Jeremiah 34; Jeremiah 35; Jeremiah 36; Hebrews 2

1 Jeremiah received the LORD's word when Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar and his army, and all the countries and people he ruled, were attacking Jerusalem and all its towns.

2 The LORD, the God of Israel, proclaims, Go and speak to Judah's King Zedekiah and say to him: The LORD proclaims, I'm handing this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down.

3 You won't escape but will be captured and handed over to him. You will see the king of Babylon with your very own eyes and speak to him personally, and you will be taken to Babylon.

4 Even so, hear the LORD's word, King Zedekiah of Judah: This is what the LORD proclaims about you: You won't die in battle;

5 you will die a peaceful death. As burial incense was burned to honor your ancestors, the kings who came before you, so it will be burned to honor you as people mourn, "Oh, master!" I myself promise this, declares the LORD.

6 The prophet Jeremiah delivered this message to Judah's King Zedekiah in Jerusalem

7 when the army of the king of Babylon was attacking Jerusalem and all the remaining Judean towns, Lachish and Azekah—the only fortified towns still standing in Judah.

8 Jeremiah received the LORD's word after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim liberty for their slaves:

9 everyone was to free their male and female Hebrew slaves and no longer hold a Judean brother or sister in bondage.

10 So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed to free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage; they obeyed the king's command and let them go.

11 But afterward they broke their promise, took back the men and women they had freed, and enslaved them again.

12 Then the LORD's word came to Jeremiah:

13 The LORD, the God of Israel, proclaims: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

14 I said that every seventh year each of you must free any Hebrews who have been sold to you. After they have served you for six years, you must set them free. But your ancestors didn't obey or pay any attention to me.

15 Recently you turned about and did what was right in my sight; each of you proclaimed liberty for the other and made a covenant before me in the temple that bears my name.

16 But then you went back on your word and made my name impure; each of you reclaimed the men and women you had set free and forced them to be your slaves again.

17 Therefore, the LORD proclaims: Since you have defied me by not setting your fellow citizens free, I'm setting you free, declares the LORD, free to die by the sword, disease, and famine! And I will make you an object of horror for all nations on earth.

18 I will make those who disregarded my covenant, violating its terms that they agreed to in my presence, like the calf they cut in two and then walked between the halves of its carcass.

19 The officials of Judah and Jerusalem, the eunuchs and priests, and all the people who passed through the pieces of the calf

20 I will hand over to their enemies who seek to kill them. And their corpses will become food for birds and wild animals.

21 I will hand over Judah's King Zedekiah and his officials to their enemies who seek to kill them: namely, the army of Babylon's king, which has just withdrawn from you.

22 I'm about to issue orders, declares the LORD, that the army of Babylon return to this city. They will wage war against it, capture it, and burn it down along with other Judean cities. I will make Judah a wasteland, without inhabitants.

1 Jeremiah received the LORD's word during the rule of Judah's King Jehoiakim, Josiah's son:

2 Go to the Rechabite family and invite them to come to one of the rooms of the LORD's temple. When they arrive, offer them some wine to drink.

3 So I took Jaazaniah, Jeremiah's son and Habazziniah's grandson, and his brothers and all his sons, and the whole Rechabite family.

4 I brought them to the room in the LORD's temple assigned to the sons of Hanan, Igdaliah's son, the man of God. The room was next to the one used by the chief officers and right above the room of Maaseiah, Shallum's son, the temple doorkeeper.

5 Then I set bowls full of wine before the Rechabites, along with several cups, and I said to them, "Have some."

6 But they refused: "We don't drink wine because our ancestor Jonadab, Rechab's son, commanded us, ‘You and your children are never to drink wine;

7 nor are you to build or own houses or plant gardens and vineyards; rather, you are always to dwell in tents so you may live a long time in the fertile land you pass through.'

8 We have obeyed everything our ancestor Jonadab, Rechab's son, commanded us. No one in our household, including our wives and children, has ever had wine.

9 And we haven't built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields, or crops.

10 We have lived in tents and done everything our ancestor Jonadab commanded us.

11 But when Babylon's King Nebuchadnezzar invaded the country, we said, ‘We better go to Jerusalem to escape the Babylonian and Aramean armies.' That's why we're here in Jerusalem."

12 Then the LORD's word came to Jeremiah:

13 The LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Go and tell the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem: Can't you learn a lesson about what it means to obey me? declares the LORD.

14 Jonadab, Rechab's son, commanded his descendants not to drink wine, and to this very day they have not drunk wine, obeying their ancestor's instruction. But I have spoken to you again and again, and you haven't listened to me.

15 I have sent you all my servants, the prophets, time and again, saying, "Each of you, turn from your evil ways and reform your actions; don't worship or serve other gods. Then you may live in the fertile land I gave to you and your ancestors." But you haven't paid attention or listened to me.

16 The descendants of Jonadab, Rechab's son, have thoroughly obeyed their ancestor, but this people have not listened to me.

17 Therefore, this is what the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, says: I'm going to bring upon the people of Judah and all those who live in Jerusalem the disaster I pronounced against them, because they wouldn't listen to me or respond when I called.

18 Then Jeremiah said to the Rechabite family: The LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Because you have obeyed all Jonadab's instructions and you have done everything he commanded you,

19 the LORD of heavenly forces, the God of Israel proclaims: Jonadab, Rechab's son, will always have a descendant that stands before me.

1 In the fourth year of Judah's King Jehoiakim, Josiah's son, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:

2 Take a scroll and write in it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations from the time of Josiah until today.

3 Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I intend to bring upon them, they will turn from their evil ways, and I will forgive their wrongdoing and sins.

4 So Jeremiah sent for Baruch, Neriah's son. As Jeremiah dictated all the words that the LORD had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them in the scroll.

