The Broken Flask
1 Thus says the Lord, “Go, buy a potter’s earthenware flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests, 2 and go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you. 3 You shall say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. iThus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing such disaster upon this place that the jears of everyone who hears of it will tingle. 4 Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, 5 and have built the high places of Baal kto burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, lwhich I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind— 6 mtherefore, behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. 7 And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem, and will cause their people to nfall by the sword before their enemies, and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for ofood to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the earth. 8 And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at. pEveryone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its wounds. 9 And I will make them qeat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.’
10 “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you, 11 and shall say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended. Men shall rbury in Topheth because there will be no place else to bury. 12 Thus will I do to this place, declares the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. 13 The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah—all the houses son whose roofs offerings have been offered to all the host of heaven, and tdrink offerings have been poured out to other gods—shall be defiled like the place of Topheth.’”
14 Then Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, and he stood uin the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people: 15 “Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I am vbringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have wstiffened their neck, refusing to hear my words.”
Jeremiah Persecuted by Pashhur
1 Now Pashhur the priest, the son of Immer, who was chief officer in the house of the Lord, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things. 2 Then Pashhur beat Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper Benjamin Gate of the house of the Lord. 3 The next day, when Pashhur released Jeremiah from the stocks, Jeremiah said to him, “The Lord does not call your name Pashhur, but xTerror on Every Side. 4 For thus says the Lord: Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends. They shall fall by the sword of their enemies while you look on. And I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon. He shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall strike them down with the sword. 5 Moreover, I will give all the wealth of the city, all its gains, all its prized belongings, and yall the treasures of the kings of Judah into the hand of their enemies, who shall plunder them and seize them and carry them to Babylon. 6 And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. To Babylon you shall go, and there you shall die, and there you shall be buried, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied falsely.”
7 O Lord, you have deceived me,
and I was deceived;
you are stronger than I,
and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughingstock all the day;
everyone mocks me.
8 For whenever I speak, I cry out,
I shout, z“Violence and destruction!”
For athe word of the Lord has become for me
a reproach and derision all day long.
9 If I say, “I will not mention him,
or speak any more in his name,”
there is in my heart as it were a burning fire
shut up in my bones,
and bI am weary with holding it in,
and I cannot.
10 For I hear many whispering.
Terror is on every side!
“Denounce him! Let us denounce him!”
say all my close friends,
watching for my fall.
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
then we can overcome him
and take our revenge on him.”
11 But the Lord is cwith me as a dread warrior;
therefore my dpersecutors will stumble;
they will not overcome me.
They will be greatly shamed,
for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonor
will never be forgotten.
12 eO Lord of hosts, who tests the righteous,
who sees the heart and the mind,1
let me see your vengeance upon them,
for to you have I committed my cause.
13 Sing to the Lord;
praise the Lord!
For he has fdelivered the life of the needy
from the hand of evildoers.
14 gCursed be the day
on which I was born!
The day when my mother bore me,
let it not be blessed!
15 Cursed be the man who brought the news to my father,
“A son is born to you,”
making him very glad.
16 Let that man be like hthe cities
that the Lord overthrew without pity;
let him hear a cry in the morning
and an alarm at noon,
17 because he did not kill me in the womb;
so my mother would have been my grave,
and her womb forever great.
18 Why did I come out from the womb
to see toil and sorrow,
and spend my days in shame?
Jerusalem Will Fall to Nebuchadnezzar
1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, when King iZedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchiah and Zephaniah the priest, the son of Maaseiah, saying, 2 “Inquire of the Lord for us, for jNebuchadnezzar2 king of Babylon is making war against us. Perhaps the Lord will deal with us according to all his wonderful deeds and will make him withdraw from us.”
3 Then Jeremiah said to them: “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah, 4 ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands and with which you are fighting against the king of Babylon and against the Chaldeans who are besieging you outside the walls. And I will bring them together into the midst of this city. 5 I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand and strong arm, in anger and in fury and in great wrath. 6 And I will strike down the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast. They shall die of a great pestilence. 7 Afterward, declares the Lord, I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his servants and the people in this city who survive the kpestilence, sword, and famine linto the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their lives. mHe shall strike them down with the edge of the sword. He shall not pity them or spare them or have compassion.’
8 “And to this people you shall say: ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, nI set before you the way of life and the way of death. 9 oHe who stays in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, but he who goes out and surrenders to the Chaldeans who are besieging you shall live and shall phave his life as a prize of war. 10 For I have qset my face against this city rfor harm and not for good, declares the Lord: sit shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall tburn it with fire.’
Message to the House of David
11 “And to the house of the king of Judah say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, 12 O house of David! Thus says the Lord:
u“‘Execute justice in the morning,
and deliver from the hand of the oppressor
him who has been robbed,
vlest my wrath go forth like fire,
and burn with none to quench it,
because of your evil deeds.’”
13 w“Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley,
O rock of the plain,
declares the Lord;
you who say, ‘Who shall come down against us,
or who shall enter our habitations?’
14 I will punish you according to the fruit of your deeds,
declares the Lord;
I will kindle a fire in her forest,
and it shall devour all that is around her.”
Greeting
1 Paul, a aservant1 of God and an bapostle of Jesus Christ, for the sake of the faith of God’s celect and their dknowledge of the truth, ewhich accords with godliness, 2 in fhope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, gpromised before the ages began2 3 and hat the proper time imanifested in his word3 through the preaching with which I have been jentrusted kby the command of God our Savior;
4 To lTitus, mmy true child in a common faith:
Grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior.
Qualifications for Elders
5 nThis is why I left you in Crete, so that you might put what remained into order, and oappoint pelders in every town as I directed you— 6 qif anyone is above reproach, rthe husband of one wife,4 and his children are believers5 and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination. 7 For an soverseer,6 as God’s tsteward, must be above reproach. He must not be arrogant or uquick-tempered or a drunkard or violent or greedy for gain, 8 but hospitable, a lover of good, self-controlled, upright, holy, and disciplined. 9 He must hold firm to the trustworthy word as taught, so that he may be able to give instruction in vsound7 doctrine and also to rebuke those who contradict it.
10 For there are many who are insubordinate, wempty talkers and deceivers, especially those of xthe circumcision party.8 11 They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for yshameful gain what they ought not to teach. 12 zOne of the Cretans,9 a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.”10 13 aThis testimony is true. Therefore brebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not devoting themselves to Jewish cmyths and the dcommands of people who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, eall things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both ftheir minds and their gconsciences are defiled. 16 hThey profess to know God, but they deny him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work.
