Jeremiah was a priest from the town of Anathoth (1:1). At the Lord’s command, he neither married nor had children because of the impending judgment that would come upon the next generation. His ministry as a prophet began in 626 BC and ended after 586 BC. He was a contemporary of Habakkuk and possibly Obadiah.
The book of Jeremiah discusses the last days of Judah. King Hezekiah reigned for forty-two years (729–686 BC) and began to reverse Judah’s spiritual bankruptcy. But when Hezekiah’s son, Manasseh, came to the throne, idolatrous and superstitious cultic practices and rites came back like a flood. Manasseh’s son Amon ruled for only two years (642–640 BC). He also reinstated idol worship as the official religion of Judah (2Ch 33:22-23).
Amon’s eight-year-old son, Josiah, succeeded him on the throne. This lad walked in the ways of the former King David. When he was eighteen years old (622 BC), he called for long-delayed repairs to be made to the temple. During this work, a copy of the law of Moses was found. On the basis of hearing this word, the young king and all his people renewed the covenant with the Lord. However, this reformation failed to overcome the effects of the wickedness Manasseh and Amon had instituted.
The best known passage in Jeremiah is the new covenant text in 31:31-34. Not only is it the largest OT text quoted in the NT (Heb 8:8-12; 10:16-17), but arguably better than any other passage it links God’s ancient promises to Eve (Gn 3:15), Abraham (Gn 12:1-3), and David (2Sm 7:16-19) with NT assurances that God in Christ grants believers new hearts, salvation, and fellowship with him.
One date rings throughout the entire book of Jeremiah: “the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah.” That year, 605 BC, brought major change to the political situation of the Near East. Both Egypt and Assyria were defeated at the battle of Carchemish (46:2-12; 2Kg 24:7; 2Ch 35:20). Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne of Babylon. In that same year God instructed Jeremiah to put his prophecies into writing as a final test of King Jehoiakim’s responsiveness to the word of God.
This significant dateline, “the fourth year of Jehoiakim,” was placed at 25:1; 36:1; and 45:1, thereby dividing the prophet’s book into three main sections: the prophet’s faithfulness in carrying out God’s commission (chaps. 2–24), the fierce opposition to his ministry (chaps. 25–35), and the collapse of Judah (chaps. 36–45).
The book of Jeremiah includes poetic sections (especially in chaps. 2–25) and prose accounts as well. Critical scholars generally say that the poetry is Jeremiah’s and the prose is either the work of his friends or a person who is labeled a Deuteronomic writer (so designated because the prose sections are said to reflect the book of Deuteronomy). But we may ask, could not Jeremiah have written in both poetic and prose form? There is no reason to suppose he was incapable of writing in both forms.
Jeremiah was a man of extremely sensitive character. In that sense he was similar to Jesus, who was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Jeremiah lived in times that were particularly trying to him, and he was called to exercise a ministry that involved him in perpetual sorrow. He loved the people among whom he dwelt, yet God commissioned him to pronounce judgments on them; this in itself was a hard task to such a nature as his. He went, however, to his work with firmness—hopeful, perhaps, that when his countrymen heard the divine threats, they would repent of their sins, seek divine mercy, and find it. Surely if anything can add weight to the prophecy of God’s judgments, it is the trembling love, the anxious fear with which such a messenger as Jeremiah delivered his warning.
The deep sorrow of him who warned them ought to have driven the sinful nation to a speedy repentance; but instead they rejected his warnings, they despised his person, and they defied his God. As they thus heaped God’s wrath on themselves, they also increased Jeremiah’s sorrow. His fellow countrymen treated him so harshly and unjustly that he feared they would break his heart; they struck him as with an iron rod, and he felt like one crushed beneath their unkindness; to silence his fear the Lord assured him that he would renew Jeremiah’s strength. In Jeremiah 1:18-19 the Lord promised his servant the divine support his trials demanded.
1The words of Jeremiah, the son of Hilkiah, one of the priests living in Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. 2 The word of the LORD came to him in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah. 3 It also came throughout the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the fifth month of the eleventh year of Zedekiah son of Josiah, king of Judah, when the people of Jerusalem went into exile.
4 The word of the LORD came to me:
5I chose you before I formed you in the womb;
I set you apart before you were born.
I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
6 But I protested, “Oh no, Lord GOD! Look, I don’t know how to speak since I am only a youth.”
7 Then the LORD said to me:
Do not say, “I am only a youth,”
for you will go to everyone I send you to
and speak whatever I tell you.
8Do not be afraid of anyone,
for I will be with you to rescue you.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
9 Then the LORD reached out his hand, touched my mouth, and told me:
I have now filled your mouth with my words.
10See, I have appointed you today
over nations and kingdoms
to uproot and tear down,
to destroy and demolish,
to build and plant.
11 Then the word of the LORD came to me, asking, “What do you see, Jeremiah? ”
I replied, “I see a branch of an almond tree.”
12 The LORD said to me, “You have seen correctly, for I watch over A my word to accomplish it.” 13 Again the word of the LORD came to me asking, “What do you see? ”
And I replied, “I see a boiling pot, its lip tilted from the north to the south.”
14 Then the LORD said to me, “Disaster will be poured out B from the north on all who live in the land. 15 Indeed, I am about to summon all the clans and kingdoms of the north.”
This is the LORD’s declaration.
They will come, and each king will set up his throne
at the entrance to Jerusalem’s gates.
They will attack all her surrounding walls
and all the other cities of Judah.
16 “I will pronounce my judgments against them for all the evil they did when they abandoned me to burn incense to other gods and to worship the works of their own hands.
17 “Now, get ready. Stand up and tell them everything that I command you. Do not be intimidated by them or I will cause you to cower before them. 18 Today, I am the one who has made you a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land — against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the population. 19 They will fight against you but never prevail over you, since I am with you to rescue you.”
This is the LORD’s declaration.
1:1-3 “The thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah.” Jeremiah was called to prophetic office to help the young king Josiah. Jeremiah’s public life opened somewhat happily. But after the death of Josiah, wicked kings sat on the throne, and Jeremiah’s painful lot was to be sent to a disobedient people who repaid him only evil while he sought their good.
1:4-6 “I am only a youth.” When young people are called to be ambassadors for God, they need to be conscious of their lack of experience and of their need of fitness for the Lord’s work.
1:7 “Speak whatever I tell you.” This is the Christian’s principal work. The world needs believers who do not come to utter their own thoughts but to deliver their Master’s message.
1:8 “I will be with you.” When a king sends an ambassador to a foreign court, he cannot go with him, but God’s ambassador always has his King with him.
1:9 “I have now filled your mouth with my words.” God’s thoughts are best delivered in God’s words; and the more of Scripture there is in our message, the more true, the more divine, and the more powerful it will be.
1:10 “See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and demolish, to build and plant.” Jeremiah was often in prison, frequently at death’s door, yet he was the master of nations and kingdoms over which the Lord gave him authority to root up or to plant, to throw down or to build up.
1:11-12 “What do you see, Jeremiah?” Before Jeremiah becomes a speaker for God, he must be a seer. The original name for a prophet was “seer,” one who could see with spiritual insight. Those who try to speak for God must be seers before they can be speakers. Next the true speaker for God must see what God sets before him. In this case the Lord had set before Jeremiah’s eye “a branch of an almond tree.” Jeremiah did not merely say, “I see a branch” but “I see a branch of an almond tree.” He distinguished at once the kind of branch that was revealed to him in the vision, for he was a man who had those powers of discernment and discrimination that are most necessary in the Lord’s servants. Those who see what they can see and take care to see it well are the people who will receive further instruction.
1:16 “I will pronounce my judgments against them.” Jeremiah was not merely to foretell their doom; he was also to tell the reason of it—that it was the result of their sin, especially the sin of idolatry.
1:17 “Now, get ready. Stand up.” There must be no waiting, no idleness when God commissions a servant. “Tell them everything that I command you.” The Lord’s servant must not trim the message, pare it down, or omit distasteful portions. “Do not be intimidated by them.” We ought to be so committed to God that we are afraid of nobody else.
2The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Go and announce directly to Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says:
I remember the loyalty of your youth,
your love as a bride —
how you followed me in the wilderness,
in a land not sown.
3Israel was holy to the LORD,
the firstfruits of his harvest.
All who ate of it found themselves guilty;
disaster came on them.”
This is the LORD’s declaration.
4Hear the word of the LORD, house of Jacob
and all families of the house of Israel.
5This is what the LORD says:
What fault did your fathers find in me
that they went so far from me,
followed worthless idols,
and became worthless themselves?
6They stopped asking, “Where is the LORD
who brought us from the land of Egypt,
who led us through the wilderness,
through a land of deserts and ravines,
through a land of drought and darkness, A
a land no one traveled through
and where no one lived? ”
QUOTE 2:6-7
When a person becomes rich and is surrounded by earthly comforts, it is a terrible thing that he should then forget God, or that the more God does for him the less he thinks of God.
7I brought you to a fertile land
to eat its fruit and bounty,
but after you entered, you defiled my land;
you made my inheritance detestable.
8The priests quit asking, “Where is the LORD? ”
The experts in the law no longer knew me,
and the rulers rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by A Baal
and followed useless idols.
9Therefore, I will bring a case against you again.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
I will bring a case against your children’s children.
10Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus B and take a look.
Send someone to Kedar and consider carefully;
see if there has ever been anything like this:
11Has a nation ever exchanged its gods?
(But they were not gods!)
Yet my people have exchanged their C Glory
for useless idols.
12Be appalled at this, heavens;
be shocked and utterly desolated!
This is the LORD’s declaration.
13For my people have committed a double evil:
They have abandoned me,
the fountain of living water,
and dug cisterns for themselves —
cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.
14Is Israel a slave?
Was he born into slavery? D
Why else has he become a prey?
15The young lions have roared at him;
they have roared loudly.
They have laid waste his land.
His cities are in ruins, without inhabitants.
16The men of Memphis and Tahpanhes
have also broken your skull.
17Have you not brought this on yourself
by abandoning the LORD your God
while he was leading you along the way?
18Now what will you gain
by traveling along the way to Egypt
to drink the water of the Nile? E
What will you gain
by traveling along the way
to Assyria
to drink the water of the Euphrates?
19Your own evil will discipline you;
your own apostasies will reprimand you.
Recognize F how evil and bitter it is
for you to abandon the LORD your God
and to have no fear of me.
This is the declaration
of the Lord GOD of Armies.
20For long ago I A broke your yoke;
I A tore off your chains.
You insisted, “I will not serve! ”
On every high hill
and under every green tree
you lay down like a prostitute.
21I planted you, a choice vine
from the very best seed.
How then could you turn into
a degenerate, foreign vine?
22Even if you wash with lye
and use a great amount of bleach, B
the stain of your iniquity is still in front of me.
This is the Lord GOD’s declaration.
23How can you protest, “I am not defiled;
I have not followed the Baals”?
Look at your behavior in the valley;
acknowledge what you have done.
You are a swift young camel
twisting and turning on her way,
24a wild donkey at home C in the wilderness.
She sniffs the wind in the heat of her desire.
Who can control her passion?
All who look for her will not become weary;
they will find her in her mating season. D
25Keep your feet from going bare
and your throat from thirst.
But you say, “It’s hopeless;
I love strangers,
and I will continue to follow them.”
26Like the shame of a thief when he is caught,
so the house of Israel has been put to shame.
They, their kings, their officials,
their priests, and their prophets
27say to a tree, “You are my father,”
and to a stone, “You gave birth
to me.”
For they have turned their back to me
and not their face,
yet in their time of disaster they beg,
“Rise up and save us! ”
28But where are your gods you made for yourself?
Let them rise up and save you
in your time of disaster if they can,
for your gods are as numerous as your cities, Judah.
29Why do you bring a case against me?
All of you have rebelled against me.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
30I have struck down your children in vain;
they would not accept discipline.
Your own sword has devoured your prophets
like a ravaging lion.
31Evil generation,
pay attention to the word of the LORD!
Have I been a wilderness to Israel
or a land of dense darkness?
Why do my people claim,
“We will go where we want; E
we will no longer come to you”?
32Can a young woman forget her jewelry
or a bride her wedding sash?
Yet my people have forgotten me
for countless days.
33How skillfully you pursue love;
you also teach evil women your ways.
34Moreover, your skirts are stained
with the blood of the innocent poor.
You did not catch them breaking and entering.
But in spite of all these things
35you claim, “I am innocent.
His anger is sure to turn away from me.”
But I will certainly judge you
because you have said, “I have not sinned.”
36How unstable you are,
constantly changing your ways!
You will be put to shame by Egypt
just as you were put to shame by Assyria.
37Moreover, you will be led out from here
with your hands on your head
since the LORD has rejected those you trust;
you will not succeed even with their help. A
2:1-3 “I remember the loyalty of your youth, your love as a bride.” God reminds his people of what they used to be in their first days, when they came out of Egypt. They had sadly declined from what they then were. Does not this passage come home to some of us who are not now what we once were?
2:6-7 “They stopped asking, ‘Where is the LORD who brought us from the land of Egypt, who led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and ravines, through a land of drought and darkness, a land no one traveled through and where no one lived?’ I brought you to a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty.” It is a sad charge against anybody that they forget the care God has shown them in the days of his poverty and affliction. When a person becomes rich and is surrounded by earthly comforts, it is a terrible thing that he should then forget God, or that the more God does for him the less he thinks of God. This is ungrateful conduct.
2:8 “The priests quit asking, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew me, and the rulers rebelled against me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.” It is always ill with the people when the ministers go wrong.
2:13 “My people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves—cracked cisterns that cannot hold water.” To go away from the flowing fountain to the stagnant waters of a cistern is great folly! But to go and hew out broken cisterns that can hold no water, but merely mock your thirst, is madness of the worst kind.
2:17 “Have you not brought this on yourself?” Those who have grown spiritually poor, who are in great trouble of heart, should listen. When they did live near to God, when prayer was continual, when they did watch their conduct, when they did go softly asking God to guide them from day to day, was it not better with them at that time than now?
2:18 “What will you gain . . . to drink the water of the Nile . . . to drink the water of the Euphrates?” Those who are trying to find pleasure in the world, who are going to the resorts of sin to seek amusement, why are they drinking the muddy waters of sinful pleasure and beginning to like the taste of it? It will never do! What they dream of as pleasure will prove to be their plague.
2:25 “But you say, ‘It’s hopeless.’” See what despair will do for its victims. When a person says, “It’s hopeless,” then he feels that for him there is no repentance. When he believes that God will not forgive him, then he will not turn from his evil ways.
2:35 “You claim, ‘I am innocent. His anger is sure to turn away from me.’” The most guilty people are often the most self-righteous. Many a person still says, “I have not sinned,” although God’s law condemns him and the Savior proves that the guilty one needs to be saved. Self-righteousness is a thing God utterly abhors.
2:36 “You will be put to shame by Egypt just as you were put to shame by Assyria.” First, Israel trusted in Assyria to save them. And when that broken reed failed them, then they trusted in Egypt. And in a similar fashion we go from one false hope to another—from one carnal confidence to another—yet all the while refusing to turn to the Lord.
B 2:10 Lit to the islands of Kittim
C 2:11 Alt Hb tradition reads my
3If B a man divorces his wife
and she leaves him
to marry another,
can he ever return to her?
Wouldn’t such a land C become totally defiled?
But you!
You have prostituted yourself with many partners —
can you return to me?
This is the LORD’s declaration.
2Look to the barren heights and see.
Where have you not been immoral?
You sat waiting for them beside the highways
like a nomad in the desert.
You have defiled the land
with your prostitution and wickedness.
3This is why the showers haven’t come —
why there has been no spring rain.
You have the brazen look of a prostitute D
and refuse to be ashamed.
4Haven’t you recently called to me, “My Father.
You were my friend in my youth.
5Will he bear a grudge forever?
Will he be endlessly infuriated? ”
This is what you have said,
but you have done the evil things
you are capable of.
6 In the days of King Josiah the LORD asked me, “Have you seen what unfaithful Israel has done? She has ascended every high hill and gone under every green tree to prostitute herself there. 7 I thought, ‘After she has done all these things, she will return to me.’ But she didn’t return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8 I E observed that it was because unfaithful Israel had committed adultery that I had sent her away and had given her a certificate of divorce. Nevertheless, her treacherous sister Judah was not afraid but also went and prostituted herself. 9 Indifferent to A her prostitution, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees. 10 Yet in spite of all this, her treacherous sister Judah didn’t return to me with all her heart — only in pretense.”
This is the LORD’s declaration.
11 The LORD announced to me, “Unfaithful Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12 Go, proclaim these words to the north, and say,
‘Return, unfaithful Israel.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
I will not look on you with anger, B
for I am unfailing in my love.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
I will not be angry forever.
13Only acknowledge your guilt —
you have rebelled against the LORD your God.
You have scattered your favors to strangers
under every green tree
and have not obeyed me.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
14 “ ‘Return, you faithless children — this is the LORD’s declaration — for I am your master, C and I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 15 I will give you shepherds who are loyal to me, D and they will shepherd you with knowledge and skill. 16 When you multiply and increase in the land, in those days — this is the LORD’s declaration — no one will say again, “The ark of the LORD’s covenant.” It will never come to mind, and no one will remember or miss it. Another one will not be made. E 17 At that time Jerusalem will be called The LORD’s Throne, and all the nations will be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD in Jerusalem. They will cease to follow the stubbornness of their evil hearts. 18 In those days the house of Judah will join with the house of Israel, and they will come together from the land of the north to the land I have given your ancestors to inherit.’ ”
QUOTE 3:18
Nothing unites people like the grace of God.
19I thought, “How I long to make you my sons
and give you a desirable land,
the most beautiful inheritance of all the nations.”
I thought, “You will call me ‘My Father’
and never turn away from me.”
20However, as a woman may betray her lover, A
so you have betrayed me, house of Israel.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
21A sound is heard on the barren heights:
the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy,
for they have perverted their way;
they have forgotten the LORD their God.
22Return, you faithless children.
I will heal your unfaithfulness.
“Here we are, coming to you,
for you are the LORD our God.
23Surely, falsehood comes from the hills,
commotion from the mountains,
but the salvation of Israel
is only in the LORD our God.
24From the time of our youth
the shameful one B has consumed
what our fathers have worked for —
their flocks and their herds,
their sons and their daughters.
25Let us lie down in our shame;
let our disgrace cover us.
We have sinned against the LORD our God,
both we and our fathers,
from the time of our youth even to this day.
We have not obeyed the LORD our God.”
3:1 “Can he ever return to her?” God’s people had gone away from him. They had acted unfaithfully to him. They had joined themselves unto other gods. If God freely forgives great sinners, will it not look as if he treated sin too leniently?
3:5 “Will he bear a grudge forever? Will he be endlessly infuriated?” No, he will not! No one is so slow to anger as our God, and no one is so ready to be rid of it as he is. He is a God ready to pardon, waiting to forgive, delighting in mercy. Even though the sin should be so foul, God can put it all away in the greatness of his mercy. God says of them, “You have done the evil things you are capable of,” yet this is the kind of people to whom God speaks in mercy, inviting them to return to him.
3:7 “Her treacherous sister Judah saw it.” That made Judah’s sin even worse than that of Israel. She saw this great iniquity in another and yet went and committed it herself. Some cannot be kept back from sin by the punishment of others, but they run into the fire in which others have been burnt, and so they aggravate their sin.
3:12 “Return, unfaithful Israel. This is the LORD’s declaration. I will not look on you with anger, for I am unfailing in my love.” What measureless mercy is in these gracious sentences! As deep as the sin is and fearful and terrible as is the description of it, how bright, how clear is the immeasurable love that promises to put that sin away and forget and forgive it once and for all.
3:13 “Only acknowledge your guilt.” We must confess that sad fact, acknowledging that we have sinned. Into the ear of God we can pour out the full confession of our sin. It is all he asks us to do. We must confess we have done wrong. He cannot ask for anything less than this. If I have thus treated him, I can come and confess it, for he is willing to receive me even if I am the biggest sinner.
3:16 “No one will say again, ‘The ark of the LORD’s covenant.’” They had been accustomed to the old ceremonial religion that was full of outward rites and forms. God says that when he brings his erring people back to himself, they will have done with all that externalism. They will come to worship God in spirit and in truth and to commune with him without the medium of the ark of the covenant or an earthly priest. They will walk before him in the joy of their spirits.
3:18 “In those days the house of Judah will join with the house of Israel.” There is no more quarreling when divine grace comes in. Israel and Judah in the old days fought against each other, but when they alike taste of pardoning grace, they will love each other. Nothing unites people like the grace of God.
3:19 “You will call me ‘My Father’ and never turn away from me.” God knows how to change the character and to change the heart so that those who went farthest astray should come back to him and should become among the most holy, the most loyal, the most obedient of all his children.
3:21-22 “The children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy.” How pleasant to God’s ears is the weeping of his backsliding people! God does not wish people to be sorrowful, but he is glad that they should be sorrowful for sin. Now that they have begun to lament their wanderings and their wickedness, they will come back to their God, so he says to them, “Return, . . . I will heal your unfaithfulness.”
3:25 “We have sinned against the LORD our God.” There you see the repentance the Lord commanded from his people, and wherever there is such repentance as that, there are sure to be acceptance and salvation.
B 3:1 One Hb ms, LXX, Syr; other Hb mss read Saying: If
D 3:3 Lit have a prostitute’s forehead
A 3:9 Lit From the lightness of
B 3:12 Lit not cause my face to fall on you
D 3:15 Lit shepherds according to my heart
4If you return, C Israel —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
you will return to me,
if you remove your abhorrent idols
from my presence
and do not waver,
2then you can swear, “As the LORD lives,”
in truth, in justice, and in righteousness,
then the nations will be blessed D by him
and will pride themselves in him.
3 For this is what the LORD says to the men of Judah and Jerusalem:
Break up the unplowed ground;
do not sow among the thorns.
4Circumcise yourselves to the LORD;
remove the foreskin of your hearts,
men of Judah and residents of Jerusalem.
Otherwise, my wrath will break out like fire
and burn with no one to extinguish it
because of your evil deeds.
5 Declare in Judah, proclaim in Jerusalem, and say:
Blow the ram’s horn throughout the land.
Cry out loudly and say:
Assemble yourselves,
and let’s flee to the fortified cities.
6Lift up a signal flag toward Zion.
Run for cover! Don’t stand still!
For I am bringing disaster from the north —
a crushing blow.
7A lion has gone up from his thicket;
a destroyer of nations has set out.
He has left his lair
to make your land a waste.
Your cities will be reduced to uninhabited ruins.
8Because of this, put on sackcloth;
mourn and wail,
for the LORD’s burning anger
has not turned away from us.
9 “On that day” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “the king and the officials will lose their courage. The priests will tremble in fear, and the prophets will be scared speechless.”
10 I said, “Oh no, Lord GOD, you have certainly deceived this people and Jerusalem, by announcing, ‘You will have peace,’ while a sword is at A our throats.”
11 “At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, ‘A searing wind blows from the barren heights in the wilderness on the way to my dear B people. It comes not to winnow or to sift; 12 a wind too strong for this comes at my call. C Now I will also pronounce judgments against them.’ ”
13Look, he advances like clouds;
his chariots are like a storm.
His horses are swifter than eagles.
Woe to us, for we are ruined!
14Wash the evil from your heart, Jerusalem,
so that you will be delivered.
How long will you harbor
malicious thoughts?
15For a voice announces from Dan,
proclaiming malice from Mount Ephraim.
16Warn the nations: Look!
Proclaim to Jerusalem:
Those who besiege are coming
from a distant land;
they raise their voices
against the cities of Judah.
17They have her surrounded
like those who guard a field,
because she has rebelled
against me.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
18Your way and your actions
have brought this on you.
This is your punishment. It is very bitter,
because it has reached your heart!
19My anguish, my anguish! D I writhe in agony!
Oh, the pain in E my heart!
My heart pounds;
I cannot be silent.
For you, my soul,
have heard the sound of the ram’s horn —
the shout of battle.
20Disaster after disaster is reported
because the whole land is destroyed.
Suddenly my tents are destroyed,
my tent curtains, in a moment.
21How long must I see the signal flag
and hear the sound of the ram’s horn?
22“For my people are fools;
they do not know me.
They are foolish children,
without understanding.
They are skilled in doing what is evil,
but they do not know how to do what is good.”
23I looked at the earth,
and it was formless and empty.
I looked to the heavens,
and their light was gone.
24I looked at the mountains,
and they were quaking;
all the hills shook.
25I looked, and there was no human being,
and all the birds of the sky had fled.
26I looked, and the fertile field was a wilderness.
All its cities were torn down
because of the LORD
and his burning anger.
27 For this is what the LORD says:
The whole land will be a desolation,
but I will not finish it off.
28Because of this, the earth will mourn;
the skies above will grow dark.
I have spoken; I have planned,
and I will not relent or turn back from it.
29Every city flees
at the sound of the horseman and the archer.
They enter the thickets
and climb among the rocks.
Every city is abandoned;
no inhabitant is left.
30And you, devastated one, what are you doing
that you dress yourself in scarlet,
that you adorn yourself with gold jewelry,
that you enhance your eyes with makeup?
You beautify yourself for nothing.
Your lovers reject you;
they intend to take your life.
31I hear a cry like a woman in labor,
a cry of anguish like one bearing her first child.
The cry of Daughter Zion gasping for breath,
stretching out her hands:
“Woe is me, for my life is weary
because of the murderers! ”
4:4 “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts.” They had the outward form of religion, but the Lord’s servant bids them know that they must have heart religion. The heart must be purged; the inward must be cleansed. This they had no mind to do. They would multiply their sacrifices and their outward performances, but as to cleanliness of heart, they cared nothing for it.
4:5-7 “Run for cover!” This was a terrible prophecy. The Chaldeans, who had broken to pieces so many other kingdoms and powers, were on their way. The enraged lion had leaped from his thicket and was about to tear, and rend, and do universal havoc. And if they did not turn to God, their whole land would be laid waste. One would think that such a heavy blow would have awakened them to a sense of their danger and their sin, but unfortunately it was not so.
4:10 “You have certainly deceived this people and Jerusalem, by announcing, ‘You will have peace.’” God promised them peace, but it was on a condition they did not fulfill.
4:12 “I will also pronounce judgments against them.” What an awful line that is! They had been on trial. They were found guilty.
4:14-18 “Your way and your actions have brought this on you.” When the ungodly person begins to reap the result of his life—when, in his own body and in his own home, he begins to see what sin will bring, only then will he realize his punishment “is very bitter.”
4:19-23 “My anguish, my anguish! I writhe in agony! Oh, the pain in my heart!” Now follows the lament of Jeremiah—one of the most amazing pieces of sorrowful writing we will ever read. The dreadful blast of war, the blood-red flag of murder flying through the land while the Chaldeans slew right and left, young and old—we need to put ourselves in Jeremiah’s position to be able to realize the horror of this case. “I looked at the earth, and it was formless and empty. I looked to the heavens, and their light was gone.” It was as if they had gone back to chaos—to the primeval darkness—to the first disorder before God began to create.
4:24-29 “I looked, and the fertile field was a wilderness.” Judah was made as dreary as a wilderness. Oh, what a sight it was when God at last had ended his patience—poured out the vials of his wrath on his once favored land!
D 4:2 Or will bless themselves
B 4:11 Lit to the daughter of my
5Roam through the streets of Jerusalem.
Investigate; A
search in her squares.
If you find one person,
any who acts justly,
who pursues faithfulness,
then I will forgive her.
2When they say, “As the LORD lives,”
they are swearing falsely.
3LORD, don’t your eyes look for faithfulness?
You have struck them, but they felt no pain.
You finished them off,
but they refused to accept discipline.
They made their faces harder than rock,
and they refused to return.
4 Then I thought:
They are just the poor;
they have been foolish.
For they don’t understand the way of the LORD,
the justice of their God.
5I will go to the powerful
and speak to them.
Surely they know the way of the LORD,
the justice of their God.
However, these also had broken the yoke
and torn off the chains.
6Therefore, a lion from the forest will strike them down.
A wolf from arid plains will ravage them.
A leopard stalks their cities.
