Jeremiah 24; Jeremiah 25; Jeremiah 26; Titus 2

1 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon captured Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim and king of Judah, his officers, and all the craftsmen and metalworkers of Judah. He took them away from Jerusalem and brought them to Babylon. It was then that the Lord showed me two baskets of figs arranged in front of the Temple of the Lord.

2 One of the baskets had very good figs in it, like figs that ripen early in the season. But the other basket had figs too rotten to eat.

3 The Lord said to me, "What do you see, Jeremiah?" I answered, "I see figs. The good figs are very good, but the rotten figs are too rotten to eat."

4 Then the Lord spoke his word to me:

5 "This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: 'I sent the people of Judah out of their country to live in the country of Babylon. I think of those people as good, like these good figs.

6 I will look after them and bring them back to the land of Judah. I will not tear them down, but I will build them up. I will not pull them up, but I will plant them so they can grow.

7 I will make them want to know me, that I am the Lord. They will be my people, and I will be their God, because they will return to me with their whole hearts.

8 "'But the bad figs are too rotten to eat.' So this is what the Lord says: 'Zedekiah king of Judah, his officers, and all the people from Jerusalem who are left alive, even those who live in Egypt, will be like those rotten figs.

9 I will make those people hated as an evil people by all the kingdoms of the earth. People will make fun of them and tell jokes about them and point fingers at them and curse them everywhere I scatter them.

10 I will send war, hunger, and disease against them. I will attack them until they have all been killed. Then they will no longer be in the land I gave to them and their ancestors.'"

1 This is the message that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah. It came in the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king of Judah and the first year Nebuchadnezzar was king of Babylon.

2 This is the message Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and Jerusalem:

3 The Lord has spoken his word to me again and again for these past twenty-three years. I have been a prophet since the thirteenth year of Josiah son of Amon king of Judah. I have spoken messages from the Lord to you from that time until today, but you have not listened.

4 The Lord has sent all his servants the prophets to you over and over again, but you have not listened or paid any attention to them.

5 Those prophets have said, "Stop your evil ways. Stop doing what is wrong so you can stay in the land that the Lord gave to you and your ancestors to live in forever.

6 Don't follow other gods to serve them or to worship them. Don't make me, the Lord, angry by worshiping idols that are the work of your own hands, or I will punish you."

7 "But you people of Judah did not listen to me," says the Lord. "You made me angry by worshiping idols that were the work of your own hands, so I punished you."

8 So this is what the Lord All-Powerful says: "Since you have not listened to my messages,

9 I will send for all the peoples of the north," says the Lord, "along with my servant Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. I will bring them all against Judah, those who live there, and all the nations around you, too. I will completely destroy all those countries and leave them in ruins forever. People will be shocked when they see how badly I have destroyed those countries.

10 I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and happiness, the sounds of brides and bridegrooms, and the sound of people grinding meal. And I will take away the light of the lamp.

11 That whole area will be an empty desert, and these nations will be slaves of the king of Babylon for seventy years.

12 "But when the seventy years have passed, I will punish the king of Babylon and his entire nation for their evil," says the Lord. "I will make that land a desert forever.

13 I will make happen all the terrible things I said about Babylonia -- everything Jeremiah prophesied about all those foreign nations, the warnings written in this book.

14 Even the Babylonians will have to serve many nations and many great kings. I will give them the punishment they deserve for all their own hands have done."

15 The Lord, the God of Israel, said this to me: "My anger is like the wine in a cup. Take it from my hand and make all the nations, to whom I am sending you, drink all of my anger from this cup.

16 They will drink my anger and stumble about and act like madmen because of the war I am going to send among them."

17 So I took the cup from the Lord's hand and went to those nations and made them drink from it.

18 I served this wine to the people of Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and the kings and officers of Judah, so they would become a ruin. Then people would be shocked and would insult them and speak evil of them. And so it has been to this day.

19 I also made these people drink of the Lord's anger: the king of Egypt, his servants, his officers, all his people,

20 and all the foreigners there; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the Philistines (the kings of the cities of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the people left at Ashdod);

21 the people of Edom, Moab, and Ammon;

22 all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; all the kings of the coastal countries to the west;

23 the people of Dedan and Tema and Buz; all who cut their hair short;

24 all the kings of Arabia; and the kings of the people who live in the desert;

25 all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media;

26 and all the kings of the north, near and far, one after the other. I made all the kingdoms on earth drink from the cup of the Lord's anger, but the king of Babylon will drink from this cup after all the others.

27 "Then say to them, 'This is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: Drink this cup of my anger. Get drunk from it and vomit. Fall down and don't get up because of the war I am sending among you!'

28 "If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink, say to them, 'The Lord All-Powerful says this: You must drink from this cup.

29 Look! I am already bringing disaster on Jerusalem, the city that is called by my name. Do you think you will not be punished? You will be punished! I am sending war on all the people of the earth, says the Lord All-Powerful.'

30 "You, Jeremiah, will prophesy against them with all these words. Say to them: 'The Lord will roar from heaven and will shout from his Holy Temple. He will roar loudly against his land. He will shout like people who walk on grapes to make wine; he will shout against all who live on the earth.

31 The noise will spread all over the earth, because the Lord will accuse all the nations. He will judge and tell what is wrong with all people, and he will kill the evil people with a sword,'" says the Lord.

32 This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: "Disasters will soon spread from nation to nation. They will come like a powerful storm from the faraway places on earth."

33 At that time those killed by the Lord will reach from one end of the earth to the other. No one will cry for them or gather up their bodies and bury them. They will be left lying on the ground like dung.

