Jeremiah 16-22
New American Standard Bible
Chapter 16
1The word of the Lord also came to me, saying, 2You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place.' 3For this is what the Lord says concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their mothers who give birth to them, and their fathers who father them in this land: 4They will die of deadly diseases, they will not be mourned or buried; they will be like dung on the surface of the ground. And they will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth.'
5For this is what the Lord says: 'Do not enter a house of mourning, or go to mourn or to console them; for I have withdrawn My peace from this people,' declares the Lord, 'and My favor and compassion.
6Both great people and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, people will not mourn for them, nor will anyone make cuts on himself or have his head shaved for them.
7People will not break bread in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead, nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone’s father or mother.
8Moreover, you shall not go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink.'
9For this is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: 'Behold, I am going to eliminate from this place, before your eyes and in your time, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of joy, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.
10Now it will happen that, when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘For what reason has the Lord declared all this great disaster against us? And what is our wrongdoing, or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’
11Then you are to say to them, ‘ It is because your forefathers have abandoned Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and have followed other gods, and served and worshiped them; but they have abandoned Me and have not kept My Law.
12You too have done evil, even more than your forefathers; for behold, each one of you is following the stubbornness of his own evil heart, without listening to Me.
13So I will hurl you off this land to the land which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will serve other gods day and night, because I will show you no compassion.’
14Therefore behold, days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’
15but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.
16Behold, I am going to send for many fishermen,' declares the Lord, 'and they will fish for them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them from every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks.
17For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their wrongdoing concealed from My eyes.
18I will first repay them double for their wrongdoing and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable idols and their abominations.'
19Lord, my strength and my stronghold, And my refuge in the day of distress, To You the nations will come From the ends of the earth and say, 'Our fathers have inherited nothing but falsehood, Futility, and things of no benefit.'
20Can a person make gods for himself? But they are not gods!
21'Therefore behold, I am going to make them know— This time I will make them know My power and My might; And they will know that My name is the Lord.'
Chapter 17
1The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus; With a diamond point it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts And on the horns of their altars, 2As they remember their children, So they remember their altars and their Asherim By green trees on the high hills. 3Mountain of Mine in the countryside, I will turn over your wealth and all your treasures as plunder, Your high places for sin throughout your borders. 4And you will, even of yourself, let go of your inheritance That I gave you; And I will make you serve your enemies In the land which you do not know; For you have kindled a fire in My anger Which will burn forever. 5This is what the Lord says: 'Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind And makes flesh his strength, And whose heart turns away from the Lord. 6For he will be like a bush in the desert, And will not see when prosperity comes, But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness, A land of salt that is not inhabited. 7Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose trust is the Lord. 8For he will be like a tree planted by the water That extends its roots by a stream, And does not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought, Nor cease to yield fruit. 9'The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? 10I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, To give to each person according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds. 11As a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid, So is a person who makes a fortune, but unjustly; In the middle of his days it will abandon him, And 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. Those who turn away on earth will be written down, Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, that is the Lord. 14Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; Save me and I will be saved, For You are my praise. 15Look, they keep saying to me, 'Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now!' 16But as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd following after You, Nor have I longed for the disastrous day; You Yourself know that the utterance of my lips Was in Your presence. 17Do not be a terror to me; You are my refuge in a day of disaster.
19This is what the Lord said to me: 'Go and stand at the public gate, through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, as well as at all the gates of Jerusalem;
20and say to them, ‘Listen to the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all inhabitants of Jerusalem who come in through these gates.
21This is what the Lord says: 'Take care for yourselves, and do not carry any load on the Sabbath day or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem.
22You shall not bring a load out of your houses on the Sabbath day nor do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I commanded your forefathers.
23Yet they did not listen or incline their ears, but stiffened their necks so as not to listen or accept discipline.
24But it will come about, if you give your attention to Me,' declares the Lord, 'to bring no load in through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but to keep the Sabbath day holy by doing no work on it,
25then there will come in through the gates of this city kings and officials sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever.
26They will come in from the cities of Judah and from the areas surrounding Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the lowland, from the hill country, and from the Negev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the Lord.
27But if you do not listen to Me, to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying a load and coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will set fire to its gates, and it will devour the palaces of Jerusalem and not go out.'?’?'
Chapter 18
1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.' 3So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. 4But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.
5Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
6Am I not able, house of Israel, to deal with you as this potter does?' declares the Lord. 'Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, house of Israel.
7At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot it, to tear it down, or to destroy it;
8if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I planned to bring on it.
9Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it;
10if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will relent of the good with which I said that I would bless it.
11So now, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘This is what the Lord says: 'Behold, I am forming a disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Now turn back, each of you from his evil way, and correct your ways and your deeds!'?’
12But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will persist in the stubbornness of his evil heart.’
13'Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘Just ask among the nations, Who ever heard anything like this? The virgin of Israel Has done a most appalling thing.
14Does the snow of Lebanon leave the rock of the open country alone? Or is the cold flowing water from a foreign land ever dried up?
15For My people have forgotten Me, They burn incense to worthless gods. And they have stumbled in their ways, In the ancient roads, To walk on paths, Not on a highway,
16To make their land a desolation, An object of perpetual hissing; Everyone who passes by it will be astonished And shake his head.
19Give Your attention to me, Lord, And listen to what my opponents are saying!
20Should good be repaid with evil? For they have dug a pit for me. Remember how I stood before You To speak good in their behalf, So as to turn Your wrath away from them.
21Therefore, give their children over to famine And turn them over to the power of the sword; And let their wives become childless and widowed. Let their men also be slaughtered to death, Their young men struck and killed by the sword in battle.
22May a cry be heard from their houses When You suddenly bring raiders upon them; For they have dug a pit to capture me And hidden snares for my feet.
23But You, Lord, know All their deadly schemes against me; Do not forgive their wrongdoing Or wipe out their sin from Your sight. But may they be overthrown before You; Deal with them in the time of Your anger!
Chapter 19
1This is what the Lord says: 'Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jar, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests. 2Then go out to the Valley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you, 3and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: 'Behold I am going to bring a disaster upon this place, at which the ears of everyone that hears of it will tingle. 4Since they have abandoned Me and have made this place foreign, and have burned sacrifices in it to other gods that neither they nor their forefathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and since they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent 5and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I did not command nor speak of, nor did it ever enter My mind; 6therefore, behold, days are coming,' declares the Lord, 'when this place will no longer be called Topheth or the Valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the Valley of Slaughter. 7And I will frustrate the planning of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will make their carcasses food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth. 8I will also turn this city into an object of horror and hissing; everyone who passes by it will be appalled and hiss because of all its disasters. 9And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh during the siege and in the hardship with which their enemies and those who seek their life will torment them.'?’
10Then you are to break the jar in the sight of the men who accompany you,
11and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord of armies says: 'To the same extent I will break this people and this city, just as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and they will bury their dead in Topheth, because there is no other place for burial.
12This is how I will treat this place and its inhabitants,' declares the Lord, 'so as to make this city like Topheth.
13The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will be defiled like the place Topheth, because of all the houses on whose rooftops they burned sacrifices to all the heavenly lights and poured out drink offerings to other gods.'?’?'
14Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the courtyard of the Lord’S house and said to all the people,
15This is what the Lord of armies, the God of Israel says: ‘Behold, I am going to bring on this city and all its towns the entire disaster that I have declared against it, because they have stiffened their necks so as not to listen to My words.’?'
Chapter 20
1When Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief overseer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, 2Pashhur had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put him in the stocks that were at the upper Benjamin Gate, which was by the house of the Lord. 3Then on the next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, 'Pashhur is not the name the Lord has called you, but rather Magor-missabib. 4For this is what the Lord says: ‘Behold, I am going to make you a horror to yourself and to all your friends; and while your eyes look on, they will fall by the sword of their enemies. So I will hand all Judah over to the king of Babylon, and he will take them away as exiles to Babylon and will kill them with the sword. 5I will also give all the wealth of this city, all its produce and all its valuable things—even all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will hand over to their enemies, and they will plunder them, take them away, and bring them to Babylon. 6And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into captivity; and you will enter Babylon, and there you will die and there you will be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have falsely prophesied.’?'
7Lord, You persuaded me and I let myself be persuaded; You have overcome me and prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all day long; Everyone mocks me.
8For each time I speak, I cry aloud; I proclaim violence and destruction, Because for me the word of the Lord has resulted In taunting and derision all day long.
9But if I say, 'I will not remember Him Nor speak anymore in His name,' Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am tired of holding it in, And I cannot endure it.
10For I have heard the whispering of many, 'Terror on every side! Denounce him; let’s denounce him!' All my trusted friends, Watching for my fall, say: 'Perhaps he will be persuaded, so that we may prevail against him And take our revenge on him.'