Anyone who leaves them will be torn to pieces
because their rebellious acts are many,
their unfaithful deeds numerous.
7Why should I forgive you?
Your children have abandoned me
and sworn by those who are not gods.
I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery;
they gashed themselves at the A prostitute’s house.
8They are well-fed, B eager C stallions,
each neighing after someone else’s wife.
9Should I not punish them for these things?
This is the LORD’s declaration.
Should I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?
10Go up among her vineyard terraces and destroy them,
but do not finish them off.
Prune away her shoots,
for they do not belong to the LORD.
11They, the house of Israel and the house of Judah,
have dealt very treacherously with me.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
12They have contradicted the LORD
and insisted, “It won’t happen. D
Harm won’t come to us;
we won’t see sword or famine.”
13The prophets become only wind,
for the LORD’s word is not in them.
This will in fact happen to them.
14 Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD of Armies says:
Because you have spoken this word,
I am going to make my words
become fire in your mouth.
These people are the wood,
and the fire will consume them.
15I am about to bring a nation
from far away against you,
house of Israel.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
It is an established nation,
a nation whose language you do not know
and whose speech you do not understand.
16Their quiver is like an open grave;
they are all warriors.
17They will consume your harvest and your food.
They will consume your sons and your daughters.
They will consume your flocks and your herds.
They will consume your vines and your fig trees.
With the sword they will destroy
your fortified cities in which you trust.
18 “But even in those days” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “I will not finish you off. 19 When people ask, ‘For what offense has the LORD our God done all these things to us? ’ You will respond to them, ‘Just as you abandoned me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.’
20 “Declare this in the house of Jacob; proclaim it in Judah, saying:
21Hear this,
you foolish and senseless A people.
They have eyes, but they don’t see.
They have ears, but they don’t hear.
22Do you not fear me?
This is the LORD’s declaration.
Do you not tremble before me,
the one who set the sand as the boundary of the sea,
an enduring barrier that it cannot cross?
The waves surge, but they cannot prevail.
They roar but cannot pass over it.
23But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts.
They have turned aside and have gone away.
24They have not said to themselves,
‘Let’s fear the LORD our God,
who gives the seasonal rains, both autumn and spring,
who guarantees to us the fixed weeks of the harvest.’
25Your guilty acts have diverted these things from you.
Your sins have withheld my bounty from you,
26for wicked men live among my people.
They watch like hunters B lying in wait. C
They set a trap;
they catch men.
27Like a cage full of birds,
so their houses are full of deceit.
Therefore they have grown powerful and rich.
28They have become fat and sleek.
They have also excelled in evil matters.
They have not taken up cases,
such as the case of the fatherless, so they might prosper,
and they have not defended the rights of the needy.
29Should I not punish them for these things?
This is the LORD’s declaration.
Should I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?
30An appalling, horrible thing
has taken place in the land.
31The prophets prophesy falsely,
and the priests rule by their own authority.
My people love it like this.
But what will you do at the end of it?
5:1 “Roam through the streets of Jerusalem. Investigate; search in her squares. If you find one person, any who acts justly, who pursues faithfulness, then I will forgive her.” It was a wonderful offer on the part of God to forgive the inhabitants of the whole city of Jerusalem for the sake of one person. And it was all the more remarkable because he gave them time to make a thorough search to see whether such a person could be found. Into what a horrible state of guilt the Jewish capital must have fallen when not one person, even among the magistrates or the priests, cared for that which was just and true.
5:3 “LORD, don’t your eyes look for faithfulness?” If there is any faithful person anywhere, God sees him. He regards him with attentive delight, and he will take care of him with the utmost vigilance.
5:5 “I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.” After searching among “the poor” and “foolish,” Jeremiah concluded, “They don’t understand the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.” Therefore, he turned to the powerful people of his day. But Jeremiah found no improvement among them; they were even worse than the poor and ignorant. To them, the prophets had “become only wind” (5:13).
5:12-14 “I am going to make my words become fire in your mouth. These people are the wood, and the fire will consume them.” It is a dreadful state of things when God turns from pleading with people to threatening them. When he ceases to invite them to return to him and denounces them as transgressors against his laws. At such times he makes the words that come out of the mouths of his prophets to be like fire, and people are utterly consumed by them as the stubble in the field is destroyed by the devouring flames.
5:18 “‘But even in those days’—this is the LORD’s declaration—‘I will not finish you off.’” Even in the midst of his wrath, God remembers mercy. He utters a terrible sentence concerning transgressors in verses 14-17 and then pauses and says, “But”—listen to the gentle note of pity in that word. Still does he spare the guilty, and in his long-suffering he gives them further opportunities to repent.
5:19 “Just as you abandoned me and served foreign gods in your land, so will you serve strangers in a land that is not yours.” A person often may see his sin in its punishment. Because they had served foreign gods, therefore, the Lord sent them to serve foreigners in a foreign land. We must remember that our sin will come home to us in some form or other. If we sow the wind, we will reap the whirlwind. Therefore, let us beware of scattering seeds of sin, for they will produce a terrible harvest of woe.
5:24 “They have not said to themselves, ‘Let’s fear the LORD our God, who gives the seasonal rains, both autumn and spring, who guarantees to us the fixed weeks of the harvest.’” Though God gives timely and suitable seasons for the growth and ingathering of grain—rain when it is needed to aid the springing up of the blade and fine weather for garnering the harvest—yet many do not see the hand of God at all; and they are, therefore, not moved by gratitude to bless his name and fear him to whom they are indebted for all that they receive. Oh, what ungrateful and blind creatures we human beings are!
5:25 “Your guilty acts have diverted these things from you. Your sins have withheld my bounty from you.” Does any unconverted person know what good things he or she has missed? Nothing can ever give back to you the years that have gone or impart to you in the future the joy you might have had, but which you have missed.
5:26 “Wicked men live among my people.” Such may even be in the church itself, making as loud a profession as the most genuine Christian. “They catch men.” Beware of these man-catchers who entrap souls and ruin them forever, ensnaring them by leading them into evil habits and transgressions. Jeremiah further described them and their deeds in verses 27-29.
5:31 “The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it like this.” It is a most horrible thing that God’s own people should ever be willing that error should be preached and that oppression and wrongdoing of any kind should be practiced. When those who profess to know God’s Word endorse what is contrary to the truth of God, error is kept in power. Then God asks, “But what will you do at the end of it?” Is your religion of such a character that when you come to die, it will bear you up? Or have you taken up with some form of falsehood that will not stand the test of your dying hour?
A 5:7 Or adultery and trooped to the, or adultery and lodged at the ; Hb obscure
B 5:8 Lit well-equipped ; Hb obscure
6“Run for cover
out of Jerusalem, Benjaminites.
Sound the ram’s horn in Tekoa;
raise a smoke signal
over Beth-haccherem, A
for disaster threatens from the north,
even a crushing blow.
2Though she is beautiful and delicate,
I will destroy B Daughter Zion.
3Shepherds and their flocks will come against her;
they will pitch their tents all around her.
Each will pasture his own portion.
4Set them apart for war against her;
rise up, let’s attack at noon.
Woe to us, for the day is passing;
the evening shadows grow long.
5Rise up, let’s attack by night.
Let us destroy her fortresses.”
6 For this is what the LORD of Armies says:
Cut down the trees;
raise a siege ramp against Jerusalem.
This city must be punished.
There is nothing but oppression within her.
7As a well gushes out its water,
so she pours out her evil. C
Violence and destruction resound in her.
Sickness and wounds keep coming to my attention.
8Be warned, Jerusalem,
or I will turn away from you;
I will make you a desolation,
a land without inhabitants.
9 This is what the LORD of Armies says:
Glean the remnant of Israel
as thoroughly as a vine.
Pass your hand once more like a grape gatherer
over the branches.
10Who can I speak to and give such a warning D
that they will listen?
Look, their ear is uncircumcised, E
so they cannot pay attention.
See, the word of the LORD has become contemptible to them —
they find no pleasure in it.
11But I am full of the LORD’s wrath;
I am tired of holding it back.
Pour it out on the children in the street,
on the gathering of young men as well.
For both husband and wife will be captured,
the old with the very old. A
12Their houses will be turned over to others,
their fields and wives as well,
for I will stretch out my hand
against the inhabitants
of the land.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
13For from the least to the greatest of them,
everyone is making profit dishonestly.
From prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
14They have treated my people’s
brokenness superficially,
claiming, “Peace, peace,”
when there is no peace.
15Were they ashamed when they acted so detestably?
They weren’t at all ashamed.
They can no longer
feel humiliation.
Therefore, they will fall among the fallen.
When I punish them, they will collapse,
says the LORD.
16 This is what the LORD says:
Stand by the roadways and look.
Ask about the ancient paths,
“Which is the way to what is good? ”
Then take it
and find rest for yourselves.
But they protested, “We won’t! ”
17I appointed watchmen over you
and said, “Listen for the sound of the ram’s horn.”
But they protested, “We won’t listen! ”
18Therefore listen, you nations
and you witnesses,
learn what the charge is against them.
19Listen, earth!
I am about to bring disaster on these people,
the fruit of their own plotting,
for they have paid no attention to my words.
They have rejected my instruction.
20What use to me is frankincense from Sheba
or sweet cane from a distant land?
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable;
your sacrifices do not please me.
21Therefore, this is what
the LORD says:
I am going to place stumbling blocks before these people;
fathers and sons together will stumble over them;
friends and neighbors will also perish.
22 This is what the LORD says:
Look, an army is coming from a northern land;
a great nation will be stirred up
from the remote regions of the earth.
23They grasp bow and javelin.
They are cruel and show no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea,
and they ride on horses,
lined up like men in battle formation
against you, Daughter Zion.
24We have heard about it,
and our hands have become weak.
Distress has seized us —
pain, like a woman in labor.
25Don’t go out to the fields;
don’t walk on the road.
For the enemy has a sword;
terror is on every side.
26My dear A people, dress yourselves in sackcloth
and roll in the dust.
Mourn as you would for an only son,
a bitter lament,
for suddenly the destroyer will come on us.
27I have appointed you to be an assayer among my people —
a refiner B —
so you may know and assay their way of life.
28All are stubborn rebels
spreading slander.
They are bronze and iron;
all of them are corrupt.
29The bellows blow,
blasting the lead with fire.
The refining is completely in vain;
the evil ones are not separated out.
30They are called rejected silver,
for the LORD has rejected them.
6:19 “I am about to bring disaster on these people, the fruit of their own plotting.” Observe here how God declares that he would not only punish Israel for gross overt acts of sin but that he would also bring on the nation terrible chastisements for their plotting. This is a solemn warning and full of instruction. Our thoughts are not free before God. I have no more authority to think of God as I please than I have to act before him as I please. We know that God has told us in Psalm 139:2,23 that he is constantly watching our thoughts. And we have it on record that God is also angry on account of evil thoughts (Gn 6:5-6). That evil thoughts and schemes are of the utmost importance may likewise be inferred from the fact that God here makes them the ground of punishing his people. He speaks of “the fruit of their own plotting.” The plot in itself may not be a great thing, but what will it come to? It may even be a little thing, but what will be the end of it? Evil plotting is in itself evil.
And what is more, the thought of evil paralyzes the finer faculties of the soul. The more we think of sin and become familiar with it, the less terrible it seems to our apprehension. Those who plot evil have thought on it, meditated, and deliberated about it until at last it seems to them but a mere trifle—and then they go forth to do it without misgiving. I do not believe a person becomes a villain all at once. He puts his soul to school—his thoughts are his teachers—or, rather, they are the schoolbooks in which his soul reads, and at last he becomes capable of transacting the deeds of a scoundrel.
C 6:7 Or well keeps its water fresh, so she keeps her evil fresh
E 6:10 They are unresponsive to God.
7This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Stand in the gate of the house of the LORD and there call out this word: ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who enter through these gates to worship the LORD.
3 “ ‘This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Correct your ways and your actions, and I will allow you to live in this place. 4 Do not trust deceitful words, chanting, “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.” 5 Instead, if you really correct your ways and your actions, if you act justly toward one another, C 6 if you no longer oppress the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow and no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods, bringing harm on yourselves, 7 I will allow you to live in this place, the land I gave to your ancestors long ago and forever. 8 But look, you keep trusting in deceitful words that cannot help.
9 “ ‘Do you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known? 10 Then do you come and stand before me in this house that bears my name and say, “We are rescued, so we can continue doing all these detestable acts”? 11 Has this house, which bears my name, become a den of robbers in your view? Yes, I too have seen it.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
12 “ ‘But return to my place that was at Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first. See what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 Now, because you have done all these things — this is the LORD’s declaration — and because I have spoken to you time and time again A but you wouldn’t listen, and I have called to you, but you wouldn’t answer, 14 what I did to Shiloh I will do to the house that bears my name — the house in which you trust — the place that I gave you and your ancestors. 15 I will banish you from my presence, just as I banished all of your brothers, all the descendants of Ephraim.’
16 “As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not offer a cry or a prayer on their behalf, and do not beg me, for I will not listen to you. 17 Don’t you see how they behave in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The sons gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven, B and they pour out drink offerings to other gods so that they provoke me to anger. 19 But are they really provoking me? ” This is the LORD’s declaration. “Isn’t it they themselves being provoked to disgrace? ”
20 Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: “Look, my anger — my burning wrath — is about to be poured out on this place, on people and animals, on the tree of the field, and on the produce of the land. My wrath will burn and not be quenched.”
21 This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices, and eat the meat yourselves, 22 for when I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak with them or command them concerning burnt offering and sacrifice. 23 However, I did give them this command: ‘Obey me, and then I will be your God, and you will be my people. Follow every way I command you so that it may go well with you.’ 24 Yet they didn’t listen or pay attention but followed their own advice and their own stubborn, evil heart. They went backward and not forward. 25 Since the day your ancestors came out of the land of Egypt until today, I have sent all my servants the prophets to you time and time again. C 26 However, my people wouldn’t listen to me or pay attention but became obstinate; D they did more evil than their ancestors.
27 “When you speak all these things to them, they will not listen to you. When you call to them, they will not answer you. 28 Therefore, declare to them, ‘This is the nation that would not listen to the LORD their God and would not accept discipline. Truth E has perished — it has disappeared from their mouths. 29 Cut off the hair of your sacred vow F and throw it away. Raise up a dirge on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned the generation under his wrath.’
30 “For the Judeans have done what is evil in my sight.” This is the LORD’s declaration. “They have set up their abhorrent things in the house that bears my name in order to defile it. 31 They have built the high places of Topheth A in Ben Hinnom Valley B in order to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, a thing I did not command; I never entertained the thought. C
32 “Therefore, look, the days are coming” — the LORD’s declaration — “when this place will no longer be called Topheth and Ben Hinnom Valley, but the Valley of Slaughter. Topheth will become a cemetery, D because there will be no other burial place. 33 The corpses of these people will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land, with no one to scare them away. 34 I will remove from the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem the sound of joy and gladness and the voices of the groom and the bride, for the land will become a desolate waste.
7:1-3 “Stand in the gate of the house of the LORD.” Many of Judah thought that if they went up to the temple, it was all right with them. If they only went through the outward ritual, they would certainly be accepted. They must have been astonished when Jeremiah met them at the temple door and told them that the best worship of God was holiness—not the mere outward ceremony but cleansing of the heart before him.
7:4-7 “This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.” The blessing is not to the temple and the temple worshipers; the blessing is to holy people, to such as love righteousness, to such as obey the living God and do justice between them and others—and especially between themselves and the poor and needy of the earth.
7:11-16 “Return to my place that was at Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first. See what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.” Through the sin of Eli’s sons, God forsook Shiloh—and the tent of his house, and the ark of his covenant were removed—and Shiloh became an utter desolation. So will God do to any church that becomes unfaithful to him. Think not that God is tied to any place or to any ministry. If we so not walk before him faithfully, he may take the candlestick out of its place. He may take the talent away and give it to others and then “Ichabod” will be written on the walls (see 1Sm 4:21), whether it is of Shiloh or of Jerusalem. Jeremiah has thus shown us clearly that no confidence can be placed in holy places or outward ceremonies—the state of one’s heart and one’s life is the all-important matter.
C 7:5 Lit justly between a man and his neighbor
A 7:13 Lit you rising early and speaking
C 7:25 Lit you, each day rising early and sending
D 7:26 Lit but stiffened their neck
F 7:29 Lit off your consecration
B 7:31 A valley south of Jerusalem
8“At that time” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of her officials, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the residents of Jerusalem will be brought out of their graves. 2 They will be exposed to the sun, the moon, and all the stars in the sky, which they have loved, served, followed, consulted, and worshiped. Their bones will not be collected and buried but will become like manure on the soil’s surface. 3 Death will be chosen over life by all the survivors of this evil family, those who remain wherever I have banished them.” This is the declaration of the LORD of Armies.
4 “You are to say to them: This is what the LORD says:
Do people fall and not get up again?
If they turn away, do they
not return?
QUOTE 8:4-5
Perseverance in evil is the venom of evil.
5Why have these people turned away?
Why is Jerusalem always turning away?
They take hold of deceit;
they refuse to return.
6I have paid careful attention.
They do not speak what is right.
No one regrets his evil,
asking, ‘What have I done? ’
Everyone has stayed his course
like a horse rushing into battle.
7Even storks in the sky
know their seasons.
Turtledoves, swallows, and cranes E
are aware of their migration,
but my people do not know
the requirements of the LORD.
8“How can you claim, ‘We are wise;
the law of the LORD is with us’?
In fact, the lying pen of scribes
has produced falsehood.
9The wise will be put to shame;
they will be dismayed and snared.
They have rejected the word of the LORD,
so what wisdom do they really have?
10Therefore, I will give their wives to other men,
their fields to new occupants,
for from the least to the greatest,
everyone is making profit dishonestly.
From prophet to priest,
everyone deals falsely.
11They have treated the brokenness
of my dear A people superficially,
claiming, ‘Peace, peace,’
when there is no peace.
12Were they ashamed when they acted so detestably?
They weren’t at all ashamed.
They can no longer feel humiliation.
Therefore, they will fall among the fallen.
When I punish them, they will collapse,”
says the LORD.
13I will gather them and bring them to an end. B
This is the LORD’s declaration.
There will be no grapes on the vine,
no figs on the fig tree,
and even the leaf will wither.
Whatever I have given them will be lost to them.
14Why are we just sitting here?
Gather together; let us enter the fortified cities
and perish there, C
for the LORD our God has destroyed D us.
He has given us poisoned water to drink,
because we have sinned against the LORD.
15We hoped for peace, but there was nothing good;
for a time of healing, but there was only terror.
16From Dan, the snorting of horses is heard.
At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds,
the whole land quakes.
They come to devour the land and everything in it,
the city and all its residents.
17Indeed, I am about to send snakes among you,
poisonous vipers that cannot be charmed.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
18My joy has flown away;
grief has settled on me.
My heart is sick.
19Listen — the cry of my dear people
from a faraway land,
“Is the LORD no longer in Zion,
her King not within her? ”
Why have they angered me
with their carved images,
with their worthless foreign idols?
20Harvest has passed, summer has ended,
but we have not been saved.
21I am broken by the brokenness
of my dear people.
I mourn; horror has taken hold of me.
22Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there?
So why has the healing of my dear people
not come about?
8:1 “The bones . . . will be brought out of their graves.” It was a common practice to bury treasure with the bodies of kings; hence when any land was invaded by foreign foes, they broke open the tombs and searched for hidden valuables. It was a sign of the special detestation of the enemy and of their fury against the people when they dragged the carcasses out of the graves and scattered the bones to the four winds. In this case it was foretold that this desecration would not only take place with regard to the bones of the kings, in whose tombs the greatest treasure might be expected to be found, but the bones of princes, priests, prophets, and people were all to be alike brought forth.
8:3 “Death will be chosen over life by all the survivors of this evil family.” There was to be stern treatment for the dead, but it would be worse with the living, for the Chaldeans were strong, fierce, cruel, and most ingenious in the torments they inflicted on their captives. It was awful to be living in such times as those, and it is always terrible to be living when God’s judgments are abroad in the earth and sinners are hardened in their sin.
8:4-5 “They refuse to return.” Some fall into sin, but by God’s grace they are raised out of it, and they turn away from iniquity and are restored to God’s favor. But others, like the people of Jerusalem, day after day grow more outrageous in their wickedness. Perseverance in evil is the venom of evil.
8:6 “Everyone has stayed his course like a horse rushing into battle.” As the warhorse is eager for the fray and at the first blast of the trumpet seeks to dash into the center of the fight, so did these ungodly people. Instead of turning to God, they turned more desperately to sin.
8:8 “How can you claim, ‘We are wise; the law of the LORD is with us’?” Bible societies may go on printing Bibles by the millions, but as long as people do not obey what is taught in the Bible, the work of the printing press, like that of the copyist, will be in vain. We need more than the letter of the Word, valuable as that is. We need to know, in spirit and in truth, what the Spirit teaches through the letter and also to practice it. God grant that even our Bibles may not rise up in judgment against us!
8:11 “They have treated the brokenness of my dear people superficially, claiming, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace.” It is dreadful when those who ought to warn the people and speak sharp, stern, honest, faithful words, simply flatter them.
8:13 “Whatever I have given them will be lost to them.” They would not recognize the giver, so the gifts would be taken away from them.
8:14-16 “From Dan, the snorting of horses is heard.” Dan was the northernmost tribe, bordering on Phoenicia. And after Nebuchadnezzar conquered the Phoenicians, he began to march through the territory of Dan. The mighty horses were a prominent part of the Chaldean force—so the poet-prophet pictures them as being heard as far as from Dan all the way to Jerusalem, so terrible was their snorting. This, of course, is the imagery of poetry, but there was terrible reality behind it.
8:17 “I am about to send snakes among you, poisonous vipers that cannot be charmed.” Such were the Chaldeans—crafty as serpents, full of the venom of cruelty wherever they came. There was no way of charming them as a serpent may be charmed. They came on a deadly errand and thoroughly performed it.
8:22 “Is there no balm in Gilead; is there no physician there?” No, there is none. There is balm in Christ; there is a physician who once hung on Calvary’s cross, but there is no balm and no physician in Gilead.
9If my head were a flowing spring,
my eyes a fountain of tears,
I would weep day and night
over the slain of my dear A people.
2If only I had a traveler’s lodging place
in the wilderness,
I would abandon my people
and depart from them,
for they are all adulterers,
a solemn assembly of treacherous people.
3They bent their tongues like their bows;
lies and not faithfulness prevail in the land,
for they proceed from one evil to another,
and they do not take me into account.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
4Everyone has to be on guard against his friend.
Don’t trust any brother,
for every brother will certainly deceive,
and every friend spread slander.
5Each one betrays his friend;
no one tells the truth.
They have taught their tongues to speak lies;
they wear themselves out doing wrong.
6You live in a world of deception. B
In their deception they refuse to know me.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
7 Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies says:
I am about to refine them and test them,
for what else can I do
because of my dear A people? B
8Their tongues are deadly arrows —
they speak deception.
With his mouth
one speaks peaceably with his friend,
but inwardly he sets up an ambush.
9Should I not punish them for these things?
This is the LORD’s declaration.
Should I not avenge myself
on such a nation as this?
10I will raise weeping and a lament
over the mountains,
a dirge over the wilderness grazing land,
for they have been so scorched
that no one passes through.
The sound of cattle is no longer heard.
From the birds of the sky to the animals,
everything has fled — they have gone away.
11I will make Jerusalem a heap of rubble,
a jackals’ den.
I will make the cities of Judah a desolation,
an uninhabited place.
12 Who is the person wise enough to understand this? Who has the LORD spoken to, that he may explain it? Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness, so no one can pass through?
13 The LORD said, “It is because they abandoned my instruction, which I set before them, and did not obey my voice or walk according to it. 14 Instead, they followed the stubbornness of their hearts and followed the Baals as their fathers taught them.” 15 Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “I am about to feed this people wormwood and give them poisonous water to drink. 16 I will scatter them among the nations that they and their fathers have not known. I will send a sword after them until I have finished them off.”
17 This is what the LORD of Armies says:
Consider, and summon
the women who mourn;
send for the skillful women.
18Let them come quickly to raise a lament over us
so that our eyes may overflow with tears,
our eyelids be soaked
with weeping.
19For a sound of lamentation is heard from Zion:
How devastated we are.
We are greatly ashamed,
for we have abandoned the land;
our dwellings have been
torn down.
20Now hear the word of the LORD, you women.
Pay attention to C the words from his mouth.
Teach your daughters a lament
and one another a dirge,
21for Death has climbed through our windows;
it has entered our fortresses,
cutting off children from the streets,
young men from the squares.
22 “Speak as follows: ‘This is what the LORD declares: Human corpses will fall like manure on the surface of the field, like newly cut grain after the reaper with no one to gather it.
23 “ ‘This is what the LORD says:
The wise person should not boast in his wisdom;
the strong should not boast in his strength;
the wealthy should not boast in his wealth.
24But the one who boasts should boast in this:
that he understands and knows me —
that I am the LORD, showing faithful love,
justice, and righteousness on the earth,
for I delight in these things.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
25 “ ‘Look, the days are coming — this is the LORD’s declaration — when I will punish all the circumcised yet uncircumcised: 26 Egypt, Judah, Edom, the Ammonites, Moab, and all the inhabitants of the desert who clip the hair on their temples. A All these nations are uncircumcised, and the whole house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.’ ”
9:1 “If my head were a flowing spring, my eyes a fountain of tears, I would weep day and night over the slain of my dear people.” This is how God’s servants feel about the dying and perishing souls all around them. They cannot bear the thought of the sinner’s awful doom; it brings continuous heartbreak and heaviness of spirit to them. In Hebrew the same word signifies “eye” and “fountain,” as if God had as much given us eyes to weep with as to see with, as if there were as much cause to sorrow over sin as to look out on the beauties of the world.
9:3 “They bent their tongues like their bows.” They made use of the tongue as if it were a bow to shoot out lies. It is a graphic description. “They proceed from one evil to another.” It is the way of the wicked to ripen into greater sin.
9:4-6 “Every brother will certainly deceive.” Jacob’s name was “deceiver,” and all these were Jacobs, each one ready to deceive his brother, to throw him on one side that he might occupy his place. “They have taught their tongues to speak lies.” Their tongues spoke lies without any teaching, but they schooled them till they were masters of the art of lying. “They wear themselves out doing wrong.” They had committed so much evil that they even tired themselves in the doing of it. “In their deception they refuse to know me.” They put forth all their critical ingenuity to get rid of God, doing all they could so they might not know God.
9:10 “The sound of cattle is no longer heard.” The prophet pictures what the Chaldeans would do. They would not only destroy the cities, but they would even rob the hills of their cattle and sweep the fields till there would be nothing left that could be gathered.
9:12 “Why is the land destroyed and scorched like a wilderness?” The land would never have been desolate if it had not been for the wickedness of the people. It is sin that does the mischief.
9:19 “How devastated we are.” Why did they not say, “How we have sinned”? No, people will think of the punishment they suffer, but they will overlook the sin they commit. “We have abandoned the land.” Why did not they say, “Because we have forsaken the Lord, because we have cast off the worship of the Lord”? People mourn over the result of sin, but to the sin itself they still cling.
9:21-22 “Death has climbed through our windows . . . cutting off children.” Generally, in war they spare the children, and they carry the young men away as captives. The Chaldeans were cruel; they killed the little ones and they slew the young men. “Human corpses will fall like manure on the surface of the field.” So dreadful was the devastation that was worked by the Chaldeans that dead bodies lay like heaps of dung farmers spread on the fields.
9:24 “I delight in these things.” God would have made them wealthier than the wealthy, wiser than the wise, and stronger than the strongest; but they would not have the things in which he delighted.
9:26 “Egypt, Judah, Edom.” Judah is sandwiched between Egypt and Edom. Those who were the people of God are put in the same category with the accursed nations because they had forsaken the Lord and become mixed up with them.
A 9:1 Lit slain among the daughter of my
B 9:6 LXX reads Oppression on oppression, deceit on deceit
A 9:7 Lit of the daughter of my
B 9:7 LXX, Tg read because of their evils
10Hear the word that the LORD has spoken to B you, house of Israel. 2 This is what the LORD says:
Do not learn the way of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the heavens,
although the nations are terrified by them,
3for the customs of the peoples are worthless.
