What does the day of atonement picture?

What is the meaning of afflict your souls?

Why do we fast?

How should we fast?

What is The Meaning of Lev. 16?

The date of the Day of Atonement must be counted from the new moon. Remember Trumpets is on the new moon as it comes to us. We need to check with the government site to find out the exact time of the new moon as it comes to us. There are websites with accurate information on the phases of the moon. The new moon is always the 1st of the month, and the 1st of the 7th month is Trumpets and the Day of Atonement is on the 10th day of that month.

In these end times God is giving His church a greater understanding of many times, events, doctrines, and the knowledge of who He and Jesus Christ are, and also a deeper meaning of the holy days and His plan.

The Day of Atonement in the past has usually been kept by the church simply by fasting. All we have done is gone without food and attended church for a few hours, where we joked around and spoke about the animals or garden, or some idle gossip.

HAVE WE GIVEN DEEP THOUGHT TO WHAT THE DAY REALLY PICTURES?

This is a serious day, we need to approach it with much thought, study and prayer about what the day pictures.

What does this day picture?

Lev 16:29  “This shall be a statute forever for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict your souls, and do no work at all, whether a native of your own country or a stranger who dwells among you.

Lev 23:32  It shall be to you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls; on the ninth day of the month at evening, from evening to evening, you shall celebrate your sabbath.”

Lev 16:31  It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever.

The next verse is very interesting, once a year we are to make atonement for the sins of Israel. This means that we are to go to God in prayer, and confess the sins of Israel. Remember that today the modern day Israelites refuse to hear the truth and will not see the truth.

Lev 16:34  This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.” And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.

Once a year, on the Day of Atonement, the sins of the people of Israel are covered by this day.

The day pictures the covering or cleansing of our sins: we must realise the seriousness of this day, we must afflict our souls.

What is the meaning of afflict your souls?

Does this just mean to fast? NO. It means much more than that. Some people do not feel much different after 24 hours of fasting. They may have a slight headache and be a little tired and feel hungry and thirsty, but that may be all the discomfort they feel.

We are to afflict ourselves for the full 24 hours.

When we start our fast at sunset until we go to bed, do we feel in any way afflicted? Maybe we have missed our cup of coffee and perhaps a biscuit, but how is this afflicting ourselves?

There is a far greater meaning to afflict our souls than to simply fast. We must afflict our souls for the full 24 hours.

The word afflict means to humble, to answer for something, to debase, to depress. We must feel truly sorry for the fact that we have committed sin during the past year. We must realise how God views sin, and what it means to Him.

How sin caused the death of His Son. How sin separates us from Him. How it drives us away from Him.

Sin has a penalty. The penalty is death. Christ has paid that penalty for us. We need to truly see what that sacrifice meant for us. We need to try very hard to not sin at all.

During this period of time, we must saturate our thoughts with the seriousness of our sins, the actual day means cleanse and forgive, that is what atonement means, that our sins are cleansed and forgiven.

However God wants us to realise the seriousness of the day and to not talk about the weather or gossip at church or fool around at church, but to think for 24 hours the consequences, of what we have done. How a totally innocent man had to die for our sins.

Why do we fast?

What are some of the reasons we need to fast?

Notice the following verses gives some of the reasons.

To seek the right ways.

Even though this account was during dangerous times for these people, God will show us the right ways to walk, talk, and live.

Ezr 8:21  Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava, that we might humble ourselves before our God, to seek from Him the right way for us and our little ones and all our possessions.

To cry out to the Lord, for help, guidance, to save us, to heal us, there could be many reasons that we especially need God to hear us.

Joe 1:14  Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the LORD your God, And cry out to the LORD.

We need to turn from evil and violence.

Jon 3:8  But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily to God; yes, let every one turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands.

Jon 3:9  Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish?

To seek the Lord.

2Ch 20:3  And Jehoshaphat feared, and set himself to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.

Fast for the sick.

Psa 35:13  But as for me, when they were sick, My clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself with fasting; And my prayer would return to my own heart.