34 Cry, you leaders! Cry out loud! Roll around in the dust, leaders of the people! It is now time for you to be killed. You will fall and be scattered, like pieces of a broken jar.

35 There will be no place for the leaders to hide; they will not escape.

36 I hear the sound of the leaders shouting. I hear the leaders of the people crying loudly, because the Lord is destroying their land.

37 Those peaceful pastures will be like an empty desert, because the Lord is very angry.

38 Like a lion, he has left his den. Their land has been destroyed because of the terrible war he brought, because of his fierce anger.

1 This message came from the Lord soon after Jehoiakim son of Josiah became king of Judah.

2 This is what the Lord said: "Jeremiah, stand in the courtyard of the Temple of the Lord. Give this message to all the people of the towns of Judah who are coming to worship at the Temple of the Lord. Tell them everything I tell you to say; don't leave out a word.

3 Maybe they will listen and stop their evil ways. If they will, I will change my mind about bringing on them the disaster that I am planning because of the evil they have done.

4 Say to them: 'This is what the Lord says: You must obey me and follow my teachings that I gave you.

5 You must listen to what my servants the prophets say to you. I have sent them to you again and again, but you did not listen.

6 If you don't obey me, I will destroy my Temple in Jerusalem as I destroyed my Holy Tent at Shiloh. When I do, people all over the world will curse Jerusalem.'"

7 The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the Temple of the Lord.

8 When Jeremiah finished speaking everything the Lord had commanded him to say, the priests, prophets, and all the people grabbed Jeremiah. They said, "You must die!

9 How dare you prophesy in the name of the Lord that this Temple will be destroyed like the one at Shiloh! How dare you say that Jerusalem will become a desert without anyone to live in it!" And all the people crowded around Jeremiah in the Temple of the Lord.

10 Now when the officers of Judah heard about what was happening, they came out of the king's palace and went up to the Temple of the Lord and took their places at the entrance of the New Gate.

11 Then the priests and prophets said to the officers and all the other people, "Jeremiah should be killed. He prophesied against Jerusalem, and you heard him yourselves."

12 Then Jeremiah spoke these words to all the officers of Judah and all the other people: "The Lord sent me to say everything you have heard about this Temple and this city.

13 Now change your lives and start doing good and obey the Lord your God. Then he will change his mind and not bring on you the disaster he has told you about.

14 As for me, I am in your power. Do to me what you think is good and right.

15 But be sure of one thing. If you kill me, you will be guilty of killing an innocent person. You will make this city and everyone who lives in it guilty, too! The Lord truly sent me to you to give you this message."

16 Then the officers and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, "Jeremiah must not be killed. What he told us comes from the Lord our God."

17 Then some of the older leaders of Judah stood up and said to all the people,

18 "Micah, from the city of Moresheth, was a prophet during the time Hezekiah was king of Judah. Micah said to all the people of Judah, 'This is what the Lord All-Powerful says: Jerusalem will be plowed like a field. It will become a pile of rocks, and the hill where the Temple stands will be covered with bushes.'

19 "Hezekiah king of Judah and the people of Judah did not kill Micah. You know that Hezekiah feared the Lord and tried to please the Lord. So the Lord changed his mind and did not bring on Judah the disaster he had promised. If we hurt Jeremiah, we will bring a terrible disaster on ourselves!"

20 (Now there was another man who prophesied in the name of the Lord. His name was Uriah son of Shemaiah from the city of Kiriath Jearim. He preached the same things against Jerusalem and the land of Judah that Jeremiah did.

21 When King Jehoiakim, all his army officers, and all the leaders of Judah heard Uriah preach, King Jehoiakim wanted to kill Uriah. But Uriah heard about it and was afraid. So he escaped to Egypt.

22 Then King Jehoiakim sent Elnathan son of Acbor and some other men to Egypt,

23 and they brought Uriah back from Egypt. Then they took him to King Jehoiakim, who had Uriah killed with a sword. His body was thrown into the burial place where poor people are buried.)

24 Ahikam son of Shaphan supported Jeremiah. So Ahikam did not hand Jeremiah over to be killed by the people.

1 But you must tell everyone what to do to follow the true teaching.

2 Teach older men to be self-controlled, serious, wise, strong in faith, in love, and in patience.

3 In the same way, teach older women to be holy in their behavior, not speaking against others or enslaved to too much wine, but teaching what is good.

4 Then they can teach the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,

5 to be wise and pure, to be good workers at home, to be kind, and to yield to their husbands. Then no one will be able to criticize the teaching God gave us.

6 In the same way, encourage young men to be wise.

7 In every way be an example of doing good deeds. When you teach, do it with honesty and seriousness.

8 Speak the truth so that you cannot be criticized. Then those who are against you will be ashamed because there is nothing bad to say about us.

9 Slaves should yield to their own masters at all times, trying to please them and not arguing with them.

10 They should not steal from them but should show their masters they can be fully trusted so that in everything they do they will make the teaching of God our Savior attractive.

11 That is the way we should live, because God's grace that can save everyone has come.

12 It teaches us not to live against God nor to do the evil things the world wants to do. Instead, that grace teaches us to live now in a wise and right way and in a way that shows we serve God.

13 We should live like that while we wait for our great hope and the coming of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.

14 He gave himself for us so he might pay the price to free us from all evil and to make us pure people who belong only to him -- people who are always wanting to do good deeds.

15 Say these things and encourage the people and tell them what is wrong in their lives, with all authority. Do not let anyone treat you as if you were unimportant.