11But the Lord is with me like a powerful champion; Therefore my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will be put to great shame because they have failed, An everlasting disgrace that will not be forgotten.
12Yet, Lord of armies, who tests the righteous, Who sees the mind and the heart; Let me see Your vengeance on them, For to You I have disclosed my cause.
13Sing to the Lord, praise the Lord! For He has saved the soul of the needy one From the hand of evildoers.
14Cursed be the day when I was born; May the day when my mother gave birth to me not be blessed!
15Cursed be the man who brought the news To my father, saying, 'A boy has been born to you!' And made him very happy.
16But may that man be like the cities Which the Lord overthrew without relenting, And may he hear an outcry in the morning And an alarm for war at noon;
17Because he did not kill me before birth, So that my mother would have been my grave, And her womb forever pregnant.
18Why did I ever come out of the womb To look at trouble and sorrow, So that my days have been spent in shame?
Chapter 21
1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, 2Please inquire of the Lord in our behalf, because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us; perhaps the Lord will deal with us in accordance with all His wonderful acts, so that the enemy will withdraw from us.'
3But Jeremiah said to them, 'You shall say to Zedekiah as follows:
4‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: 'Behold, I am going to turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you are making war against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the wall; and I will gather them into the middle of this city.
5And I Myself will make war against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, and in anger, wrath, and great indignation.
6I will also strike the inhabitants of this city, both the people and the animals; they will die of a great plague.
7Then afterward,' declares the Lord, 'I will hand Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants, and the people, that is, those who survive in this city from the plague, the sword, and the famine, over to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, to their enemies, and to those who seek their lives; and he will strike and kill them with the edge of the sword. He will not spare them nor have pity nor compassion.'?’
8You shall also say to this people, ‘This is what the Lord says: 'Behold, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.
9Anyone who stays in this city will die by the sword, by famine, or by plague; but anyone who leaves and goes over to the Chaldeans who are besieging you will live, and he will have his own life as plunder.
10For I have set My face against this city for harm and not for good,' declares the Lord. 'It will be handed over to the king of Babylon and he will burn it with fire.'?’
12house of David, this is what the Lord says: 'Administer justice every morning; And save the person who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor, So that My wrath will not spread like fire And burn, with no one to extinguish it, Because of the evil of their deeds.
13'Behold, I am against you, you inhabitant of the valley, You rocky plain,' declares the Lord, 'You who say, ‘Who will come down against us? Or who will enter our dwellings?’
14But I will punish you according to the results of your deeds,' declares the Lord, 'And I will kindle a fire in its forest So that it may devour all its surroundings.'?’?'
Chapter 22
1This is what the Lord says: 'Go down to the house of the king of Judah and there speak this word, 2and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on David’s throne, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates. 3This is what the Lord says: 'Do justice and righteousness, and save one who has been robbed from the power of his oppressor. And do not mistreat or do violence to the stranger, the orphan, or the widow; and do not shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if you will indeed perform this instruction, then kings will enter the gates of this house, sitting in David’s place on his throne, riding in chariots and on horses, the king himself, his servants, and his people. 5But if you will not obey these words, I swear by Myself,' declares the Lord, 'that this house will become a place of ruins.'?’?'
8Many nations will pass by this city; and they will say to one another, ‘Why has the Lord done this to this great city?’
9Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God and bowed down to other gods and served them.’?'
11For this is what the Lord says regarding Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who became king in the place of his father Josiah, who went out from this place: 'He will never return there;
12but in the place where they took him into exile, there he will die and he will not see this land again.
13'Woe to him who builds his house without righteousness, And his upstairs rooms without justice, Who uses his neighbor’s services without pay And does not give him his wages,
14Who says, ‘I will build myself a large house With spacious upstairs rooms, And cut out its windows, Paneling it with cedar and painting it bright red.’
15Do you become a king because you are competing in cedar? Did your father not eat and drink And do justice and righteousness? Then it was well for him.
16He pled the cause of the afflicted and the poor, Then it was well. Is that not what it means to know Me?' Declares the Lord.
19He will be buried with a donkey’s burial, Dragged off and thrown out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20Go up to Lebanon and cry out, And raise your voice in Bashan; Cry out also from Abarim, For all your lovers have been crushed.
21I spoke to you in your prosperity; But you said, ‘I will not listen!’ This has been your way from your youth, That you have not obeyed My voice.
22The wind will sweep away all your shepherds, And your lovers will go into captivity; Then you will certainly be ashamed and humiliated Because of all your wickedness.
24As I live,' declares the Lord, 'even if Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were a signet ring on My right hand, yet I would pull you off;
25and I will hand you over to those who are seeking your life, yes, to those of whom you are frightened, that is, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Chaldeans.
26I will hurl you and your mother who gave birth to you into another country where you were not born, and there you will die.
27But as for the land to which they long to return, they will not return to it.
28Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered jar? Or is he an undesirable vessel? Why have he and his descendants been hurled out And cast into a land that they had not known?
29O land, land, land, Hear the word of the Lord!
30This is what the Lord says: ‘Write this man down as childless, A man who will not prosper in his days; For no man among his descendants will prosper Sitting on the throne of David Or ruling again in Judah.’?'
King James Version
Chapter 16
1The word of the Lord came also unto me, saying, 2Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place. 3For thus saith the Lord concerning the sons and concerning the daughters that are born in this place, and concerning their mothers that bare them, and concerning their fathers that begat them in this land; 4They shall die of grievous deaths; they shall not be lamented; neither shall they be buried; but they shall be as dung upon the face of the earth: and they shall be consumed by the sword, and by famine; and their carcases shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.
5For thus saith the Lord, Enter not into the house of mourning, neither go to lament nor bemoan them: for I have taken away my peace from this people, saith the Lord, even lovingkindness and mercies.
6Both the great and the small shall die in this land: they shall not be buried, neither shall men lament for them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them:
7Neither shall men tear themselves for them in mourning, to comfort them for the dead; neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or for their mother.
8Thou shalt not also go into the house of feasting, to sit with them to eat and to drink.
9For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will cause to cease out of this place in your eyes, and in your days, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride.
10And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?
11Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have worshipped them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law;
12And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me:
13Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.
14Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that it shall no more be said, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
15But, The Lord liveth, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
16Behold, I will send for many fishers, saith the Lord, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
17For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.
18And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcases of their detestable and abominable things.
20Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
21Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The Lord.
Chapter 17
1The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
4And thou, even thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.
5Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
11As the partridge sitteth on eggs, and hatcheth them not; so he that getteth riches, and not by right, shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool.
12A glorious high throne from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
18Let them be confounded that persecute me, but let not me be confounded: let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.
19Thus said the Lord unto me; Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, whereby the kings of Judah come in, and by the which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
20And say unto them, Hear ye the word of the Lord, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates:
21Thus saith the Lord; Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
22Neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work, but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
23But they obeyed not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, nor receive instruction.
24And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the Lord, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;
25Then shall there enter into the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever.
26And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the plain, and from the mountains, and from the south, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and meat offerings, and incense, and bringing sacrifices of praise, unto the house of the Lord.
27But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden, even entering in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.
Chapter 18
1The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. 3Then I went down to the potter's house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. 4And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
5Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
6O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
7At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it;
8If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.
9And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;
10If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.
11Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.
12And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.
17I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.
18Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, and let us smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.
Chapter 19
1Thus saith the Lord, Go and get a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests; 2And go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the east gate, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee, 3And say, Hear ye the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle. 4Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood of innocents; 5They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind: 6Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter. 7And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place; and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth. 8And I will make this city desolate, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof. 9And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege and straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives, shall straiten them.
10Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,
11And shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury them in Tophet, till there be no place to bury.
12Thus will I do unto this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof, and even make this city as Tophet:
13And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, shall be defiled as the place of Tophet, because of all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.
14Then came Jeremiah from Tophet, whither the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord'S house; and said to all the people,
15Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it, because they have hardened their necks, that they might not hear my words.
Chapter 20
1Now Pashur the son of Immer the priest, who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 2Then Pashur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord. 3And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The Lord hath not called thy name Pashur, but Magormissabib. 4For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive into Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword. 5Moreover I will deliver all the strength of this city, and all the labours thereof, and all the precious things thereof, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon. 6And thou, Pashur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and shalt be buried there, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied lies. 7O Lord, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am in derision daily, every one mocketh me.Chapter 21
1The word which came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying, 2Enquire, I pray thee, of the Lord for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us; if so be that the Lord will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us. 3Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah: 4Thus saith the Lord God of Israel; Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans, which besiege you without the walls, and I will assemble them into the midst of this city. 5And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath. 6And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence. 7And afterward, saith the Lord, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.
8And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I set before you the way of life, and the way of death.
9He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.
10For I have set my face against this city for evil, and not for good, saith the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.
