORD, “I will give over Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people, even those who survive in this city from the pestilence, the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their foes and into the hand of those who seek their lives; and he will strike them down with the edge of the sword. He will not spare them nor have pity nor compassion.’

 8 “You shall also say to this people, `Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 “He who dwells in this city will die by the sword and by famine and by pestilence; but he who goes out and falls away to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live, and he will have his own life as booty. 10 “For I have set My face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the LORD. “It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and he will burn it with fire.’

 11 “Then {say} to the household of the king of Judah, `Hear the word of the LORD, 12 O house of David, thus says the LORD:
“Administer justice every morning;
And deliver the {person} who has been robbed from the power of {his} oppressor,
That My wrath may not go forth like fire
And burn with none to extinguish {it,}
Because of the evil of their deeds.

 13
“Behold, I am against you, O valley dweller,
O rocky plain, declares the LORD,
“You men who say, `Who will come down against us?
Or who will enter into our habitations?’ 14
“But I will punish you according to the results of your deeds, declares the LORD,
“And I will kindle a fire in its forest
That it may devour all its environs.’

Pashhur Persecutes Jeremiah

1 When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, 2 Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate, which was by the house of the LORD. 3 On the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “Pashhur is not the name the LORD has called you, but rather Magor-missabib. 4 “For thus says the LORD, `Behold, I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and while your eyes look on, they will fall by the sword of their enemies. So I will give over all Judah to the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will carry them away as exiles to Babylon and will slay them with the sword. 5 `I will also give over all the wealth of this city, all its produce and all its costly things; even all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give over to the hand of their enemies, and they will plunder them, take them away and bring them to Babylon. 6 `And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity; and you will enter Babylon, and there you will die and there you will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have falsely prophesied.’

Jeremiah’s Complaint

 7
O LORD, You have deceived me and I was deceived;
You have overcome me and prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all day long;
Everyone mocks me. 8
For each time I speak, I cry aloud;
I proclaim violence and destruction,
Because for me the word of the LORD has resulted
In reproach and derision all day long. 9
But if I say, “I will not remember Him
Or speak anymore in His name,
Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
And I am weary of holding {it} in,
And I cannot endure {it.} 10
For I have heard the whispering of many,
“Terror on every side!
Denounce {him;} yes, let us denounce him!
All my trusted friends,
Watching for my fall, say:
“Perhaps he will be deceived, so that we may prevail against him
And take our revenge on him. 11
But the LORD is with me like a dread champion;
Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will be utterly ashamed, because they have failed,
With an everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten. 12
Yet, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous,
Who see the mind and the heart;
Let me see Your vengeance on them;
For to You I have set forth my cause. 13
Sing to the LORD, praise the LORD!
For He has delivered the soul of the needy one
From the hand of evildoers.

 14
Cursed be the day when I was born;
Let the day not be blessed when my mother bore me! 15
Cursed be the man who brought the news
To my father, saying,
“A baby boy has been born to you!
{And} made him very happy. 16
But let that man be like the cities
Which the LORD overthrew without relenting,
And let him hear an outcry in the morning
And a shout of alarm at noon; 17
Because he did not kill me before birth,
So that my mother would have been my grave,
And her womb ever pregnant. 18
Why did I ever come forth from the womb
To look on trouble and sorrow,
So that my days have been spent in shame?

The Broken Jar

1 Thus says the LORD, “Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jar, and {take} some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests. 2 “Then go out to the valley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the potsherd gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you, 3 and say, `Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold I am about to bring a calamity upon this place, at which the ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle. 4 “Because they have forsaken Me and have made this an alien place and have burned sacrifices in it to other gods, that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had {ever} known, and {because} they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent 5 and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it {ever} enter My mind; 6 therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the LORD, “when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter. 7 “I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will give over their carcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. 8 “I will also make this city a desolation and an {object of} hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its disasters. 9 “I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life will distress them.’

 10 “Then you are to break the jar in the sight of the men who accompany you 11 and say to them, `Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Just so will I break this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will bury in Topheth because there is no {other} place for burial. 12 “This is how I will treat this place and its inhabitants, declares the LORD, “so as to make this city like Topheth. 13 “The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like the place Topheth, because of all the houses on whose rooftops they burned sacrifices to all the heavenly host and poured out drink offerings to other gods.’