Someone cuts down a tree from the forest;
it is worked by the hands of a craftsman with a chisel.
4He decorates it with silver and gold.
It is fastened with hammer and nails,
so it won’t totter.
5Like scarecrows in a cucumber patch,
their idols cannot speak.
They must be carried because they cannot walk.
Do not fear them for they can do no harm —
and they cannot do any good.
6LORD, there is no one like you.
You are great;
your name is great in power.
7Who should not fear you,
King of the nations?
It is what you deserve.
For among all the wise people of the nations
and among all their kingdoms,
there is no one like you.
8They are both stupid and foolish,
instructed by worthless idols
made of wood!
9Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish
and gold from Uphaz. A
The work of a craftsman
and of a goldsmith’s hands
is clothed in blue and purple,
all the work of skilled artisans.
10But the LORD is the true God;
he is the living God and eternal King.
The earth quakes at his wrath,
and the nations cannot endure his rage.
11 You are to say this to them: “The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under these heavens.” B
12He made the earth by his power,
established the world by his wisdom,
and spread out the heavens by his understanding.
13When he thunders, C
the waters in the heavens are in turmoil,
and he causes the clouds to rise
from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain
and brings the wind from his storehouses.
14Everyone is stupid and ignorant.
Every goldsmith is put to shame
by his carved image,
for his cast images are a lie;
there is no breath in them.
15They are worthless, a work to be mocked.
At the time of their punishment
they will be destroyed.
16Jacob’s Portion D is not like these
because he is the one who formed all things.
Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;
the LORD of Armies is his name.
17Gather up your belongings E from the ground,
you who live under siege.
18 For this is what the LORD says:
Look, I am flinging away
the land’s residents at this time
and bringing them such distress
that they will feel it.
19Woe to me because of my brokenness —
I am severely wounded!
I exclaimed, “This is my intense suffering,
but I must bear it.”
20My tent is destroyed;
all my tent cords are snapped.
My sons have departed from me and are no more.
I have no one to pitch my tent again
or to hang up my curtains.
21For the shepherds are stupid:
They don’t seek the LORD.
Therefore they have not prospered,
and their whole flock is scattered.
22Listen! A noise — it is coming —
a great commotion from the land to the north.
The cities of Judah will be made desolate,
a jackals’ den.
23I know, LORD,
that a person’s way of life is not his own;
no one who walks determines his own steps.
24Discipline me, LORD, but with justice —
not in your anger,
or you will reduce me to nothing.
25Pour out your wrath
on the nations
that don’t recognize you
and on the families
that don’t call on your name,
for they have consumed Jacob;
they have consumed him and finished him off
and made his homeland desolate.
10:1-2 “Do not . . . be terrified by signs in the heavens.” Among the heathen, if certain stars were in conjunction, it was considered unlucky. And certain days of the week were also regarded as unlucky. A great many foolish superstitions are floating about this silly world, but Christian people should never allow such follies to have any influence on them.
10:3-5 “The customs of the peoples are worthless.” God’s ancient prophets seemed to take delight in heaping scorn on the idol-making of the heathen.
10:14 “Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image, for his cast images are a lie.” Every idolater proves that he knows no more than a brute beast when he worships a piece of wood or a stone.
10:16 “Jacob’s Portion.” What a blessed name that is for God! And the other side of the truth is equally blessed—“Israel is the tribe of his inheritance.” God belongs to his people, and they belong to him. If we can but realize that these blessings are ours, we are building on the solid foundation.
10:17-18 “Gather up your belongings.” The Babylonians were coming against Judah. No hope of deliverance was held out to Judah; they were told to pack up their little bundles, to put their small goods together, for they had to go away into a far distant country as captives of the mighty King Nebuchadnezzar. God compares their captivity to the forcible ejection of stones from a sling—“I am flinging away the land’s residents at this time.”
10:19 “This is my intense suffering, but I must bear it.” We children of God also must learn to say that. Some trials and troubles come on us against which we may not fight, but we must say, “I must bear it.”
10:20 “My tent is destroyed; all my tent cords are snapped. My sons have departed from me.” Israel was like a tent removed with none to set her up again. Some churches in the present day are in this sad condition—the faithful fail from among them; there are no new converts and no earnest spirit.
10:24 “Discipline me, LORD, but with justice—not in your anger, or you will reduce me to nothing.” What a suitable prayer this is for a sick person, for a tried believer, for the child of God in deep despondency of soul. I scarcely know any better words that any of us could use. The suppliant does not ask to go undisciplined but only that God discipline him “not in your anger.”
10:25 “Pour out your wrath on the nations that don’t recognize you.” Instead of smiting his own children, Jeremiah asks God to smite his enemies. And knowing what we know about the Babylonians, we do not wonder that Jeremiah prayed such a prayer as that.
11This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Listen to the words of this covenant and tell them to the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem. 3 Tell them, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: “Let a curse be on the man who does not obey the words of this covenant, 4 which I commanded your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the iron furnace.” I declared, “Obey me, and do everything that I command you, and you will be my people, and I will be your God,” 5 in order to establish the oath I swore to your ancestors, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, as it is today.’ ”
I answered, “Amen, LORD.”
6 The LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem: ‘Obey the words of this covenant and carry them out.’ 7 For I strongly warned your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt until today, warning them time and time again, A ‘Obey me.’ 8 Yet they would not obey or pay attention; each one followed the stubbornness of his evil heart. So I brought on them all the curses of this covenant, because they had not done what I commanded them to do.”
9 The LORD said to me, “A conspiracy has been discovered among the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem. 10 They have returned to the iniquities of their fathers who refused to obey my words and have followed other gods to worship them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah broke my covenant I made with their ancestors.
11 “Therefore, this is what the LORD says: I am about to bring on them disaster that they cannot escape. They will cry out to me, but I will not hear them. 12 Then the cities of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods they have been burning incense to, but they certainly will not save them in their time of disaster. 13 Your gods are indeed as numerous as your cities, Judah, and the altars you have set up to Shame B — altars to burn incense to Baal — as numerous as the streets of Jerusalem.
14 “As for you, do not pray for these people. Do not raise up a cry or a prayer on their behalf, for I will not be listening when they call out to me at the time of their disaster.
15What right does my beloved have
to be in my house,
having carried out so many evil schemes?
Can holy meat A prevent your disaster B
so you can celebrate?
16The LORD named you
a flourishing olive tree,
beautiful with well-formed fruit.
He has set fire to it,
and its branches are consumed C
with the sound of a mighty tumult.
17 “The LORD of Armies who planted you has decreed disaster against you, because of the disaster D the house of Israel and the house of Judah brought on themselves when they angered me by burning incense to Baal.”
18The LORD informed me, so I knew.
Then you helped me to see their deeds,
19for I was like a docile E lamb led to slaughter.
I didn’t know that they had devised plots against me:
“Let’s destroy the tree with its fruit; F
let’s cut him off from the land of the living
so that his name will no longer be remembered.”
20But, LORD of Armies, who judges righteously,
who tests heart G and mind,
let me see your vengeance
on them,
for I have presented my case to you.
21 Therefore, here is what the LORD says concerning the people of Anathoth who intend to take your life. They warn, “Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, or you will certainly die at our hand.” 22 Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies says: “I am about to punish them. The young men will die by the sword; their sons and daughters will die by famine. 23 They will have no remnant, for I will bring disaster on the people of Anathoth in the year of their punishment.”
12You will be righteous, LORD,
even if I bring a case against you.
Yet, I wish to contend with you:
Why does the way of the wicked prosper?
Why do all the treacherous live at ease?
2You planted them, and they have taken root.
They have grown and produced fruit.
You are ever on their lips, H
but far from their conscience. G
3As for you, LORD, you know me; you see me.
You test whether my heart is with you.
Drag the wicked away like sheep to slaughter
and set them apart for the day of killing.
4How long will the land mourn
and the grass of every field wither?
Because of the evil of its residents,
animals and birds have been swept away,
for the people have said,
“He cannot see what our end will be.” I
5If you have raced with runners
and they have worn you out,
how can you compete with horses?
If you stumble J in a peaceful land,
what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?
6Even your brothers — your own father’s family —
even they were treacherous to you;
even they have cried out loudly after you.
Do not have confidence in them,
though they speak well of you.
7I have abandoned my house;
I have deserted my inheritance.
I have handed the love of my life
over to her enemies.
8My inheritance has behaved toward me
like a lion in the forest.
She has roared against me.
Therefore, I hate her.
9Is my inheritance like a hyena A to me?
Are birds of prey circling her?
Go, gather all the wild animals;
bring them to devour her.
10Many shepherds have destroyed my vineyard;
they have trampled my plot of land.
They have turned my desirable plot
into a desolate wasteland.
11They have made it a desolation.
It mourns, desolate, before me.
All the land is desolate,
but no one takes it to heart.
12Over all the barren heights in the wilderness
the destroyers have come,
for the LORD has a sword that devours
from one end of the earth to the other.
No one has peace.
13They have sown wheat but harvested thorns.
They have exhausted themselves but have no profit.
Be put to shame by your harvests
because of the LORD’s burning anger.
14 This is what the LORD says: “Concerning all my evil neighbors who attack the inheritance that I bequeathed to my people, Israel, I am about to uproot them from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from them. 15 After I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land. 16 If they will diligently learn the ways of my people — to swear by my name, ‘As the LORD lives,’ just as they taught my people to swear by Baal — they will be built up among my people. 17 However, if they will not obey, then I will uproot and destroy that nation.”
This is the LORD’s declaration.
13This is what the LORD said to me: “Go and buy yourself a linen undergarment and put it on. B But do not put it in water.” 2 So I bought underwear as the LORD instructed me and put it on.
3 Then the word of the LORD came to me a second time: 4 “Take the underwear that you bought and are wearing, C and go at once to the Euphrates D and hide it in a rocky crevice.” 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.
6 A long time later the LORD said to me, “Go at once to the Euphrates and get the underwear that I commanded you to hide there.” 7 So I went to the Euphrates and dug up the underwear and got it from the place where I had hidden it, but it was ruined — of no use at all.
8 Then the word of the LORD came to me: 9 “This is what the LORD says: Just like this I will ruin the great pride of both Judah and Jerusalem. 10 These evil people, who refuse to listen to me, who follow the stubbornness of their own hearts, and who have followed other gods to serve and bow in worship — they will be like this underwear, of no use at all. 11 Just as underwear clings to one’s waist, so I fastened the whole house of Israel and of Judah to me” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “so that they might be my people for my fame, praise, and glory, but they would not obey.
12 “Say this to them: ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Every jar should be filled with wine.’ Then they will respond to you, ‘Don’t we know that every jar should be filled with wine? ’ 13 And you will say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am about to fill all who live in this land — the kings who reign for David on his throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the residents of Jerusalem — with drunkenness. 14 I will smash them against each other, fathers and sons alike — this is the LORD’s declaration. I will allow no mercy, pity, or compassion to keep me from destroying them.’ ”
15Listen and pay attention. Do not be proud,
for the LORD has spoken.
16Give glory to the LORD your God
before he brings darkness,
before your feet stumble
on the mountains at dusk.
You wait for light,
but he brings darkest gloom A
and makes total darkness.
17But if you will not listen,
my innermost being will weep in secret
because of your pride.
My eyes will overflow with tears,
for the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.
18Say to the king and the queen mother:
Take a humble seat,
for your glorious crowns
have fallen from your heads.
19The cities of the Negev are under siege;
no one can help them.
All of Judah has been taken
into exile,
taken completely into exile.
20Look up and see
those coming from the north.
Where is the flock entrusted
to you,
the sheep that were your pride?
21What will you say when he appoints
close friends as leaders over you,
ones you yourself trained?
Won’t labor pains seize you,
as they do a woman in labor?
22And when you ask yourself,
“Why have these things happened to me? ”
it is because of your great guilt
that your skirts have been stripped off,
your body exposed. A
23Can the Cushite change his skin,
or a leopard his spots?
If so, you might be able to do what is good,
you who are instructed in evil.
24I will scatter you B like drifting chaff
before the desert wind.
25This is your lot,
what I have decreed for you —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
because you have forgotten me
and trusted in lies.
26I will pull your skirts up over your face
so that your shame might be seen.
27Your adulteries and your lustful neighing,
your depraved prostitution
on the hills, in the fields —
I have seen your abhorrent acts.
Woe to you, Jerusalem!
You are unclean —
for how long yet?
13:15-17 “Listen and pay attention . . . for the LORD has spoken.” The voice we are told to hear is a divine voice. Further, it is a word most clear and plain. Moreover, from the expression in the text, we gather that the revelation made to us by the Lord is an unchangeable and abiding word. It is not today that the Lord is speaking, but “the LORD has spoken.” His voice by the prophets and apostles is silent now, for he has revealed all truth that is necessary for salvation. This revelation is preeminently a cheerful word. The Lord might have trodden us down to destruction without a word when we sinned against him. The fact that the great God speaks to us indicates that mercy, tenderness, love, hope, and grace are the burden of his utterance.
Since there is a revelation, it should be suitably received. If the Lord has spoken, then all attention should be given. Yes, double attention, even as the text has it, “Listen and pay attention.” We must hear and hear again, incline our ears, listen diligently, and surrender our souls to the teaching of the Lord God.
Nevertheless, pride in the human heart prevents such a reception. The text continues, “Do not be proud.” The prophet here puts his finger on the problem. Why is it that there are any among us who have heard God’s Word year after year and yet have not received it? The reason is their pride. In some it is the pride of intellect. In some others it is the pride of self-esteem. Some have a pride of self-righteousness. In some it is the pride of self-love. The pride of self-will also works its share of ruin among people.
Then comes an earnest warning: “Give glory to the LORD your God before he brings darkness, before your feet stumble on the mountains at dusk.” Darkness is hovering around us, and after that darkness comes a stumbling. Dark mountains of another kind will also block the way of the wanderer—mountains of dismay, of remorse, of despair. After that stumbling in the dark, one may desire to wait for the light to come. Yet he looks in vain, for thus says the prophet, “You wait for light, but he brings darkest gloom and makes total darkness.” And now a paralyzing despair seizes this person, for God makes the darkness to be “total darkness.”
If the people would not submit to God, the prophet determined what he would do: “But if you will not listen, my innermost being will weep in secret because of your pride. My eyes will overflow with tears, for the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.” He cannot do anything more. He has no other message to deliver. He cannot hope that God will stand for their insults and invent another way of saving them. He has told them the truth, and if they refuse it, he will lay no flattering anointing to their souls.
Jeremiah did not say in the first clause “my eyes shall weep” but “my innermost being will weep.” Bitter tears make red the eyes, but what must be the brine of those tears that are wept by one’s innermost being—the anguish over willful people who persist in destroying themselves. Alas, Jeremiah’s sorrow would be unavailing; his grief was hopeless. He could not help those who would not allow themselves to be helped by God.
C 13:4 Lit wearing around your waist
D 13:4-7 Perhaps a place near Anathoth with the same spelling as the river
A 13:16 Or brings a shadow of death
14This is the word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the drought:
2Judah mourns;
her city gates languish.
Her people are on the ground in mourning;
Jerusalem’s cry rises up.
3Their nobles send their servants C for water.
They go to the cisterns;
they find no water;
their containers return empty.
They are ashamed and humiliated;
they cover their heads.
4The ground is cracked
since no rain has fallen on the land.
The farmers are ashamed;
they cover their heads.
5Even the doe in the field
gives birth and abandons her fawn
since there is no grass.
6Wild donkeys stand on the barren heights
panting for air like jackals.
Their eyes fail
because there are no green plants.
7Though our iniquities testify against us,
LORD, act for your name’s sake.
Indeed, our rebellions are many;
we have sinned against you.
8Hope of Israel,
its Savior in time of distress,
why are you like a resident alien in the land,
like a traveler stopping only for the night?
9Why are you like a helpless man,
like a warrior unable to save?
Yet you are among us, LORD,
and we bear your name.
Don’t leave us!
10 This is what the LORD says concerning these people:
Truly they love to wander;
they never rest their feet.
So the LORD does not accept them.
Now he will remember their iniquity
and punish their sins.
11 Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of these people. 12 If they fast, I will not hear their cry of despair. If they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. Rather, I will finish them off by sword, famine, and plague.”
13 And I replied, “Oh no, Lord GOD! The prophets are telling them, ‘You won’t see sword or suffer famine. I will certainly give you lasting peace in this place.’ ”
14 But the LORD said to me, “These prophets are prophesying a lie in my name. I did not send them, nor did I command them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, worthless divination, the deceit of their own minds.
15 “Therefore, this is what the LORD says concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name, though I did not send them, and who say, ‘There will never be sword or famine in this land.’ By sword and famine these prophets will meet their end. 16 The people they are prophesying to will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword. There will be no one to bury them — they, their wives, their sons, and their daughters. I will pour out their own evil on them.”
17You are to speak this word to them:
Let my eyes overflow with tears;
day and night may they not stop,
for the virgin daughter of my people
has been destroyed by a crushing blow,
an extremely severe wound.
18If I go out to the field,
look — those slain by the sword!
If I enter the city,
look — those ill from famine!
For both prophet and priest
travel to a land they do not know.
19Have you completely rejected Judah?
Do you detest Zion?
Why do you strike us
with no hope of healing for us?
We hoped for peace,
but there was nothing good;
for a time of healing,
but there was only terror.
20We acknowledge our wickedness, LORD,
the iniquity of our fathers;
indeed, we have sinned against you.
21For your name’s sake, don’t despise us.
Don’t disdain your glorious throne.
Remember your covenant with us;
do not break it.
22Can any of the worthless idols of the nations bring rain?
Or can the skies alone give showers?
Are you not the LORD our God?
We therefore put our hope in you,
for you have done all these things.
14:1-6 “Concerning the drought.” There had been no rain, so the crops had failed, and there was a famine in the land. The distress was so great that the “city gates” where, in more prosperous times, business transactions took place and meetings of the people were held were deserted. “Their nobles send their servants for water.” The highest in the land sent their servants to hunt for even a little water to drink. They went to the cisterns where some water might have been expected to remain, but they found none. “They cover their heads.” The covering of the head was the sign of sorrow. “The ground is cracked.” The ground had been reduced by the drought to such a state of hardness that it was useless to plow, for there was no hope of any harvest coming. Even the wild creatures of the field shared the general suffering: “The doe in the field gives birth and abandons her fawn.” The doe, which is reckoned to be the fondest of its young, forsook its fawn and left it to perish because there was no food. “Wild donkeys” are able to endure thirst better than other creatures and are always quick to perceive water if any is to be found. Yet they tried in vain to scent water anywhere; they sniffed in vain and “their eyes fail.” The prophet turns to prayer as the only means of obtaining relief.
14:8 “Why are you like a resident alien in the land, like a traveler stopping only for the night?” Jeremiah begged the Lord not to be to the land like a mere stranger who passes through it and cares nothing for it. Then he pleaded with the Lord, “Why are you like a helpless man, like a warrior unable to save?” This was grand pleading on the prophet’s part, and he followed it up by mentioning the close connection that existed between Israel and God.
14:11 “Then the LORD said to me, ‘Do not pray for the well-being of these people.’” It is as if God said, “You may pray, if you like, for a plague to come on them as a chastisement for their sins, but do not pray for any blessing for them.”
14:13 “I replied, ‘Oh no, Lord GOD!’” Notice what Jeremiah did even after the Lord has said to him, “Do not pray for the well-being of these people”—he prayed for them! “The prophets are telling them.” Jeremiah basically says, “Lord, have pity on the people, for they are misled by their prophets.”
14:14-15 “This is what the LORD says concerning the prophets who prophesy in my name.” God says, “Yes, I will deal with the false prophets. They have misled the people, and I will punish them for their deception, but I will not excuse the people even on that ground.”
14:19 “Have you completely rejected Judah?” Jeremiah edges his way toward the throne of grace, and at last he does what he is told not to do—he prays for the people. Jeremiah asked the Lord whether he can really cast off his people.
14:20 “We acknowledge our wickedness, LORD.” Jeremiah has now advanced a step farther, to the confession of sin.
14:22 “We therefore put our hope in you.” O splendid perseverance of importunity—strong resolve of a forbidden intercession! God help us all to put our hope in him. We are not so discouraged from praying as he was who spoke these words, so there is still more reason we should say to the Lord, “We therefore put our hope in you.”
15Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before me, my compassions would not reach out to these people. Send them from my presence, and let them go. 2 If they ask you, ‘Where will we go? ’ tell them: This is what the LORD says:
Those destined for death, to death;
those destined for the sword, to the sword.
Those destined for famine, to famine;
those destined for captivity, to captivity.
3 “I will ordain four kinds A of judgment for them” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the sky and the wild animals of the land to devour and destroy. 4 I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of Manasseh son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.
5Who will have pity on you, Jerusalem?
Who will show sympathy toward you?
Who will turn aside
to ask about your well-being?
6You have left me.”
This is the LORD’s declaration.
“You have turned your back,
so I have stretched out my hand against you
and destroyed you.
I am tired of showing compassion.
7I scattered them with a winnowing fork
at the city gates of the land.
I made them childless; I destroyed my people.
They would not turn
from their ways.
8I made their widows more numerous
than the sand of the seas.
I brought a destroyer at noon
against the mother of young men.
I suddenly released on her
agitation and terrors.
9The mother of seven grew faint;
she breathed her last breath.
Her sun set while it was still day;
she was ashamed and humiliated.
The rest of them I will give over to the sword
in the presence of their enemies.”
This is the LORD’s declaration.
10Woe is me, my mother,
that you gave birth to me,
a man who incites dispute and conflict
in all the land.
I did not lend or borrow,
yet everyone curses me.
11 The LORD said:
Haven’t I set you loose for your
good?
Haven’t I punished you
in a time of trouble,
in a time of distress with the enemy? B
12Can anyone smash iron,
iron from the north, or bronze?
13I will give up your wealth
and your treasures as plunder,
without cost, for all your sins
in all your borders.
14Then I will make you serve your enemies A
in a land you do not know,
for my anger will kindle a fire
that will burn against you.
15You know, LORD;
remember me and take note of me.
Avenge me against my persecutors.
In your patience, B don’t take me away.
Know that I suffer disgrace for your honor.
16Your words were found, and I ate them.
Your words became a delight to me
and the joy of my heart,
for I bear your name,
LORD God of Armies.
QUOTE 15:16
Happy is the person who reads the Scriptures and hears the word—searching all the while for the hidden spiritual sense that is, indeed, the voice of God.
17I never sat with the band of revelers,
and I did not celebrate with them.
Because your hand was on me, I sat alone,
for you filled me with indignation.
18Why has my pain become unending,
my wound incurable,
refusing to be healed?
You truly have become like a mirage to me —
water that is not reliable.
19 Therefore, this is what the LORD says:
If you return, I will take you back;
you will stand in my presence.
And if you speak noble words,
rather than worthless ones,
you will be my spokesman.
It is they who must return to you;
you must not return to them.
20Then I will make you a fortified wall of bronze
to this people.
They will fight against you
but will not overcome you,
for I am with you
to save you and rescue you.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
21I will rescue you from the power of evil people
and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.
15:16 “Your words were found, and I ate them. Your words became a delight to me and the joy of my heart, for I bear your name, LORD God of Armies.” As Jeremiah meant these words, they signified that certain messages came to him from God, and he recognized them as such. But the words, as we may use them, may signify something more. It is a great thing to find God’s word and discern it for ourselves; many have heard it for years and yet have never found it. Happy is the person who reads the Scriptures and hears the word—searching all the while for the hidden spiritual sense that is, indeed, the voice of God. Further, to find God’s words means we have been made to understand them. And to find the word of God means not only to understand it but to appropriate it as belonging to you.
Second, our text testifies to an eager reception: “And I ate them.” It is not, “I did hear them,” for that he might have done and yet have perished. It is not, “Your words were found, and I did repeat them,” for that he might have done as a parrot repeats language it is taught; nor is it even, “Your words were found, and I remembered them,” for though it’s an excellent thing to store truth in the memory, yet the blessed effect of the divine words comes to those who ponder them in their hearts. What is meant by eating God’s words? The phrase signifies more than any other word could express; it implies an eager study. The expression also implies cheerful reception. The expression signifies an intense belief. He made practical use of God’s words at once. His inward life became one with the truth, and the truth one with him. Third, the text tells us of happy consequences: “Your words became a delight to me and the joy of my heart.”
The fourth item to observe involves a distinguished title: “I bear your name, LORD God of Armies.” This may not appear to some as a joyful thing, but to Jeremiah it was preeminently so. Yet that he bore the name of God made him the object of much persecution as well as contempt; the king threw him into the dungeon; he was made to eat the bread of affliction and was often in tribulations; but he took it all joyfully for the Lord’s sake.
16The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Do not marry or have sons or daughters in this place. 3 For this is what the LORD says concerning sons and daughters born in this place as well as concerning the mothers who bear them and the fathers who father them in this land: 4 They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like manure on the soil’s surface. They will be finished off by sword and famine. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land.
5 “For this is what the LORD says: Don’t enter a house where a mourning feast is taking place. A Don’t go to lament or sympathize with them, for I have removed my peace from these people as well as my faithful love and compassion.” This is the LORD’s declaration. 6 “Both great and small will die in this land without burial. No lament will be made for them, nor will anyone cut himself or shave his head for them. B 7 Food won’t be provided for the mourner to comfort him because of the dead. A consoling drink won’t be given him for the loss of his father or mother. 8 Do not enter the house where feasting is taking place to sit with them to eat and drink. 9 For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to eliminate from this place, before your very eyes and in your time, the sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride.
10 “When you tell these people all these things, they will say to you, ‘Why has the LORD declared all this terrible disaster against us? What is our iniquity? What is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God? ’ 11 Then you will answer them, ‘Because your fathers abandoned me — this is the LORD’s declaration — and followed other gods, served them, and bowed in worship to them. Indeed, they abandoned me and did not keep my instruction. 12 You did more evil than your fathers. Look, each one of you was following the stubbornness of his evil heart, not obeying me. 13 So I will hurl you from this land into a land that you and your fathers are not familiar with. There you will worship other gods both day and night, for I will not grant you grace.’ C
14 “However, look, the days are coming” — the LORD’s declaration — “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives who brought the Israelites from the land of Egypt,’ 15 but rather, ‘As the LORD lives who brought the Israelites from the land of the north and from all the other lands where he had banished them.’ For I will return them to their land that I gave to their ancestors.
16 “I am about to send for many fishermen” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “and they will fish for them. Then I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and out of the clefts of the rocks, 17 for my gaze takes in all their ways. They are not concealed from me, and their iniquity is not hidden from my sight. 18 I will first repay them double for their iniquity and sin because they have polluted my land. They have filled my inheritance with the carcasses of their abhorrent and detestable idols.”
19LORD, my strength and my stronghold,
my refuge in a time of distress,
the nations will come to you
from the ends of the earth, and they will say,
“Our fathers inherited only lies,
worthless idols of no benefit at all.”
20Can one make gods for himself?
But they are not gods.
21“Therefore, I am about to inform them,
and this time I will make them know
then they will know that my name is the LORD.”
17The sin of Judah is inscribed
with an iron stylus.
With a diamond point
it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts
and on the horns of their A altars,
2while their children remember their altars
and their Asherah poles, by the green trees
on the high hills —
3my mountains in the countryside.
I will give up your wealth
and all your treasures as plunder
because of the sin of your high places B
in all your borders.
4You will, on your own, relinquish your inheritance
that I gave you.
I will make you serve your enemies
in a land you do not know,
for you have set my anger on fire;
it will burn forever.
5 This is what the LORD says:
Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind.
He makes human flesh his strength,
and his heart turns from the LORD.
6He will be like a juniper in the Arabah;
he cannot see when good comes
but dwells in the parched places in the wilderness,
in a salt land where no one lives.
7The person who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence indeed is the LORD, is blessed.
8He will be like a tree planted by water:
it sends its roots out toward a stream,
it doesn’t fear when heat comes,
and its foliage remains green.
It will not worry in a year of drought
or cease producing fruit.
9The heart is more deceitful than anything else,
and incurable — who can understand it?