11And touching the house of the king of Judah, say, Hear ye the word of the Lord;
14But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the Lord: and I will kindle a fire in the forest thereof, and it shall devour all things round about it.
Chapter 22
1Thus saith the Lord; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word, 2And say, Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates: 3Thus saith the Lord; Execute ye judgment and righteousness, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor: and do no wrong, do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, nor the widow, neither shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if ye do this thing indeed, then shall there enter in by the gates of this house kings sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. 5But if ye will not hear these words, I swear by myself, saith the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. 6For thus saith the Lord unto the king's house of Judah; Thou art Gilead unto me, and the head of Lebanon: yet surely I will make thee a wilderness, and cities which are not inhabited.
7And I will prepare destroyers against thee, every one with his weapons: and they shall cut down thy choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
8And many nations shall pass by this city, and they shall say every man to his neighbour, Wherefore hath the Lord done thus unto this great city?
9Then they shall answer, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them.
10Weep ye not for the dead, neither bemoan him: but weep sore for him that goeth away: for he shall return no more, nor see his native country.
11For thus saith the Lord touching Shallum the son of Josiah king of Judah, which reigned instead of Josiah his father, which went forth out of this place; He shall not return thither any more:
12But he shall die in the place whither they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.
13Woe unto him that buildeth his house by unrighteousness, and his chambers by wrong; that useth his neighbour's service without wages, and giveth him not for his work;
19He shall be buried with the burial of an ass, drawn and cast forth beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20Go up to Lebanon, and cry; and lift up thy voice in Bashan, and cry from the passages: for all thy lovers are destroyed.
23O inhabitant of Lebanon, that makest thy nest in the cedars, how gracious shalt thou be when pangs come upon thee, the pain as of a woman in travail!
24As I live, saith the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;
25And I will give thee into the hand of them that seek thy life, and into the hand of them whose face thou fearest, even into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26And I will cast thee out, and thy mother that bare thee, into another country, where ye were not born; and there shall ye die.
27But to the land whereunto they desire to return, thither shall they not return.
28Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
Christian Standard Bible
Chapter 16
1The word of the Lord came to me: 2"Do not marry or have sons or daughters in this place. 3For 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: 4They 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. 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.
7Food 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.
8Do not enter the house where feasting is taking place to sit with them to eat and drink.
9For 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?’
11Then 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.
12You did more evil than your fathers. Look, each one of you was following the stubbornness of his evil heart, not obeying me.
13So 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.’
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,’
15but 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,
17for my gaze takes in all their ways. They are not concealed from me, and their iniquity is not hidden from my sight.
18I 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."
19 Lord, 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 my power and my might; then they will know that my name is the Lord."
Chapter 17
1The 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 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 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.
5This 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 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.
13 Lord, 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 destruction.
19This 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.
20Announce to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah, all Judah, and all the residents of Jerusalem who enter through these gates.
21This 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.
22Do 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.
23They 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,
25kings 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.
26Then 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.
27But 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.’"
Chapter 18
1This 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." 3So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working away at the wheel. 4But 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.
5The 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.
7At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it.
8However, 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.
9At another time I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it.
10However, 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.
11So 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.’
12But 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.’"
13Therefore, 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; 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 my back and not my face on the day of their calamity.
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, 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.
Chapter 19
1This is what the Lord says: "Go, buy a potter’s clay jar. Take some of the elders of the people and some of the leading priests 2and go out to Ben Hinnom Valley near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Proclaim there the words I speak to you. 3Say, ‘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 4because 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. 5They 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.
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.
7I 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.
8I will make this city desolate, an object of scorn. Everyone who passes by it will be appalled and scoff because of all its wounds.
9I 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,
11and 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.
12That is what I will do to this place—this is the declaration of the Lord —and to its residents, making this city like Topheth.
13The 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.’"
14Jeremiah 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.’"
Chapter 20
1Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer and chief official in the temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2So Pashhur had the prophet Jeremiah beaten and put him in the stocks at the Upper Benjamin Gate in the Lord’s temple. 3The 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, 4for 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. 5I 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. 6As 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 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.
12 Lord of Armies, testing the righteous and seeing the heart 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?
Chapter 21
1This 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 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."
3But 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 who are besieging you outside the wall, and I will bring them into the center of this city.
5I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a strong arm, with anger, rage, and intense wrath.
6I will strike the residents of this city, both people and animals. They will die in a severe plague.
7Afterward—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.
9Whoever 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.
10For 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.’
Chapter 22
1This is what the Lord says: "Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and announce this word there. 2You 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. 3This 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. 4For 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. 5But 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.’"
6For 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?’
9They will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord their God and bowed in worship to other gods and served them.’"
11For 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,
12but 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 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.
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 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 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 when pains come on you, agony like a woman in labor.
24"As I live"—this is the Lord’s declaration—"though you, Coniah son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would tear you from it.
25In fact, I will hand you over to those you dread, who intend to take your life, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Chaldeans.
26I 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.
27They will never return to the land they long to return to."
New Living Translation
Chapter 16
1The Lord gave me another message. He said, 2Do not get married or have children in this place. 3For this is what the Lord says about the children born here in this city and about their mothers and fathers: 4They will die from terrible diseases. No one will mourn for them or bury them, and they will lie scattered on the ground like manure. They will die from war and famine, and their bodies will be food for the vultures and wild animals.'
5This is what the Lord says: 'Do not go to funerals to mourn and show sympathy for these people, for I have removed my protection and peace from them. I have taken away my unfailing love and my mercy.
6Both the great and the lowly will die in this land. No one will bury them or mourn for them. Their friends will not cut themselves in sorrow or shave their heads in sadness.
7No one will offer a meal to comfort those who mourn for the dead — not even at the death of a mother or father. No one will send a cup of wine to console them.
8And do not go to their feasts and parties. Do not eat and drink with them at all.
9For this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: In your own lifetime, before your very eyes, I will put an end to the happy singing and laughter in this land. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard.
11Then you will give them the Lord’s reply: ‘It is because your ancestors were unfaithful to me. They worshiped other gods and served them. They abandoned me and did not obey my word.
12And you are even worse than your ancestors! You stubbornly follow your own evil desires and refuse to listen to me.
13So I will throw you out of this land and send you into a foreign land where you and your ancestors have never been. There you can worship idols day and night — and I will grant you no favors!’
14But the time is coming,' says the Lord, 'when people who are taking an oath will no longer say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who rescued the people of Israel from the land of Egypt.’
15Instead, they will say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the people of Israel back to their own land from the land of the north and from all the countries to which he had exiled them.’ For I will bring them back to this land that I gave their ancestors.
16But now I am sending for many fishermen who will catch them,' says the Lord. 'I am sending for hunters who will hunt them down in the mountains, hills, and caves.
17I am watching them closely, and I see every sin. They cannot hope to hide from me.
18I will double their punishment for all their sins, because they have defiled my land with lifeless images of their detestable gods and have filled my territory with their evil deeds.'
19Lord, you are my strength and fortress, my refuge in the day of trouble! Nations from around the world will come to you and say, 'Our ancestors left us a foolish heritage, for they worshiped worthless idols.
20Can people make their own gods? These are not real gods at all!'
Chapter 17
1'The sin of Judah is inscribed with an iron chisel — engraved with a diamond point on their stony hearts and on the corners of their altars. 2Even their children go to worship at their pagan altars and Asherah poles, beneath every green tree and on every high hill. 3So I will hand over my holy mountain — along with all your wealth and treasures and your pagan shrines — as plunder to your enemies, for sin runs rampant in your land. 4The wonderful possession I have reserved for you will slip from your hands. I will tell your enemies to take you as captives to a foreign land. For my anger blazes like a fire that will burn forever.'
5This is what the Lord says: 'Cursed are those who put their trust in mere humans, who rely on human strength and turn their hearts away from the Lord.
6They are like stunted shrubs in the desert, with no hope for the future. They will live in the barren wilderness, in an uninhabited salty land.
7'But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.
8They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit.
9'The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?
10But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.'
11Like a partridge that hatches eggs she has not laid, so are those who get their wealth by unjust means. At midlife they will lose their riches; in the end, they will become poor old fools.
12But we worship at your throne — eternal, high, and glorious!
13O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who turn away from you will be disgraced. They will be buried in the dust of the earth, for they have abandoned the Lord, the fountain of living water.
14O Lord, if you heal me, I will be truly healed; if you save me, I will be truly saved. My praises are for you alone!
15People scoff at me and say, 'What is this ‘message from the Lord’ you talk about? Why don’t your predictions come true?'
16Lord, I have not abandoned my job as a shepherd for your people. I have not urged you to send disaster. You have heard everything I’ve said.
17Lord, don’t terrorize me! You alone are my hope in the day of disaster.
18Bring shame and dismay on all who persecute me, but don’t let me experience shame and dismay. Bring a day of terror on them. Yes, bring double destruction upon them!
