Jeremiah 14
11Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for the well-being of this people.12Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague.”
13“Ah, Lord GOD!” I replied, “Look, the prophets are telling them, ‘You will not see the sword or suffer famine, but I will give you lasting peace in this place.’”
14“The prophets are prophesying lies in My name,” replied the LORD. “I did not send them or appoint them or speak to them. They are prophesying to you a false vision, a worthless divination, the futility and delusion of their own minds.15Therefore this is what the LORD says about the prophets who prophesy in My name: I did not send them, yet they say, ‘No sword or famine will touch this land.’ By sword and famine these very prophets will meet their end!16And the people to whom they prophesy will be thrown into the streets of Jerusalem because of famine and sword. There will be no one to bury them or their wives, their sons or their daughters. I will pour out their own evil upon them.
17You are to speak this word to them:
‘My eyes overflow with tears;
day and night they do not cease,
for the virgin daughter of my people
has been shattered by a crushing blow,
a severely grievous wound.
18If I go out to the country,
I see those slain by the sword;
if I enter the city,
I see those ravaged by famine!
For both prophet and priest
travel to a land they do not know.’”
A Prayer for Mercy
19Have You rejected Judah completely?
Do You despise Zion?
Why have You stricken us
so that we are beyond healing?
We hoped for peace,
but no good has come,
and for the time of healing,
but there was only terror.
20We acknowledge our wickedness, O LORD,
the guilt of our fathers;
indeed, we have sinned against You.
21For the sake of Your name do not despise us;
do not disgrace Your glorious throne.
Remember Your covenant with us;
do not break it.
22Can the worthless idols of the nations bring rain?
Do the skies alone send showers?
Is this not by You, O LORD our God?
So we put our hope in You,
for You have done all these things.
Jeremiah 15
Judgment to Continue
1Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go.
2If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says:
‘Those destined for death, to death;
those destined for the sword, to the sword;
those destined for famine, to famine;
and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’
3I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.4I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.
5Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem?
Who will mourn for you?
Who will turn aside
to ask about your welfare?
6You have forsaken Me, declares the LORD.
You have turned your back.
So I will stretch out My hand against you
and I will destroy you;
I am weary of showing compassion.
7I will scatter them with a winnowing fork
at the gates of the land.
I will bereave and destroy My people
who have not turned from their ways.
8I will make their widows more numerous
than the sand of the sea.
I will bring a destroyer at noon
against the mothers of young men.
I will suddenly bring upon them
anguish and dismay.
9The mother of seven will grow faint;
she will breathe her last breath.
Her sun will set while it is still day;
she will be disgraced and humiliated.
And the rest I will put to the sword
in the presence of their enemies,”
declares the LORD.
Jeremiah’s Woe
10Woe to me, my mother,
that you have borne me,
a man of strife and conflict
in all the land.
I have neither lent nor borrowed,
yet everyone curses me.
11The LORD said:
“Surely I will deliver you for a good purpose;
surely I will intercede with your enemy
in your time of trouble,
in your time of distress.
12Can anyone smash iron—
iron from the north—or bronze?
13Your wealth and your treasures
I will give up as plunder,
without charge for all your sins
within all your borders.
14Then I will enslave you to your enemies
in a land you do not know,
for My anger will kindle a fire
that will burn against you.”
15You understand, O LORD;
remember me and attend to me.
Avenge me against my persecutors.
In Your patience, do not take me away.
Know that I endure reproach for Your honor.
16Your words were found, and I ate them.
Your words became my joy
and my heart’s delight.
For I bear Your name,
O LORD God of Hosts.
17I never sat with the band of revelers,
nor did I celebrate with them.
Because Your hand was on me, I sat alone,
for You have filled me with indignation.
18Why is my pain unending,
and my wound incurable,
refusing to be healed?
You have indeed become like a mirage to me—
water that is not there.
The LORD’s Promise
19Therefore this is what the LORD says:
“If you return, I will restore you;
you will stand in My presence.
And if you speak words that are noble instead of worthless,
you will be My spokesman.
It is they who must turn to you,
but you must not turn to them.
20Then I will make you a wall to this people,
a fortified wall of bronze;
they will fight against you
but will not overcome you,
for I am with you to save and deliver you,
declares the LORD.
21I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked
and redeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”
Jeremiah 16
Disaster Predicted
1Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,2“You must not marry or have sons or daughters in this place.”3For this is what the LORD says concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and the mothers who bore them, and the fathers who fathered them in this land:4“They will die from deadly diseases. They will not be mourned or buried, but will lie like dung on the ground. They will be finished off by sword and famine, and their corpses will become food for the birds of the air and beasts of the earth.”
5Indeed, 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, for I have removed from this people My peace, My loving devotion, and My compassion,” declares the LORD.6“Both great and small will die in this land. They will not be buried or mourned, nor will anyone cut himself or shave his head for them.7No food will be offered to comfort those who mourn the dead; not even a cup of consolation will be given for the loss of a father or mother.
8You must not enter a house where there is feasting and sit down with them to eat and drink.9For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: I am going to remove from this place, before your very eyes and in your days, the sounds of joy and gladness, the voices of the bride and bridegroom.10When you tell these people all these things, they will ask you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? What is our guilt? What is the sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’11Then you are to answer them: ‘It is because your fathers have forsaken Me, declares the LORD, and followed other gods, and served and worshiped them. They abandoned Me and did not keep My instruction.12And you have done more evil than your fathers. See how each of you follows the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying Me.13So I will cast you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known. There you will serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
God Will Restore Israel
14Yet behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when they will no longer say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of Egypt.’15Instead they will say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives, who brought the Israelites up out of the land of the north and all the other lands to which He had banished them.’ For I will return them to their land that I gave to their forefathers.
16But for 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, even from the clefts of the rocks.17For My eyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from My face, and their guilt is not concealed from My eyes.18And I will first repay them double their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land with the carcasses of their detestable idols, and they have filled My inheritance with their abominations.”
19O LORD, my strength and my fortress,
my refuge in the day of distress,
the nations will come to You
from the ends of the earth, and they will say,
“Our fathers inherited nothing but lies,
worthless idols of no benefit at all.
20Can man make gods for himself?
Such are not gods!”
21“Therefore behold, I will 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.
Jeremiah 17
The Sin and Punishment of Judah
1“The sin of Judah is written with an iron stylus,
engraved with a diamond point
on the tablets of their hearts
and on the horns of their altars.
2Even their children remember their altars and Asherah poles
by the green trees and on the high hills.
3O My mountain in the countryside,
I will give over your wealth
and all your treasures as plunder,
because of the sin of your high places,
within all your borders.
4And you yourself will relinquish
the inheritance that I gave you.
I will enslave you to your enemies
in a land that you do not know,
for you have kindled My anger;
it will burn forever.”
5This is what the LORD says:
“Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind,
who makes the flesh his strength
and turns his heart from the LORD.
6He will be like a shrub in the desert;
he will not see when prosperity comes.
He will dwell in the parched places of the desert,
in a salt land where no one lives.
7But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in Him.
8He is like a tree planted by the waters
that sends out its roots toward the stream.
It does not fear when the heat comes,
and its leaves are always green.
It does not worry in a year of drought,
nor does it cease to produce fruit.
9The heart is deceitful above all things
and beyond cure.
Who can understand it?
10I, the LORD, search the heart;
I examine the mind
to reward a man according to his way,
by what his deeds deserve.
11Like a partridge hatching eggs it did not lay
is the man who makes a fortune unjustly.
In the middle of his days his riches will desert him,
and in the end he will be the fool.”