The Lord Will Not Relent
1 Then the Lord said to me, i“Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my heart would not turn toward this people. Send them out of my sight, and let them go! 2 And when they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord:
j“‘Those who are for pestilence, to pestilence,
and those who are for the sword, to the sword;
those who are for famine, to famine,
and those who are for captivity, to captivity.’
3 I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the Lord: the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, and the birds of the air and the kbeasts of the earth to devour and destroy. 4 And I will make them a lhorror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of mwhat Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.
5 n“Who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem,
or who will grieve for you?
Who will turn aside
to ask about your welfare?
6 You have rejected me, declares the Lord;
you keep going obackward,
so I have stretched out my hand against you and destroyed you—
I am weary of relenting.
7 I have winnowed them with a winnowing fork
in the gates of the land;
I have bereaved them; I have destroyed my people;
they did not turn from their ways.
8 I have made their widows more in number
than the sand of the seas;
I have brought against the mothers of young men
a destroyer pat noonday;
I have made anguish and terror
fall upon them suddenly.
9 qShe who bore seven has grown feeble;
she has fainted away;
rher sun went down while it was yet day;
she has been shamed and disgraced.
And the rest of them I will give to the sword
before their enemies,
declares the Lord.”
Jeremiah’s Complaint
10 sWoe is me, my mother, that you bore me, a man of strife and contention to the whole land! I have not lent, nor have I borrowed, yet all of them curse me. 11 The Lord said, “Have I not1 set you free for their good? Have I not pleaded for you before the enemy in the time of trouble and in the time of distress? 12 Can one break iron, iron from the north, and bronze?
13 t“Your wealth and your treasures I will give as spoil, uwithout price, for all your sins, throughout all your territory. 14 I will make you serve your enemies in a land that you do not know, for vin my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”
15 O Lord, wyou know;
remember me and visit me,
and take xvengeance for me on my persecutors.
In your forbearance take me not away;
know that for your sake I bear reproach.
16 Your words were found, yand I ate them,
and your words became to me a joy
and the delight of my heart,
for I am called by your name,
O Lord, God of hosts.
17 I did not sit in the company of revelers,
nor did I rejoice;
I sat alone, because your hand was upon me,
for you had filled me with indignation.
18 Why is my pain unceasing,
my wound incurable,
refusing to be healed?
Will you be to me zlike a deceitful brook,
like waters that fail?
19 Therefore thus says the Lord:
“If you return, I will restore you,
and you shall stand before me.
If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless,
you shall be as my mouth.
They shall turn to you,
but you shall not turn to them.
20 And I will make you to this people
a fortified awall of bronze;
they will fight against you,
but they shall not prevail over you,
for I am bwith you
to save you and deliver you,
declares the Lord.
21 I will deliver you out of the hand of the wicked,
and credeem you from the grasp of the ruthless.”
Famine, Sword, and Death
1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place. 3 For 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: 4 They shall die of deadly diseases. They shall not be lamented, nor shall they be buried. dThey 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: eDo 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. 6 Both great and small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried, and no one shall lament for them or fcut himself or make himself gbald for them. 7 No one shall break hbread 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. 8 You shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink. 9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I will silence in this place, before your eyes and in your days, ithe 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, j‘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?’ 11 then you shall say to them: ‘Because your fathers have kforsaken 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, 12 and because you have done lworse than your fathers, for behold, every one of you follows his mstubborn, evil will, refusing to listen to me. 13 Therefore I will hurl you out of this land into a land that neither you nor your fathers have known, and nthere you shall serve other gods day and night, for I will show you no favor.’
The Lord Will Restore Israel
14 o“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,’ 15 but ‘As the Lord lives who brought up the people of Israel pout 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 qfishers, 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 rout of the clefts of the rocks. 17 For my seyes are on all their ways. They are not hidden from me, nor is their iniquity concealed from my eyes. 18 But first I will tdoubly 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.
20 Can man make for himself gods?
Such are unot 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 vmy name is the Lord.”
The Sin of Judah
1 “The sin of Judah is written wwith 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, 2 while their children remember their altars and their Asherim, xbeside every green tree and on the high hills, 3 on the mountains in the open country. yYour wealth and all your treasures I will give for spoil as the price of your high places for sin throughout all your territory. 4 You 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 zin my anger a fire is kindled that shall burn forever.”
5 Thus says the Lord:
“Cursed is the man who atrusts in man
and makes flesh his strength,2
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 btrusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
8 cHe 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.”
9 The heart is deceitful above all things,
and desperately sick;
who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart
eto give every man according to his ways,
according to the fruit of his deeds.”
11 Like 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.
12 A glorious throne set on high from the beginning
is the place of our sanctuary.
13 O Lord, the fhope of Israel,
all who gforsake you shall be put to shame;
those who turn away from you4 shall be written in the earth,
for they have forsaken the Lord, the hfountain of living water.
Jeremiah Prays for Deliverance
14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed;
save me, and I shall be saved,
for iyou are my praise.
15 Behold, they say to me,
j“Where is the word of the Lord?
Let it come!”
16 I 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.
17 Be 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!
Keep the Sabbath Holy
19 Thus said the Lord to me: “Go and kstand 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, 20 and 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. 21 Thus says the Lord: Take care for the sake of your lives, and do not bear a burden on the lSabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. 22 And 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. 23 mYet nthey did not listen or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck, that they might not hear and oreceive 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, 25 pthen 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. 26 And people shall come from the cities of Judah and the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the qShephelah, 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. 27 But 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 rfire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem and shall not be quenched.’”
A Good Soldier of Christ Jesus
1 You then, my child, nbe strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, 2 and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses oentrust to faithful men,1 who will be able to teach others also. 3 pShare in suffering as a good qsoldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not rcrowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 sIt is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
8 Remember Jesus Christ, trisen from the dead, the uoffspring of David, as preached in my gospel, 9 for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. vBut the word of God is not bound! 10 Therefore I wendure everything xfor the sake of the yelect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11 zThe saying is trustworthy, for:
aIf we have died with him, we will also live with him;
12 if we endure, we will also breign with him;
if we deny him, he also will deny us;
13 cif we are faithless, he remains faithful—
for he cannot deny himself.
A Worker Approved by God
14 Remind them of these things, and dcharge them before God2 not to equarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. 15 Do your best to fpresent yourself to God as one approved,3 a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the gword of truth. 16 But havoid iirreverent babble, for it will lead people into jmore and more ungodliness, 17 and their talk will spread like gangrene. Among them are kHymenaeus and Philetus, 18 who have lswerved from the truth, msaying that the resurrection has already happened. They are upsetting the faith of some. 19 But God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: n“The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Let everyone who onames the name of the Lord depart from iniquity.”
20 Now in a great phouse there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, qsome for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 Therefore, rif anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable,4 he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, sready for every good work.
22 So tflee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, ulove, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. 23 Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant vcontroversies; you know that they breed quarrels. 24 And the Lord’s servant5 must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 wcorrecting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the xsnare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