To turn from evil; and make supplication before the Lord.

Jer 36:6  You go, therefore, and read from the scroll which you have written at my instruction, the words of the LORD, in the hearing of the people in the LORD’s house on the day of fasting. And you shall also read them in the hearing of all Judah who come from their cities.

Jer 36:7  It may be that they will present their supplication before the LORD, and everyone will turn from his evil way. For great is the anger and the fury that the LORD has pronounced against this people.”

To confess our sins, and also notice that Daniel confessed the sins of Israel.

Dan 9:3  Then I set my face toward the Lord God to make request by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes.

Dan 9:20  Now while I was speaking, praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God,

Dan 9:21  yes, while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, reached me about the time of the evening offering.

To ordain into an office.

Act 14:23  So when they had appointed elders in every church, and prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

To ask God to intervene for someone who is dying.

2Sa 12:22  And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’

Christ fasted before He was tempted by Satan, of course Christ did not have to confess sin, but this fasting would be to come closer to the Father, to receive strength and encouragement from Him.

Mat 4:2  And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.

In times of national disaster.

The following scripture is for the not too distant future.

Joe 1:14  Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the LORD your God, And cry out to the LORD.

Joe 1:15  Alas for the day! For the day of the LORD is at hand; It shall come as destruction from the Almighty.

Joe 1:16  Is not the food cut off before our eyes, Joy and gladness from the house of our God?

Joe 1:17  The seed shrivels under the clods, Storehouses are in shambles; Barns are broken down, For the grain has withered.

Joe 1:18  How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are restless, Because they have no pasture; Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.

Joe 1:19  O LORD, to You I cry out; For fire has devoured the open pastures, And a flame has burned all the trees of the field.

Joe 1:20  The beasts of the field also cry out to You, For the water brooks are dried up, And fire has devoured the open pastures.

How should we fast?

A fast day is not just a day to go without food. Look at what God says about fasting in the following verses.

This particular fast in Isaiah is a future fast day, called by the Watchman, to the nation of Israel prior to their going into captivity.

Isa 58:1  “Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins.

God says that we went without food and have claimed to have afflicted our souls, but we just did our own things, we did whatever we wanted on that day. Instead of having our hearts and minds and thoughts on the meaning of the day.

Isa 58:3  ‘Why have we fasted,’ they say, ‘and You have not seen? Why have we afflicted our souls, and You take no notice?’ “In fact, in the day of your fast you find pleasure, And exploit all your laborers.

God explains we fast for the wrong reasons. Unless we fast to get close to God, to see how we need Him, and to see ourselves as God sees us, and to see how we can give to others, God simply will not hear our fast day.

Isa 58:4  Indeed you fast for strife and debate, And to strike with the fist of wickedness. You will not fast as you do this day, To make your voice heard on high.

If we make a show, and let the world know that we are fasting, and look sad and wistful, this just is not acceptable to God. God wants us to do things in secret. Not to make out that we are something wonderful.

Isa 58:5  Is it a fast that I have chosen, A day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head like a bulrush, And to spread out sackcloth and ashes? Would you call this a fast, And an acceptable day to the LORD?

Mat 6:16  “Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance. For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.

Mat 6:17  But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face,

Mat 6:18  so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.

God wants us to see our sins and to put them away from us, to stop sinning, to be released from the burdens of slavery to sin, to be freed from oppression from those over us. Israel has forgotten God, we must not be crushed under the weight of the world, and the wrong ways of the world. We must break free of their oppression. We must break free of the things that hold us to this world, break free of the hold that it has on us and turn to God’s ways. The ways of the world belong to Satan and not God.

Isa 58:6  “Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke?

We must share our food with the hungry people, invite poor and needy to your home, if we see people in need then give to them, clothe them, and do this to our families.

Isa 58:7  Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, And that you bring to your house the poor who are cast out; When you see the naked, that you cover him, And not hide yourself from your own flesh?

If we would only obey God and turn to Him and turn away from sin, look at how we will be……how God will bless us.