10I, the LORD, examine the mind,
I test the heart C
to give to each according to his way,
according to what his actions deserve.
11He who makes a fortune unjustly
is like a partridge that hatches eggs it didn’t lay.
In the middle of his life
his riches will abandon him,
so in the end he will be a fool.
12A glorious throne
on high from the beginning
is the place of our sanctuary.
13LORD, the hope of Israel,
all who abandon you
will be put to shame.
All who turn away from me
will be written in the dirt,
for they have abandoned
the LORD, the fountain of living water.
14Heal me, LORD, and I will be healed;
save me, and I will be saved,
for you are my praise.
15Hear how they keep challenging me,
“Where is the word of the LORD?
Let it come! ”
16But I have not run away from being your shepherd,
and I have not longed for the fatal day.
You know my words were spoken in your presence.
17Don’t become a terror to me.
You are my refuge in the day of disaster.
18Let my persecutors be put to shame,
but don’t let me be put to shame.
Let them be terrified, but don’t let me be terrified.
Bring on them the day of disaster;
shatter them with total A destruction.
19 This is what the LORD said to me, “Go and stand at the People’s Gate, through which the kings of Judah enter and leave, as well as at all the gates of Jerusalem. 20 Announce to them, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, kings of Judah, all Judah, and all the residents of Jerusalem who enter through these gates. 21 This is what the LORD says: Watch yourselves; do not pick up a load and bring it in through Jerusalem’s gates on the Sabbath day. 22 Do not carry a load out of your houses on the Sabbath day or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I commanded your ancestors. 23 They wouldn’t listen or pay attention but became obstinate, not listening or accepting discipline.
24 “ ‘However, if you listen to me — this is the LORD’s declaration — and do not bring loads through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, 25 kings and princes will enter through the gates of this city. They will sit on the throne of David; they will ride in chariots and on horses with their officials, the men of Judah, and the residents of Jerusalem. This city will be inhabited forever. 26 Then people will come from the cities of Judah and from the area around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the Judean foothills, from the hill country and from the Negev bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and thank offerings 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 while entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, I will set fire to its gates, and it will consume the citadels of Jerusalem and not be extinguished.’ ”
A 17:1 Some Hb mss, Syr, Vg; other Hb mss read your
18This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Go down at once to the potter’s house; there I will reveal my words to you.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working away at the wheel. B 4 But the jar that he was making from the clay became flawed in the potter’s hand, so he made it into another jar, as it seemed right for him to do.
5 The word of the LORD came to me: 6 “House of Israel, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay? ” — this is the LORD’s declaration. “Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel. 7 At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it. 8 However, if that nation about which I have made the announcement turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it. 9 At another time I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it. 10 However, if it does what is evil in my sight by not listening to me, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it. 11 So now, say to the men of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem, ‘This is what the LORD says: Look, I am about to bring harm to you and make plans against you. Turn now, each from your evil way, and correct your ways and your deeds.’ 12 But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless. We will continue to follow our plans, and each of us will continue to act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’ ”
13 Therefore, this is what the LORD says:
Ask among the nations,
who has heard things like these?
Virgin Israel has done a most horrible thing.
14Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave the highland crags?
Or does cold water flowing from a distance ever fail?
15Yet my people have forgotten me.
They burn incense to worthless idols
that make them stumble in their ways
on the ancient roads,
and make them walk on new paths, not the highway.
16They have made their land a horror,
a perpetual object of scorn; A
all who pass by it will be appalled
and shake their heads.
17I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind.
I will show them B my back and not my face
on the day of their calamity.
18 Then certain ones said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah, for instruction will never be lost from the priest, or counsel from the wise, or a word from the prophet. Come, let’s denounce him C and pay no attention to all his words.”
19Pay attention to me, LORD.
Hear what my opponents are saying!
20Should good be repaid with evil?
Yet they have dug a pit for me.
Remember how I stood before you
to speak good on their behalf,
to turn your anger from them.
21Therefore, hand their children over to famine,
and give them over to the power of the sword.
Let their wives become childless and widowed,
their husbands slain by deadly disease, D
their young men struck down by the sword in battle.
22Let a cry be heard from their houses
when you suddenly bring raiders against them,
for they have dug a pit to capture me
and have hidden snares for my feet.
23But you, LORD, know
all their deadly plots against me.
Do not wipe out their iniquity;
do not blot out their sin before you.
Let them be forced to stumble before you;
deal with them in the time of your anger.
18:11 “Turn now, each from your evil way.” This text is all about repentance. It is an exhortation from God, brief but earnest and plain. This is the call of mercy. But remember that it is equally the call of a holy God, the God who knows you cannot be saved unless you turn from your evil ways. A holy God will give no salvation to the person who continues in unrighteousness. To “turn” involves a picture of a person who is going the wrong way. The first thing such a person needs to do is to stop and consider where he or she is going. But suppose a person did stop? That would not be turning; it is but the commencement of the turn when a person stops. It will be necessary for him, next, to turn around. He must turn his face in the opposite direction from that in which he was traveling.
When are sinners to turn? The text says, “Turn now.” This turn should be immediate. People are willing to promise to turn around when they have gone a little farther, but “now” is always an ugly word to them. “Tomorrow,” they like much better. But if you do not turn now, you may not live to turn at all.
Who is to turn? The text says, “Turn now, each from your evil way.” Every man, every woman, every child who has not turned should hear the voice of the Lord repeating this message to them.
And from what are these people to turn? “From your evil way.” Each person has a way of his own—an evil way of his own—some personal form of sin. Such evil ways may be because of some peculiarity of constitution, circumstances, or habits. What is the sin into which you most frequently fall? That is the evil way from which you are especially called on to turn from.
19This is what the LORD says: “Go, buy a potter’s clay jar. Take E some of the elders of the people and some of the leading priests 2 and go out to Ben Hinnom Valley near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Proclaim there the words I speak to you. 3 Say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem. This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will shudder A 4 because they have abandoned me and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in it to other gods that they, their fathers, and the kings of Judah have never known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. 5 They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something I have never commanded or mentioned; I never entertained the thought. B
6 “ ‘Therefore, look, the days are coming — this is the LORD’s declaration — when this place will no longer be called Topheth and Ben Hinnom Valley, but Slaughter Valley. 7 I will spoil the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those who intend to take their life. I will provide their corpses as food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land. 8 I will make this city desolate, an object of scorn. Everyone who passes by it will be appalled and scoff because of all its wounds. 9 I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and they will eat each other’s flesh in the distressing siege inflicted on them by their enemies who intend to take their life.’
10 “Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the people going with you, 11 and you are to proclaim to them, ‘This is what the LORD of Armies says: I will shatter these people and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be mended. They will bury the dead in Topheth because there is no other place for burials. 12 That is what I will do to this place — this is the declaration of the LORD — and to its residents, making this city like Topheth. 13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will become impure like that place Topheth — all the houses on whose rooftops they have burned incense to all the stars in the sky and poured out drink offerings to other gods.’ ”
14 Jeremiah returned from Topheth, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy, stood in the courtyard of the LORD’s temple, and proclaimed to all the people, 15 “This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘I am about to bring on this city — and on all its cities — every disaster that I spoke against it, for they have become obstinate, not obeying my words.’ ”
20Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and chief official in the temple of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2 So Pashhur had the prophet Jeremiah beaten and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate in the LORD’s temple. 3 The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD does not call you Pashhur, but Terror Is on Every Side, C 4 for this is what the LORD says, ‘I am about to make you a terror to both yourself and those you love. They will fall by the sword of their enemies before your very eyes. I will hand Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will deport them to Babylon and put them to the sword. 5 I will give away all the wealth of this city, all its products and valuables. Indeed, I will hand all the treasures of the kings of Judah over to their enemies. They will plunder them, seize them, and carry them off to Babylon. 6 As for you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house, you will go into captivity. You will go to Babylon. There you will die, and there you will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you prophesied lies.’ ”
7You deceived me, LORD, and I was deceived.
You seized me and prevailed.
I am a laughingstock all the time;
everyone ridicules me.
8For whenever I speak, I cry out,
I proclaim, “Violence and destruction! ”
so the word of the LORD has become my
constant disgrace and derision.
9I say, “I won’t mention him
or speak any longer in his name.”
But his message becomes a fire burning in my heart,
shut up in my bones.
I become tired of holding it in,
and I cannot prevail.
10For I have heard the gossip of many people,
“Terror is on every side!
Report him; let’s report him! ”
Everyone I trusted A watches for my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived
so that we might prevail against him
and take our vengeance on him.”
11But the LORD is with me like a violent warrior.
Therefore, my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
Since they have not succeeded, they will be utterly shamed,
an everlasting humiliation that will never be forgotten.
12LORD of Armies, testing the righteous
and seeing the heart B and mind,
let me see your vengeance on them,
for I have presented my case to you.
13Sing to the LORD!
Praise the LORD,
for he rescues the life of the needy
from evil people.
14May the day I was born
be cursed.
May the day my mother bore me
never be blessed.
15May the man be cursed
who brought the news to my father, saying,
“A male child is born to you,”
bringing him great joy.
16Let that man be like the cities
the LORD demolished without compassion.
Let him hear an outcry in the morning
and a war cry at noontime
17because he didn’t kill me in the womb
so that my mother might have been my grave,
her womb eternally pregnant.
18Why did I come out of the womb
to see only struggle and sorrow,
to end my life in shame?
21This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent Pashhur son of Malchijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah to Jeremiah, asking, 2 “Inquire of the LORD on our behalf, since King Nebuchadnezzar C of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the LORD will perform for us something like all his past wondrous works so that Nebuchadnezzar will withdraw from us.”
3 But Jeremiah answered, “This is what you are to say to Zedekiah: 4 ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I am about to repel the weapons of war in your hands, those you are using to fight the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans D who are besieging you outside the wall, and I will bring them into the center of this city. 5 I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a strong arm, with anger, rage, and intense wrath. 6 I will strike the residents of this city, both people and animals. They will die in a severe plague. 7 Afterward — this is the LORD’s declaration — King Zedekiah of Judah, his officers, and the people — those in this city who survive the plague, the sword, and the famine — I will hand over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, to their enemies, yes, to those who intend to take their lives. He will put them to the sword; he won’t spare them or show pity or compassion.’
8 “But tell this people, ‘This is what the LORD says: Look, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine, and plague, but whoever goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live and will retain his life like the spoils of war. 10 For I have set my face against this city to bring disaster and not good — this is the LORD’s declaration. It will be handed over to the king of Babylon, who will burn it.’
11 “And to the house of the king of Judah say this: ‘Hear the word of the LORD! 12 House of David, this is what the LORD says:
Administer justice every morning,
and rescue the victim of robbery
from his oppressor,
or my anger will flare up like fire
and burn unquenchably
because of your evil deeds.
13Beware! I am against you,
you who sit above the valley,
you atop the rocky plateau —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
you who say, “Who can come down against us?
Who can enter our hiding places? ”
14I will punish you according to what you have done —
this is the LORD’s declaration.
I will kindle a fire in your forest
that will consume everything around it.’ ”
22This is what the LORD says: “Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and announce this word there. 2 You are to say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David — you, your officers, and your people who enter these gates. 3 This is what the LORD says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from his oppressor. Don’t exploit or brutalize the resident alien, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place. 4 For if you conscientiously carry out this word, then kings sitting on David’s throne will enter through the gates of this palace riding on chariots and horses — they, their officers, and their people. 5 But if you do not obey these words, then I swear by myself — this is the LORD’s declaration — that this house will become a ruin.’ ”
6 For this is what the LORD says concerning the house of the king of Judah:
“You are like Gilead to me,
or the summit of Lebanon,
but I will certainly turn you into a wilderness,
uninhabited cities.
7I will set apart destroyers against you,
each with his weapons.
They will cut down the choicest of your cedars
and throw them into the fire.
8 “Many nations will pass by this city and ask one another, ‘Why did the LORD do such a thing to this great city? ’ 9 They will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD their God and bowed in worship to other gods and served them.’ ”
10Do not weep for the dead;
do not mourn for him.
Weep bitterly for the one who has gone away,
for he will never return again
and see his native land.
11 For this is what the LORD says concerning Shallum son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in place of his father Josiah, and who has left this place: “He will never return here again, 12 but he will die in the place where they deported him, never seeing this land again.”
13Woe for the one who builds his palace
through unrighteousness,
his upstairs rooms through injustice,
who makes his neighbor serve without pay
and will not give him his wages,
14who says, “I will build myself a massive palace,
with spacious upstairs rooms.”
He will cut windows A in it,
and it will be paneled with cedar
and painted bright red.
15Are you a king because you excel in cedar?
Didn’t your father eat and drink
and administer justice and righteousness?
Then it went well with him.
16He took up the case of the poor and needy;
then it went well.
Is this not what it means to know me?
This is the LORD’s declaration.
17But you have eyes and a heart for nothing
except your own dishonest profit,
shedding innocent blood
and committing extortion and oppression.
18 Therefore, this is what the LORD says concerning Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah:
They will not mourn for him, saying,
“Woe, my brother! ” or “Woe, my sister! ”
They will not mourn for him, saying,
“Woe, lord! Woe, his majesty! ”
19He will be buried like a donkey,
dragged off and thrown
outside Jerusalem’s gates.
20Go up to Lebanon and cry out;
raise your voice in Bashan;
cry out from Abarim,
for all your lovers B have been crushed.
21I spoke to you when
you were secure.
You said, “I will not listen.”
This has been your way since youth;
indeed, you have never listened to me.
22The wind will take charge of C all your shepherds,
and your lovers will go into captivity.
Then you will be ashamed and humiliated
because of all your evil.
23You residents of Lebanon,
nestled among the cedars,
how you will groan D when pains come on you,
agony like a woman in labor.
24 “As I live” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “though you, Coniah E son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would tear you from it. 25 In fact, I will hand you over to those you dread, who intend to take your life, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Chaldeans. 26 I will hurl you and the mother who gave birth to you into another land, where neither of you were born, and there you will both die. 27 They will never return to the land they long to return to.”
28Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered pot,
a jar no one wants?
Why are he and his descendants hurled out
and cast into a land they have not known?
29Earth, earth, earth,
hear the word of the LORD!
30 This is what the LORD says:
Record this man as childless,
a man who will not be successful in his lifetime.
None of his descendants will succeed
in sitting on the throne of David
or ruling again in Judah.
23“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! ” This is the LORD’s declaration. 2 “Therefore, this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says about the shepherds who tend my people: You have scattered my flock, banished them, and have not attended to them. I am about to attend to you because of your evil acts” — this is the LORD’s declaration. 3 “I will gather the remnant of my flock from all the lands where I have banished them, and I will return them to their grazing land. They will become fruitful and numerous. 4 I will raise up shepherds over them who will tend them. They will no longer be afraid or discouraged, nor will any be missing.” This is the LORD’s declaration.
5“Look, the days are coming” — this is the LORD’s declaration —
“when I will raise up a Righteous Branch for David.
He will reign wisely as king
and administer justice and righteousness in the land.
6In his days Judah will be saved,
and Israel will dwell securely.
This is the name he will be called:
The LORD Is Our Righteousness. A
7 “Look, the days are coming” — the LORD’s declaration — “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the LORD lives who brought the Israelites from the land of Egypt,’ 8 but, ‘As the LORD lives, who brought and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the other countries where I B had banished them.’ They will dwell once more in their own land.”
9 Concerning the prophets:
My heart is broken within me,
and all my bones tremble.
I have become like a drunkard,
like a man overcome by wine,
because of the LORD,
because of his holy words.
10For the land is full of adulterers;
the land mourns because of the curse,
and the grazing lands in the wilderness have dried up.
Their way of life C has become evil,
and their power is not rightly used
11because both prophet and priest are ungodly,
even in my house I have found their evil.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
12Therefore, their way will seem
like slippery paths in the gloom.
They will be driven away and fall down there,
for I will bring disaster on them,
the year of their punishment.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
13Among the prophets of Samaria
I saw something disgusting:
They prophesied by Baal
and led my people Israel astray.
14Among the prophets of Jerusalem also
I saw a horrible thing:
They commit adultery and walk in lies.
They strengthen the hands of evildoers,
and none turns his back on evil.
They are all like Sodom to me;
Jerusalem’s residents are like Gomorrah.
15 Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies says concerning the prophets:
I am about to feed them wormwood
and give them poisoned water to drink,
for from the prophets of Jerusalem
ungodliness A has spread throughout the land.
16 This is what the LORD of Armies says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are deluding you. They speak visions from their own minds, not from the LORD’s mouth. 17 They keep on saying to those who despise me, ‘The LORD has spoken: You will have peace.’ They have said to everyone who follows the stubbornness of his heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’ ”
18For who has stood in the council of the LORD
to see and hear his word?
Who has paid attention to his word and obeyed?
19Look, a storm from the LORD!
Wrath has gone out,
a whirling storm.
It will whirl about the heads of the wicked.
20The LORD’s anger will not turn away
until he has completely fulfilled the purposes of his heart.
In time to come you will understand it clearly.
21I did not send out these prophets,
yet they ran.
I did not speak to them,
yet they prophesied.
22If they had really stood
in my council,
they would have enabled my people to hear my words
and would have turned them from their evil ways
and their evil deeds.
23 “Am I a God who is only near” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “and not a God who is far away? 24 Can a person hide in secret places where I cannot see him? ” — the LORD’s declaration. “Do I not fill the heavens and the earth? ” — the LORD’s declaration.
25 “I have heard what the prophets who prophesy a lie in my name have said: ‘I had a dream! I had a dream! ’ 26 How long will this continue in the minds of the prophets prophesying lies, prophets of the deceit of their own minds? 27 Through their dreams that they tell one another, they plan to cause my people to forget my name as their fathers forgot my name through Baal worship. 28 The prophet who has only a dream should recount the dream, but the one who has my word should speak my word truthfully, for what is straw compared to grain? ” — this is the LORD’s declaration. 29 “Is not my word like fire” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “and like a hammer that pulverizes rock? 30 Therefore, take note! I am against the prophets” — the LORD’s declaration — “who steal my words from each other. 31 I am against the prophets” — the LORD’s declaration — “who use their own tongues to make a declaration. 32 I am against those who prophesy false dreams” — the LORD’s declaration — “telling them and leading my people astray with their reckless lies. It was not I who sent or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people” — this is the LORD’s declaration.
33 “Now when these people or a prophet or a priest asks you, ‘What is the burden A of the LORD? ’ you will respond to them, ‘What is the burden? I will throw you away! This is the LORD’s declaration.’ 34 As for the prophet, priest, or people who say, ‘The burden of the LORD,’ I will punish that man and his household. 35 This is what each man is to say to his friend and to his brother: ‘What has the LORD answered? ’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken? ’ 36 But no longer refer to B the burden of the LORD, for each man’s word becomes his burden and you pervert the words of the living God, the LORD of Armies, our God. 37 Say to the prophet, ‘What has the LORD answered you? ’ or ‘What has the LORD spoken? ’ 38 But if you say, ‘The burden of the LORD,’ then this is what the LORD says: Because you have said, ‘The burden of the LORD,’ and I specifically told you not to say, ‘The burden of the LORD,’ 39 I will surely forget you. C I will throw you away from my presence — both you and the city that I gave you and your fathers. 40 I will bring on you everlasting disgrace and humiliation that will never be forgotten.”
23:1 “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep.” What a dreadful woe this is on all false shepherds—those who profess to be sent by God to instruct the people but whose labors only result in the scattering of the sheep and destroying them instead of gathering them to Christ for their salvation.
23:4 “I will raise up shepherds over them who will tend them.” If the undershepherds do not feed the flock, God himself will do it. The Great Shepherd of the sheep will do what others fail to do.
23:9 “Concerning the prophets: My heart is broken within me.” In Jeremiah’s day a set of men pretended to be prophets, yet they contradicted the Lord’s servant at every point. “I have become like . . . a man overcome by wine . . . because of his holy words.” Jeremiah had received the word of the Lord, and it seemed to overpower him. As that word was full of terror, he felt like one who was overcome with wine.
23:12 “Their way will seem like slippery paths in the gloom.” What an awful description of the doom of the profane prophets and priests. Slippery ways are bad enough in the light, but their way will be slippery in the darkness.
23:16-17 “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They are deluding you.” Here is one mark of a false prophet: he makes you feel that you are fine, that something in you is good. “They speak visions from their own minds, not from the LORD’s mouth.” Here is another of the marks of a false prophet. Such a man as that is a great thinker. He has thought out his theology himself; he has imagined and invented it himself. “They have said to everyone who follows the stubbornness of his heart, ‘No harm will come to you.’” This is yet another mark of the false prophet. He always tries to smooth down the consequences of sin. “In the future state,” he says, “sin may occasion some temporary inconvenience, but all things will come right sooner or later.” By these three tests we may prove who are the false prophets—they make us vain; they speak out of their own heart, not out of the mouth of God; and they try to make it easy for us to sin by denying the greatness of the penalty attached to it.
23:22 “If they had really stood in my council, they would have enabled my people to hear my words and would have turned them from their evil ways and their evil deeds.” False prophets are futile and vain; no good result comes of all their teaching. But oh, if they had known the word of the Lord! If they had really been sent of God, what a difference there would have been.
23:28 “The prophet who has only a dream should recount the dream, but the one who has my word should speak my word truthfully.” If a false prophet has a dream, let him say, “This is a dream I have dreamed, but it is only a dream.” However, the one who has God’s word, let him speak it as the word of the Lord. “What is straw compared to grain?” Human thoughts, human conceptions, at their best, are but as straw; only the word of the Lord is the true grain.
23:30 “I am against the prophets . . . who steal my words from each other.” All they had were borrowed sermons—pages of other people’s experiences, fragments pulled from old or new preachers, nothing of their own, nothing God ever said to them, nothing that ever thrilled their hearts or swayed their souls. God will not acknowledge such teaching as this.
23:31 “I am against the prophets . . . who use their own tongues to make a declaration.” These false prophets say, “He says,” as if God had said to them something he never said.
23:32 “They are of no benefit at all to these people.” God will deal with equal severity with any who preach or teach anything other than the gospel of his blessed Son—the pure revelation that is written in his holy book.
C 23:10 Lit Their manner of running
A 23:33 The Hb word for burden (Ex 23:5; 2Sm 15:33) can also mean “oracle” (Is 13:1; Nah 1:10).
C 23:39 Some Hb mss; other Hb mss, LXX, Syr, Vg read surely lift you up
24After King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had deported Jeconiah D son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, the officials of Judah, and the craftsmen and metalsmiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon, the LORD showed me two baskets of figs placed in front of the temple of the LORD. 2 One basket contained very good figs, like early figs, but the other basket contained very bad figs, so bad they were inedible. 3 The LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah? ”
I said, “Figs! The good figs are very good, but the bad figs are extremely bad, so bad they are inedible.”
4 The word of the LORD came to me: 5 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Like these good figs, so I regard as good the exiles from Judah I sent away from this place to the land of the Chaldeans. 6 I will keep my eyes on them for their good and will return them to this land. I will build them up and not demolish them; I will plant them and not uproot them. 7 I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God because they will return to me with all their heart.
8 “But as for the bad figs, so bad they are inedible, this is what the LORD says: In this way I will deal with King Zedekiah of Judah, his officials, and the remnant of Jerusalem — those remaining in this land or living in the land of Egypt. 9 I will make them an object of horror and a disaster to all the kingdoms of the earth, an example for disgrace, scorn, ridicule, and cursing, wherever I have banished them. 10 I will send the sword, famine, and plague against them until they have perished from the land I gave to them and their ancestors.”
25This is the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon). 2 The prophet Jeremiah spoke concerning all the people of Judah and all the residents of Jerusalem as follows: 3 “From the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah, until this very day — twenty-three years — the word of the LORD has come to me, and I have spoken to you time and time again, A but you have not obeyed. 4 The LORD sent all his servants the prophets to you time and time again, B but you have not obeyed or even paid attention. C 5 He announced, ‘Turn, each of you, from your evil way of life and from your evil deeds. Live in the land the LORD gave to you and your ancestors long ago and forever. 6 Do not follow other gods to serve them and to bow in worship to them, and do not anger me by the work of your hands. Then I will do you no harm.
7 “ ‘But you have not obeyed me’ — this is the LORD’s declaration — ‘with the result that you have angered me by the work of your hands and brought disaster on yourselves.’
8 “Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies says: ‘Because you have not obeyed my words, 9 I am going to send for all the families of the north’ — this is the LORD’s declaration — ‘and send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will bring them against this land, against its residents, and against all these surrounding nations, and I will completely destroy them and make them an example of horror and scorn, and ruins forever. 10 I will eliminate the sound of joy and gladness from them — the voice of the groom and the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. 11 This whole land will become a desolate ruin, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. 12 When the seventy years are completed, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation’ — this is the LORD’s declaration — ‘the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity, and I will make it a ruin forever. 13 I will bring on that land all my words I have spoken against it, all that is written in this book that Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. 14 For many nations and great kings will enslave them, and I will repay them according to their deeds and the work of their hands.’ ”
15 This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand and make all the nations to whom I am sending you drink from it. 16 They will drink, stagger, A and go out of their minds because of the sword I am sending among them.”
17 So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand and made all the nations to whom the LORD sent me drink from it.
18 Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah, its kings and its officials, to make them a desolate ruin, an example for scorn and cursing — as it is today;
19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his officers, his leaders, all his people,
20 and all the mixed peoples;
all the kings of the land of Uz;
all the kings of the land of the Philistines — Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;
21 Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites;
22 all the kings of Tyre,
all the kings of Sidon,
and the kings of the coasts and islands;
23 Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all those who clip the hair on their temples; B
24 all the kings of Arabia,
and all the kings of the mixed peoples who have settled in the desert;
25 all the kings of Zimri,
all the kings of Elam,
and all the kings of Media;
26 all the kings of the north, both near and far from one another;
that is, all the kingdoms of the world throughout the earth.
Finally, the king of Sheshach C will drink after them.
27 “Then you are to say to them, ‘This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Drink, get drunk, and vomit. Fall down and never get up again, as a result of the sword I am sending among you.’ 28 If D they refuse to accept the cup from your hand and drink, you are to say to them, ‘This is what the LORD of Armies says: You must drink! 29 For I am already bringing disaster on the city that bears my name, so how could you possibly go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth. This is the declaration of the LORD of Armies.’
30 “As for you, you are to prophesy all these things to them, and say to them:
The LORD roars from on high;
he makes his voice heard from his holy dwelling.
He roars loudly
over his grazing land;
he calls out with a shout, like those who tread grapes,
against all the inhabitants of the earth.
31The tumult reaches to the ends of the earth
because the LORD brings a case against the nations.
He enters into judgment with all people.
As for the wicked, he hands them over to the sword —
this is the LORD’s declaration.
32 “This is what the LORD of Armies says:
Pay attention! Disaster spreads
from nation to nation.
A huge storm is stirred up
from the ends of the earth.”
33 Those slain by the LORD on that day will be scattered from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned, gathered, or buried. They will be like manure on the soil’s surface.
34Wail, you shepherds, and cry out.
Roll in the dust, you leaders of the flock.
Because the days of your slaughter have come,
you will fall and become shattered like a precious vase.
35Flight will be impossible for the shepherds,
and escape, for the leaders of the flock.
36Hear the sound of the shepherds’ cry,
the wail of the leaders of the flock,
for the LORD is destroying their pasture.
37Peaceful grazing land will become lifeless
because of the LORD’s burning anger.
38He has left his den like a lion,
for their land has become a desolation
because of the sword A of the oppressor,
because of his burning anger.
A 25:3 Lit you; rising early and speaking
B 25:4 Lit to you, rising early and sending
C 25:4 Lit even inclined your ear to hear
26At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the LORD: 2 “This is what the LORD says: Stand in the courtyard of the LORD’s temple and speak all the words I have commanded you to speak to all Judah’s cities that are coming to worship there. Do not hold back a word. 3 Perhaps they will listen and turn — each from his evil way of life — so that I might relent concerning the disaster that I plan to do to them because of the evil of their deeds. 4 You are to say to them, ‘This is what the LORD says: If you do not listen to me by living according to my instruction that I set before you 5 and by listening to the words of my servants the prophets — whom I have been sending to you time and time again, B though you did not listen — 6 I will make this temple like Shiloh. I will make this city an example for cursing for all the nations of the earth.’ ”
7 The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the temple of the LORD. 8 When he finished the address the LORD had commanded him to deliver to all the people, immediately the priests, the prophets, and all the people took hold of him, yelling, “You must surely die! 9 How dare you prophesy in the name of the LORD, ‘This temple will become like Shiloh and this city will become an uninhabited ruin’! ” Then all the people crowded around Jeremiah at the LORD’s temple.
