Jeremiah 18; Jeremiah 19; Jeremiah 20; Jeremiah 21; Jeremiah 22

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Jeremiah 18

1 The Lord said to me,
2 "Go down to the potter's house, where I will give you my message."
3 So I went there and saw the potter working at his wheel.
4 Whenever a piece of pottery turned out imperfect, he would take the clay and make it into something else.
5 Then the Lord said to me,
6 "Don't I have the right to do with you people of Israel what the potter did with the clay? You are in my hands just like clay in the potter's hands.
7 If at any time I say that I am going to uproot, break down, or destroy any nation or kingdom,
8 but then that nation turns from its evil, I will not do what I said I would.
9 On the other hand, if I say that I am going to plant or build up any nation or kingdom,
10 but then that nation disobeys me and does evil, I will not do what I said I would.
11 Now then, tell the people of Judah and of Jerusalem that I am making plans against them and getting ready to punish them. Tell them to stop living sinful lives - to change their ways and the things they are doing.
12 They will answer, "No, why should we? We will all be just as stubborn and evil as we want to be.' "
13 The Lord says, "Ask every nation if such a thing has ever happened before. The people of Israel have done a terrible thing!
14 Are Lebanon's rocky heights ever without snow? Do its cool mountain streams ever run dry?
15 Yet my people have forgotten me; they burn incense to idols. They have stumbled in the way they should go; they no longer follow the old ways; they walk on unmarked paths.
16 They have made this land a thing of horror, to be despised forever. All who pass by will be shocked at what they see; they will shake their heads in amazement.
17 I will scatter my people before their enemies, like dust blown by the east wind. I will turn my back on them; I will not help them when the disaster comes."
18 Then the people said, "Let's do something about Jeremiah! There will always be priests to instruct us, the wise to give us counsel, and prophets to proclaim God's message. Let's bring charges against him and stop listening to what he says."
19 So I prayed, "Lord, hear what I am saying and listen to what my enemies are saying about me.
20 Is evil the payment for good? Yet they have dug a pit for me to fall in. Remember how I came to you and spoke on their behalf, so that you would not deal with them in anger.
21 But now, Lord, let their children starve to death; let them be killed in war. Let the women lose their husbands and children; let the men die of disease and the young men be killed in battle.
22 Send a mob to plunder their homes without warning; make them cry out in terror. They have dug a pit for me to fall in and have set traps to catch me.
23 But, Lord, you know all their plots to kill me. Do not forgive their evil or pardon their sin. Throw them down in defeat and deal with them while you are angry."
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Jeremiah 19

1 The Lord told me to go and buy a clay jar. He also told me to take some of the elders of the people and some of the older priests,
2 and to go through Potsherd Gate out to Hinnom Valley. There I was to proclaim the message that he would give me.
3 The Lord told me to say, "Kings of Judah and people of Jerusalem, listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, have to say. I am going to bring such a disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will be stunned.
4 I am going to do this because the people have abandoned me and defiled this place by offering sacrifices here to other gods - gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah have known anything about. They have filled this place with the blood of innocent people,
5 and they have built altars for Baal in order to burn their children in the fire as sacrifices. I never commanded them to do this; it never even entered my mind.
6 So then, the time will come when this place will no longer be called Topheth or Hinnom Valley. Instead, it will be known as Slaughter Valley.
7 In this place I will frustrate all the plans of the people of Judah and Jerusalem. I will let their enemies triumph over them and kill them in battle. I will give their corpses to the birds and the wild animals as food.
8 I will bring such terrible destruction on this city that everyone who passes by will be shocked and amazed.
9 The enemy will surround the city and try to kill its people. The siege will be so terrible that the people inside the city will eat one another and even their own children."
10 Then the Lord told me to break the jar in front of those who had gone with me
11 and to tell them that the Lord Almighty had said, "I will break this people and this city, and it will be like this broken clay jar that cannot be put together again. People will bury their dead even in Topheth because there will be nowhere else to bury them.
12 I promise that I will make this city and its inhabitants like Topheth.
13 The houses of Jerusalem, the houses of the kings of Judah, and indeed all the houses on whose roofs incense has been burned to the stars and where wine has been poured out as an offering to other gods - they will all be as unclean as Topheth."
14 Then I left Topheth, where the Lord had sent me to proclaim his message. I went and stood in the court of the Temple and told all the people
15 that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said, "I am going to bring on this city and on every nearby town all the punishment that I said I would, because you are stubborn and will not listen to what I say."
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Jeremiah 20