Isa 58:8  Then your light shall break forth like the morning, Your healing shall spring forth speedily, And your righteousness shall go before you; The glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.

God will hear us if we, stop talking about others, and stop putting others down, and stop finding fault with everything, and stop our pride and haughty attitudes.

Isa 58:9  Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer; You shall cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am.’ “If you take away the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness,

If we feel sorry for the hungry, and relieve the afflicted people, then we will be close to God.

Isa 58:10  If you extend your soul to the hungry And satisfy the afflicted soul, Then your light shall dawn in the darkness, And your darkness shall be as the noonday.

God will guide us, and feed us in drought, and we will flourish and be like an oasis in the desert.

Isa 58:11  The LORD will guide you continually, And satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

This verse applies to a time yet ahead of us, after Israel goes into captivity.

When Israel returns from captivity, they will rebuild the nation of Israel, they will restore the buildings, and they will be known for doing this.

It also has the spiritual application of restoring the truths of God.

Isa 58:12  Those from among you Shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the foundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In.

This verse is referring to the Day of Atonement and not just the weekly sabbath. God wants His people to know which day is the Sabbath.

The Day of Atonement, must be calculated as we have stated above. The Sabbath lasts for 24 hours, and we must forget about work, sports, all pleasures which take us away from the worship of our God. We must fill our hearts and minds and thoughts with God, study, pray and talk about God, for the whole day, not just a few hours. We must devote this time to God, be with Him, spend this time with Him, try to learn more about Him learn to love the Sabbath. The Day of Atonement is a holy day and is holy to God. We must learn to love the Day of Atonement and keep it correctly.

Isa 58:13  “If you turn away your foot from the Sabbath, From doing your pleasure on My holy day, And call the Sabbath a delight, The holy day of the LORD honorable, And shall honor Him, not doing your own ways, Nor finding your own pleasure, Nor speaking your own words,

When we obey God, then we will enjoy being part of His plan, God will then bless us, and give us the land of Jacob, God will do as He has said. We must want to obey God and believe Him.

Isa 58:14  Then you shall delight yourself in the LORD; And I will cause you to ride on the high hills of the earth, And feed you with the heritage of Jacob your father. The mouth of the LORD has spoken.”

Mr. Armstrong used to say that when we fast we should do it in three hour sections.

1 hour of prayer, 1 hour of study and 1 hour of meditation.

This is a very good guide and one which should be followed.

Also another method, similar to the above, is given in the scriptures.

Neh 9:1  Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the children of Israel were assembled with fasting, in sackcloth, and with dust on their heads.

Neh 9:2  Then those of Israelite lineage separated themselves from all foreigners; and they stood and confessed their sins and the iniquities of their fathers.

Neh 9:3  And they stood up in their place and read from the Book of the Law of the LORD their God for one-fourth of the day; and for another fourth they confessed and worshiped the LORD their God.

To sum up: the Day of Atonement pictures a cleansing, or forgiving of our sins, it is a time we need to realise the seriousness of sin. We must afflict our souls, feel deeply sorry for what penalty our sins have caused.

God wants us to spend this time in fasting to get closer to Him. We can feel the closeness we have with Him compared to the wedge we place between God and ourselves with our sins.

When we fast we need to pray meditate and study God’s word for as much time as possible during the 24 hours. We need to come closer to God and saturate our thoughts and speech with God’s words. We must try to put sin out of our lives.

We need to give to the poor and share what we have with the needy.

THE PARALLEL BETWEEN THE HIGH PRIEST AND CHRIST.

The high priest was permitted to go into the Holy Place just once a year, to make atonement for the sins of Israel. Christ has died for the sins of all mankind and He interceds for us on a daily basis. He has paid the penalty for our sins.

Lev 16:2  and the LORD said to Moses: “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at just any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat which is on the ark, lest he die; for I will appear in the cloud above the mercy seat.

Lev 16:3  “Thus Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with the blood of a young bull as a sin offering, and of a ram as a burnt offering.