10 When the officials of Judah heard about these things, they went from the king’s palace to the LORD’s temple and sat at the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD’s temple. C 11 Then the priests and prophets said to the officials and all the people, “This man deserves the death sentence because he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your own ears.”
12 Then Jeremiah said to all the officials and all the people, “The LORD sent me to prophesy all the words that you have heard against this temple and city. 13 So now, correct your ways and deeds, and obey the LORD your God so that he might relent concerning the disaster he had pronounced against you. 14 As for me, here I am in your hands; do to me what you think is good and right. 15 But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will bring innocent blood on yourselves, on this city, and on its residents, for it is certain the LORD has sent me to speak all these things directly to you.”
16 Then the officials and all the people told the priests and prophets, “This man doesn’t deserve the death sentence, for he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God! ”
17 Some of the elders of the land stood up and said to all the assembled people, 18 “Micah the Moreshite prophesied in the days of King Hezekiah of Judah and said to all the people of Judah, ‘This is what the LORD of Armies says:
Zion will be plowed like a field,
Jerusalem will become ruins,
and the temple’s mountain will be a high thicket.’
19 Did King Hezekiah of Judah and all the people of Judah put him to death? Did not the king fear the LORD and plead for the LORD’s favor, A and did not the LORD relent concerning the disaster he had pronounced against them? We are about to bring a terrible disaster on ourselves! ”
20 Another man was also prophesying in the name of the LORD — Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath-jearim. He prophesied against this city and against this land in words like all those of Jeremiah. 21 King Jehoiakim, all his warriors, and all the officials heard his words, and the king tried to put him to death. When Uriah heard, he fled in fear and went to Egypt. 22 But King Jehoiakim sent men to Egypt: Elnathan son of Achbor and certain other men with him went to Egypt. 23 They brought Uriah out of Egypt and took him to King Jehoiakim, who executed him with the sword and threw his corpse into the burial place of the common people. B
24 But Ahikam son of Shaphan supported Jeremiah, so he was not handed over to the people to be put to death.
B 26:5 Lit you, rising early and sending
C 26:10 Many Hb mss, Syr, Tg, Vg; other Hb mss read the New Gate of the LORD
27At the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah C son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: D 2 This is what the LORD said to me: “Make chains and yoke bars for yourself and put them on your neck. 3 Send word to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon through messengers who are coming to King Zedekiah of Judah in Jerusalem. 4 Command them to go to their masters, saying, ‘This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Tell this to your masters: 5 “By my great strength and outstretched arm, I made the earth, and the people, and animals on the face of the earth. I give it to anyone I please. E 6 So now I have placed all these lands under the authority of my servant Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. I have even given him the wild animals to serve him. 7 All nations will serve him, his son, and his grandson until the time for his own land comes, and then many nations and great kings will enslave him.
8 “ ‘ “As for the nation or kingdom that does not serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and does not place its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish by sword, famine, and plague — this is the LORD’s declaration — until through him I have destroyed it. 9 So you should not listen to your prophets, diviners, dreamers, fortune-tellers, or sorcerers who say to you, ‘Don’t serve the king of Babylon! ’ 10 They are prophesying a lie to you so that you will be removed from your land. I will banish you, and you will perish. 11 But as for the nation that will put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave it in its own land, and that nation will cultivate F it and reside in it. This is the LORD’s declaration.” ’ ”
12 I spoke to King Zedekiah of Judah in the same way: “Put your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, serve him and his people, and live! 13 Why should you and your people die by the sword, famine, and plague as the LORD has threatened against any nation that does not serve the king of Babylon? 14 Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are telling you, ‘Don’t serve the king of Babylon,’ for they are prophesying a lie to you. 15 ‘I have not sent them’ — this is the LORD’s declaration — ‘and they are prophesying falsely in my name; therefore, I will banish you, and you will perish — you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.’ ”
16 Then I spoke to the priests and all these people, saying, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Do not listen to the words of your prophets. They are prophesying to you, claiming, “Look, very soon now the articles of the LORD’s temple will be brought back from Babylon.” They are prophesying a lie to you. 17 Do not listen to them. Serve the king of Babylon and live! Why should this city become a ruin? 18 If they are indeed prophets and if the word of the LORD is with them, let them intercede with the LORD of Armies not to let the articles that remain in the LORD’s temple, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem go to Babylon.’ 19 For this is what the LORD of Armies says about the pillars, the basin, A the water carts, and the rest of the articles that still remain in this city, 20 those King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon did not take when he deported Jeconiah B son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon along with all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem. 21 Yes, this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says about the articles that remain in the temple of the LORD, in the palace of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem: 22 ‘They will be taken to Babylon and will remain there until I attend to them again.’ This is the LORD’s declaration. ‘Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.’ ”
C 27:1 Some Hb mss, Syr, Arabic; other Hb mss, DSS read Jehoiakim
28In that same year, at the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah, in the fifth month of the fourth year, the prophet Hananiah son of Azzur from Gibeon said to me in the temple of the LORD in the presence of the priests and all the people, 2 “This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon. 3 Within two years I will restore to this place all the articles of the LORD’s temple that King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon took from here and transported to Babylon. 4 And I will restore to this place Jeconiah B son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and all the exiles from Judah who went to Babylon’ — this is the LORD’s declaration — ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’ ”
5 The prophet Jeremiah replied to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and all the people who were standing in the temple of the LORD. 6 The prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! May the LORD do that. May the LORD make the words you have prophesied come true and may he restore the articles of the LORD’s temple and all the exiles from Babylon to this place! 7 Only listen to this message I am speaking in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people. 8 The prophets who preceded you and me from ancient times prophesied war, disaster, C and plague against many lands and great kingdoms. 9 As for the prophet who prophesies peace — only when the word of the prophet comes true will the prophet be recognized as one the LORD has truly sent.”
10 The prophet Hananiah then took the yoke bar from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah and broke it. 11 In the presence of all the people Hananiah proclaimed, “This is what the LORD says: ‘In this way, within two years I will break the yoke of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon from the neck of all the nations.’ ” The prophet Jeremiah then went on his way.
12 After the prophet Hananiah had broken the yoke bar from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 13 “Go say to Hananiah, ‘This is what the LORD says: You broke a wooden yoke bar, but in its place you will make an iron yoke bar. 14 For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I have put an iron yoke on the neck of all these nations that they might serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and they will serve him. I have even put the wild animals under him.’ ”
15 The prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The LORD did not send you, but you have led these people to trust in a lie. 16 Therefore, this is what the LORD says: ‘I am about to send you off the face of the earth. You will die this year because you have preached rebellion against the LORD.’ ” 17 And the prophet Hananiah died that year in the seventh month.
29This is the text of the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining exiled elders, the priests, the prophets, and all the people Nebuchadnezzar had deported from Jerusalem to Babylon. 2 This was after King Jeconiah, A the queen mother, the court officials, the officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the metalsmiths had left Jerusalem. 3 He sent the letter with Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. The letter stated:
4 This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says to all the exiles I deported from Jerusalem to Babylon: 5 “Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. 6 Find wives for yourselves, and have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons and give your daughters to men in marriage so that they may bear sons and daughters. Multiply there; do not decrease. 7 Pursue the well-being B of the city I have deported you to. Pray to the LORD on its behalf, for when it thrives, you will thrive.”
8 For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “Don’t let your prophets who are among you and your diviners deceive you, and don’t listen to the dreams you elicit from them, 9 for they are prophesying falsely to you in my name. I have not sent them.” This is the LORD’s declaration.
10 For this is what the LORD says: “When seventy years for Babylon are complete, I will attend to you and will confirm my promise concerning you to restore you to this place. 11 For I know the plans I have for you” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. 12 You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “and I will restore your fortunes A and gather you from all the nations and places where I banished you” — this is the LORD’s declaration. “I will restore you to the place from which I deported you.”
QUOTE 29:11
As to our present pain and grief, God saw not these, but he saw the future joy and usefulness that will come of them.
QUOTE 29:11
The Lord still had plans for them. The Lord never forgets his own.
QUOTE 29:13
We are busy about a thousand things but sluggish about our souls.
15 You have said, “The LORD has raised up prophets for us in Babylon! ” 16 But this is what the LORD says concerning the king sitting on David’s throne and concerning all the people living in this city — that is, concerning your brothers who did not go with you into exile. 17 This is what the LORD of Armies says: “I am about to send sword, famine, and plague against them, and I will make them like rotten figs that are inedible because they are so bad. 18 I will pursue them with sword, famine, and plague. I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth — a curse and a desolation, an object of scorn and a disgrace among all the nations where I have banished them. 19 I will do this because they have not listened to my words” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “the words that I sent to them with my servants the prophets time and time again. B And you too have not listened.” This is the LORD’s declaration.
20 Hear the word of the LORD, all you exiles I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon. 21 This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says about Ahab son of Kolaiah and concerning Zedekiah son of Maaseiah, the ones prophesying a lie to you in my name: “I am about to hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and he will kill them before your very eyes. 22 Based on what happens to them, all the exiles of Judah who are in Babylon will create a curse that says, ‘May the LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire! ’ 23 because they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with their neighbors’ wives and have spoken in my name a lie, which I did not command them. I am he who knows, and I am a witness.” This is the LORD’s declaration.
24 To Shemaiah the Nehelamite you are to say, 25 “This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: You A in your own name have sent out letters to all the people of Jerusalem, to the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, and to all the priests, saying, 26 ‘The LORD has appointed you priest in place of the priest Jehoiada to be the chief officer in the temple of the LORD, responsible for every madman who acts like a prophet. You must confine him in the stocks and an iron collar. 27 So now, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who has been acting like a prophet among you? 28 For he has sent word to us in Babylon, claiming, “The exile will be long. Build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat their produce.” ’ ”
29 The priest Zephaniah read this letter in the hearing of the prophet Jeremiah.
30 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 31 “Send a message to all the exiles, saying, ‘This is what the LORD says concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite. Because Shemaiah prophesied to you, though I did not send him, and made you trust a lie, 32 this is what the LORD says: I am about to punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his descendants. There will not be even one of his descendants living among these people, nor will any ever see the good that I will bring to my people — this is the LORD’s declaration — for he has preached rebellion against the LORD.’ ”
29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you . . . plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah wrote these words in a letter to the captives in Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar carried away a considerable part of the people of Israel into a far country. Jeremiah exhorted them to build houses, form families, and abide peaceably in Babylon till the Lord should lead them back at the end of seventy years. At this time there was a general uneasy feeling among the Jews and other subjected nations who did not rest quietly under the iron yoke of Babylon. They were plotting and planning continual rebellions, and certain false prophets in Babylon worked with them, stirring up the spirit of revolt among the exiles. Jeremiah, on the other hand, assured the exiles that God had sent them into the land of the Chaldeans for good, bade them seek the peace of the city wherein they now dwelt, and promised them that, in due time, the Lord would again plant them in their own land.
A people in such a position as the Jews in Babylon were in danger in two ways—either to be buoyed up with false hopes and so to fall into foolish expectations, or to fall into despair and have no hope at all—and so become a sullen and degraded race who would be unfit for restoration and unable to play the part God ordained for them in the history of humankind. Jeremiah had the double duty of putting down their false hopes and sustaining their right expectations. He, therefore, on the one hand, plainly warned them against expecting more than God had promised, and, on the other hand, he awakened them to look for the fulfillment of what God had promised (read v. 10).
“I know the plans I have for you.” The point here is that the Lord still had plans for them. The Lord never forgets his own. This truth, although it is easily spoken, is not readily comprehended in the fullness of its joy. Nor is it always believed as it should be. These people in captivity were likely to fear that their God had forgotten them; therefore, the Lord repeated his words in this place and speaks of his plans more than once. His words are repeated, as to seem almost redundant, out of a desire to make his people feel absolutely sure God still had plans for them. All the Lord was to do toward them was carefully planned.
And then the Lord goes on a step further—the Lord would have us know that his plans for us are settled and definite. This is part of the intent of the words “I know the plans I have for you.” With the Lord there is neither question nor debate. His plan is settled and he adheres to it. Now we are prepared to go even a step further, namely, that God’s plans toward his people are always plans for their well-being. His thoughts are “not for disaster.” Still more, the Lord’s plans are all working toward an expected end, “to give you a future and a hope.” God is working with a motive. All things are working together for one objective—the good of those who love God. God sees not only what he is doing but what will come of what he is doing. As to our present pain and grief, God saw not these, but he saw the future joy and usefulness that will come of them.
29:13 “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart.” Wholeheartedness is the quality required in every true seeker. This means three things. First, in order to find the Lord, there must be an undivided objective in the seeker’s mind. The objective is one, and only one. Second, the phrase “with all your heart” indicates “with the entire faculties of our being.” A person must seek after God in Christ Jesus with his or her entire nature, including his memory, his conscience, and his will. Leave not a single part of your nature behind you when you come to God, but seek him with your whole heart, with intense eagerness and strong desire. Third, it signifies awakened energy. It includes the getting out of that dull, sluggish, indifferent spirit that seems so common. Indifference to eternal realities seems to impregnate the air we breathe in this world. We are busy about a thousand things but sluggish about our souls.
30This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD. 2 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Write on a scroll all the words that I have spoken to you, 3 for look, the days are coming” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “when I will restore the fortunes B of my people Israel and Judah,” says the LORD. “I will restore them to the land I gave to their ancestors and they will possess it.”
ILLUSTRATION 30:2
Words are to thoughts what the shell is to the egg. If you break the shell, you have destroyed the egg. Somehow or other the thought will ooze out unless it is conveyed in God’s own words.
4 These are the words the LORD spoke to Israel and Judah. 5 This is what the LORD says:
We have heard a cry of terror,
of dread — there is no peace.
6Ask and see
whether a male can give birth.
Why then do I see every man
with his hands on his stomach like a woman in labor
and every face turned pale?
7How awful that day will be!
There will be no other like it!
It will be a time of trouble for Jacob,
but he will be saved out of it.
this is the declaration of the LORD of Armies —
I will break his yoke from your neck
and tear off your chains,
and strangers will never again enslave him.
9They will serve the LORD their
God
and David their king,
whom I will raise up for them.
10As for you, my servant Jacob,
do not be afraid —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
and do not be discouraged, Israel,
for without fail I will save you out of a distant place,
your descendants, from the land of their captivity!
Jacob will return and have calm and quiet
with no one to frighten him.
11For I will be with you —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
to save you!
I will bring destruction on all the nations
where I have scattered you;
however, I will not bring destruction on you.
I will discipline you justly,
and I will by no means leave you unpunished.
12 For this is what the LORD says:
Your injury is incurable;
your wound most severe.
13You have no defender for your case.
There is no remedy for your sores,
and no healing for you. A
14All your lovers have forgotten you;
they no longer look for you,
for I have struck you as an enemy would,
with the discipline of someone cruel,
because of your enormous guilt
and your innumerable sins.
15Why do you cry out about your injury?
Your pain has no cure!
I have done these things to you
because of your enormous guilt
and your innumerable sins.
16Nevertheless, all who devoured you will be devoured,
and all your adversaries — all of them —
will go off into exile.
Those who plunder you will be plundered,
and all who raid you will be raided.
17But I will bring you health
and will heal you of your wounds —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
for they call you Outcast,
Zion whom no one cares about.
18 This is what the LORD says:
I will certainly restore the fortunes A of Jacob’s tents
and show compassion on his dwellings.
Every city will be rebuilt on its mound;
every citadel will stand on its proper site.
19Thanksgiving will come out of them,
a sound of rejoicing.
I will multiply them, and they will not decrease;
I will honor them, and they will not be insignificant.
20His children will be as in past days;
his congregation will be established in my presence.
I will punish all his oppressors.
21Jacob’s leader will be one of them;
his ruler will issue from him.
I will invite him to me, and he will approach me,
for who would otherwise risk his life to approach me?
This is the LORD’s declaration.
22You will be my people,
and I will be your God.
23Look, a storm from the LORD!
Wrath has gone out,
a churning storm.
It will whirl about the heads of the wicked.
24The LORD’s burning anger will not turn back
until he has completely fulfilled the purposes of his heart.
In time to come you will understand it.
30:2 “Write on a scroll all the words that I have spoken to you.” Observe that the Lord does not say to Jeremiah, “Write all the thought I have given you.” We believe in verbal inspiration.
30:5 “We have heard a cry of terror.” “Why?” one might say, “I thought you began to read words of comfort. Now there is a drop!” Yes, there always is. Whenever God is going to comfort a person, he first makes him see his need of comfort. There is always stripping before there is clothing! On God’s part there is always emptying before there is filling.
30:7 “It will be a time of trouble for Jacob, but he will be saved out of it.” What a flash of lightning across the black face of the cloud!
30:8 “I will break his yoke from your neck and tear off your chains.” Here is a word for tried ones. God, who sometimes permits his child to wear the yoke of the oppressor, will take that yoke away. He will snap the bands that are around our necks and enable us to rise into the glorious liberty with which Christ makes his people free. Those who are enslaved may be of good comfort and may look for speedy deliverance through the power of the great emancipator.
30:11 “I will bring destruction on all the nations where I have scattered you; however, I will not bring destruction on you.” If we are God’s children, we will have to be brought home with many a tear and many a sigh. But our sorrow is a part of a heavenly discipline by which we will be saved.
30:14 “Because of your enormous guilt and your innumerable sins.” God never gave his people permission to sin, and sin in them is worse than sin in any other people, for they sin against more light and more love. Therefore, it grieves the Lord more, and he strikes all the more heavily; and when God strikes, nobody can comfort us.
30:16 “Nevertheless, all who devoured you will be devoured.” How striking is this sentence! And what a surprise it gives us as we read it. We might have thought that after the Lord had spoken as he did, that he would have given his people up to their enemies, but, instead of doing so, he says, “All who devoured you will be devoured.”
30:17 “I will bring you health and will heal you.” Here is the conclusion that can be drawn from the prophet’s premises. The argument seems to be, “Because your disease is incurable, therefore will I restore health unto you. Because no one else can heal your wounds, therefore I will heal them.” We are blessed to feel that we are incurable, for then God will cure us. When there is an end of us, then we will begin with God. Oh, the sovereignty of divine grace! How it comes in when every hope is gone! A person’s extremity is God’s opportunity. If we are brought so low that we cannot go any lower, God will put his everlasting arms underneath us.
30:21 “Jacob’s leader will be one of them; his ruler will issue from him. I will invite him to me, and he will approach me.” There is One, whom we call Master and Lord, who approaches the throne of God on our behalf. Our glorious Savior, through his humanity, is one of us, and he appears before God on our behalf.
B 30:3 Or will end the captivity
A 30:13 Or No one pleads that your sores should be healed. There is no remedy for you.
31“At that time” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.”
2 This is what the LORD says:
The people who survived the sword
found favor in the wilderness.
When Israel went to find rest,
3the LORD appeared to him B from far away.
I have loved you with an everlasting love;
therefore, I have continued to extend faithful love to you.
4Again I will build you so that you will be rebuilt,
Virgin Israel.
You will take up your tambourines again
and go out in joyful dancing.
5You will plant vineyards again
on the mountains of Samaria;
the planters will plant and will enjoy the fruit.
6For there will be a day when watchmen will call out
in the hill country of Ephraim,
“Come, let’s go up to Zion,
to the LORD our God! ”
7 For this is what the LORD says:
Sing with joy for Jacob;
shout for the foremost of the nations!
Proclaim, praise, and say,
“LORD, save your people,
the remnant of Israel! ”
QUOTE 31:7-8
Whatever God does, he does thoroughly.
8Watch! I am going to bring them from the northern land.
I will gather them from remote regions of the earth —
the blind and the lame will be with them,
along with those who are pregnant and those about to give birth.
They will return here as a great assembly!
9They will come weeping,
but I will bring them back with consolation. A
I will lead them to wadis filled with water,
by a smooth way where they will not stumble,
for I am Israel’s Father,
and Ephraim is my firstborn.
10Nations, hear the word of the LORD,
and tell it among the far off coasts and islands!
Say, “The one who scattered Israel will gather him.
He will watch over him as a shepherd guards his flock,
11for the LORD has ransomed Jacob
and redeemed him from the power of one stronger than he.”
QUOTE 31:11
He has bought us with so great a price that we are too dear for him ever to lose us.
12They will come and shout for joy on the heights of Zion;
they will be radiant with joy
because of the LORD’s goodness,
because of the grain, the new wine, the fresh oil,
and because of the young of the flocks and herds.
Their life will be like an irrigated garden,
and they will no longer grow weak from hunger.
13Then the young women will rejoice with dancing,
while young and old men rejoice together.
I will turn their mourning into joy,
give them consolation,
and bring happiness out of grief.
14I will refresh the priests with an abundance, B
and my people will be satisfied with my goodness.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
15 This is what the LORD says:
A voice was heard in Ramah,
a lament with bitter weeping —
Rachel weeping for her children,
refusing to be comforted for her children
because they are no more.
16 This is what the LORD says:
Keep your voice from weeping
and your eyes from tears,
for the reward for your work will come —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
and your children will return from the enemy’s land.
17There is hope for your future —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
and your children will return to their own territory.
18I have surely heard Ephraim moaning,
“You disciplined me, and I have been disciplined
like an untrained calf.
Take me back, so that I can return,
for you, LORD, are my God.
19After my return, I felt regret;
After I was instructed, I struck my thigh in grief.
I was ashamed and humiliated
because I bore the disgrace of my youth.”
20Isn’t Ephraim a precious son to me,
a delightful child?
Whenever I speak against him,
I certainly still think about him.
Therefore, my inner being yearns for him;
I will truly have compassion on him.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
21Set up road markers for yourself;
establish signposts!
Keep the highway in mind,
the way you have traveled.
Return, Virgin Israel!
Return to these cities of yours.
22How long will you turn here and there,
faithless daughter?
For the LORD creates something new in the land A —
a female B will shelter C a man.
23 This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: “When I restore their fortunes, D they will once again speak this word in the land of Judah and in its cities: ‘May the LORD bless you, righteous settlement, holy mountain.’ 24 Judah and all its cities will live in it together — also farmers and those who move E with the flocks — 25 for I satisfy the thirsty person and feed all those who are weak.”
26 At this I awoke and looked around. My sleep had been most pleasant to me.
27 “Look, the days are coming” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of people and the seed of animals. 28 Just as I watched over them to uproot and to tear them down, to demolish and to destroy, and to cause disaster, so will I watch over them to build and to plant them” — this is the LORD’s declaration. 29 “In those days, it will never again be said,
‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes,
and the children’s teeth are set on edge.’
QUOTE 31:28
If you have been bitterly convicted of sin, you will be sweetly convicted of pardon.
30 Rather, each will die for his own iniquity. Anyone who eats sour grapes — his own teeth will be set on edge.
31 “Look, the days are coming” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt — my covenant that they broke even though I am their master” A — the LORD’s declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days” — the LORD’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them” — this is the LORD’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.
35 “This is what the LORD says:
The one who gives the sun for light by day,
the fixed order of moon and stars for light by night,
who stirs up the sea and makes its waves roar —
the LORD of Armies is his name:
36If this fixed order departs from before me —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
only then will Israel’s descendants cease
to be a nation before me forever.
37 “This is what the LORD says:
Only if the heavens above can be measured
and the foundations of the earth below explored,
will I reject all of
Israel’s descendants
because of all they have done —
this is the LORD’s declaration.
38 “Look, the days are coming” — the LORD’s declaration — “when the city A from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate will be rebuilt for the LORD. 39 A measuring line will once again stretch out straight to the hill of Gareb and then turn toward Goah. 40 The whole valley — the corpses, the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Kidron Valley to the corner of the Horse Gate to the east — will be holy to the LORD. It will never be uprooted or demolished again.”
31:1 “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they will be my people.” These people had rejected God, yet he says, “They will be my people”—not only some of them but all of them. There are no ifs and no buts here. It is “I will” and “they will.” God knows how to work out his own purposes of love and mercy.
31:3 “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” There is the source of everything that is good and gracious—“everlasting love.” When God has once set that love on his people, anything and everything that is for their good may come out of it. All temporal good and all eternal blessings will come out of everlasting love.
31:7-8 “The blind and the lame will be with them.” Whatever God does, he does thoroughly. When he restores his ancient people, he will not leave the weak ones behind.
31:9 “I will lead them to wadis filled with water, by a smooth way where they will not stumble.” Hear this, you mourners. God will supply your need with rivers of waters, and he will make you walk in a straight way. Sometimes we are perplexed because the road seems to wind in and out like a labyrinth, but God can lead us in a straight way.
31:11 “The LORD has ransomed Jacob and redeemed him from the power of one stronger than he.” Redemption lies at the bottom of every favor we receive from God. He blesses us because he has redeemed us. He has bought us with so great a price that we are too dear for him ever to lose us. Because he has bought his flock, he will, therefore, keep it away from the power of the enemy.
31:15 “Rachel weeping for her children.” Here a prophetic allusion to the massacre of the infants by Herod at the time of the birth of our Lord (Mt 2:17-18). It was a time of sorrow indeed.
31:18 “I have surely heard Ephraim moaning.” God is speaking here. There is never a moan, or a sob, or a cry, or a sigh of a penitent sinner that God does not hear. Do not think a single penitential cry ever rises unheeded from a contrite heart. That cannot be. God has a quick ear for the cries of sinners.
31:19 “After my return, I felt regret; . . . I was ashamed and humiliated because I bore the disgrace of my youth.” When a person has sown his wild oats and God in mercy helps him come back from such a dreadful life as that, he recollects what he has been, and he is ashamed of himself. Sometimes he is more than half ashamed to mingle with God’s people, for he is afraid they will have nothing to do with such a wretch as he has been. But he is, most of all, ashamed to come near to his God because of the sins of his youth. Yet the Lord speaks gracious words concerning him.
31:20 “Isn’t Ephraim a precious son to me?” You might expect the answer to be, “No, he has lost the rights of childhood. He has been displeasing and provoking to God.” Yet God does not give such an answer as that to his own question. The Lord says, “My inner being yearns for him.” The infinitely blessed God represents himself as longing to have mercy on sinners.
31:21 “Set up road markers for yourself; establish signposts!” In crossing the desert, travelers raise little mounds of stone so they may be directed on a future occasion across that pathless sea of sand. And so God bids them set up signs and make high heaps so they may know how to come back to him. All believers should raise signs along the road at various points to let other travelers know the way they should go.
31:26 “My sleep had been most pleasant to me.” Jeremiah, who so often wept over the woes of Israel, was refreshed when he heard from God that he would visit his people in mercy and bring them back to their own land.
31:28 “Just as I watched over them to uproot and to tear them down, to demolish and to destroy, and to cause disaster, so will I watch over them to build and to plant them.” God’s way of dealing with his people when they wander away from him is stern. They must be brought back, but it will be over a rough road. And then in the same measure he declares that he will watch over them to do them good. As our tribulations abound, so also will our consolations abound by Christ Jesus. If you have been bitterly convicted of sin, you will be sweetly convicted of pardon. Those who are brought to him in great affliction often afterward know more of Christ and more of the love of God than any others.
31:30 “Each will die for his own iniquity.” There is no such thing as hereditary godliness or salvation by proxy. Every person must for him- or herself repent and believe. Vain and foolish is the idea that because we have had Christian parents, therefore, we also are Christians.
31:31-33 “I will make a new covenant.” This is the central truth of all Scripture. It is the basis of all Scripture. When Paul desired to set forth the gospel, he appealed to this passage (2Co 3:6). Twice in Hebrews the author based his argument on it (Heb 9:15; 12:24). Under the first covenant we are ruined. There is no salvation for us. But under this new covenant God writes his teaching on our hearts.