1 When the priest Pashhur son of Immer, who was the chief officer of the Temple, heard me proclaim these things,
2 he had me beaten and placed in chains near the upper Benjamin Gate in the Temple.
3 The next morning, after Pashhur had released me from the chains, I said to him, "The Lord did not name you Pashhur. The name he has given you is "Terror Everywhere.'
4 The Lord himself has said, "I am going to make you a terror to yourself and to your friends, and you will see them all killed by the swords of their enemies. I am going to put all the people of Judah under the power of the king of Babylonia; he will take some away as prisoners to his country and put others to death.
5 I will also let their enemies plunder all the wealth of this city and seize all its possessions and property, even the treasures of the kings of Judah, and carry everything off to Babylonia.
6 As for you, Pashhur, you and all your family will also be captured and taken off to Babylonia. There you will die and be buried, along with all your friends to whom you have told so many lies.' "
7 Lord, you have deceived me, and I was deceived. You are stronger than I am, and you have overpowered me. Everyone makes fun of me; they laugh at me all day long.
8 Whenever I speak, I have to cry out and shout, "Violence! Destruction!" Lord, I am ridiculed and scorned all the time because I proclaim your message.
9 But when I say, "I will forget the Lord and no longer speak in his name," then your message is like a fire burning deep within me. I try my best to hold it in, but can no longer keep it back.
10 I hear everybody whispering, "Terror is everywhere! So let's report him to the authorities!" Even my close friends wait for my downfall. "Perhaps he can be tricked," they say; "then we can catch him and get revenge."
11 But you, Lord, are on my side, strong and mighty, and those who persecute me will fail. They will be disgraced forever, because they cannot succeed. Their disgrace will never be forgotten.
12 But, Almighty Lord, you test people justly; you know what is in their hearts and minds. So let me see you take revenge on my enemies, for I have placed my cause in your hands.
13 Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord! He rescues the oppressed from the power of evil people.
14 Curse the day I was born! Forget the day my mother gave me birth!
15 Curse the one who made my father glad by bringing him the news, "It's a boy! You have a son!"
16 May he be like those cities that the Lord destroyed without mercy. May he hear cries of pain in the morning and the battle alarm at noon,
17 for not killing me before I was born. Then my mother's womb would have been my grave.
18 Why was I born? Was it only to have trouble and sorrow, to end my life in disgrace?
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Jeremiah 21

1 King Zedekiah of Judah sent to me Pashhur son of Malchiah and the priest Zephaniah son of Maaseiah with this request:
2 "Please speak to the Lord for us, because King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his army are besieging the city. Maybe the Lord will perform one of his miracles for us and force Nebuchadnezzar to retreat."
3 Then the Lord spoke to me, and I told those who had been sent to me
4 to tell Zedekiah that the Lord, the God of Israel, had said, "Zedekiah, I am going to defeat your army that is fighting against the king of Babylonia and his army. I will pile up your soldiers' weapons in the center of the city.
5 I will fight against you with all my might, my anger, my wrath, and my fury.
6 I will kill everyone living in this city; people and animals alike will die of a terrible disease.
7 But as for you, your officials, and the people who survive the war, the famine, and the disease - I will let all of you be captured by King Nebuchadnezzar and by your enemies, who want to kill you. Nebuchadnezzar will put you to death. He will not spare any of you or show mercy or pity to any of you. I, the Lord, have spoken."
8 Then the Lord told me to say to the people, "Listen! I, the Lord, am giving you a choice between the way that leads to life and the way that leads to death.
9 Anyone who stays in the city will be killed in war or by starvation or disease. But those who go out and surrender to the Babylonians, who are now attacking the city, will not be killed; they will at least escape with their life.
10 I have made up my mind not to spare this city, but to destroy it. It will be given over to the king of Babylonia, and he will burn it to the ground. I, the Lord, have spoken."
11 The Lord told me to give this message to the royal house of Judah, the descendants of David: "Listen to what I, the Lord, am saying. See that justice is done every day. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. If you don't, the evil you are doing will make my anger burn like a fire that cannot be put out.
13 You, Jerusalem, are sitting high above the valleys, like a rock rising above the plain. But I will fight against you. You say that no one can attack you or break through your defenses.
14 But I will punish you for what you have done. I will set your palace on fire, and the fire will burn down everything around it. I, the Lord, have spoken."
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.