5 Then Jeremiah told Baruch, "I'm confined here and can't go to the LORD's temple.

6 So you go to the temple on the next day of fasting, and read the LORD's words from the scroll that I have dictated to you. Read them so that all the people in the temple can hear them, as well as all the Judeans who have come from their towns.

7 If they turn from their evil ways, perhaps the LORD will hear their prayers. The LORD has threatened them with fierce anger."

8 Baruch, Neriah's son, did everything the prophet Jeremiah instructed him: he read all the LORD's words from the scroll in the temple.

9 In the ninth month of the fifth year of Judah's King Jehoiakim, Josiah's son, all the people in Jerusalem and all those who had come from Judean towns observed a fast for the LORD in Jerusalem.

10 Then Baruch read Jeremiah's words from the scroll to all the people in the LORD's temple; he read them in the chamber of Gemariah, Shaphan the scribe's son, in the upper courtyard near the entrance of the New Gate of the LORD's temple.

11 When Micaiah, Gemariah's son and Shaphan's grandson, heard all the LORD's words from the scroll,

12 he went down to the scribes' chamber in the royal palace. There he found all the officials meeting together: Elishama the scribe; Delaiah, Shemaiah's son; Elnathan, Achbor's son; Gemariah, Shaphan's son; Zedekiah, Hananiah's son, and all the other officials.

13 Micaiah told them all the words he heard Baruch read from the scroll before the people.

14 Then all the officials sent Jehudi, Nethaniah's son and Shelemiah's grandson, and Cushi's great-grandson, to Baruch: "Take the scroll you read to the people and come with me." So Baruch, Neriah's son, took the scroll and went to the officials.

15 They said to him, "Sit down and read it to us." So Baruch read it to them.

16 When they heard all its words, they were alarmed and said to Baruch: "We must at once report all this to the king!"

17 Then they asked Baruch, "Tell us, how did you write all these words? Did they come from Jeremiah?"

18 Baruch replied, "He dictated all the words to me, and I wrote them with ink in the scroll."

19 The officials then said to Baruch, "You and Jeremiah had better go and hide. And don't let anyone know where you are."

20 After leaving the scroll in the room of Elishama the scribe, they went to the king's court and told him everything.

21 The king sent Jehudi to take the scroll, and he retrieved it from the room of Elishama the scribe. Then Jehudi read it to the king and all his royal officials who were standing next to the king.

22 Now it was the ninth month, and the king was staying in the winterized part of the palace with the firepot burning near him.

23 And whenever Jehudi read three or four columns of the scroll, the king would cut them off with a scribe's knife and throw them into the firepot until the whole scroll was burned up.

24 Neither the king nor any of his attendants who heard all these words were alarmed or tore their clothes.

25 Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah begged the king not to burn the scroll, but he wouldn't listen to them.

26 The king commanded Jerahmeel, the king's son, along with Seraiah, Azriel's son, and Shelemiah, Abdeel's son, to arrest the scribe Baruch and the prophet Jeremiah. But the LORD hid them.

27 The LORD's word came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll containing the words written by Baruch at Jeremiah's dictation:

28 Get another scroll and write in it all the words that were in the first scroll that Judah's King Jehoiakim burned.

29 Then say to Judah's King Jehoiakim: The LORD proclaims: You burned that scroll because it declared that the king of Babylon will come and destroy this land and eliminate every sign of life from it.

30 Therefore, this is what the LORD proclaims about Judah's King Jehoiakim: He won't have any heirs to occupy the throne of David, and his dead body will be cast out and exposed to the heat of the day and the frost of the night.

31 I will punish him and his family and his attendants for their wrongdoing. I will bring upon them, as well as the residents of Jerusalem and the people of Judah, every disaster I pronounced against them. But they wouldn't listen.

32 So Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch, Neriah's son, who wrote at Jeremiah's dictation all the words in the scroll burned in the fire by Judah's King Jehoiakim. Many similar words were added to them.

1 This is why it's necessary for us to pay more attention to what we have heard, or else we may drift away from it.

2 If the message that was spoken by angels was reliable, and every offense and act of disobedience received an appropriate consequence,

3 how will we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? It was first announced through the Lord, and then it was confirmed by those who heard him.

4 God also vouched for their message with signs, amazing things, various miracles, and gifts from the Holy Spirit, which were handed out the way he wanted.

5 God didn't put the world that is coming (the world we are talking about) under the angels' control.

6 Instead, someone declared somewhere, What is humanity that you think about them? Or what are the human beings that you care about them?

7 For a while you made them lower than angels. You crowned the human beings with glory and honor.

8 You put everything under their control. When he puts everything under their control, he doesn't leave anything out of control. But right now, we don't see everything under their control yet.

9 However, we do see the one who was made lower in order than the angels for a little while—it's Jesus! He's the one who is now crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of his death. He suffered death so that he could taste death for everyone through God's grace.

10 It was appropriate for God, for whom and through whom everything exists, to use experiences of suffering to make perfect the pioneer of salvation. This salvation belongs to many sons and daughters whom he's leading to glory.

11 This is because the one who makes people holy and the people who are being made holy all come from one source. That is why Jesus isn't ashamed to call them brothers and sisters when he says,

12 I will publicly announce your name to my brothers and sisters. I will praise you in the middle of the assembly.

13 He also says, I will rely on him. And also, Here I am with the children whom God has given to me.

14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he also shared the same things in the same way. He did this to destroy the one who holds the power over death—the devil—by dying.

15 He set free those who were held in slavery their entire lives by their fear of death.

16 Of course, he isn't trying to help angels, but rather he's helping Abraham's descendants.

17 Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers and sisters in every way. This was so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in things relating to God, in order to wipe away the sins of the people.

18 He's able to help those who are being tempted, since he himself experienced suffering when he was tempted.