31:34 “They will all know me.” God gives to all his people knowledge of himself. Though they differ as to their growth in grace, yet “they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them.”
A 31:9 LXX; MT reads supplications
C 31:22 Or female surrounds, or female courts ; Hb obscure
D 31:23 Or I end their captivity
32This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 At that time, the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned in the guard’s courtyard in the palace of the king of Judah. 3 King Zedekiah of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why are you prophesying as you do? You say, ‘This is what the LORD says: Look, I am about to hand this city over to Babylon’s king, and he will capture it. 4 King Zedekiah of Judah will not escape from the Chaldeans; indeed, he will certainly be handed over to Babylon’s king. They will speak face to face B and meet eye to eye. 5 He will take Zedekiah to Babylon, where he will stay until I attend to him — this is the LORD’s declaration. For you will fight the Chaldeans, but you will not succeed.’ ”
6 Jeremiah replied, “The word of the LORD came to me: 7 Watch! Hanamel, the son of your uncle Shallum, is coming to you to say, ‘Buy my field in Anathoth for yourself, for you own the right of redemption to buy it.’
8 “Then, as the LORD had said, my cousin Hanamel came to the guard’s courtyard and urged me, ‘Please buy my field in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for you own the right of inheritance and redemption. Buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD. 9 So I bought the field in Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and I weighed out the silver to him — seventeen shekels C of silver. 10 I recorded it on a scroll, sealed it, called in witnesses, and weighed out the silver on the scales. 11 I took the purchase agreement — the sealed copy with its terms and conditions and the open copy — 12 and gave the purchase agreement to Baruch son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah. I did this in the sight of my cousin D Hanamel, the witnesses who had signed the purchase agreement, and all the Judeans sitting in the guard’s courtyard.
QUOTE 32:11-12
Faith believes God under all circumstances and believes that the truest common sense is to obey God’s Word.
13 “I charged Baruch in their sight, 14 ‘This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Take these scrolls — this purchase agreement with the sealed copy and this open copy — and put them in an earthen storage jar so they will last a long time. 15 For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.’
16 “After I had given the purchase agreement to Baruch, son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD: 17 Oh, Lord GOD! You yourself made the heavens and earth by your great power and with your outstretched arm. Nothing is too difficult for you! 18 You show faithful love to thousands but lay the fathers’ iniquity on their sons’ laps after them, great and mighty God whose name is the LORD of Armies, 19 the one great in counsel and powerful in action. Your eyes are on all the ways of the children of men A in order to reward each person according to his ways and as the result of his actions. 20 You performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt and still do today, both in Israel and among all mankind. You made a name for yourself, as is the case today. 21 You brought your people Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror. 22 You gave them this land you swore to give to their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey. 23 They entered and possessed it, but they did not obey you or live according to your instructions. They failed to perform all you commanded them to do, and so you have brought all this disaster on them. 24 Look! Siege ramps have come against the city to capture it, and the city, as a result of the sword, famine, and plague, has been handed over to the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you have spoken has happened. Look, you can see it! 25 Yet you, Lord GOD, have said to me, ‘Purchase the field and call in witnesses’ — even though the city has been handed over to the Chaldeans! ”
26 The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 27 “Look, I am the LORD, the God over every creature. Is anything too difficult for me? 28 Therefore, this is what the LORD says: I am about to hand this city over to the Chaldeans, to Babylon’s king Nebuchadnezzar, and he will capture it. 29 The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city will come and set this city on fire. They will burn it, including the houses where incense has been burned to Baal on their rooftops and where drink offerings have been poured out to other gods to anger me. 30 From their youth, the Israelites and Judeans have done nothing but what is evil in my sight! They have done nothing but anger me by the work of their hands” — this is the LORD’s declaration — 31 “for this city has caused my wrath and fury from the day it was built until now. I will therefore remove it from my presence 32 because of all the evil the Israelites and Judeans have done to anger me — they, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets, the men of Judah, and the residents of Jerusalem. 33 They have turned their backs to me and not their faces. Though I taught them time and time again, A they do not listen and receive discipline. 34 They have placed their abhorrent things in the house that bears my name and have defiled it. 35 They have built the high places of Baal in Ben Hinnom Valley to sacrifice their sons and daughters in the fire B to Molech — something I had not commanded them. I had never entertained the thought C that they do this detestable act causing Judah to sin!
36 “Now therefore, this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to this city about which you said, ‘It has been handed over to Babylon’s king through sword, famine, and plague’: 37 I will certainly gather them from all the lands where I have banished them in my anger, rage and intense wrath, and I will return them to this place and make them live in safety. 38 They will be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them integrity of heart and action D so that they will fear me always, for their good and for the good of their descendants after them.
40 “I will make a permanent covenant with them: I will never turn away from doing good to them, and I will put fear of me in their hearts so they will never again turn away from me. 41 I will take delight in them to do what is good for them, and with all my heart and mind I will faithfully plant them in this land.
42 “For this is what the LORD says: Just as I have brought all this terrible disaster on these people, so am I about to bring on them all the good I am promising them. 43 Fields will be bought in this land about which you are saying, ‘It’s a desolation without people or animals; it has been handed over to the Chaldeans! ’ 44 Fields will be purchased, the transaction written on a scroll and sealed, and witnesses will be called on in the land of Benjamin, in the areas surrounding Jerusalem, and in Judah’s cities — the cities of the hill country, the cities of the Judean foothills, and the cities of the Negev — because I will restore their fortunes.” E
This is the LORD’s declaration.
32:1-5 “The prophet Jeremiah was imprisoned.” Jeremiah was shut up in prison at the time here mentioned. Zedekiah, the king of Judah, had treated him very harshly because of his faithful utterance of the word of the Lord. Jeremiah was a true servant of the Lord, yet he suffered much at the king’s hands.
32:6-10 “I bought the field in Anathoth.” This was, in every respect, an extraordinary transaction. The Chaldeans already were besieging Jerusalem, and they were all over the land, carrying fire and sword into every part of it. Jerusalem was shut up so that none of the inhabitants could get out of the city. Yet here is Jeremiah, himself a prisoner, buying land that was virtually worth nothing whatever. But he believed so firmly that the Chaldeans would permit the Jews to live peacefully in that land that he paid down the purchase money for the field and saw to the legal execution of the deed of transfer. This is a notable instance of the triumph of faith over unfavorable surroundings and also of the prophet’s obedience to the word of the Lord.
32:11-12 “I did this in the sight of . . . the witnesses who had signed the purchase agreement, and all the Judeans sitting in the guard’s courtyard.” Jeremiah did all this openly. What they may have thought to be an absurd action, he did not do in private but in the presence of them all. True faith in God does not go in for hole-and-corner transactions. Faith can do its business in the light of the sun. Faith believes God under all circumstances and believes that the truest common sense is to obey God’s Word.
32:16 “After I had given the purchase agreement to Baruch, son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD.” Faith cannot live without prayer. When faith has performed its most heroic deeds, it turns to God and humbly asks for renewed strength.
32:17 “Nothing is too difficult for you!” Is not that a grand sentence? He who could make the heaven and the earth can do anything. Can anything be too difficult for the Almighty?
32:20 “You performed signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.” Those ancient Jews, in the time of their trouble, always looked gratefully back to the wonders worked by the Lord in Egypt. That great deed of God, when he struck the might of pharaoh, was always present to the Hebrew mind; and the people, in every season of tribulation, refreshed themselves with the remembrance of it. As they sang the song of Moses, will we not sing the song of the Lamb? Will we not go back in thought to the glorious triumphs of our Redeemer and recount again and again, for the encouragement of our faith, what Christ did for us on the cross, even as the Jews thought often, for the strengthening of their confidence, of their wondrous deliverance from Egypt by the high hand and the stretched out arm of the Lord?
32:24-25 “Look! . . . the city . . . has been handed over to the Chaldeans. . . . Yet you, Lord GOD, have said to me, ‘Purchase the field and call in witnesses’—even though the city has been handed over to the Chaldeans!” I suppose that, although Jeremiah, with unquestioning faith, had done as God commanded him, yet afterward, when he was alone in his prison cell, he began to think the whole matter over. And though he may not have had any actual doubts, yet he probably had some anxieties as to the issue of the whole affair. He could not understand it so he wisely put it before the Lord. Some of us who truly have trusted God may yet become perplexed with anxiety of one kind or another. We should tell it to the Lord. Go at once into his presence and spread the case before him, as Jeremiah did.
B 32:4 Lit His mouth will speak with his mouth
D 32:12 Some Hb mss, LXX, Syr; other Hb mss read uncle
A 32:33 Lit them, rising up early and teaching
B 32:35 Lit to make their sons and daughters pass through the fire
C 32:35 Lit them, and it did not arise on my heart
33While he was still confined in the guard’s courtyard, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time: 2 “The LORD who made the earth, F the LORD who forms it to establish it, the LORD is his name, says this: 3 Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and incomprehensible things you do not know. 4 For this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning the houses of this city and the palaces of Judah’s kings, the ones torn down for defense against the assault ramps and the sword: 5 The people coming to fight the Chaldeans will fill the houses with the corpses of their own men that I strike down in my wrath and rage. I have hidden my face from this city because of all their evil. 6 Yet I will certainly bring health and healing to it and will indeed heal them. I will let them experience the abundance G of true peace. 7 I will restore the fortunes H of Judah and of Israel and will rebuild them as in former times. 8 I will purify them from all the iniquity they have committed against me, and I will forgive all the iniquities they have committed against me, rebelling against me. 9 This city will bear on my behalf a name of joy, praise, and glory before all the nations of the earth, who will hear of all the prosperity I will give them. They will tremble with awe because of all the good and all the peace I will bring about for them.
10 “This is what the LORD says: In this place, which you say is a ruin, without people or animals — that is, in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets that are a desolation without people, without inhabitants, and without animals — there will be heard again 11 a sound of joy and gladness, the voice of the groom and the bride, and the voice of those saying,
Give thanks to the LORD of Armies,
for the LORD is good;
his faithful love endures forever
as they bring thank offerings to the temple of the LORD. For I will restore the fortunes of the land as in former times, says the LORD.
12 “This is what the LORD of Armies says: In this desolate place — without people or animals — and in all its cities there will once more be a grazing land where shepherds may rest flocks. 13 The flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them in the cities of the hill country, the cities of the Judean foothills, the cities of the Negev, the land of Benjamin — the areas around Jerusalem and in Judah’s cities, says the LORD.
14“Look, the days are coming” —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
“when I will fulfill
the good promise
that I have spoken
concerning the house of Israel
and the house of Judah.
15In those days and at that time
I will cause a Righteous Branch
to sprout up for David,
and he will administer justice
and righteousness in the land.
16In those days Judah will be saved,
and Jerusalem will dwell securely,
and this is what she
will be named:
The LORD Is Our Righteousness. A
17 “For this is what the LORD says: David will never fail to have a man sitting on the throne of the house of Israel. 18 The Levitical priests will never fail to have a man always before me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices.”
19 The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 20 “This is what the LORD says: If you can break my covenant with the day and my covenant with the night so that day and night cease to come at their regular time, 21 then also my covenant with my servant David may be broken. If that could happen, then he would not have a son reigning on his throne and the Levitical priests would not be my ministers. 22 Even as the stars of heaven cannot be counted, and the sand of the sea cannot be measured, so too I will make innumerable the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister to me.”
23 The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 24 “Have you not noticed what these people have said? They say, ‘The LORD has rejected the two families he had chosen.’ My people are treated with contempt and no longer regarded as a nation among them. 25 This is what the LORD says: If I do not keep my covenant with the day and with the night, and if I fail to establish the fixed order of heaven and earth, 26 then I might also reject the descendants of Jacob and of my servant David. That is, I would not take rulers from his descendants to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But in fact, I will restore their fortunes A and have compassion on them.”
33:15 “In those days and at that time I will cause a Righteous Branch to sprout up for David.” The dynasty of David seemed like a tree cut down, whose stock was buried under the ground, but, at the glorious appointed time, Jesus Christ would grow up like a branch out of the stem of Jesse “and he will administer justice and righteousness in the land.”
33:17-18 “David will never fail to have a man sitting on the throne of the house of Israel. The Levitical priests will never fail to have a man always before me to offer burnt offerings, to burn grain offerings, and to make sacrifices.” This shows there is a kingdom that can never be moved, and our Lord sits on that throne. There is a priesthood that is everlasting; it is held by that great high priest who has offered one sacrifice for sins forever and who remains a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.
33:22 “I will make innumerable the descendants of my servant David and the Levites who minister to me.” So numerous are they at this day, the spiritual descendants of Jesus, the Son of David, who can count them? Who but he can number the company of those he has made to be kings and priests to God?
33:24-26 “Have you not noticed what these people have said? They say, ‘The LORD has rejected the two families he had chosen.’ . . . I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them.” This will be literally fulfilled in the latter days, I have no doubt, but it is even now being fulfilled to the spiritual descendants of Jacob and David. The covenant of grace is made sure to all who have believed on Christ’s name.
34This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, his whole army, all the kingdoms of the lands under his control, and all other peoples were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding cities: 2 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Go, speak to King Zedekiah of Judah, and tell him, ‘This is what the LORD says: I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it. 3 As for you, you will not escape from him but are certain to be captured and handed over to him. You will meet the king of Babylon eye to eye and speak face to face; B you will go to Babylon.
4 “ ‘Yet hear the LORD’s word, King Zedekiah of Judah. This is what the LORD says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; 5 you will die peacefully. There will be a burning ceremony for you just like the burning ceremonies for your ancestors, the kings of old who came before you. “Oh, master! ” will be the lament for you, for I have spoken this word. This is the LORD’s declaration.’ ”
6 So the prophet Jeremiah related all these words to King Zedekiah of Judah in Jerusalem 7 while the king of Babylon’s army was attacking Jerusalem and all of Judah’s remaining cities — that is, Lachish and Azekah, for they were the only ones left of Judah’s fortified cities.
8 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom to them. 9 As a result, each was to let his male and female Hebrew slaves go free, and no one was to enslave his fellow Judean. 10 All the officials and people who entered into covenant to let their male and female slaves go free — in order not to enslave them any longer — obeyed and let them go free. 11 Afterward, however, they changed their minds and took back their male and female slaves they had let go free and forced them to become slaves again.
12 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 13 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery, saying, 14 ‘At the end of seven years, each of you must let his fellow Hebrew who sold himself C to you go. He may serve you six years, but then you must let him go free from your service.’ But your ancestors did not obey me or pay any attention. 15 Today you repented and did what pleased me, each of you proclaiming freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before me at the house that bears my name. 16 But you have changed your minds and profaned my name. Each has taken back his male and female slaves who had been let go free to go wherever they wanted, and you have again forced them to be your slaves.
17 “Therefore, this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me by proclaiming freedom, each for his fellow Hebrew and for his neighbor. I hereby proclaim freedom for you — this is the LORD’s declaration — to the sword, to plague, and to famine! I will make you a horror to all the earth’s kingdoms. 18 As for those who disobeyed my covenant, not keeping the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat them like the calf they cut in two in order to pass between its pieces. 19 The officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the pieces of the calf — 20 all these I will hand over to their enemies, to those who intend to take their life. Their corpses will become food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land. 21 I will hand King Zedekiah of Judah and his officials over to their enemies, to those who intend to take their lives, to the king of Babylon’s army that is withdrawing. 22 I am about to give the command — this is the LORD’s declaration — and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, capture it, and burn it. I will make Judah’s cities a desolation, without inhabitant.”
35This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: 2 “Go to the house of the Rechabites, speak to them, and bring them to one of the chambers of the temple of the LORD to offer them a drink of wine.”
3 So I took Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons — the entire house of the Rechabites — 4 and I brought them into the temple of the LORD to a chamber occupied by the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah, a man of God, who had a chamber near the officials’ chamber, which was above the chamber of Maaseiah son of Shallum the doorkeeper. 5 I set jars filled with wine and some cups before the sons of the house of the Rechabites and said to them, “Drink wine! ”
6 But they replied, “We do not drink wine, for Jonadab, son of our ancestor Rechab, commanded: ‘You and your descendants must never drink wine. 7 You must not build a house or sow seed or plant a vineyard. Those things are not for you. Rather, you must live in tents your whole life, so you may live a long time on the soil where you stay as a resident alien.’ 8 We have obeyed Jonadab, son of our ancestor Rechab, in all he commanded us. So we haven’t drunk wine our whole life — we, our wives, our sons, and our daughters. 9 We also have not built houses to live in and do not have vineyard, field, or seed. 10 But we have lived in tents and have obeyed and done everything our ancestor Jonadab commanded us. 11 However, when King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon marched into the land, we said, ‘Come, let’s go into Jerusalem to get away from the Chaldean and Aramean armies.’ So we have been living in Jerusalem.”
12 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 13 “This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Go, say to the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem, ‘Will you not accept discipline by listening to my words? — this is the LORD’s declaration. 14 The words of Jonadab, son of Rechab, have been carried out. He commanded his descendants not to drink wine, and they have not drunk to this day because they have obeyed their ancestor’s command. But I have spoken to you time and time again, A and you have not obeyed me! 15 Time and time again B I have sent you all my servants the prophets, proclaiming, “Turn, each one from his evil way, and correct your actions. Stop following other gods to serve them. Live in the land that I gave you and your ancestors.” But you did not pay attention or obey me. 16 Yes, the sons of Jonadab son of Rechab carried out their ancestor’s command he gave them, but these people have not obeyed me. 17 Therefore, this is what the LORD, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will certainly bring on Judah and on all the residents of Jerusalem all the disaster I have pronounced against them because I have spoken to them, but they have not obeyed, and I have called to them, but they did not answer.’ ”
18 But to the house of the Rechabites Jeremiah said, “This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Because you have obeyed the command of your ancestor Jonadab and have kept all his commands and have done everything he commanded you, 19 this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Jonadab son of Rechab will never fail to have a man to stand before me always.’ ”
36In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Take a scroll, and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations from the time I first spoke to you during Josiah’s reign until today. 3 Perhaps when the house of Judah hears about all the disaster I am planning to bring on them, each one of them will turn from his evil way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.”
4 So Jeremiah summoned Baruch son of Neriah. At Jeremiah’s dictation, A Baruch wrote on a scroll all the words the LORD had spoken to Jeremiah. 5 Then Jeremiah commanded Baruch, “I am restricted; I cannot enter the temple of the LORD, 6 so you must go and read from the scroll — which you wrote at my dictation B — the words of the LORD in the hearing of the people at the temple of the LORD on a day of fasting. Read his words in the hearing of all the Judeans who are coming from their cities. 7 Perhaps their petition will come before the LORD, and each one will turn from his evil way, for the anger and fury that the LORD has pronounced against this people are intense.” 8 So Baruch son of Neriah did everything the prophet Jeremiah had commanded him. At the LORD’s temple he read the LORD’s words from the scroll.
9 In the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people of Jerusalem and all those coming in from Judah’s cities into Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the LORD. 10 Then at the LORD’s temple, in the chamber of Gemariah son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper courtyard at the opening of the New Gate of the LORD’s temple, in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read Jeremiah’s words from the scroll.
11 When Micaiah son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the scroll, 12 he went down to the scribe’s chamber in the king’s palace. All the officials were sitting there — Elishama the scribe, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Achbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials. 13 Micaiah reported to them all the words he had heard when Baruch read from the scroll in the hearing of the people. 14 Then all the officials sent word to Baruch through Jehudi son of Nethaniah, son of Shelemiah, son of Cushi, saying, “Bring the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people, and come.” So Baruch son of Neriah took the scroll and went to them. 15 They said to him, “Sit down and read it in our hearing.” So Baruch read it in their hearing.
16 When they had heard all the words, they turned to each other in fear and said to Baruch, “We must surely tell the king all these things.” 17 Then they asked Baruch, “Tell us, how did you write all these words? At his dictation? ” C
18 Baruch said to them, “At his dictation. He recited all these words to me while I was writing on the scroll in ink.”
19 The officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah must hide and tell no one where you are.” 20 Then, after depositing the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, the officials came to the king at the courtyard and reported everything in the hearing of the king. 21 The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the scribe. Jehudi then read it in the hearing of the king and all the officials who were standing by the king. 22 Since it was the ninth month, the king was sitting in his winter quarters with a fire burning in front of him. 23 As soon as Jehudi would read three or four columns, Jehoiakim would cut the scroll A with a scribe’s knife and throw the columns into the fire in the hearth until the entire scroll was consumed by the fire in the hearth. 24 As they heard all these words, the king and all of his servants did not become terrified or tear their clothes. 25 Even though Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah had urged the king not to burn the scroll, he did not listen to them. 26 Then the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to seize the scribe Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah, but the LORD hid them.
27 After the king had burned the scroll and the words Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation, B the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 28 “Take another scroll, and once again write on it the original words that were on the original scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah burned. 29 You are to proclaim concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah, ‘This is what the LORD says: You have burned the scroll, asking, “Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land and cause it to be without people or animals? ” 30 Therefore, this is what the LORD says concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah: He will have no one to sit on David’s throne, and his corpse will be thrown out to be exposed to the heat of day and the frost of night. 31 I will punish him, his descendants, and his officers for their iniquity. I will bring on them, on the residents of Jerusalem, and on the people of Judah all the disaster, which I warned them about but they did not listen.’ ”
32 Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch son of Neriah, the scribe, and he wrote on it at Jeremiah’s dictation C all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim, Judah’s king, had burned in the fire. And many other words like them were added.
A 36:4 Lit From Jeremiah’s mouth
B 36:6 Lit wrote from my mouth
C 36:17 Lit From his mouth, also in v. 18
A 36:23 Lit columns, he would tear it
37Zedekiah son of Josiah reigned as king in the land of Judah in place of Coniah D son of Jehoiakim, for King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon made him king. 2 He and his officers and the people of the land did not obey the words of the LORD that he spoke through the prophet Jeremiah.
3 Nevertheless, King Zedekiah sent Jehucal son of Shelemiah and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, the priest, to the prophet Jeremiah, requesting, “Please pray to the LORD our God for us! ” 4 Jeremiah was going about his daily tasks E among the people, for he had not yet been put into the prison. 5 Pharaoh’s army had left Egypt, and when the Chaldeans, who were besieging Jerusalem, heard the report, they withdrew from Jerusalem.
6 The word of the LORD came to the prophet Jeremiah: 7 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: This is what you will say to Judah’s king, who is sending you to inquire of me: ‘Watch: Pharaoh’s army, which has come out to help you, is going to return to its own land of Egypt. 8 The Chaldeans will then return and fight against this city. They will capture it and burn it. 9 This is what the LORD says: Don’t deceive yourselves by saying, “The Chaldeans will leave us for good,” for they will not leave. 10 Indeed, if you were to strike down the entire Chaldean army that is fighting with you, and there remained among them only the badly wounded F men, each in his tent, they would get up and burn this city.’ ”
11 When the Chaldean army withdrew from Jerusalem because of Pharaoh’s army, 12 Jeremiah started to leave Jerusalem to go to the land of Benjamin to claim his portion there among the people. 13 But when he was at the Benjamin Gate, an officer of the guard was there, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, son of Hananiah, and he apprehended the prophet Jeremiah, saying, “You are defecting to the Chaldeans.”
14 “That’s a lie,” Jeremiah replied. “I am not defecting to the Chaldeans! ” Irijah would not listen to him but apprehended Jeremiah and took him to the officials. 15 The officials were angry at Jeremiah and beat him and placed him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for it had been made into a prison. 16 So Jeremiah went into a cell in the dungeon and stayed there many days.
17 King Zedekiah later sent for him and received him, and in his house privately asked him, “Is there a word from the LORD? ”
“There is,” Jeremiah responded. He continued, “You will be handed over to the king of Babylon.” 18 Then Jeremiah said to King Zedekiah, “How have I sinned against you or your servants or these people that you have put me in prison? 19 Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, claiming, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you and this land’? 20 So now please listen, my lord the king. May my petition come before you. Don’t send me back to the house of Jonathan the scribe, or I will die there.”
21 So King Zedekiah gave orders, and Jeremiah was placed in the guard’s courtyard. He was given a loaf of bread each day from the bakers’ street until all the bread was gone from the city. So Jeremiah remained in the guard’s courtyard.
38Now Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashhur, Jucal A son of Shelemiah, and Pashhur son of Malchijah heard the words Jeremiah was speaking to all the people: 2 “This is what the LORD says: ‘Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine, and plague, but whoever surrenders to the Chaldeans will live. He will retain his life like the spoils of war and will live.’ 3 This is what the LORD says: ‘This city will most certainly be handed over to the king of Babylon’s army, and he will capture it.’ ”
4 The officials then said to the king, “This man ought to die, because he is weakening the morale B of the warriors who remain in this city and of all the people by speaking to them in this way. This man is not pursuing the welfare of this people, but their harm.”
5 King Zedekiah said, “Here he is; he’s in your hands since the king can’t do anything against you.” 6 So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah the king’s son, which was in the guard’s courtyard, lowering Jeremiah with ropes. There was no water in the cistern, only mud, and Jeremiah sank in the mud.
7 But Ebed-melech, a Cushite court official in the king’s palace, heard Jeremiah had been put into the cistern. While the king was sitting at the Benjamin Gate, 8 Ebed-melech went from the king’s palace and spoke to the king: 9 “My lord the king, these men have been evil in all they have done to the prophet Jeremiah. They have dropped him into the cistern where he will die from hunger, because there is no more bread in the city.”
10 So the king commanded Ebed-melech, the Cushite, “Take from here thirty men under your authority C and pull the prophet Jeremiah up from the cistern before he dies.”
11 So Ebed-melech took the men under his authority D and went to the king’s palace to a place below the storehouse. E From there he took old rags and worn-out clothes and lowered them by ropes to Jeremiah in the cistern. 12 Ebed-melech the Cushite called down to Jeremiah, “Place these old rags and clothes between your armpits and the ropes.” Jeremiah did this. 13 They pulled him up with the ropes and lifted him out of the cistern, but he remained in the guard’s courtyard.
14 King Zedekiah sent for the prophet Jeremiah and received him at the third entrance of the LORD’s temple. The king said to Jeremiah, “I am going to ask you something; don’t hide anything from me.”
15 Jeremiah replied to Zedekiah, “If I tell you, you will kill me, won’t you? Besides, if I give you advice, you won’t listen to me anyway.”
16 King Zedekiah swore to Jeremiah in private, “As the LORD lives, who has given us this life, I will not kill you or hand you over to these men who intend to take your life.”
17 Jeremiah therefore said to Zedekiah, “This is what the LORD, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If indeed you surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then you will live, this city will not be burned, and you and your household will survive. 18 But if you do not surrender to the officials of the king of Babylon, then this city will be handed over to the Chaldeans. They will burn it, and you yourself will not escape from them.’ ”
19 But King Zedekiah said to Jeremiah, “I am worried about the Judeans who have defected to the Chaldeans. They may hand me over to the Judeans to abuse me.”
20 “They will not hand you over,” Jeremiah replied. “Obey the LORD in what I am telling you, so it may go well for you and you can live. 21 But if you refuse to surrender, this is the verdict A that the LORD has shown me: 22 ‘All the women B who remain in the palace of Judah’s king will be brought out to the officials of the king of Babylon and will say to you, C
“Your trusted friends D misled E you
and overcame you.
Your feet sank into the mire,
and they deserted you.”
23 All your wives and children will be brought out to the Chaldeans. You yourself will not escape from them, for you will be seized by the king of Babylon and this city will burn.’ ”
24 Then Zedekiah warned Jeremiah, “Don’t let anyone know about this conversation F or you will die. 25 The officials may hear that I have spoken with you and come and demand of you, ‘Tell us what you said to the king; don’t hide anything from us and we won’t kill you. Also, what did the king say to you? ’ 26 If they do, tell them, ‘I was bringing before the king my petition that he not return me to the house of Jonathan to die there.’ ” 27 All the officials did come to Jeremiah, and they questioned him. He reported the exact words to them the king had commanded, and they quit speaking with him because the conversation G had not been overheard. 28 Jeremiah remained in the guard’s courtyard until the day Jerusalem was captured, and he was there when it happened. H
C 38:22 to you supplied for clarity
D 38:22 Lit “The men of your peace
H 38:28 Or captured. This is what happened when Jerusalem was captured:
39In the ninth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, in the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army and laid siege to it. 2 In the fourth month of Zedekiah’s eleventh year, on the ninth day of the month, the city was broken into. 3 All the officials of the king of Babylon entered and sat at the Middle Gate: Nergal-sharezer, Samgar, Nebusarsechim I the chief of staff, Nergal-sharezer the chief soothsayer, and all the rest of the officials of Babylon’s king.