Jeremiah 22

1 The Lord told me to go to the palace of the king of Judah, the descendant of David, and there tell the king, his officials, and the people of Jerusalem to listen to what the Lord had said:
3 "I, the Lord, command you to do what is just and right. Protect the person who is being cheated from the one who is cheating him. Do not mistreat or oppress aliens, orphans, or widows; and do not kill innocent people in this holy place.
4 If you really do as I have commanded, then David's descendants will continue to be kings. And they, together with their officials and their people, will continue to pass through the gates of this palace in chariots and on horses.
5 But if you do not obey my commands, then I swear to you that this palace will fall into ruins. I, the Lord, have spoken.
6 "To me, Judah's royal palace is as beautiful as the land of Gilead and as the Lebanon Mountains; but I will make it a desolate place where no one lives.
7 I am sending men to destroy it. They will all bring their axes, cut down its beautiful cedar pillars, and throw them into the fire.
8 "Afterward many foreigners will pass by and ask one another why I, the Lord, have done such a thing to this great city.
9 Then they will answer that it is because you have abandoned your covenant with me, your God, and have worshiped and served other gods."
10 People of Judah, do not weep for King Josiah; do not mourn his death. But weep bitterly for Joahaz, his son; they are taking him away, never to return, never again to see the land where he was born.
11 The Lord says concerning Josiah's son Joahaz, who succeeded his father as king of Judah, "He has gone away from here, never to return.
12 He will die in the country where they have taken him, and he will never again see this land."
13 Doomed is the one who builds his house by injustice and enlarges it by dishonesty; who makes his people work for nothing and does not pay their wages.
14 Doomed is the one who says, "I will build myself a mansion with spacious rooms upstairs." So he puts windows in his house, panels it with cedar, and paints it red.
15 Does it make you a better king if you build houses of cedar, finer than those of others? Your father enjoyed a full life. He was always just and fair, and he prospered in everything he did.
16 He gave the poor a fair trial, and all went well with him. That is what it means to know the Lord.
17 But you can only see your selfish interests; you kill the innocent and violently oppress your people. The Lord has spoken.
18 So then, the Lord says about Josiah's son Jehoiakim, king of Judah, "No one will mourn his death or say, "How terrible, my friend, how terrible!' No one will weep for him or cry, "My lord! My king!'
19 With the funeral honors of a donkey, he will be dragged away and thrown outside Jerusalem's gates."
20 People of Jerusalem, go to Lebanon and shout, go to the land of Bashan and cry; call out from the mountains of Moab, because all your allies have been defeated.
21 The Lord spoke to you when you were prosperous, but you refused to listen. That is what you've done all your life; you never would obey the Lord.
22 Your leaders will be blown away by the wind, your allies taken as prisoners of war, your city disgraced and put to shame because of all the evil you have done.
23 You rest secure among the cedars brought from Lebanon; but how pitiful you'll be when pains strike you, pains like those of a woman in labor.
24 The Lord said to King Jehoiachin, son of King Jehoiakim of Judah, "As surely as I am the living God, even if you were the signet ring on my right hand, I would pull you off
25 and give you to people you are afraid of, people who want to kill you. I will give you to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia and his soldiers.
26 I am going to force you and your mother into exile. You will go to a country where neither of you was born, and both of you will die there.
27 You will long to see this country again, but you will never return."
28 I said, "Has King Jehoiachin become like a broken jar that is thrown away and that no one wants? Is that why he and his children have been taken into exile to a land they know nothing about?"
29 O land, land, land! Listen to what the Lord has said:
30 "This man is condemned to lose his children, to be a man who will never succeed. He will have no descendants who will rule in Judah as David's successors. I, the Lord, have spoken."
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.