 14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’S house and said to all the people: 15 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, `Behold, I am about to bring on this city and all its towns the entire calamity that I have declared against it, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to heed My words.’

The Potter and the Clay

1 The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, 2 “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you. 3 Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4 But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.

 5 Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, 6 “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter {does?} declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel. 7 “At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy {it;} 8 if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. 9 “Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant {it;} 10 if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it. 11 “So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, `Thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am fashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh turn back, each of you from his evil way, and reform your ways and your deeds.’ 12 “But they will say, `It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’

 13
“Therefore thus says the LORD,
`Ask now among the nations,
Who ever heard the like of this?
The virgin of Israel
Has done a most appalling thing. 14
`Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country?
Or is the cold flowing water {from} a foreign {land} ever snatched away? 15
`For My people have forgotten Me,
They burn incense to worthless gods
And they have stumbled from their ways,
From the ancient paths,
To walk in bypaths,
Not on a highway, 16
To make their land a desolation,
{An object of} perpetual hissing;
Everyone who passes by it will be astonished
And shake his head. 17
`Like an east wind I will scatter them
Before the enemy;
I will show them My back and not {My} face
In the day of their calamity.’

 18 Then they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the law is not going to be lost to the priest, nor counsel to the sage, nor the {divine} word to the prophet! Come on and let us strike at him with {our} tongue, and let us give no heed to any of his words.

 19
Do give heed to me, O LORD,
And listen to what my opponents are saying! 20
Should good be repaid with evil?
For they have dug a pit for me.
Remember how I stood before You
To speak good on their behalf,
So as to turn away Your wrath from them. 21
Therefore, give their children over to famine
And deliver them up to the power of the sword;
And let their wives become childless and widowed.
Let their men also be smitten to death,
Their young men struck down by the sword in battle. 22
May an outcry be heard from their houses,
When You suddenly bring raiders upon them;
For they have dug a pit to capture me
And hidden snares for my feet. 23
Yet You, O LORD, know
All their deadly designs against me;
Do not forgive their iniquity
Or blot out their sin from Your sight.
But may they be overthrown before You;
Deal with them in the time of Your anger!

The Deceitful Heart

1
The sin of Judah is written down with an iron stylus;
With a diamond point it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart
And on the horns of their altars, 2
As they remember their children,
So they {remember} their altars and their Asherim
By green trees on the high hills. 3
O mountain of Mine in the countryside,
I will give over your wealth and all your treasures for booty,
Your high places for sin throughout your borders. 4
And you will, even of yourself, let go of your inheritance
That I gave you;
And I will make you serve your enemies
In the land which you do not know;
For you have kindled a fire in My anger
Which will burn forever.

 5
Thus says the LORD,
“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind
And makes flesh his strength,
And whose heart turns away from the LORD. 6
“For he will be like a bush in the desert
And will not see when prosperity comes,
But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,
A land of salt without inhabitant. 7
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD
And whose trust is the LORD. 8
“For he will be like a tree planted by the water,
That extends its roots by a stream
And will not fear when the heat comes;
But its leaves will be green,
And it will not be anxious in a year of drought
Nor cease to yield fruit.

 9
“The heart is more deceitful than all else
And is desperately sick;
Who can understand it? 10
“I, the LORD, search the heart,
I test the mind,
Even to give to each man according to his ways,
According to the results of his deeds. 11
“As a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid,
{So} is he who makes a fortune, but unjustly;
In the midst of his days it will forsake him,
And in the end he will be a fool.

 12
A glorious throne on high from the beginning
Is the place of our sanctuary. 13
O LORD, the hope of Israel,
All who forsake You will be put to shame.
Those who turn away on earth will be written down,
Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even the LORD. 14
Heal me, O LORD, and I will be healed;
Save me and I will be saved,
For You are my praise. 15
Look, they keep saying to me,
“Where is the word of the LORD?
Let it come now! 16
But as for me, I have not hurried away from {being} a shepherd after You,
Nor have I longed for the woeful day;
You Yourself know that the utterance of my lips
Was in Your presence. 17
Do not be a terror to me;
You are my refuge in the day of disaster. 18
Let those who persecute me be put to shame, but as for me, let me not be put to shame;
Let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed.
Bring on them a day of disaster,
And crush them with twofold destruction!