The following scripture shows that Christ paid the penalty with His blood He is our High Priest. What was performed by Aaron was a forerunner of things to come. Today we have Christ as our High Priest who intercedes for us.

Heb 9:3  and behind the second veil, the part of the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of All,

Heb 9:4  which had the golden censer and the ark of the covenant overlaid on all sides with gold, in which were the golden pot that had the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, and the tablets of the covenant;

Heb 9:5  and above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail.

Heb 9:6  Now when these things had been thus prepared, the priests always went into the first part of the tabernacle, performing the services.

Heb 9:7  But into the second part the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people’s sins committed in ignorance;

Heb 9:11  But Christ came as High Priest of the good things to come, with the greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation.

Heb 9:12  Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

Heb 9:13  For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh,

Heb 9:14  how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Heb 9:15  And for this reason He is the Mediator of the new covenant, by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant, that those who are called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LEV 16?

Notice both goats are for a sin offering.

Lev 16:5  And he shall take from the congregation of the children of Israel two kids of the goats as a sin offering, and one ram as a burnt offering.

The two goats: one is for the Lord and one is for the Scapegoat.

We will look at the goat which is for the Lord first.

The goat which is for the Lord represents Christ, He died for our sins and so the goat is a sin offering.

Lev 16:8  Then Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats: one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat.

Notice that the goat for the Lord is a sin offering.

Lev 16:9  And Aaron shall bring the goat on which the LORD’s lot fell, and offer it as a sin offering.

Lev 16:15  “Then he shall kill the goat of the sin offering, which is for the people, bring its blood inside the veil, do with that blood as he did with the blood of the bull, and sprinkle it on the mercy seat and before the mercy seat.

The goat is for an atonement for the holy place, because of uncleanness of the Israelites, and transgressions in all their sins.

Lev 16:16  So he shall make atonement for the Holy Place, because of the uncleanness of the children of Israel, and because of their transgressions, for all their sins; and so he shall do for the tabernacle of meeting which remains among them in the midst of their uncleanness.

Now the Live Goat:

He is to make an atonement and to be let go as the scapegoat.

This goat represents Satan, he is responsible for the sins of mankind and the sins are placed on him and then he is taken away into the wilderness.

Lev 16:10  But the goat on which the lot fell to be the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD, to make atonement upon it, and to let it go as the scapegoat into the wilderness.

Notice that Aaron confessed all the iniquities of the children of Israel and their transgressions in all their sins.

This is very important that we confess the sins of Israel. This part of the Day of Atonement has not been practiced in the church in recent times, perhaps this knowledge has been lost and is one of the many things restored to the Laodicean Era of God’s church.

It is vitally important that this be done.

Lev 16:21  Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins, putting them on the head of the goat, and shall send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man.

Notice the goat bears all their iniquities, one of the meanings for this word is sexual sins.

Lev 16:22  The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.

On the Day of Atonement we are cleansed from all our sins before the Lord.

Lev 16:30  For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.

Lev 16:31  It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever.

Lev 16:32  And the priest, who is anointed and consecrated to minister as priest in his father’s place, shall make atonement, and put on the linen clothes, the holy garments;

Lev 16:33  then he shall make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tabernacle of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.

Lev 16:34  This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.” And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.

The day of Atonement is tied in with the other holy days in an interesting way…notice the following

The death of Jesus reconciled us to God, but it is by His life that we are saved. The atonement is the time God the Father accepts us for eternal life.

Rom 5:9  Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

Rom 5:10  For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.

Rom 5:11  And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. [atonement]

The Day of Atonement pictures us being at one with God. This does not happen at our acceptance of Christ’s death, this happens when the Father accepts us for eternal life.

But firstly we must accept Christ’s life. Christ ascended to the Father to be accepted for us. It is then that we have qualified to receive the Holy Spirit of life.

Joh 20:17  Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ ”

Joh 20:22  And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.

On the Day of Atonement, we confess our sins to God. Because of the sacrifice of Christ these sins are forgiven, we are then at one with God the Father when He accepts us for eternal life.