19This is what the Lord said to me: 'Go and stand in the gates of Jerusalem, first in the gate where the king goes in and out, and then in each of the other gates.
20Say to all the people, ‘Listen to this message from the Lord, you kings of Judah and all you people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem.
21This is what the Lord says: Listen to my warning! Stop carrying on your trade at Jerusalem’s gates on the Sabbath day.
22Do not do your work on the Sabbath, but make it a holy day. I gave this command to your ancestors,
23but they did not listen or obey. They stubbornly refused to pay attention or accept my discipline.
24‘But if you obey me, says the Lord, and do not carry on your trade at the gates or work on the Sabbath day, and if you keep it holy,
25then kings and their officials will go in and out of these gates forever. There will always be a descendant of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem. Kings and their officials will always ride in and out among the people of Judah in chariots and on horses, and this city will remain forever.
26And from all around Jerusalem, from the towns of Judah and Benjamin, from the western foothills and the hill country and the Negev, the people will come with their burnt offerings and sacrifices. They will bring their grain offerings, frankincense, and thanksgiving offerings to the Lord’s Temple.
Chapter 18
1The Lord gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, 2Go down to the potter’s shop, and I will speak to you there.' 3So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. 4But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so he crushed it into a lump of clay again and started over.
5Then the Lord gave me this message:
6O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand.
7If I announce that a certain nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed,
8but then that nation renounces its evil ways, I will not destroy it as I had planned.
9And if I announce that I will plant and build up a certain nation or kingdom,
10but then that nation turns to evil and refuses to obey me, I will not bless it as I said I would.
13So this is what the Lord says: 'Has anyone ever heard of such a thing, even among the pagan nations? My virgin daughter Israel has done something terrible!
14Does the snow ever disappear from the mountaintops of Lebanon? Do the cold streams flowing from those distant mountains ever run dry?
15But my people are not so reliable, for they have deserted me; they burn incense to worthless idols. They have stumbled off the ancient highways and walk in muddy paths.
16Therefore, their land will become desolate, a monument to their stupidity. All who pass by will be astonished and will shake their heads in amazement.
17I will scatter my people before their enemies as the east wind scatters dust. And in all their trouble I will turn my back on them and refuse to notice their distress.'
19Lord, hear me and help me! Listen to what my enemies are saying.
20Should they repay evil for good? They have dug a pit to kill me, though I pleaded for them and tried to protect them from your anger.
21So let their children starve! Let them die by the sword! Let their wives become childless widows. Let their old men die in a plague, and let their young men be killed in battle!
22Let screaming be heard from their homes as warriors come suddenly upon them. For they have dug a pit for me and have hidden traps along my path.
23Lord, you know all about their murderous plots against me. Don’t forgive their crimes and blot out their sins. Let them die before you. Deal with them in your anger.
Chapter 19
1This is what the Lord said to me: 'Go and buy a clay jar. Then ask some of the leaders of the people and of the priests to follow you. 2Go out through the Gate of Broken Pots to the garbage dump in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, and give them this message. 3Say to them, ‘Listen to this message from the Lord, you kings of Judah and citizens of Jerusalem! This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will bring a terrible disaster on this place, and the ears of those who hear about it will ring!
4‘For Israel has forsaken me and turned this valley into a place of wickedness. The people burn incense to foreign gods — idols never before acknowledged by this generation, by their ancestors, or by the kings of Judah. And they have filled this place with the blood of innocent children.
5They have built pagan shrines to Baal, and there they burn their sons as sacrifices to Baal. I have never commanded such a horrible deed; it never even crossed my mind to command such a thing!
6So beware, for the time is coming, says the Lord, when this garbage dump will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
7‘For I will upset the careful plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will allow the people to be slaughtered by invading armies, and I will leave their dead bodies as food for the vultures and wild animals.
8I will reduce Jerusalem to ruins, making it a monument to their stupidity. All who pass by will be astonished and will gasp at the destruction they see there.
9I will see to it that your enemies lay siege to the city until all the food is gone. Then those trapped inside will eat their own sons and daughters and friends. They will be driven to utter despair.’
10As these men watch you, Jeremiah, smash the jar you brought.
11Then say to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: As this jar lies shattered, so I will shatter the people of Judah and Jerusalem beyond all hope of repair. They will bury the bodies here in Topheth, the garbage dump, until there is no more room for them.
12This is what I will do to this place and its people, says the Lord. I will cause this city to become defiled like Topheth.
13Yes, all the houses in Jerusalem, including the palace of Judah’s kings, will become like Topheth — all the houses where you burned incense on the rooftops to your star gods, and where liquid offerings were poured out to your idols.’'
14Then Jeremiah returned from Topheth, the garbage dump where he had delivered this message, and he stopped in front of the Temple of the Lord. He said to the people there,
15This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘I will bring disaster upon this city and its surrounding towns as I promised, because you have stubbornly refused to listen to me.’'
Chapter 20
1Now Pashhur son of Immer, the priest in charge of the Temple of the Lord, heard what Jeremiah was prophesying. 2So he arrested Jeremiah the prophet and had him whipped and put in stocks at the Benjamin Gate of the Lord’s Temple.
3The next day, when Pashhur finally released him, Jeremiah said, 'Pashhur, the Lord has changed your name. From now on you are to be called ‘The Man Who Lives in Terror.’
4For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will send terror upon you and all your friends, and you will watch as they are slaughtered by the swords of the enemy. I will hand the people of Judah over to the king of Babylon. He will take them captive to Babylon or run them through with the sword.
5And I will let your enemies plunder Jerusalem. All the famed treasures of the city — the precious jewels and gold and silver of your kings — will be carried off to Babylon.
6As for you, Pashhur, you and all your household will go as captives to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you prophesied that everything would be all right.’'
7O Lord, you misled me, and I allowed myself to be misled. You are stronger than I am, and you overpowered me. Now I am mocked every day; everyone laughs at me.
8When I speak, the words burst out. 'Violence and destruction!' I shout. So these messages from the Lord have made me a household joke.
9But if I say I’ll never mention the Lord or speak in his name, his word burns in my heart like a fire. It’s like a fire in my bones! I am worn out trying to hold it in! I can’t do it!
10I have heard the many rumors about me. They call me 'The Man Who Lives in Terror.' They threaten, 'If you say anything, we will report it.' Even my old friends are watching me, waiting for a fatal slip. 'He will trap himself,' they say, 'and then we will get our revenge on him.'
11But the Lord stands beside me like a great warrior. Before him my persecutors will stumble. They cannot defeat me. They will fail and be thoroughly humiliated. Their dishonor will never be forgotten.
12O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, you test those who are righteous, and you examine the deepest thoughts and secrets. Let me see your vengeance against them, for I have committed my cause to you.
13Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For though I was poor and needy, he rescued me from my oppressors.
14Yet I curse the day I was born! May no one celebrate the day of my birth.
15I curse the messenger who told my father, 'Good news — you have a son!'
16Let him be destroyed like the cities of old that the Lord overthrew without mercy. Terrify him all day long with battle shouts,
17because he did not kill me at birth. Oh, that I had died in my mother’s womb, that her body had been my grave!
18Why was I ever born? My entire life has been filled with trouble, sorrow, and shame.
Chapter 21
1The Lord spoke through Jeremiah when King Zedekiah sent Pashhur son of Malkijah and Zephaniah son of Maaseiah, the priest, to speak with him. They begged Jeremiah, 2Please speak to the Lord for us and ask him to help us. King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is attacking Judah. Perhaps the Lord will be gracious and do a mighty miracle as he has done in the past. Perhaps he will force Nebuchadnezzar to withdraw his armies.'
3Jeremiah replied, 'Go back to King Zedekiah and tell him,
4‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I will make your weapons useless against the king of Babylon and the Babylonians who are outside your walls attacking you. In fact, I will bring your enemies right into the heart of this city.
5I myself will fight against you with a strong hand and a powerful arm, for I am very angry. You have made me furious!
6I will send a terrible plague upon this city, and both people and animals will die.
7And after all that, says the Lord, I will hand over King Zedekiah, his staff, and everyone else in the city who survives the disease, war, and famine. I will hand them over to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and to their other enemies. He will slaughter them and show them no mercy, pity, or compassion.’
8Tell all the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: Take your choice of life or death!
9Everyone who stays in Jerusalem will die from war, famine, or disease, but those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians will live. Their reward will be life!
10For I have decided to bring disaster and not good upon this city, says the Lord. It will be handed over to the king of Babylon, and he will reduce it to ashes.’
12This is what the Lord says to the dynasty of David: '‘Give justice each morning to the people you judge! Help those who have been robbed; rescue them from their oppressors. Otherwise, my anger will burn like an unquenchable fire because of all your sins.
13I will personally fight against the people in Jerusalem, that mighty fortress — the people who boast, 'No one can touch us here. No one can break in here.'