The Sabbath Must Be Kept

 19 Thus the LORD said to me, “Go and stand in the public gate, through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, as well as 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 inhabitants of Jerusalem who come in through these gates: 21 `Thus says the LORD, “Take heed for yourselves, and do not carry any load on the sabbath day or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem. 22 “You shall not bring a load out of your houses on the sabbath day nor do any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your forefathers. 23 “Yet they did not listen or incline their ears, but stiffened their necks in order not to listen or take correction.

 24 “But it will come about, if you listen attentively to Me, declares the LORD, “to bring no load in through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but to keep the sabbath day holy by doing no work on it, 25 then there will come in through the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever. 26 “They will come in from the cities of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the LORD. 27 “But if you do not listen to Me to keep the sabbath day holy by not carrying a load and coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and not be quenched.’

Distresses Foretold

1 The word of the LORD also came to me saying, 2 “You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place. 3 For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bear them, and their fathers who beget them in this land: 4 “They will die of deadly diseases, they will not be lamented or buried; they will be as dung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth.

 5 For thus says the LORD, “Do not enter a house of mourning, or go to lament or to console them; for I have withdrawn My peace from this people, declares the LORD, “{My} lovingkindness and compassion. 6 “Both great men and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, they will not be lamented, nor will anyone gash himself or shave his head for them. 7 “Men will not break {bread} in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead, nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone’s father or mother. 8 “Moreover you shall not go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink. 9 For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I am going to eliminate from this place, before your eyes and in your time, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.

 10 “Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, `For what reason has the LORD declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the LORD our God?’ 11 “Then you are to say to them, `{It is} because your forefathers have forsaken Me,’ declares the LORD, `and have followed other gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law. 12 `You too have done evil, {even} more than your forefathers; for behold, you are each one walking according to the stubbornness of his own evil heart, without listening to Me. 13 `So I will hurl you out of this land into the land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will grant you no favor.’

God Will Restore Them

 14 “Therefore behold, days are coming, declares 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, `As the LORD lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.

 16 “Behold, I am going to send for many fishermen, declares the LORD, “and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks. 17 “For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes. 18 “I will first doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and with their abominations.

 19
O LORD, my strength and my stronghold,
And my refuge in the day of distress,
To You the nations will come
From the ends of the earth and say,
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood,
Futility and things of no profit. 20
Can man make gods for himself?
Yet they are not gods!

 21
“Therefore behold, I am going to make them know–
This time I will make them know
My power and My might;
And they shall know that My name is the LORD.

Judgment Must Come

1 Then the LORD said to me, “Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people; send them away from My presence and let them go! 2 “And it shall be that when they say to you, `Where should we go?’ then you are to tell them, `Thus says the LORD:
“Those {destined} for death, to death;
And those {destined} for the sword, to the sword;
And those {destined} for famine, to famine;
And those {destined} for captivity, to captivity.’

 3 “I will appoint over them four kinds {of doom,} declares the LORD: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag off, and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 “I will make them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

 5
“Indeed, who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
Or who will mourn for you,
Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare? 6
“You who have forsaken Me, declares the LORD,
“You keep going backward.
So I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you;
I am tired of relenting! 7
“I will winnow them with a winnowing fork
At the gates of the land;
I will bereave {them} of children, I will destroy My people;
They did not repent of their ways. 8
“Their widows will be more numerous before Me
Than the sand of the seas;
I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man,
A destroyer at noonday;
I will suddenly bring down on her
Anguish and dismay. 9
“She who bore seven {sons} pines away;
Her breathing is labored.
Her sun has set while it was yet day;
She has been shamed and humiliated.
So I will give over their survivors to the sword
Before their enemies, declares the LORD.

 10
Woe to me, my mother, that you have borne me
{As} a man of strife and a man of contention to all the land!
I have not lent, nor have men lent money to me,
{Yet} everyone curses me. 11
The LORD said, “Surely I will set you free for {purposes of} good;
Surely I will cause the enemy to make supplication to you
In a time of disaster and a time of distress.

 12
“Can anyone smash iron,
Iron from the north, or bronze? 13
“Your wealth and your treasures
I will give for booty without cost,
Even for all your sins
And within all your borders. 14
“Then I will cause your enemies to bring {it}
Into a land you do not know;
For a fire has been kindled in My anger,
It will burn upon you.