We will finish with the final words of Leviticus.

Lev 16:30  For on that day the priest shall make atonement for you, to cleanse you, that you may be clean from all your sins before the LORD.

Lev 16:31  It is a sabbath of solemn rest for you, and you shall afflict your souls. It is a statute forever.

Lev 16:32  And the priest, who is anointed and consecrated to minister as priest in his father’s place, shall make atonement, and put on the linen clothes, the holy garments;

Lev 16:33  then he shall make atonement for the Holy Sanctuary, and he shall make atonement for the tabernacle of meeting and for the altar, and he shall make atonement for the priests and for all the people of the assembly.

Lev 16:34  This shall be an everlasting statute for you, to make atonement for the children of Israel, for all their sins, once a year.” And he did as the LORD commanded Moses.

ON THE DAY OF ATONEMENT THE BOOK OF JEREMIAH CHAPTERS 1 UP TO AND INCLUDING CHAPTER 36 WOULD BE PROFITABLE TO READ IT IS FOR A FUTURE TIME AND A FUTURE FAST.

Jer 1:1  The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests who were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin,

Jer 1:2  to whom the word of the LORD came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign.

Jer 1:3  It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah, king of Judah, until the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.

Jer 1:4  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:

Jer 1:5  “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”

Jer 1:6  Then said I: “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak, for I am a youth.”

Jer 1:7  But the LORD said to me: “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ For you shall go to all to whom I send you, And whatever I command you, you shall speak.

Jer 1:8  Do not be afraid of their faces, For I am with you to deliver you,” says the LORD.

Jer 1:9  Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth, and the LORD said to me: “Behold, I have put My words in your mouth.

Jer 1:10  See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, To destroy and to throw down, To build and to plant.”

Jer 1:11  Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see a branch of an almond tree.”

Jer 1:12  Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am ready to perform My word.”

Jer 1:13  And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a boiling pot, and it is facing away from the north.”

Jer 1:14  Then the LORD said to me: “Out of the north calamity shall break forth On all the inhabitants of the land.

Jer 1:15  For behold, I am calling All the families of the kingdoms of the north,” says the LORD; “They shall come and each one set his throne At the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, Against all its walls all around, And against all the cities of Judah.

Jer 1:16  I will utter My judgments Against them concerning all their wickedness, Because they have forsaken Me, Burned incense to other gods, And worshiped the works of their own hands.

Jer 1:17  “Therefore prepare yourself and arise, And speak to them all that I command you. Do not be dismayed before their faces, Lest I dismay you before them.

Jer 1:18  For behold, I have made you this day A fortified city and an iron pillar, And bronze walls against the whole land— Against the kings of Judah, Against its princes, Against its priests, And against the people of the land.

Jer 1:19  They will fight against you, But they shall not prevail against you. For I am with you,” says the LORD, “to deliver you.”

Jer 2:1  Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Jer 2:2  “Go and cry in the hearing of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “I remember you, The kindness of your youth, The love of your betrothal, When you went after Me in the wilderness, In a land not sown.

Jer 2:3  Israel was holiness to the LORD, The firstfruits of His increase. All that devour him will offend; Disaster will come upon them,” says the LORD.’ ”

Jer 2:4  Hear the word of the LORD, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel.

Jer 2:5  Thus says the LORD: “What injustice have your fathers found in Me, That they have gone far from Me, Have followed idols, And have become idolaters?

Jer 2:6  Neither did they say, ‘Where is the LORD, Who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, Who led us through the wilderness, Through a land of deserts and pits, Through a land of drought and the shadow of death, Through a land that no one crossed And where no one dwelt?’

Jer 2:7  I brought you into a bountiful country, To eat its fruit and its goodness. But when you entered, you defiled My land And made My heritage an abomination.

Jer 2:8  The priests did not say, ‘Where is the LORD?’ And those who handle the law did not know Me; The rulers also transgressed against Me; The prophets prophesied by Baal, And walked after things that do not profit.