4 When King Zedekiah of Judah and all the fighting men saw them, they fled. They left the city at night by way of the king’s garden through the city gate between the two walls. They left along the route to the Arabah. 5 However, the Chaldean army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They arrested him and brought him up to Nebuchadnezzar, Babylon’s king, at Riblah in the land of Hamath. The king passed sentence on him there.
6 At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also slaughtered all Judah’s nobles. 7 Then he blinded Zedekiah and put him in bronze chains to take him to Babylon. 8 The Chaldeans next burned down the king’s palace and the people’s houses and tore down the walls of Jerusalem. 9 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, deported the rest of the people to Babylon — those who had remained in the city and those deserters who had defected to him along with the rest of the people who remained. 10 However, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, left in the land of Judah some of the poor people who owned nothing, and he gave them vineyards and fields at that time.
11 Speaking through Nebuzaradan, captain of the guards, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon gave orders concerning Jeremiah: 12 “Take him and look after him. Don’t do him any harm, but do for him whatever he says.” 13 Nebuzaradan, captain of the guards, Nebushazban the chief of staff, Nergal-sharezer the chief soothsayer, and all the captains of Babylon’s king 14 had Jeremiah brought from the guard’s courtyard and turned him over to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, to take him home. So he settled among his own people.
15 Now the word of the LORD had come to Jeremiah when he was confined in the guard’s courtyard: 16 “Go tell Ebed-melech the Cushite, ‘This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to fulfill my words for disaster and not for good against this city. They will take place before your eyes on that day. 17 But I will rescue you on that day — this is the LORD’s declaration — and you will not be handed over to the men you dread. 18 Indeed, I will certainly deliver you so that you do not fall by the sword. Because you have trusted in me, you will retain your life like the spoils of war. This is the LORD’s declaration.’ ”
40This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD after Nebuzaradan, captain of the guards, released him at Ramah. When he found him, he was bound in chains with all the exiles of Jerusalem and Judah who were being exiled to Babylon. 2 The captain of the guards took Jeremiah and said to him, “The LORD your God decreed this disaster on this place, 3 and the LORD has fulfilled it. He has done just what he decreed. Because you people have sinned against the LORD and have not obeyed him, this thing has happened. 4 Now pay attention: Today I am setting you free from the chains that were on your hands. If it pleases you to come with me to Babylon, come, and I will take care of you. But if it seems wrong to you to come with me to Babylon, go no farther. A Look — the whole land is in front of you. Wherever it seems good and right for you to go, go there.” 5 When Jeremiah had not yet turned to go, Nebuzaradan said to him, B “Return C to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon has appointed over the cities of Judah, and stay with him among the people or go wherever it seems right for you to go.” So the captain of the guards gave him a ration and a gift and released him. 6 Jeremiah therefore went to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah, and he stayed with him among the people who remained in the land.
7 All the commanders of the armies that were in the countryside — they and their men — heard that the king of Babylon had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam over the land. He had been put in charge of the men, women, and children from among the poorest of the land, who had not been deported to Babylon. 8 So they came to Gedaliah at Mizpah. The commanders included Ishmael son of Nethaniah, Johanan and Jonathan the sons of Kareah, Seraiah son of Tanhumeth, the sons of Ephai the Netophathite, and Jezaniah son of the Maacathite — they and their men.
9 Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, swore an oath to them and their men, assuring them, “Don’t be afraid to serve the Chaldeans. Live in the land and serve the king of Babylon, and it will go well for you. 10 As for me, I am going to live in Mizpah to represent you A before the Chaldeans who come to us. As for you, gather wine, summer fruit, and oil, place them in your storage jars, and live in the cities you have captured.”
11 When all the Judeans in Moab and among the Ammonites and in Edom and in all the other lands also heard that the king of Babylon had left a remnant in Judah and had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, over them, 12 they all returned from all the places where they had been banished and came to the land of Judah, to Gedaliah at Mizpah, and harvested a great amount of wine and summer fruit.
13 Meanwhile, Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies in the countryside came to Gedaliah at Mizpah 14 and warned him, “Don’t you realize that Baalis, king of the Ammonites, has sent Ishmael son of Nethaniah to kill you? ” But Gedaliah son of Ahikam would not believe them. 15 Then Johanan son of Kareah suggested to Gedaliah in private at Mizpah, “Let me go kill Ishmael son of Nethaniah. No one will know it. Why should he kill you and allow all of Judah that has gathered around you to scatter and the remnant of Judah to perish? ”
16 But Gedaliah son of Ahikam responded to Johanan son of Kareah, “Don’t do that! What you’re saying about Ishmael is a lie.”
B 40:5 Nebuzaradan said to him supplied for clarity
41In the seventh month, Ishmael son of Nethaniah, son of Elishama, of the royal family and one of the king’s chief officers, came with ten men to Gedaliah son of Ahikam at Mizpah. They ate a meal together there in Mizpah, 2 but then Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the ten men who were with him got up and struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, with the sword; he killed the one the king of Babylon had appointed in the land. 3 Ishmael also struck down all the Judeans who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah, as well as the Chaldean soldiers who were there.
4 On the day after he had killed Gedaliah, when no one knew yet, 5 eighty men came from Shechem, Shiloh, and Samaria who had shaved their beards, torn their clothes, and gashed themselves, and who were carrying grain and incense offerings to bring to the temple of the LORD. 6 Ishmael son of Nethaniah came out of Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he came. When he encountered them, he said, “Come to Gedaliah son of Ahikam! ” 7 But when they came into the city, Ishmael son of Nethaniah and the men with him slaughtered them and threw them into B a cistern.
8 However, there were ten men among them who said to Ishmael, “Don’t kill us, for we have hidden treasure in the field — wheat, barley, oil, and honey! ” So he stopped and did not kill them along with their companions. 9 Now the cistern where Ishmael had thrown all the corpses of the men he had struck down was a large one C that King Asa had made in the encounter with King Baasha of Israel. Ishmael son of Nethaniah filled it with the slain.
10 Then Ishmael took captive all the rest of the people of Mizpah including the daughters of the king — all those who remained in Mizpah over whom Nebuzaradan, captain of the guards, had appointed Gedaliah son of Ahikam. Ishmael son of Nethaniah took them captive and set off to cross over to the Ammonites.
11 When Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies with him heard of all the evil that Ishmael son of Nethaniah had done, 12 they took all their men and went to fight with Ishmael son of Nethaniah. They found him by the great pool in Gibeon. 13 When all the people held by Ishmael saw Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the army with him, they rejoiced. 14 All the people whom Ishmael had taken captive from Mizpah turned around and rejoined Johanan son of Kareah. 15 But Ishmael son of Nethaniah escaped from Johanan with eight men and went to the Ammonites. 16 Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies with him then took from Mizpah all the remnant of the people whom he had recovered from Ishmael son of Nethaniah after Ishmael had killed Gedaliah son of Ahikam — men, soldiers, women, children, and court officials whom he brought back from Gibeon. 17 They left, stopping in Geruth Chimham, which is near Bethlehem, in order to make their way into Egypt, 18 away from the Chaldeans. For they feared them because Ishmael son of Nethaniah had struck down Gedaliah son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had appointed over the land.
42Then all the commanders of the armies, along with Johanan son of Kareah, Jezaniah son of Hoshaiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, approached 2 the prophet Jeremiah and said, “May our petition come before you; pray to the LORD your God on our behalf, on behalf of this entire remnant (for few of us remain out of the many, as you can see with your own eyes), 3 that the LORD your God may tell us the way we should go and the thing we should do.”
4 So the prophet Jeremiah said to them, “I have heard. I will now pray to the LORD your God according to your words, and I will tell you every word that the LORD answers you; I won’t withhold a word from you.”
5 And they said to Jeremiah, “May the LORD be a true and faithful witness against us if we don’t act according to every word the LORD your God sends you to tell us. 6 Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will obey the LORD our God to whom we are sending you so that it may go well with us. We will certainly obey the LORD our God! ”
7 At the end of ten days, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, 8 and he summoned Johanan son of Kareah, all the commanders of the armies who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest.
9 He said to them, “This is what the LORD says, the God of Israel to whom you sent me to bring your petition before him: 10 ‘If you will indeed stay in this land, then I will rebuild and not demolish you, and I will plant and not uproot you, because I relent concerning the disaster that I have brought on you. 11 Don’t be afraid of the king of Babylon whom you now fear; don’t be afraid of him’ — this is the LORD’s declaration — ‘because I am with you to save you and rescue you from him. 12 I will grant you compassion, and he A will have compassion on you and allow you to return to your own soil.’
13 “But if you say, ‘We will not stay in this land,’ in order to disobey the LORD your God, 14 and if you say, ‘No, instead we’ll go to the land of Egypt where we will not see war or hear the sound of the ram’s horn or hunger for food, and we’ll live there,’ 15 then hear the word of the LORD, remnant of Judah! This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘If you are firmly resolved to go to Egypt and stay there for a while, 16 then the sword you fear will overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine you are worried about will follow on your heels A there to Egypt, and you will die there. 17 All who resolve to go to Egypt to stay there for a while will die by the sword, famine, and plague. They will have no survivor or fugitive from the disaster I will bring on them.’
18 “For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as my anger and fury were poured out on Jerusalem’s residents, so will my fury pour out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an example for cursing, scorn, execration, and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.’ 19 The LORD has spoken concerning you, remnant of Judah: ‘Don’t go to Egypt.’ Know for certain that I have warned you today! 20 You have gone astray at the cost of your lives B because you are the ones who sent me to the LORD your God, saying, ‘Pray to the LORD our God on our behalf, and as for all that the LORD our God says, tell it to us, and we’ll act accordingly.’ 21 For I have told you today, but you have not obeyed the LORD your God in everything he has sent me to tell you. 22 Now therefore, know for certain that by the sword, famine, and plague you will die in the place where you desired to go to stay for a while.”
43When Jeremiah had finished speaking to all the people all the words of the LORD their God — all these words the LORD their God had sent him to give them — 2 then Azariah C son of Hoshaiah, Johanan son of Kareah, and all the other arrogant men responded to Jeremiah, “You are speaking a lie! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, ‘You must not go to Egypt to stay there for a while! ’ 3 Rather, Baruch son of Neriah is inciting you against us to hand us over to the Chaldeans to put us to death or to deport us to Babylon! ”
4 So Johanan son of Kareah, all the commanders of the armies, and all the people failed to obey the LORD’s command to stay in the land of Judah. 5 Instead, Johanan son of Kareah and all the commanders of the armies led away the whole remnant of Judah, those who had returned to stay in the land of Judah from all the nations where they had been banished. 6 They led away the men, women, children, king’s daughters, and everyone whom Nebuzaradan, captain of the guards, had allowed to remain with Gedaliah son of Ahikam son of Shaphan. They also led the prophet Jeremiah and Baruch son of Neriah away. 7 They went to the land of Egypt because they did not obey the LORD. They went as far as Tahpanhes.
8 Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah at Tahpanhes: 9 “Pick up some large stones and set them in the mortar of the brick pavement that is at the opening of Pharaoh’s palace at Tahpanhes. Do this in the sight of the Judean men 10 and tell them, ‘This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will send for my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and I will place his throne on these stones that I have embedded, and he will pitch his pavilion over them. 11 He will come and strike down the land of Egypt — those destined for death, to death; those destined for captivity, to captivity; and those destined for the sword, to the sword. 12 I D will kindle a fire in the temples of Egypt’s gods, and he will burn them and take them captive. He will clean the land of Egypt as a shepherd picks lice off E his clothes, and he will leave there unscathed. 13 He will smash the sacred pillars of the sun temple A,B in the land of Egypt and burn the temples of the Egyptian gods.’ ”
44This is the word that came to Jeremiah for all the Jews living in the land of Egypt — at Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and in the land of Pathros: 2 “This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: You have seen all the disaster I brought against Jerusalem and all Judah’s cities. Look, they are a ruin today without an inhabitant in them 3 because of the evil they committed to anger me, by going and burning incense to serve other gods that they, you, and your fathers did not know. 4 So I sent you all my servants the prophets time and time again, C saying, ‘Don’t commit this detestable action that I hate.’ 5 But they did not listen or pay attention; they did not turn from their evil or stop burning incense to other gods. 6 So my fierce wrath poured out and burned in Judah’s cities and Jerusalem’s streets so that they became the desolate ruin they are today.
QUOTE 44:4
God hates all evil, all injustice, all wrongdoing, all immorality, all sin of every kind. He hates it! He is not indifferent to it, nor tolerant of it, but his whole being goes out in righteous indignation against it. And he hates it, first, because he is infinitely pure. He hates it, too, because it is such an injury to us, his creatures. He hates it because it so grievously mars what he made. Men and women, as God sees them, are rendered ugly through sin. God hates it, too, because it drives him to do what he dislikes doing—his unexpected work of judgment.
7 “So now, this is what the LORD, the God of Armies, the God of Israel, says: Why are you doing such terrible harm to yourselves? You are cutting off man and woman, infant and nursing baby from Judah, leaving yourselves without a remnant. 8 You are angering me by the work of your hands. You are burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to stay for a while. As a result, you will be cut off and become an example for cursing and insult among all the nations of earth. 9 Have you forgotten the evils of your fathers, the evils of Judah’s kings, the evils of their wives, your own evils, and the evils of your wives that were committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 10 They have not become humble to this day, and they have not feared or followed my instruction or my statutes that I set before you and your ancestors.
11 “Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to set my face against you to bring disaster, to cut off all Judah. 12 And I will take away the remnant of Judah, those who have set their face to go to the land of Egypt to stay there. All of them will meet their end in the land of Egypt. They will fall by the sword; they will meet their end by famine. From the least to the greatest, they will die by the sword and by famine. Then they will become an example for cursing, scorn, execration, and disgrace. 13 I will punish those living in the land of Egypt just as I punished Jerusalem by sword, famine, and plague. 14 Then the remnant of Judah — those going to live for a while there in the land of Egypt — will have no fugitive or survivor to return to the land of Judah where they are longing A to return to stay, for they will not return except for a few fugitives.”
15 However, all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, all the women standing by — a great assembly — and all the people who were living in the land of Egypt at Pathros answered Jeremiah, 16 “As for the word you spoke to us in the name of the LORD, we are not going to listen to you! 17 Instead, we will do everything we promised: B we will burn incense to the queen of heaven C and offer drink offerings to her just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in Judah’s cities and in Jerusalem’s streets. Then we had enough food, we were well off, and we saw no disaster, 18 but from the time we ceased to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to offer her drink offerings, we have lacked everything, and through sword and famine we have met our end.”
19 And the women said, D “When we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it apart from our husbands’ knowledge that we made sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her? ”
20 But Jeremiah responded to all the people — the men, women, and all the people who were answering him: 21 “As for the incense you burned in Judah’s cities and in Jerusalem’s streets — you, your fathers, your kings, your officials, and the people of the land — did the LORD not remember them? He brought this to mind. 22 The LORD can no longer bear your evil deeds and the detestable acts you have committed, so your land has become a waste, a desolation, and an example for cursing, without inhabitant, as you see today. 23 Because you burned incense and sinned against the LORD and didn’t obey the LORD and didn’t follow his instruction, his statutes, and his testimonies, this disaster has come to you, as you see today.”
24 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, including all the women, “Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who are in the land of Egypt. 25 This is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘As for you and your wives, you women have spoken with your mouths, and you men fulfilled it by your deeds, saying, “We will keep our vows that we have made to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings for her.” Go ahead, confirm your vows! Keep your vows! ’
26 “Therefore, hear the word of the LORD, all you Judeans who live in the land of Egypt: ‘I have sworn by my great name, says the LORD, that my name will never again be invoked by anyone of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, “As the Lord GOD lives.” 27 I am watching over them for disaster and not for good, and everyone from Judah who is in the land of Egypt will meet his end by sword or famine until they are finished off. 28 Those who escape the sword will return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah only few in number, and the whole remnant of Judah, the ones going to the land of Egypt to stay there for a while, will know whose word stands, mine or theirs! 29 This will be a sign to you’ — this is the LORD’s declaration — ‘that I will punish you in this place, so you may know that my words of disaster concerning you will certainly come to pass. 30 This is what the LORD says: I am about to hand over Pharaoh Hophra, Egypt’s king, to his enemies, to those who intend to take his life, just as I handed over Judah’s King Zedekiah to Babylon’s King Nebuchadnezzar, who was his enemy, the one who intended to take his life.’ ”
44:4 “I sent you all my servants the prophets time and time again, saying, ‘Don’t commit this detestable action that I hate.’” This verse offers two arguments against sin: the first is from the nature of sin itself—“this detestable action”—and the second is from the feeling of God toward sin—“that I hate.” The particular detestable sin of which Jeremiah was speaking was that of idolatry. It is a detestable action because it is so degrading and debasing. The second reason sin should be repented of and forsaken is because of the feeling of God toward sin. Mark how strongly he puts it—“detestable action that I hate.” God hates all evil, all injustice, all wrongdoing, all immorality, all sin of every kind. He hates it! He is not indifferent to it or tolerant of it, but his whole being goes out in righteous indignation against it. And he hates it, first, because he is infinitely pure. He hates it, too, because it is such an injury to us, his creatures. He hates it because it so grievously mars what he made. Men and women, as God sees them, are rendered ugly through sin. God hates it, too, because it drives him to do what he dislikes doing—his unexpected work of judgment (Is 28:21).
To me the most touching thing in this text is God’s pleading with people: “Don’t commit this detestable action.” It is such wondrous condescension on God’s part to thus plead with sinners. But the greatest wonder of it all is that God not only pleaded thus with people once; he did it many times: “So I sent you all my servants the prophets time and time again.”
C 44:4 Lit prophets, rising up early and sending
A 44:14 Lit lifting up their soul
B 44:17 Lit do every word that came from our mouth
45This is the word that the prophet Jeremiah spoke to Baruch son of Neriah when he wrote these words on a scroll at Jeremiah’s dictation A in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah: 2 “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch: 3 ‘You have said, “Woe is me, because the LORD has added misery to my pain! I am worn out with B groaning and have found no rest.” ’
4 “This is what you are to say to him: ‘This is what the LORD says: “What I have built I am about to demolish, and what I have planted I am about to uproot — the whole land! 5 But as for you, do you pursue great things for yourself? Stop pursuing! For I am about to bring disaster on everyone” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “but I will grant you your life like the spoils of war wherever you go.” ’ ”
46This is the word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah about the nations:
2 About Egypt and the army of Pharaoh Neco, Egypt’s king, which was defeated at Carchemish on the Euphrates River by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon in the fourth year of Judah’s King Jehoiakim son of Josiah:
3Deploy small shields and large;
approach for battle!
4Harness the horses;
mount the steeds; C
take your positions
with helmets on!
Polish the lances;
put on armor!
5Why have I seen this?
They are terrified,
they are retreating,
their warriors are crushed,
they flee headlong,
they never look back,
terror is on every side!
This is the LORD’s declaration.
6The swift cannot flee,
and the warrior cannot escape!
In the north by the bank of the Euphrates River,
they stumble and fall.
7Who is this, rising like the Nile,
with waters that churn like rivers?
8Egypt rises like the Nile,
and its waters churn like rivers.
He boasts, “I will go up, I will cover the earth;
I will destroy cities with their residents.”
9Rise up, you cavalry!
Race furiously, you chariots!
Let the warriors march out —
Cush and Put,
who are able to handle shields,
and the men of Lud,
who are able to handle and string the bow.
10That day belongs to the Lord, the GOD of Armies,
a day of vengeance to avenge himself
against his adversaries.
The sword will devour and be satisfied;
it will drink its fill of their blood,
because it will be a sacrifice to the Lord, the GOD of Armies,
in the northern land by the Euphrates River.
11Go up to Gilead and get balm,
Virgin Daughter Egypt!
You have multiplied remedies in vain;
there is no healing for you.
12The nations have heard of your dishonor,
and your cries fill the earth,
because warrior stumbles against warrior
and together both of them have fallen.
13 This is the word the LORD spoke to the prophet Jeremiah about the coming of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon to defeat the land of Egypt:
14Announce it in Egypt, and proclaim it in Migdol!
Proclaim it in Memphis and in Tahpanhes!
Say, “Take positions! Prepare yourself,
for the sword devours all around you.”
15Why have your strong ones been swept away?
Each has not stood,
for the LORD has thrust him down.
16He continues to stumble.
Indeed, each falls over the other.
They say, “Get up! Let’s return to our people
and to our native land,
away from the oppressor’s sword.”
17There they will cry out,
“Pharaoh king of Egypt
was all noise;
he let the opportune moment pass.”
18As I live —
this is the King’s declaration;
the LORD of Armies is his name —
the king of Babylon A will come like Tabor among the mountains
and like Carmel by the sea.
19Get your bags ready for exile,
inhabitant of Daughter Egypt!
For Memphis will become a desolation,
uninhabited ruins.
20Egypt is a beautiful young cow,
but a horsefly from the north is coming against her. B
21Even her mercenaries among her
are like stall-fed calves.
They too will turn back;
together they will flee;
they will not take their stand,
for the day of their calamity is coming on them,
the time of their punishment.
22Egypt will hiss like a slithering snake, C
for the enemy will come with an army;
with axes they will come against her
like those who cut trees.
23They will cut down her forest —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
though it is dense,
for they are more numerous than locusts;
they cannot be counted.
24Daughter Egypt will be put to shame,
handed over to a northern people.
25 The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says, “I am about to punish Amon, god of Thebes, along with Pharaoh, Egypt, her gods, and her kings — Pharaoh and those trusting in him. 26 I will hand them over to those who intend to take their lives — to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and his officers. But after this, Egypt A will be inhabited again as in ancient times.”
This is the LORD’s declaration.
27But you, my servant Jacob, do not be afraid,
and do not be discouraged, Israel,
for without fail I will save you from far away,
and your descendants from the land of their captivity!
Jacob will return and have calm and quiet
with no one to frighten him.
28And you, my servant Jacob, do not be afraid —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
for I will be with you.
I will bring destruction on all the nations
where I have banished you,
but I will not bring destruction on you.
I will discipline you with justice,
and I will by no means leave you unpunished.
B 46:20 Some Hb mss, LXX, Syr; other Hb mss read is coming, coming
47This is the word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah about the Philistines before Pharaoh defeated Gaza. 2 This is what the LORD says:
Look, water is rising from the north
and becoming an overflowing wadi.
It will overflow the land and everything in it,
the cities and their inhabitants.
The people will cry out,
and every inhabitant of the land will wail.
3At the sound of the stomping hooves of his stallions,
the rumbling of his chariots,
and the clatter of their wheels,
fathers will not turn back for their sons.
They will be utterly helpless B
4on account of the day that is coming
to destroy all the Philistines,
to cut off from Tyre and Sidon
every remaining ally.
Indeed, the LORD is about to destroy the Philistines,
the remnant of the coastland of Caphtor. C
5Baldness is coming to Gaza;
Ashkelon will become silent.
Remnant of their valley,
how long will you gash yourself?
6Oh, sword of the LORD!
How long will you be restless?
Go back to your sheath;
be still; be silent!
7How can it D rest
when the LORD has given it a command?
He has assigned it
against Ashkelon and the shore of the sea.
48About Moab, this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says:
Woe to Nebo, because it is about to be destroyed;
Kiriathaim will be put to shame; it will be taken captive.
The fortress will be put to shame and dismayed!
2There is no longer praise for Moab;
they plan harm against her in Heshbon:
Come, let’s cut her off from nationhood.
Also, Madmen, you will be silenced;
the sword will follow you.
3A voice cries out from Horonaim,
“devastation and a crushing blow! ”
4Moab will be shattered;
her little ones will cry out.
5For on the Ascent to Luhith
they will be weeping continually, A
and on the descent to Horonaim
will be heard cries of distress over the destruction:
6Flee! Save your lives!
Be like a juniper bush B in the wilderness.
7Because you trust in your works and treasures,
you will be captured also.
Chemosh will go into exile
with his priests and officials.
8The destroyer will move against every town;
not one town will escape.
The valley will perish,
and the plain will be annihilated,
as the LORD has said.
9Make Moab a salt marsh, C
for she will run away; D
her towns will become a desolation,
without inhabitant.
10The one who does
the LORD’s business deceitfully E is cursed,
and the one who withholds
his sword from bloodshed is cursed.
11Moab has been left quiet since his youth,
settled like wine on its dregs.
He hasn’t been poured from one container to another
or gone into exile.
So his taste has remained the same,
and his aroma hasn’t changed.
12Therefore look, the days are coming —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
when I will send pourers to him, who will pour him out.
They will empty his containers
and smash his jars.
13Moab will be put to shame because of Chemosh,
just as the house of Israel was put to shame
because of Bethel that they trusted in.
14How can you say, “We are warriors —
valiant men for battle”?
15The destroyer of Moab and its towns
has come up, F
and the best of its young men
have gone down to slaughter.
This is the King’s declaration;
the LORD of Armies is his name.
16Moab’s calamity is near at hand;
his disaster is rushing swiftly.
17Mourn for him, all you surrounding nations,
everyone who knows his name.
Say, “How the mighty scepter is shattered,
the glorious staff! ”
18Come down from glory; sit on parched ground,
resident of the daughter of Dibon,
for the destroyer of Moab has come against you;
he has destroyed your fortresses.
19Stand by the highway and watch,
resident of Aroer!
Ask him who is fleeing or her who is escaping,
“What happened? ”
20Moab is put to shame, indeed dismayed.
Wail and cry out!
Declare by the Arnon
that Moab is destroyed.
21 “Judgment has come to the land of the plateau — to Holon, Jahzah, Mephaath, 22 Dibon, Nebo, Beth-diblathaim, 23 Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, Beth-meon, 24 Kerioth, Bozrah, and all the towns of the land of Moab, those far and near. 25 Moab’s horn is chopped off; his arm is shattered.”
This is the LORD’s declaration.
26 “Make him drunk, because he has exalted himself against the LORD. Moab will wallow in his own vomit, and he will also become a laughingstock. 27 Wasn’t Israel a laughingstock to you? Was he ever found among thieves? For whenever you speak of him you shake your head.”
28Abandon the towns! Live in the cliffs,
residents of Moab!
Be like a dove
that nests inside the mouth of a cave.
29We have heard of Moab’s pride,
great pride, indeed —
his insolence, arrogance, pride,
and haughty heart.
30I know his outburst.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
It is empty.
His boast is empty.
31Therefore, I will wail over Moab.
I will cry out for Moab, all of it;
he will moan for the men
of Kir-heres.
32I will weep for you, vine of Sibmah,
with more than the weeping for Jazer.
Your tendrils have extended to the sea;
they have reached to the sea and to Jazer. A
The destroyer has fallen on your summer fruit and grape harvest.
33Gladness and celebration are taken from the fertile field
and from the land of Moab.
I have stopped the flow of wine from the winepresses;
no one will tread with shouts of joy.
The shouting is not a shout of joy.
34 “There is a cry from Heshbon to Elealeh; they make their voices heard as far as Jahaz — from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah — because even the Waters of Nimrim have become desolate. 35 In Moab, I will stop” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “the one who offers sacrifices on the high place and burns incense to his gods. 36 Therefore, my heart moans like flutes for Moab, and my heart moans like flutes for the people of Kir-heres. And therefore, the wealth he has gained has perished. 37 Indeed, every head is bald and every beard is chopped short. On every hand is a gash and sackcloth around the waist. 38 On all the rooftops of Moab and in her public squares, everyone is mourning because I have shattered Moab like a jar no one wants.” This is the LORD’s declaration. 39 “How broken it is! They wail! How Moab has turned his back! He is ashamed. Moab will become a laughingstock and a shock to all those around him.”
40 For this is what the LORD says:
Look! He will swoop down like an eagle
and spread his wings against Moab.