Jeremiah’s Prayer and God’s Answer

 15
You who know, O LORD,
Remember me, take notice of me,
And take vengeance for me on my persecutors.
Do not, in view of Your patience, take me away;
Know that for Your sake I endure reproach. 16
Your words were found and I ate them,
And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart;
For I have been called by Your name,
O LORD God of hosts. 17
I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers,
Nor did I exult.
Because of Your hand {upon me} I sat alone,
For You filled me with indignation. 18
Why has my pain been perpetual
And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive {stream}
With water that is unreliable?

 19
Therefore, thus says the LORD,
“If you return, then I will restore you–
Before Me you will stand;
And if you extract the precious from the worthless,
You will become My spokesman.
They for their part may turn to you,
But as for you, you must not turn to them. 20
“Then I will make you to this people
A fortified wall of bronze;
And though they fight against you,
They will not prevail over you;
For I am with you to save you
And deliver you, declares the LORD. 21
“So I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will redeem you from the grasp of the violent.

Drought and a Prayer for Mercy

1 That which came as the word of the LORD to Jeremiah in regard to the drought: 2
“Judah mourns
And her gates languish;
They sit on the ground in mourning,
And the cry of Jerusalem has ascended. 3
“Their nobles have sent their servants for water;
They have come to the cisterns and found no water.
They have returned with their vessels empty;
They have been put to shame and humiliated,
And they cover their heads. 4
“Because the ground is cracked,
For there has been no rain on the land;
The farmers have been put to shame,
They have covered their heads. 5
“For even the doe in the field has given birth only to abandon {her young,}
Because there is no grass. 6
“The wild donkeys stand on the bare heights;
They pant for air like jackals,
Their eyes fail
For there is no vegetation. 7
“Although our iniquities testify against us,
O LORD, act for Your name’s sake!
Truly our apostasies have been many,
We have sinned against You. 8
“O Hope of Israel,
Its Savior in time of distress,
Why are You like a stranger in the land
Or like a traveler who has pitched his {tent} for the night? 9
“Why are You like a man dismayed,
Like a mighty man who cannot save?
Yet You are in our midst, O LORD,
And we are called by Your name;
Do not forsake us!

 10 Thus says the LORD to this people, “Even so they have loved to wander; they have not kept their feet in check. Therefore the LORD does not accept them; now He will remember their iniquity and call their sins to account. 11 So the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the welfare of this people. 12 “When they fast, I am not going to listen to their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I am not going to accept them. Rather I am going to make an end of them by the sword, famine and pestilence.

False Prophets

 13 But, “Ah, Lord GOD! I said, “Look, the prophets are telling them, `You will not see the sword nor will you have famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’ 14 Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying falsehood in My name. I have neither sent them nor commanded them nor spoken to them; they are prophesying to you a false vision, divination, futility and the deception of their own minds. 15 “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who are prophesying in My name, although it was not I who sent them–yet they keep saying, `There will be no sword or famine in this land’–by sword and famine those prophets shall meet their end! 16 “The people also to whom they are prophesying will be thrown out into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; and there will be no one to bury them–{neither} them, {nor} their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters–for I will pour out their {own} wickedness on them. 17
“You will say this word to them,
`Let my eyes flow down with tears night and day,
And let them not cease;
For the virgin daughter of my people has been crushed with a mighty blow,
With a sorely infected wound. 18
`If I go out to the country,
Behold, those slain with the sword!
Or if I enter the city,
Behold, diseases of famine!
For both prophet and priest
Have gone roving about in the land that they do not know.’

 19
Have You completely rejected Judah?
Or have You loathed Zion?
Why have You stricken us so that we are beyond healing?
{We} waited for peace, but nothing good {came;}
And for a time of healing, but behold, terror! 20
We know our wickedness, O LORD,
The iniquity of our fathers, for we have sinned against You. 21
Do not despise {us,} for Your own name’s sake;
Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory;
Remember {and} do not annul Your covenant with us. 22
Are there any among the idols of the nations who give rain?
Or can the heavens grant showers?
Is it not You, O LORD our God?
Therefore we hope in You,
For You are the one who has done all these things.