14And I myself will punish you for your sinfulness, says the Lord. I will light a fire in your forests that will burn up everything around you.’'
Chapter 22
1This is what the Lord said to me: 'Go over and speak directly to the king of Judah. Say to him, 2‘Listen to this message from the Lord, you king of Judah, sitting on David’s throne. Let your attendants and your people listen, too. 3This is what the Lord says: Be fair-minded and just. Do what is right! Help those who have been robbed; rescue them from their oppressors. Quit your evil deeds! Do not mistreat foreigners, orphans, and widows. Stop murdering the innocent! 4If you obey me, there will always be a descendant of David sitting on the throne here in Jerusalem. The king will ride through the palace gates in chariots and on horses, with his parade of attendants and subjects. 5But if you refuse to pay attention to this warning, I swear by my own name, says the Lord, that this palace will become a pile of rubble.’'
6Now this is what the Lord says concerning Judah’s royal palace: 'I love you as much as fruitful Gilead and the green forests of Lebanon. But I will turn you into a desert, with no one living within your walls.
7I will call for wreckers, who will bring out their tools to dismantle you. They will tear out all your fine cedar beams and throw them on the fire.
8People from many nations will pass by the ruins of this city and say to one another, ‘Why did the Lord destroy such a great city?’
9And the answer will be, ‘Because they violated their covenant with the Lord their God by worshiping other gods.’'
11For this is what the Lord says about Jehoahaz, who succeeded his father, King Josiah, and was taken away as a captive: 'He will never return.
12He will die in a distant land and will never again see his own country.'
13And the Lord says, 'What sorrow awaits Jehoiakim, who builds his palace with forced labor. He builds injustice into its walls, for he makes his neighbors work for nothing. He does not pay them for their labor.
14He says, ‘I will build a magnificent palace with huge rooms and many windows. I will panel it throughout with fragrant cedar and paint it a lovely red.’
15But a beautiful cedar palace does not make a great king! Your father, Josiah, also had plenty to eat and drink. But he was just and right in all his dealings. That is why God blessed him.
16He gave justice and help to the poor and needy, and everything went well for him. Isn’t that what it means to know me?' says the Lord.
17'But you! You have eyes only for greed and dishonesty! You murder the innocent, oppress the poor, and reign ruthlessly.'
18Therefore, this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim, son of King Josiah: 'The people will not mourn for him, crying to one another, ‘Alas, my brother! Alas, my sister!’ His subjects will not mourn for him, crying, ‘Alas, our master is dead! Alas, his splendor is gone!’
19He will be buried like a dead donkey — dragged out of Jerusalem and dumped outside the gates!
20Weep for your allies in Lebanon. Shout for them in Bashan. Search for them in the regions east of the river. See, they are all destroyed. Not one is left to help you.
21I warned you when you were prosperous, but you replied, ‘Don’t bother me.’ You have been that way since childhood — you simply will not obey me!
22And now the wind will blow away your allies. All your friends will be taken away as captives. Surely then you will see your wickedness and be ashamed.
23It may be nice to live in a beautiful palace paneled with wood from the cedars of Lebanon, but soon you will groan with pangs of anguish — anguish like that of a woman in labor.
24As surely as I live,' says the Lord, 'I will abandon you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah. Even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off.
25I will hand you over to those who seek to kill you, those you so desperately fear — to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon and the mighty Babylonian army.
26I will expel you and your mother from this land, and you will die in a foreign country, not in your native land.
27You will never again return to the land you yearn for.
28'Why is this man Jehoiachin like a discarded, broken jar? Why are he and his children to be exiled to a foreign land?
29O earth, earth, earth! Listen to this message from the Lord!
30This is what the Lord says: ‘Let the record show that this man Jehoiachin was childless. He is a failure, for none of his children will succeed him on the throne of David to rule over Judah.’
English Standard Version
Chapter 16
1The word of the Lord came to me: 2"You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. 3For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning the mothers who bore them and the fathers who fathered them in this land: 4They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. They shall be as dung on the surface of the ground. They shall perish by the sword and by famine, and their dead bodies shall be food for the birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth.
5"For thus says the Lord: Do not enter the house of mourning, or go to lament or grieve for them, for I have taken away my peace from this people, my steadfast love and mercy, declares the Lord.
6Both great and small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or cut himself or make himself bald for them.
7No one shall break bread for the mourner, to comfort him for the dead, nor shall anyone give him the cup of consolation to drink for his father or his mother.
8You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.
9For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.
10"And when you tell this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? What is our iniquity? What is the sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’
11then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have forsaken me, declares the Lord, and have gone after other gods and have served and worshiped them, and have forsaken me and have not kept my law,
12and because you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his stubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me.
13Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
14"Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when it shall no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’
15but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ For I will bring them back to their own land that I gave to their fathers.
16"Behold, I am sending for many fishers, declares the Lord, and they shall catch them. And afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the clefts of the rocks.
17For my eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes.
18But first I will doubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have polluted my land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and have filled my inheritance with their abominations."
19 O Lord, my strength and my stronghold, my refuge in the day of trouble, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth and say: "Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things in which there is no profit.
20Can man make for himself gods? Such are not gods!"
21"Therefore, behold, I will make them know, this once I will make them know my power and my might, and they shall know that my name is the Lord."
Chapter 17
1"The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; with a point of diamond it is engraved on the tablet of their heart, and on the horns of their altars, 2while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, beside every green tree and on the high hills, 3on the mountains in the open country. Your wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. 4You shall loosen your hand from your heritage that I gave to you, and I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for in my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever."
5Thus says the Lord: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord.
6 He is like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see any good come. He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness, in an uninhabited salt land.
7 "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
8 He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit."
9The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
10 "I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds."
11Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches but not by justice; in the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool.
12A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary.
13O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame; those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water.
14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.
15 Behold, they say to me, "Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come!"
16I have not run away from being your shepherd, nor have I desired the day of sickness. You know what came out of my lips; it was before your face.
17Be not a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster.
18 Let those be put to shame who persecute me, but let me not be put to shame; let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed; bring upon them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction!
19Thus said the Lord to me: "Go and stand in the People 's Gate, by which the kings of Judah enter and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem,
20and say: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates.
21Thus says the Lord: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the Sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem.
22And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your fathers.
23Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and receive instruction.
24"‘But if you listen to me, declares the Lord, and bring in no burden by the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it,
25then there shall enter by the gates of this city kings and princes who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their officials, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And this city shall be inhabited forever.
26And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the Shephelah, from the hill country, and from the Negeb, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord.
27But if you do not listen to me, to keep the Sabbath day holy, and not to bear a burden and enter by the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.’"
Chapter 18
1The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2"Arise, and go down to the potter 's house, and there I will let you hear my words." 3So I went down to the potter 's house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter 's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do.
5Then the word of the Lord came to me:
6"O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter has done? declares the Lord. Behold, like the clay in the potter 's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
7If at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom, that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it,
8and if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I intended to do to it.
9And if at any time I declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it,
10and if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will relent of the good that I had intended to do to it.
11Now, therefore, say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: ‘Thus says the Lord, Behold, I am shaping disaster against you and devising a plan against you. Return, every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your deeds.’
13"Therefore thus says the Lord: Ask among the nations, Who has heard the like of this? The virgin Israel has done a very horrible thing.
14Does the snow of Lebanon leave the crags of Sirion? Do the mountain waters run dry, the cold flowing streams?
15 But my people have forgotten me; they make offerings to false gods; they made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient roads, and to walk into side roads, not the highway,
16making their land a horror, a thing to be hissed at forever. Everyone who passes by it is horrified and shakes his head.
17 Like the east wind I will scatter them before the enemy. I will show them my back, not my face, in the day of their calamity."
18Then they said, "Come, let us make plots against Jeremiah, for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come, let us strike him with the tongue, and let us not pay attention to any of his words."
19Hear me, O Lord, and listen to the voice of my adversaries.
20 Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for my life. Remember how I stood before you to speak good for them, to turn away your wrath from them.
21Therefore deliver up their children to famine; give them over to the power of the sword; let their wives become childless and widowed. May their men meet death by pestilence, their youths be struck down by the sword in battle.
22 May a cry be heard from their houses, when you bring the plunderer suddenly upon them! For they have dug a pit to take me and laid snares for my feet.
23Yet you, O Lord, know all their plotting to kill me. Forgive not their iniquity, nor blot out their sin from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.
Chapter 19
1Thus says the Lord, "Go, buy a potter 's earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, 2and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. 3You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 4Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, 5and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind — 6therefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to fall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. 8And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at. Everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. 9And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.’
10"Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,
11and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter 's vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall bury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury.
12Thus will I do to this place, declares the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth.
13The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah — all the houses on whose roofs offerings have been offered to all the host of heaven, and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods — shall be defiled like the place of Topheth.’"
14Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood in the court of the Lord 's house and said to all the people:
15"Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words."
Chapter 20
1Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. 3The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "The Lord does not call your name Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. 4For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. 5Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and all the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. 6And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely."
7O Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived; you are stronger than I, and you have prevailed. I have become a laughingstock all the day; everyone mocks me.
8For whenever I speak, I cry out, I shout, "Violence and destruction!" For the word of the Lord has become for me a reproach and derision all day long.
9If I say, "I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name," there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.
10 For I hear many whispering. Terror is on every side! "Denounce him! Let us denounce him!" say all my close friends, watching for my fall. "Perhaps he will be deceived; then we can overcome him and take our revenge on him."
11But the Lord is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten.
12O Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous, who sees the heart and the mind, let me see your vengeance upon them, for to you have I committed my cause.
13 Sing to the Lord; praise the Lord! For he has delivered the life of the needy from the hand of evildoers.
14 Cursed be the day on which I was born! The day when my mother bore me, let it not be blessed!
15Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father, "A son is born to you," making him very glad.
16Let that man be like the cities that the Lord overthrew without pity; let him hear a cry in the morning and an alarm at noon,
17 because he did not kill me in the womb; so my mother would have been my grave, and her womb forever great.
18 Why did I come out from the womb to see toil and sorrow, and spend my days in shame?
Chapter 21
1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, 2"Inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us."
3Then Jeremiah said to them: "Thus you shall say to Zedekiah,
4‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. And I will bring them together into the midst of this city.
5I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath.
6And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence.
7Afterward, declares the Lord, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the pestilence, sword, and famine into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. He shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.’
8"And to this people you shall say: ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.
9He who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall have his life as a prize of war.
10For I have set my face against this city for harm and not for good, declares the Lord: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.’
11"And to the house of the king of Judah say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord,
12O house of David! Thus says the Lord: "‘Execute justice in the morning, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed, lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of your evil deeds.’"
13 "Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, O rock of the plain, declares the Lord; you who say, ‘Who shall come down against us, or who shall enter our habitations?’
14 I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds, declares the Lord; I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is around her."
Chapter 22
1Thus says the Lord: "Go down to the house of the king of Judah and speak there this word, 2and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter these gates. 3Thus says the Lord: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if you will indeed obey this word, then there shall enter the gates of this house kings who sit on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their servants and their people. 5But if you will not obey these words, I swear by myself, declares the Lord, that this house shall become a desolation. 6For thus says the Lord concerning the house of the king of Judah: "‘You are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, yet surely I will make you a desert, an uninhabited city.
7 I will prepare destroyers against you, each with his weapons, and they shall cut down your choicest cedars and cast them into the fire.
8"‘And many nations will pass by this city, and every man will say to his neighbor, "Why has the Lord dealt thus with this great city?"
9And they will answer, "Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and worshiped other gods and served them."’"
10 Weep not for him who is dead, nor grieve for him, but weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he shall return no more to see his native land.
11For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went away from this place: "He shall return here no more,
12but in the place where they have carried him captive, there shall he die, and he shall never see this land again."
13 "Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his upper rooms by injustice, who makes his neighbor serve him for nothing and does not give him his wages,
14who says, ‘I will build myself a great house with spacious upper rooms,’ who cuts out windows for it, paneling it with cedar and painting it with vermilion.
15Do you think you are a king because you compete in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.
16 He judged the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Is not this to know me? declares the Lord.
17But you have eyes and heart only for your dishonest gain, for shedding innocent blood, and for practicing oppression and violence."
18Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: "They shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Ah, my brother!’ or ‘Ah, sister!’ They shall not lament for him, saying, ‘Ah, lord!’ or ‘Ah, his majesty!’
19With the burial of a donkey he shall be buried, dragged and dumped beyond the gates of Jerusalem."
20"Go up to Lebanon, and cry out, and lift up your voice in Bashan; cry out from Abarim, for all your lovers are destroyed.
21I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from your youth, that you have not obeyed my voice.
22 The wind shall shepherd all your shepherds, and your lovers shall go into captivity; then you will be ashamed and confounded because of all your evil.
23O inhabitant of Lebanon, nested among the cedars, how you will be pitied when pangs come upon you, pain as of a woman in labor!"
24"As I live, declares the Lord, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet ring on my right hand, yet I would tear you off
25and give you into the hand of those who seek your life, into the hand of those of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26I will hurl you and the mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born, and there you shall die.
27But to the land to which they will long to return, there they shall not return."
28Is this man Coniah a despised, broken pot, a vessel no one cares for? Why are he and his children hurled and cast into a land that they do not know?
29 O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord!
30Thus says the Lord: "Write this man down as childless, a man who shall not succeed in his days, for none of his offspring shall succeed in sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah."
New International Version
Chapter 16
1Then the word of the Lord came to me: 2"You must not marry and have sons or daughters in this place." 3For this is what the Lord says about the sons and daughters born in this land and about the women who are their mothers and the men who are their fathers: 4"They will die of deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried but will be like dung lying on the ground. They will perish by sword and famine, and their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals."
5For this is what the Lord says: "Do not enter a house where there is a funeral meal; do not go to mourn or show sympathy, because I have withdrawn my blessing, my love and my pity from this people," declares the Lord.
6"Both high and low will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, and no one will cut themselves or shave their head for the dead.
7No one will offer food to comfort those who mourn for the dead—not even for a father or a mother—nor will anyone give them a drink to console them.
8"And do not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down to eat and drink.
9For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Before your eyes and in your days I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in this place.
10"When you tell these people all this and they ask you, ‘Why has the Lord decreed such a great disaster against us? What wrong have we done? What sin have we committed against the Lord our God?’
11then say to them, ‘It is because your ancestors forsook me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and followed other gods and served and worshiped them. They forsook me and did not keep my law.
12But you have behaved more wickedly than your ancestors. See how all of you are following the stubbornness of your evil hearts instead of obeying me.
13So I will throw you out of this land into a land neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
14"However, the days are coming," declares the Lord, "when it will no longer be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of Egypt,’
15but it will be said, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and out of all the countries where he had banished them.’ For I will restore them to the land I gave their ancestors.
16"But now I will send for many fishermen," declares the Lord, "and they will catch them. After that I will send for many hunters, and they will hunt them down on every mountain and hill and from the crevices of the rocks.
17My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from me, nor is their sin concealed from my eyes.
18I will repay them double for their wickedness and their sin, because they have defiled my land with the lifeless forms of their vile images and have filled my inheritance with their detestable idols."
20Do people make their own gods? Yes, but they are not gods!"
21"Therefore I will teach them— this time I will teach them my power and might. Then they will know that my name is the Lord.
Chapter 17
1"Judah’s sin is engraved with an iron tool, inscribed with a flint point, on the tablets of their hearts and on the horns of their altars. 2Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles beside the spreading trees and on the high hills. 3My mountain in the land and your wealth and all your treasures I will give away as plunder, together with your high places, because of sin throughout your country. 4Through your own fault you will lose the inheritance I gave you. I will enslave you to your enemies in a land you do not know, for you have kindled my anger, and it will burn forever."
6That person will be like a bush in the wastelands; they will not see prosperity when it comes. They will dwell in the parched places of the desert, in a salt land where no one lives.
7"But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.
11Like a partridge that hatches eggs it did not lay are those who gain riches by unjust means. When their lives are half gone, their riches will desert them, and in the end they will prove to be fools.
12A glorious throne, exalted from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.
13 Lord, you are the hope of Israel; all who forsake you will be put to shame. Those who turn away from you will be written in the dust because they have forsaken the Lord, the spring of living water.
14Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise.
15They keep saying to me, "Where is the word of the Lord? Let it now be fulfilled!"
16I have not run away from being your shepherd; you know I have not desired the day of despair. What passes my lips is open before you.
17Do not be a terror to me; you are my refuge in the day of disaster.
18Let my persecutors be put to shame, but keep me from shame; let them be terrified, but keep me from terror. Bring on them the day of disaster; destroy them with double destruction.
19This is what the Lord said to me: "Go and stand at the Gate of the People, through which the kings of Judah go in and out; stand also at all the other gates of Jerusalem.
20Say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and all people of Judah and everyone living in Jerusalem who come through these gates.
21This is what the Lord says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem.
22Do not bring a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors.
23Yet they did not listen or pay attention; they were stiff-necked and would not listen or respond to discipline.
24But if you are careful to obey me, declares the Lord, and bring no load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath, but keep the Sabbath day holy by not doing any work on it,
25then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this city with their officials. They and their officials will come riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by the men of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, and this city will be inhabited forever.
26People will come from the towns of Judah and the villages around Jerusalem, from the territory of Benjamin and the western foothills, from the hill country and the Negev, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing thank offerings to the house of the Lord.