41The towns have B been captured,
and the strongholds seized.
In that day the heart of Moab’s warriors
will be like the heart of a woman with contractions.
42Moab will be destroyed as a people
because he has exalted himself against the LORD.
43Panic, pit, and trap
await you, resident of Moab.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
44He who flees from the panic will fall in the pit,
and he who climbs from the pit
will be captured in the trap,
for I will bring against Moab
the year of their punishment.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
45Those who flee will stand exhausted in Heshbon’s shadow
because fire has come out from Heshbon
and a flame from within Sihon.
It will devour Moab’s forehead
and the skull of the noisemakers.
46Woe to you, Moab!
The people of Chemosh have perished
because your sons have been taken captive
and your daughters have gone into captivity.
47Yet, I will restore the fortunes A of Moab in the last days.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
The judgment on Moab ends here.
A 48:5 Lit Luhith, weeping goes up with weeping
B 48:6 Or like Aroer ; Is 17:2; Jr 48:19
C 48:9 LXX reads a sign ; Vg reads a flower ; Syr, Tg read a crown
F 48:15 Or Moab is destroyed; he has come up against its cities
49About the Ammonites, this is what the LORD says:
Does Israel have no sons?
Is he without an heir?
Why then has Milcom B,C dispossessed Gad
and his people settled in their cities?
2Therefore look, the days are coming —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
when I will make the shout of battle heard
against Rabbah of the Ammonites.
It will become a desolate mound,
and its surrounding villages will be set on fire.
Israel will dispossess their dispossessors,
says the LORD.
3Wail, Heshbon, for Ai is devastated;
cry out, daughters of Rabbah!
Clothe yourselves with sackcloth, and lament;
run back and forth within your walls, D
because Milcom will go into exile
together with his priests and officials.
4Why do you boast
about your valleys,
your flowing valley, E
you faithless daughter —
you who trust in your treasures
and say, “Who can attack me? ”
5Look, I am about to bring terror on you —
this is the declaration of the Lord GOD of Armies —
from all those around you.
You will be banished, each person headlong,
with no one to gather up the fugitives.
6But after that, I will restore the fortunes F of the Ammonites.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
7 About Edom, this is what the LORD of Armies says:
Is there no longer wisdom
in Teman?
Has counsel perished from the prudent?
Has their wisdom rotted away?
8Run! Turn back! Lie low,
residents of Dedan,
for I will bring Esau’s calamity on him
at the time I punish him.
9If grape harvesters came to you,
wouldn’t they leave
some gleanings?
Were thieves to come in the night,
they would destroy only what they wanted.
10But I will strip Esau bare;
I will uncover his secret places.
He will try to hide, but he will be unable.
His descendants will be destroyed
along with his relatives and neighbors.
He will exist no longer.
11Abandon your fatherless; I will preserve them;
let your widows trust in me.
12 For this is what the LORD says: “If those who do not deserve to drink the cup must drink it, can you possibly remain unpunished? You will not remain unpunished, for you must drink it too. 13 For by myself I have sworn” — this is the LORD’s declaration — “Bozrah A will become a desolation, a disgrace, a ruin, and an example for cursing, and all its surrounding cities will become ruins forever.”
14I have heard an envoy from the LORD;
a messenger has been sent among the nations:
Assemble yourselves to come against her.
Rise up for war!
15I will certainly make you insignificant among the nations,
despised among humanity.
16As to the terror you cause, B
your arrogant heart has deceived you.
You who live in the clefts of the rock, C
you who occupy the mountain summit,
though you elevate your nest like the eagles,
even from there I will bring you down.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
17 “Edom will become a desolation. Everyone who passes by her will be appalled and scoff because of all her wounds. 18 As when Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighbors,” says the LORD, “no one will live there; no human being will stay in it even temporarily.
19 “Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets D of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. I will chase Edom away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like me? Who will issue me a summons? Who is the shepherd who can stand against me? ”
20 Therefore, hear the plans that the LORD has drawn up against Edom and the strategies he has devised against the people of Teman: The flock’s little lambs will certainly be dragged away, and their grazing land will be made desolate because of them. 21 At the sound of their fall the earth will quake; the sound of her cry will be heard at the Red Sea. 22 Look! It will be like an eagle soaring upward, then swooping down and spreading its wings over Bozrah. In that day the hearts of Edom’s warriors will be like the heart of a woman with contractions.
23 About Damascus:
Hamath and Arpad are put to shame,
for they have heard a bad report and are agitated,
like E the anxious sea that cannot be calmed.
24Damascus has become weak;
she has turned to run;
panic has gripped her.
Distress and labor pains have seized her
like a woman in labor.
25How can the city of praise not be abandoned,
the town that brings me joy?
26Therefore, her young men will fall in her public squares;
all the warriors will perish in that day.
This is the declaration of the LORD of Armies.
27I will set fire to the wall of Damascus;
it will consume Ben-hadad’s citadels.
28 About Kedar and the kingdoms of Hazor, which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon defeated, this is what the LORD says:
Rise up, attack Kedar,
and destroy the people of the east!
29They will take their tents and their flocks
along with their tent curtains and all their equipment.
They will take their camels for themselves.
They will call out to them,
“Terror is on every side! ”
30Run! Escape quickly! Lie low,
residents of Hazor —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
for King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon
has drawn up a plan against you;
he has devised a strategy against you.
31Rise up, attack a nation at ease,
one living in security.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
They have no doors, not even a gate bar;
they live alone.
32Their camels will become plunder,
and their massive herds of cattle will become spoil.
I will scatter them to the wind in every direction,
those who clip the hair on their temples;
I will bring calamity on them across all their borders.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
33Hazor will become a jackals’ den,
a desolation forever.
No one will live there;
no human being will stay in it even temporarily.
34 This is the word of the LORD that came to the prophet Jeremiah about Elam A at the beginning of the reign of King Zedekiah of Judah. 35 This is what the LORD of Armies says:
I am about to shatter Elam’s bow,
the source B of their might.
36I will bring the four winds against Elam
from the four corners of the heavens,
and I will scatter them to all these winds.
There will not be a nation
to which Elam’s banished ones will not go.
37I will devastate Elam before their enemies,
before those who intend to take their lives.
I will bring disaster on them,
my burning anger.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
I will send the sword after them
until I finish them off.
38I will set my throne in Elam,
and I will destroy the king and officials from there.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
39Yet, in the last days,
I will restore the fortunes of Elam.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
B 49:1 LXX, Syr, Vg; MT reads Malkam
E 49:4 Or about your strength, your ebbing strength
50This is the word the LORD spoke about Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, through the prophet Jeremiah:
2Announce to the nations;
proclaim and raise up a signal flag;
proclaim, and hide nothing.
Say, “Babylon is captured;
Bel is put to shame;
Marduk is terrified.”
Her idols are put to shame;
her false gods, devastated.
3For a nation from the north will attack her;
it will make her land desolate.
No one will be living in it —
both people and animals will escape. C
4In those days and at that time —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
the Israelites and Judeans will come together,
weeping as they come,
and will seek the LORD their God.
QUOTE 50:4-5
There must be tenderness toward God if we expect reconciliation with God.
5They will ask about Zion,
turning their faces to this road.
They will come and join themselves A to the LORD
in a permanent covenant that will never be forgotten.
6My people were lost sheep;
their shepherds led them astray,
guiding them the wrong way in the mountains.
They wandered from mountain to hill;
they forgot their resting place.
7Whoever found them devoured them.
Their adversaries said, “We’re not guilty;
instead, they have sinned against the LORD,
their righteous grazing land,
the hope of their ancestors, the LORD.”
8Escape from Babylon;
depart from the Chaldeans’ land.
Be like the rams that lead the flock.
9For I will soon stir up and bring against Babylon
an assembly of great nations from the north country.
They will line up in battle formation against her;
from there she will be captured.
Their arrows will be like a skilled B warrior
who does not return empty-handed.
10The Chaldeans will become plunder;
all Babylon’s plunderers will be fully satisfied.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
11Because you rejoice,
because you celebrate —
you who plundered my inheritance —
because you frolic like a young cow treading grain
12your mother will be utterly humiliated;
she who bore you will be put to shame.
Look! She will lag behind all A the nations —
an arid wilderness, a desert.
13Because of the LORD’s wrath,
she will not be inhabited;
she will become a desolation, every bit of her.
Everyone who passes through Babylon
will be appalled
and scoff because of
all her wounds.
14Line up in battle formation around Babylon,
all you archers!
Shoot at her! Do not spare
an arrow,
for she has sinned against the LORD.
15Raise a war cry against her on every side!
She has thrown up her hands in surrender;
her defense towers have fallen;
her walls are demolished.
Since this is the LORD’s vengeance,
take your vengeance on her;
as she has done, do the same to her.
16Cut off the sower from Babylon
as well as him who wields the sickle at harvest time.
Because of the oppressor’s sword,
each will turn to his own people,
each will flee to his own land.
17Israel is a stray lamb, chased by lions.
The first who devoured him was the king of Assyria;
the last who crushed his bones
was King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon.
18 Therefore, this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am about to punish the king of Babylon and his land just as I punished the king of Assyria.
19I will return Israel to his grazing land,
and he will feed on Carmel and Bashan;
he will be satisfied
in the hill country of Ephraim and of Gilead.
20In those days and at that time —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
one will search for Israel’s iniquity,
but there will be none,
and for Judah’s sins,
but they will not be found,
for I will forgive those I leave as a remnant.
21Attack the land of Merathaim,
and those living in Pekod.
Put them to the sword;
completely destroy them —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
do everything I have commanded you.
22The sound of war is in the land —
a crushing blow!
23How the hammer of the whole earth
What a horror Babylon has become
among the nations!
24Babylon, I laid a trap for you, and you were caught,
but you did not even know it.
You were found and captured
because you pitted yourself against the LORD.
25The LORD opened his armory
and brought out his weapons of wrath,
because it is a task of the Lord GOD of Armies
in the land of the Chaldeans.
26Come against her from the most distant places. A
Open her granaries;
pile her up like mounds of grain
and completely destroy her.
Leave her no survivors.
27Put all her young bulls
to the sword;
let them go down to the slaughter.
Woe to them because their day has come,
the time of their punishment.
28There is a voice of fugitives and refugees
from the land of Babylon.
The voice announces in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God,
the vengeance for his temple.
29Summon the archers to Babylon,
all who string the bow;
camp all around her; let none escape.
Repay her according to her deeds;
just as she has done, do the same to her,
for she has acted arrogantly against the LORD,
against the Holy One of Israel.
30Therefore, her young men will fall
in her public squares;
all the warriors will perish in that day.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
31Look, I am against you, you arrogant one —
this is the declaration of
the Lord GOD of Armies —
for your day has come,
the time when I will punish you.
32The arrogant will stumble and fall
with no one to pick him up.
I will set fire to his cities,
and it will consume everything around him.
33 This is what the LORD of Armies says:
Israelites and Judeans alike have been oppressed.
All their captors hold them fast;
they refuse to release them.
34Their Redeemer is strong;
the LORD of Armies is his name.
He will fervently champion their cause
so that he might bring rest to the earth
but turmoil to those who live in Babylon.
35A sword is over the Chaldeans —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
against those who live in Babylon,
against her officials, and against her sages.
36A sword is against the diviners,
and they will act foolishly.
A sword is against her heroic warriors,
and they will be terrified.
37A sword is against his horses and chariots
and against all the foreigners among them,
and they will be like women.
A sword is against her treasuries,
and they will be plundered.
38A drought will come on her waters,
and they will be dried up.
For it is a land of carved images,
and they go mad because of terrifying things. A
39Therefore, desert creatures B will live with hyenas,
and ostriches will also live in her.
It will never again be inhabited
or lived in through all generations.
40Just as God demolished Sodom and Gomorrah
and their neighboring towns —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
so no one will live there;
no human being will stay in it even temporarily
as a temporary resident.
41Look! A people comes from the north.
A great nation and many kings will be stirred up
from the remote regions of the earth.
42They grasp bow and javelin.
They are cruel and show no mercy.
Their voice roars like the sea,
and they ride on horses,
lined up like men in battle formation
against you, Daughter Babylon.
43The king of Babylon has heard about them;
his hands have become weak.
Distress has seized him —
pain, like a woman in labor.
44 “Look, it will be like a lion coming from the thickets C of the Jordan to the watered grazing land. I will chase Babylon D away from her land in a flash. I will appoint whoever is chosen for her. For who is like me? Who will issue me a summons? Who is the shepherd who can stand against me? ”
45 Therefore, hear the plans that the LORD has drawn up against Babylon and the strategies he has devised against the land of the Chaldeans: Certainly the flock’s little lambs will be dragged away; certainly the grazing land will be made desolate because of them. 46 At the sound of Babylon’s conquest the earth will quake; a cry will be heard among the nations.
50:4-5 “In those days and at that time—this is the LORD’s declaration—the Israelites and Judeans will come together, weeping as they come, and will seek the LORD their God. They will ask about Zion, turning their faces to this road. They will come and join themselves to the LORD in a permanent covenant that will never be forgotten.” This text shows us that those who came back to Zion by God’s gracious leadership were first, mourners; second, seekers; and third, covenanters.
After all your sins, I will not believe that you are truly coming to God if there is not about you a great sorrow for sin and a lamenting after the Lord. Can you imagine the Jews returning from captivity without bewailing the sins that drove them into the place of their exile? How could they be restored to God if they did not lament their former wicked estrangement? How can there be peace to an offender as long as his or her offenses are not repented of? There must be tenderness toward God if we expect reconciliation with God. These confessions, if truly made, cannot be spoken without sighs and sorrows—“weeping as they come.” The multitude of our sins cannot be thought of without a moving of the soul and a measure of heartbreak. Observe further in the case of Israel and Judah there was an old feud. They were brothers, and it ought not to have been so, but they had become bitter adversaries of each other. Yet now that they return to the Lord, we read, “The Israelites and Judeans will come together.” When we are reconciled to God, we are reconciled to others. We must not pass over the words “and will seek the LORD their God.” This is a guide to you as to whether your present state of feeling is leading you aright. What are you seeking?
Second, these mourners became seekers—“They will ask about Zion, turning their faces to this road.” Having been born and nurtured in Babylon, they had never trod the road to Jerusalem. It is clear from their asking the way that these seekers were teachable. They not only yielded to instruction, but they were eager to be taught, and therefore they asked for information. But at the same time they are questioning, they are still resolved. They ask their way to Zion, but they are traveling in the right way. They do not raise questions by way of quibbling that they may have an excuse for sitting still. They question because they are downright earnest. Though they ask the way, they know where they are going—to Zion. They seek God’s own dwelling place. They ask boldly, for they are not ashamed to be found inquiring, and when they are informed, their faces are already that way, and therefore they have nothing to do but to go straight on.
Finally, these inquirers became covenanters: “They will come and join themselves to the LORD in a permanent covenant.” The mischief of our fallen state arose from our trying to be distinct and independent of God. This is a permanent covenant. An agreement? A promise? No! “Covenant” is the word. And their covenanting with God “will never be forgotten.”
50:20 “In those days and at that time—this is the LORD’s declaration—one will search for Israel’s iniquity, but there will be none, and for Judah’s sins, but they will not be found, for I will forgive those I leave as a remnant.” Those sins were of no common order. The Israelites were always a stiff-necked and rebellious race. Israel’s sins were of the most heinous character because of the greatness of their privileges and the peculiar and special love the Lord had lavished on them. They were positively unmatched in guilt by any nation under heaven. For all of that, the Israelites cast away their God. They who had worshiped the Lord turned aside from him and bowed down before Baal and went after other gods and worshiped idols. But their provocations, their idolatries, their lusts were all to be swept away and to be forgotten.
Complete pardon is spoken of in the text. Not only will they not be discovered, but there will not be any to be discovered. Their sins will be so completely removed, so absolutely annihilated, that they will have ceased to exist. What a joy it is for us to know that even the Lord will not be able to find a sin in any of his blood-washed children. When God pardons his people, he pardons all their sins at once—not half, but all—“the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin” (1Jn 1:7).
C 50:3 Lit escape; they will walk
A 50:5 LXX; MT reads Come and join yourselves
51This is what the LORD says:
I am about to rouse the spirit of a destroyer E against Babylon
and against the population
of Leb-qamai. F,G
2I will send strangers to Babylon
who will scatter her and strip her land bare,
for they will come against her
from every side in the day
of disaster.
3Don’t let the archer string his bow;
don’t let him put on H his armor.
Don’t spare her young men;
completely destroy her entire army!
4Those who were slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans,
those who were pierced through, in her streets.
5For Israel and Judah are not left widowed
by their God, the LORD of Armies,
though their land is full of guilt
against the Holy One of Israel.
6Leave Babylon;
save your lives, each of you!
Don’t perish because of her guilt.
For this is the time of the LORD’s vengeance —
he will pay her what she deserves.
7Babylon was a gold cup in the LORD’s hand,
making the whole earth drunk.
The nations drank her wine;
therefore, the nations go mad.
8Suddenly Babylon fell and was shattered.
Wail for her;
perhaps she can be healed.
9We tried to heal Babylon,
but she could not be healed.
Abandon her!
Let each of us go to his own land,
for her judgment extends to the sky
and reaches as far as the clouds.
10The LORD has brought about our vindication;
come, let’s tell in Zion
what the LORD our God has accomplished.
11Sharpen the arrows!
Fill the quivers! A
The LORD has roused the spirit
of the kings of the Medes
because his plan is aimed at Babylon
to destroy her,
for it is the LORD’s vengeance,
vengeance for his temple.
12Raise up a signal flag
against the walls of Babylon;
fortify the watch post;
set the watchmen in place;
prepare the ambush.
For the LORD has both planned and accomplished
what he has threatened
against those who live in Babylon.
13You who reside by abundant water,
rich in treasures,
your end has come,
your life thread is cut.
14 The LORD of Armies has sworn by himself:
I will fill you up with men as with locusts,
and they will sing the victory song over you.
15He made the earth by his power,
established the world by his wisdom,
and spread out the heavens by his understanding.
16When he thunders, B
the waters in the heavens are tumultuous,
and he causes the clouds
to rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain
and brings the wind from his storehouses.
17Everyone is stupid and ignorant.
Every goldsmith is put to shame by his carved image,
for his cast images are a lie;
there is no breath in them.
18They are worthless, a work to be mocked.
At the time of their punishment they will be destroyed.
19Jacob’s Portion C is not like these
because he is the one who formed all things.
Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;
the LORD of Armies is his name.
20You are my war club,
my weapons of war.
With you I will smash nations;
with you I will bring kingdoms to ruin.
21With you I will smash the horse and its rider;
with you I will smash the chariot and its rider.
22With you I will smash man and woman;
with you I will smash the old man and the youth;
with you I will smash the young man and the young woman.
23With you I will smash the shepherd and his flock;
with you I will smash the farmer and his ox-team. D
With you I will smash governors and officials.
24 “Before your very eyes, I will repay Babylon and all the residents of Chaldea for all their evil they have done in Zion.”
This is the LORD’s declaration.
25Look, I am against you, devastating mountain.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
You devastate the whole earth.
I will stretch out my hand against you,
roll you down from the cliffs,
and turn you into a charred mountain.
26No one will be able to retrieve a cornerstone
or a foundation stone from you,
because you will become desolate forever.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
27Raise a signal flag in the land;
blow a ram’s horn among the nations;
set apart the nations against her.
Summon kingdoms against her —
Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz.
Appoint a marshal against her;
bring up horses like a swarm A of locusts.
28Set apart the nations for battle against her —
the kings of Media,
her governors and all her officials,
and all the lands they rule.
29The earth quakes and trembles
because the LORD’s intentions against Babylon stand:
to make the land of Babylon a desolation, without inhabitant.
30Babylon’s warriors have stopped fighting;
they sit in their strongholds.
Their might is exhausted;
they have become like women.
Babylon’s homes have been set ablaze,
her gate bars are shattered.
31Messenger races to meet messenger,
and herald to meet herald,
to announce to the king of Babylon
that his city has been captured
from end to end.
32The fords have been seized,
the marshes set on fire,
and the fighting men are terrified.
33 For this is what the LORD of Armies, the God of Israel, says:
Daughter Babylon is like a threshing floor
at the time it is trampled.
In just a little while her harvest time will come.
34“King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon has devoured me;
he has crushed me.
He has set me aside like an empty dish;
he has swallowed me like a sea monster;
he filled his belly with my delicacies;
he has vomited me out. B
35Let the violence done to me and my family be done to Babylon,”
says the inhabitant of Zion.
“Let my blood be on the inhabitants of Chaldea,”
says Jerusalem.
36 Therefore, this is what the LORD says:
I am about to champion your cause
and take vengeance on your behalf;
I will dry up her sea
and make her fountain run dry.
37Babylon will become a heap of rubble,
a jackals’ den,
a desolation and an object of scorn,
without inhabitant.
38They will roar together like young lions;
they will growl like lion cubs.
39While they are flushed with heat, I will serve them a feast,
and I will make them drunk so that they celebrate. A
Then they will fall asleep forever
and never wake up.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
40I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter,
like rams together with male goats.
41How Sheshach B has been captured,
the praise of the whole earth seized.
What a horror Babylon has become
among the nations!
42The sea has risen over Babylon;
she is covered with its tumultuous waves.
43Her cities have become a desolation,
an arid desert,
a land where no one lives,
where no human being even passes through.
44I will punish Bel in Babylon.
I will make him vomit what he swallowed.
The nations will no longer stream to him;
even Babylon’s wall will fall.
45Come out from among her, my people!
Save your lives, each of you,
from the LORD’s burning anger.
46May you not become cowardly and fearful
when the report is proclaimed in the land,
for the report will come one year,
and then another the next year.
There will be violence in the land
with ruler against ruler.
47Therefore, look, the days are coming
when I will punish Babylon’s carved images.
Her entire land will suffer shame,
and all her slain will lie fallen within her.
48Heaven and earth and everything in them
will shout for joy over Babylon
because the destroyers from the north
will come against her.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
49Babylon must fall because of the slain of Israel,
even as the slain of the whole earth fell
because of Babylon.
50You who have escaped the sword,
go and do not stand still!
Remember the LORD from far away,
and let Jerusalem come to your mind.
51We are ashamed
because we have heard insults.
Humiliation covers our faces
because foreigners have entered
the holy places of the LORD’s temple.
52Therefore, look, the days are coming —
this is the LORD’s declaration —
when I will punish her carved images,
and the wounded will groan
throughout her land.
53Even if Babylon should ascend to the heavens
and fortify her tall fortresses,
destroyers will come against her from me.
This is the LORD’s declaration.
54The sound of a cry from Babylon!
The sound of terrible destruction
from the land of the Chaldeans!
55For the LORD is going to devastate Babylon;
he will silence her mighty voice.
Their waves roar like a huge torrent;
the tumult of their voice resounds,
56for a destroyer is coming against her,
against Babylon.
Her warriors will be captured,
for the LORD is a God of retribution;
he will certainly repay.
57I will make her princes and sages drunk,
along with her governors, officials, and warriors.
Then they will fall asleep forever
and never wake up.
This is the King’s declaration;
the LORD of Armies is his name.
58 This is what the LORD of Armies says:
Babylon’s thick walls will be totally demolished,
and her high gates set ablaze.
The peoples will have labored for nothing;
the nations will weary themselves only to feed the fire.
59 This is what the prophet Jeremiah commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, the quartermaster, when he went to Babylon with King Zedekiah of Judah in the fourth year of Zedekiah’s reign. 60 Jeremiah wrote on one scroll about all the disaster that would come to Babylon; all these words were written against Babylon.
61 Jeremiah told Seraiah, “When you get to Babylon, see that you read all these words aloud. 62 Say, ‘LORD, you have threatened to cut off this place so that no one will live in it — people or animals. Indeed, it will remain desolate forever.’ 63 When you have finished reading this scroll, tie a stone to it and throw it into the middle of the Euphrates River. 64 Then say, ‘In the same way, Babylon will sink and never rise again because of the disaster I am bringing on her. They will grow weary.’ ”
The words of Jeremiah end here.
E 51:1 Or to stir up a destructive wind
F 51:1 Lit heart of my adversaries
52Zedekiah was twenty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned eleven years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hamutal daughter of Jeremiah; she was from Libnah. 2 Zedekiah did what was evil in the LORD’s sight just as Jehoiakim had done. 3 Because of the LORD’s anger, it came to the point in Jerusalem and Judah that he finally banished them from his presence. Then Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon.
4 In the ninth year of Zedekiah’s reign, on the tenth day of the tenth month, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon advanced against Jerusalem with his entire army. They laid siege to the city and built a siege wall against it all around. 5 The city was under siege until King Zedekiah’s eleventh year.
6 By the ninth day of the fourth month the famine was so severe in the city that the common people had no food. 7 Then the city was broken into, and all the warriors fled. They left the city at night by way of the city gate between the two walls near the king’s garden, though the Chaldeans surrounded the city. They made their way along the route to the Arabah. 8 The Chaldean army pursued the king and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. Zedekiah’s entire army left him and scattered. 9 The Chaldeans seized the king and brought him to the king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, and he passed sentence on him.
10 At Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered Zedekiah’s sons before his eyes, and he also slaughtered the Judean commanders. 11 Then he blinded Zedekiah and bound him with bronze chains. The king of Babylon brought Zedekiah to Babylon, where he kept him in custody A until his dying day.
12 On the tenth day of the fifth month — which was the nineteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon — Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, entered Jerusalem as the representative of B the king of Babylon. 13 He burned the LORD’s temple, the king’s palace, all the houses of Jerusalem; he burned down all the great houses. 14 The whole Chaldean army with the captain of the guards tore down all the walls surrounding Jerusalem. 15 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, deported some of the poorest of the people, as well as the rest of the people who remained in the city, the deserters who had defected to the king of Babylon, and the rest of the craftsmen. 16 But Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, left some of the poorest of the land to be vinedressers and farmers.
17 Now the Chaldeans broke into pieces the bronze pillars for the LORD’s temple and the water carts and the bronze basin A that were in the LORD’s temple, and they carried all the bronze to Babylon. 18 They also took the pots, shovels, wick trimmers, sprinkling basins, dishes, and all the bronze articles used in the temple service. 19 The captain of the guards took away the bowls, firepans, sprinkling basins, pots, lampstands, pans, and drink offering bowls — whatever was gold or silver.
20 As for the two pillars, the one basin, with the twelve bronze oxen under it, and the water carts B that King Solomon had made for the LORD’s temple, the weight of the bronze of all these articles was beyond measure. 21 One pillar was 27 feet C tall, had a circumference of 18 feet, D was hollow — four fingers thick — 22 and had a bronze capital on top of it. One capital, encircled by bronze grating and pomegranates, stood 7 1/2 feet E high. The second pillar was the same, with pomegranates. 23 Each capital had ninety-six pomegranates all around it. All the pomegranates around the grating numbered one hundred.
24 The captain of the guards also took away Seraiah the chief priest, Zephaniah the priest of the second rank, and the three doorkeepers. 25 From the city he took a court official F who had been appointed over the warriors; seven trusted royal aides G found in the city; the secretary of the commander of the army, who enlisted the people of the land for military duty; and sixty men from the common people H who were found within the city. 26 Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, took them and brought them to the king of Babylon at Riblah. 27 The king of Babylon put them to death at Riblah in the land of Hamath. So Judah went into exile from its land.
28 These are the people Nebuchadnezzar deported: in the seventh year, 3,023 Jews; 29 in his eighteenth year, I 832 people from Jerusalem; 30 in Nebuchadnezzar’s twenty-third year, Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guards, deported 745 Jews. Altogether, 4,600 people were deported.
31 On the twenty-fifth day of the twelfth month of the thirty-seventh year of the exile of Judah’s King Jehoiachin, King Evil-merodach of Babylon, in the first year of his reign, pardoned King Jehoiachin of Judah and released him from prison. 32 He spoke kindly to him and set his throne above the thrones of the kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 So Jehoiachin changed his prison clothes, and he dined regularly in the presence of the king of Babylon for the rest of his life. 34 As for his allowance, a regular allowance was given to him by the king of Babylon, a portion for each day until the day of his death, for the rest of his life.