27But if you do not obey me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying any load as you come through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem that will consume her fortresses.’ "
Chapter 18
1This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2"Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message." 3So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.
5Then the word of the Lord came to me.
6He said, "Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?" declares the Lord. "Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel.
7If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed,
8and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned.
9And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted,
10and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it.
11"Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’
12But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.’ "
13Therefore this is what the Lord says: "Inquire among the nations: Who has ever heard anything like this? A most horrible thing has been done by Virgin Israel.
14Does the snow of Lebanon ever vanish from its rocky slopes? Do its cool waters from distant sources ever stop flowing?
15Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to worthless idols, which made them stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths. They made them walk in byways, on roads not built up.
16Their land will be an object of horror and of lasting scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will shake their heads.
17Like a wind from the east, I will scatter them before their enemies; I will show them my back and not my face in the day of their disaster."
19Listen to me, Lord; hear what my accusers are saying!
20Should good be repaid with evil? Yet they have dug a pit for me. Remember that I stood before you and spoke in their behalf to turn your wrath away from them.
21So give their children over to famine; hand them over to the power of the sword. Let their wives be made childless and widows; let their men be put to death, their young men slain by the sword in battle.
22Let a cry be heard from their houses when you suddenly bring invaders against them, for they have dug a pit to capture me and have hidden snares for my feet.
23But you, Lord, know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their crimes or blot out their sins from your sight. Let them be overthrown before you; deal with them in the time of your anger.
Chapter 19
1This is what the Lord says: "Go and buy a clay jar from a potter. Take along some of the elders of the people and of the priests 2and go out to the Valley of Ben Hinnom, near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. There proclaim the words I tell you, 3and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Listen! I am going to bring a disaster on this place that will make the ears of everyone who hears of it tingle. 4For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. 5They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. 6So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
7" ‘In this place I will ruin the plans of Judah and Jerusalem. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, at the hands of those who want to kill them, and I will give their carcasses as food to the birds and the wild animals.
8I will devastate this city and make it an object of horror and scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds.
9I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh because their enemies will press the siege so hard against them to destroy them.’
10"Then break the jar while those who go with you are watching,
11and say to them, ‘This is what the Lord Almighty says: I will smash this nation and this city just as this potter’s jar is smashed and cannot be repaired. They will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room.
12This is what I will do to this place and to those who live here, declares the Lord. I will make this city like Topheth.
13The houses in Jerusalem and those of the kings of Judah will be defiled like this place, Topheth—all the houses where they burned incense on the roofs to all the starry hosts and poured out drink offerings to other gods.’ "
14Jeremiah then returned from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and stood in the court of the Lord’s temple and said to all the people,
15"This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on this city and all the villages around it every disaster I pronounced against them, because they were stiff-necked and would not listen to my words.’ "
Chapter 20
1When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, the official in charge of the temple of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things, 2he had Jeremiah the prophet beaten and put in the stocks at the Upper Gate of Benjamin at the Lord’s temple. 3The next day, when Pashhur released him from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, "The Lord’s name for you is not Pashhur, but Terror on Every Side. 4For this is what the Lord says: ‘I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; with your own eyes you will see them fall by the sword of their enemies. I will give all Judah into the hands of the king of Babylon, who will carry them away to Babylon or put them to the sword. 5I will deliver all the wealth of this city into the hands of their enemies—all its products, all its valuables and all the treasures of the kings of Judah. They will take it away as plunder and carry it off to Babylon. 6And you, Pashhur, and all who live in your house will go into exile to Babylon. There you will die and be buried, you and all your friends to whom you have prophesied lies.’ "
7You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived ; you overpowered me and prevailed. I am ridiculed all day long; everyone mocks me.
8Whenever I speak, I cry out proclaiming violence and destruction. So the word of the Lord has brought me insult and reproach all day long.
9But if I say, "I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name," his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot.
10I hear many whispering, "Terror on every side! Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!" All my friends are waiting for me to slip, saying, "Perhaps he will be deceived; then we will prevail over him and take our revenge on him."
11But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior; so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail. They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced; their dishonor will never be forgotten.
13Sing to the Lord! Give praise to the Lord! He rescues the life of the needy from the hands of the wicked.
14Cursed be the day I was born! May the day my mother bore me not be blessed!
15Cursed be the man who brought my father the news, who made him very glad, saying, "A child is born to you—a son!"
16May that man be like the towns the Lord overthrew without pity. May he hear wailing in the morning, a battle cry at noon.
17For he did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave, her womb enlarged forever.
18Why did I ever come out of the womb to see trouble and sorrow and to end my days in shame?
Chapter 21
1The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur son of Malkijah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah. They said: 2"Inquire now of the Lord for us because Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon is attacking us. Perhaps the Lord will perform wonders for us as in times past so that he will withdraw from us."
3But Jeremiah answered them, "Tell Zedekiah,
4‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I am about to turn against you the weapons of war that are in your hands, which you are using to fight the king of Babylon and the Babylonians who are outside the wall besieging you. And I will gather them inside this city.
5I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm in furious anger and in great wrath.
6I will strike down those who live in this city—both man and beast—and they will die of a terrible plague.
7After that, declares the Lord, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah, his officials and the people in this city who survive the plague, sword and famine, into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and to their enemies who want to kill them. He will put them to the sword; he will show them no mercy or pity or compassion.’
8"Furthermore, tell the people, ‘This is what the Lord says: See, I am setting before you the way of life and the way of death.
9Whoever stays in this city will die by the sword, famine or plague. But whoever goes out and surrenders to the Babylonians who are besieging you will live; they will escape with their lives.
10I have determined to do this city harm and not good, declares the Lord. It will be given into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will destroy it with fire.’
12This is what the Lord says to you, house of David: " ‘Administer justice every morning; rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed, or my wrath will break out and burn like fire because of the evil you have done— burn with no one to quench it.
13I am against you, Jerusalem, you who live above this valley on the rocky plateau, declares the Lord— you who say, "Who can come against us? Who can enter our refuge?"
14I will punish you as your deeds deserve, declares the Lord. I will kindle a fire in your forests that will consume everything around you.’ "
Chapter 22
1This is what the Lord says: "Go down to the palace of the king of Judah and proclaim this message there: 2‘Hear the word of the Lord to you, king of Judah, you who sit on David’s throne—you, your officials and your people who come through these gates. 3This is what the Lord says: Do what is just and right. Rescue from the hand of the oppressor the one who has been robbed. Do no wrong or violence to the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if you are careful to carry out these commands, then kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of this palace, riding in chariots and on horses, accompanied by their officials and their people. 5But if you do not obey these commands, declares the Lord, I swear by myself that this palace will become a ruin.’ "
6For this is what the Lord says about the palace of the king of Judah: "Though you are like Gilead to me, like the summit of Lebanon, I will surely make you like a wasteland, like towns not inhabited.
7I will send destroyers against you, each man with his weapons, and they will cut up your fine cedar beams and throw them into the fire.
8"People from many nations will pass by this city and will ask one another, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this great city?’
9And the answer will be: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God and have worshiped and served other gods.’ "
11For this is what the Lord says about Shallum son of Josiah, who succeeded his father as king of Judah but has gone from this place: "He will never return.
12He will die in the place where they have led him captive; he will not see this land again."
14He says, ‘I will build myself a great palace with spacious upper rooms.’ So he makes large windows in it, panels it with cedar and decorates it in red.
15"Does it make you a king to have more and more cedar? Did not your father have food and drink? He did what was right and just, so all went well with him.
16He defended the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me?" declares the Lord.
17"But your eyes and your heart are set only on dishonest gain, on shedding innocent blood and on oppression and extortion."
19He will have the burial of a donkey— dragged away and thrown outside the gates of Jerusalem."
20"Go up to Lebanon and cry out, let your voice be heard in Bashan, cry out from Abarim, for all your allies are crushed.
21I warned you when you felt secure, but you said, ‘I will not listen!’ This has been your way from your youth; you have not obeyed me.
22The wind will drive all your shepherds away, and your allies will go into exile. Then you will be ashamed and disgraced because of all your wickedness.
23You who live in ‘Lebanon, ’ who are nestled in cedar buildings, how you will groan when pangs come upon you, pain like that of a woman in labor!
24"As surely as I live," declares the Lord, "even if you, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, were a signet ring on my right hand, I would still pull you off.
25I will deliver you into the hands of those who want to kill you, those you fear—Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the Babylonians.
26I will hurl you and the mother who gave you birth into another country, where neither of you was born, and there you both will die.
27You will never come back to the land you long to return to."
28Is this man Jehoiachin a despised, broken pot, an object no one wants? Why will he and his children be hurled out, cast into a land they do not know?
29O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord!
30This is what the Lord says: "Record this man as if childless, a man who will not prosper in his lifetime, for none of his offspring will prosper, none will sit on the throne of David or rule anymore in Judah."
New King James Version
Chapter 16
1The word of the Lord also came to me, saying, 2“You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.” 3For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land: 4“They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”
5For thus says the Lord: “Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,” says the Lord, “lovingkindness and mercies.
6Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.
7Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother.
8Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”
10“And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the Lord pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God?’
11then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the Lord; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law.
12And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.
13Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’
14“Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’
15but, ‘The Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.
16“Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the Lord, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
17For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.
18And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.”
19O Lord, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”
20Will a man make gods for himself, Which are not gods?
21“Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know My hand and My might; And they shall know that My name is the Lord.
Chapter 17
1“The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; With the point of a diamond it is engraved On the tablet of their heart, And on the horns of your altars, 2While their children remember Their altars and their wooden images By the green trees on the high hills. 3O My mountain in the field, I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures, And your high places of sin within all your borders. 4And you, even yourself, Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you; And I will cause you to serve your enemies In the land which you do not know; For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.”
5Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord.
6For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited.
7“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord.
8For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit.
9“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?
10I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.
11“ As a partridge that broods but does not hatch, So is he who gets riches, but not by right; It will leave him in the midst of his days, And at his end he will be a fool.”
12A glorious high throne from the beginning Is the place of our sanctuary.
13O Lord, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You shall be ashamed. “Those who depart from Me Shall be written in the earth, Because they have forsaken the Lord, The fountain of living waters.”
14Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved, For You are my praise.
15Indeed they say to me, “Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now!”
16As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You, Nor have I desired the woeful day; You know what came out of my lips; It was right there before You.
17Do not be a terror to me; You are my hope in the day of doom.
18 Let them be ashamed who persecute me, But do not let me be put to shame; Let them be dismayed, But do not let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of doom, And destroy them with double destruction!
19Thus the Lord said to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;
20and say to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates.
21Thus says the Lord: “Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;
22nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.
23But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.
24“And it shall be, if you heed Me carefully,” says the Lord, “to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it,
25then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever.
26And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the lowland, from the mountains and from the South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing sacrifices of praise to the house of the Lord.
Chapter 18
1The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: 2“Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.” 3Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel. 4And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.
5Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
6“O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the Lord. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!
7The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it,
8if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.
9And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it,
10if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.
13Therefore thus says the Lord: “Ask now among the Gentiles, Who has heard such things? The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.
14Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon, Which comes from the rock of the field? Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?
15“Because My people have forgotten Me, They have burned incense to worthless idols. And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in pathways and not on a highway,
16To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing; Everyone who passes by it will be astonished And shake his head.
17 I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back and not the face In the day of their calamity.”
19Give heed to me, O Lord, And listen to the voice of those who contend with me!
20 Shall evil be repaid for good? For they have dug a pit for my life. Remember that I stood before You To speak good for them, To turn away Your wrath from them.
21Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, And pour out their blood By the force of the sword; Let their wives become widows And bereaved of their children. Let their men be put to death, Their young men be slain By the sword in battle.
22Let a cry be heard from their houses, When You bring a troop suddenly upon them; For they have dug a pit to take me, And hidden snares for my feet.
23Yet, Lord, You know all their counsel Which is against me, to slay me. Provide no atonement for their iniquity, Nor blot out their sin from Your sight; But let them be overthrown before You. Deal thus with them In the time of Your anger.
Chapter 19
1Thus says the Lord: “Go and get a potter’s earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. 2And go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, 3and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle.
4“Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents
5(they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind),
6therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “that this place shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.
7And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth.
8I will make this city desolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.
9And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.” ’
10“Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,
11and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury.
12Thus I will do to this place,” says the Lord, “and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet.
13And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to other gods.” ’ ”
14Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people,
15“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.’ ”
Chapter 20
1Now Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest who was also chief governor in the house of the Lord, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things. 2Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the Lord.
3And it happened on the next day that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib.
4For thus says the Lord: ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon and slay them with the sword.
5Moreover I will deliver all the wealth of this city, all its produce, and all its precious things; all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them, seize them, and carry them to Babylon.
6And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. You shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die, and be buried there, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies.’ ”
7O Lord, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily; Everyone mocks me.
8For when I spoke, I cried out; I shouted, “Violence and plunder!” Because the word of the Lord was made to me A reproach and a derision daily.
9Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.
10 For I heard many mocking: “Fear on every side!” “Report,” they say, “and we will report it!” All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying, “Perhaps he can be induced; Then we will prevail against him, And we will take our revenge on him.”
11But the Lord is with me as a mighty, awesome One. Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail. They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper. Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten.
12But, O Lord of hosts, You who test the righteous, And see the mind and heart, Let me see Your vengeance on them; For I have pleaded my cause before You.
13Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! For He has delivered the life of the poor From the hand of evildoers.
14 Cursed be the day in which I was born! Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!
15Let the man be cursed Who brought news to my father, saying, “A male child has been born to you!” Making him very glad.
16And let that man be like the cities Which the Lord overthrew, and did not relent; Let him hear the cry in the morning And the shouting at noon,
17 Because he did not kill me from the womb, That my mother might have been my grave, And her womb always enlarged with me.
18 Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, That my days should be consumed with shame?
Chapter 21
1The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying, 2“Please inquire of the Lord for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all His wonderful works, that the king may go away from us.”
3Then Jeremiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah,
4‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: “Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls; and I will assemble them in the midst of this city.
5I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath.
6I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence.
7And afterward,” says the Lord, “I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. He shall not spare them, or have pity or mercy.” ’
8“Now you shall say to this people, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.
9He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him.
10For I have set My face against this city for adversity and not for good,” says the Lord. “It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.” ’
12O house of David! Thus says the Lord: “Execute judgment in the morning; And deliver him who is plundered Out of the hand of the oppressor, Lest My fury go forth like fire And burn so that no one can quench it, Because of the evil of your doings.
13“Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, And rock of the plain,” says the Lord, “Who say, ‘Who shall come down against us? Or who shall enter our dwellings?’
14But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings,” says the Lord; “I will kindle a fire in its forest, And it shall devour all things around it.” ’ ”
Chapter 22
1Thus says the Lord: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and there speak this word, 2and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates! 3Thus says the Lord: “Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. 4For if you indeed do this thing, then shall enter the gates of this house, riding on horses and in chariots, accompanied by servants and people, kings who sit on the throne of David. 5But if you will not hear these words, I swear by Myself,” says the Lord, “that this house shall become a desolation.” ’ ”
6For thus says the Lord to the house of the king of Judah: “You are Gilead to Me, The head of Lebanon; Yet I surely will make you a wilderness, Cities which are not inhabited.
7I will prepare destroyers against you, Everyone with his weapons; They shall cut down your choice cedars And cast them into the fire.
8And many nations will pass by this city; and everyone will say to his neighbor, ‘Why has the Lord done so to this great city?’
9Then they will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.’ ”
11For thus says the Lord concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went from this place: “He shall not return here anymore,
12but he shall die in the place where they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.
13“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness And his chambers by injustice, Who uses his neighbor’s service without wages And gives him nothing for his work,
14Who says, ‘I will build myself a wide house with spacious chambers, And cut out windows for it, Paneling it with cedar And painting it with vermilion.’
15“Shall you reign because you enclose yourself in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, And do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.
16He judged the cause of the poor and needy; Then it was well. Was not this knowing Me?” says the Lord.
17“Yet your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness, For shedding innocent blood, And practicing oppression and violence.”
18Therefore thus says the Lord concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They shall not lament for him, Saying, ‘Alas, my brother!’ or ‘Alas, my sister!’ They shall not lament for him, Saying, ‘Alas, master!’ or ‘Alas, his glory!’
19 He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, Dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.
20“Go up to Lebanon, and cry out, And lift up your voice in Bashan; Cry from Abarim, For all your lovers are destroyed.
21I spoke to you in your prosperity, But you said, ‘I will not hear.’ This has been your manner from your youth, That you did not obey My voice.
22The wind shall eat up all your rulers, And your lovers shall go into captivity; Surely then you will be ashamed and humiliated For all your wickedness.
23O inhabitant of Lebanon, Making your nest in the cedars, How gracious will you be when pangs come upon you, Like the pain of a woman in labor?
24“ As I live,” says the Lord, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off;
25and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you fear—the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the hand of the Chaldeans.
26So I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country where you were not born; and there you shall die.
27But to the land to which they desire to return, there they shall not return.
28“Is this man Coniah a despised, broken idol— A vessel in which is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his descendants, And cast into a land which they do not know?
29 O earth, earth, earth, Hear the word of the Lord!
30Thus says the Lord: ‘Write this man down as childless, A man who shall not prosper in his days; For none of his descendants shall prosper, Sitting on the throne of David, And ruling anymore in Judah.’ ”