Jer 2:9  “Therefore I will yet bring charges against you,” says the LORD, “And against your children’s children I will bring charges.

Jer 2:10  For pass beyond the coasts of Cyprus and see, Send to Kedar and consider diligently, And see if there has been such a thing.

Jer 2:11  Has a nation changed its gods, Which are not gods? But My people have changed their Glory For what does not profit.

Jer 2:12  Be astonished, O heavens, at this, And be horribly afraid; Be very desolate,” says the LORD.

Jer 2:13  “For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water.

Jer 2:14  “Is Israel a servant? Is he a homeborn slave? Why is he plundered?

Jer 2:15  The young lions roared at him, and growled; They made his land waste; His cities are burned, without inhabitant.

Jer 2:16  Also the people of Noph and Tahpanhes Have broken the crown of your head.

Jer 2:17  Have you not brought this on yourself, In that you have forsaken the LORD your God When He led you in the way?

Jer 2:18  And now why take the road to Egypt, To drink the waters of Sihor? Or why take the road to Assyria, To drink the waters of the River?

Jer 2:19  Your own wickedness will correct you, And your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing That you have forsaken the LORD your God, And the fear of Me is not in you,” Says the Lord GOD of hosts.

Jer 2:20  “For of old I have broken your yoke and burst your bonds; And you said, ‘I will not transgress,’ When on every high hill and under every green tree You lay down, playing the harlot.

Jer 2:21  Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me Into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?

Jer 2:22  For though you wash yourself with lye, and use much soap, Yet your iniquity is marked before Me,” says the Lord GOD.

Jer 2:23  “How can you say, ‘I am not polluted, I have not gone after the Baals’? See your way in the valley; Know what you have done: You are a swift dromedary breaking loose in her ways,

Jer 2:24  A wild donkey used to the wilderness, That sniffs at the wind in her desire; In her time of mating, who can turn her away? All those who seek her will not weary themselves; In her month they will find her.

Jer 2:25  Withhold your foot from being unshod, and your throat from thirst. But you said, ‘There is no hope. No! For I have loved aliens, and after them I will go.’

Jer 2:26  “As the thief is ashamed when he is found out, So is the house of Israel ashamed; They and their kings and their princes, and their priests and their prophets,

Jer 2:27  Saying to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ And to a stone, ‘You gave birth to me.’ For they have turned their back to Me, and not their face. But in the time of their trouble They will say, ‘Arise and save us.’

Jer 2:28  But where are your gods that you have made for yourselves? Let them arise, If they can save you in the time of your trouble; For according to the number of your cities Are your gods, O Judah.

Jer 2:29  “Why will you plead with Me? You all have transgressed against Me,” says the LORD.

Jer 2:30  “In vain I have chastened your children; They received no correction. Your sword has devoured your prophets Like a destroying lion.

Jer 2:31  “O generation, see the word of the LORD! Have I been a wilderness to Israel, Or a land of darkness? Why do My people say, ‘We are lords; We will come no more to You’?

Jer 2:32  Can a virgin forget her ornaments, Or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number.

Jer 2:33  “Why do you beautify your way to seek love? Therefore you have also taught The wicked women your ways.

Jer 2:34  Also on your skirts is found The blood of the lives of the poor innocents. I have not found it by secret search, But plainly on all these things.

Jer 2:35  Yet you say, ‘Because I am innocent, Surely His anger shall turn from me.’ Behold, I will plead My case against you, Because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

Jer 2:36  Why do you gad about so much to change your way? Also you shall be ashamed of Egypt as you were ashamed of Assyria.

Jer 2:37  Indeed you will go forth from him With your hands on your head; For the LORD has rejected your trusted allies, And you will not prosper by them.

Jer 3:1  “They say, ‘If a man divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes another man’s, May he return to her again?’ Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me,” says the LORD.

Jer 3:2  “Lift up your eyes to the desolate heights and see: Where have you not lain with men? By the road you have sat for them Like an Arabian in the wilderness; And you have polluted the land With your harlotries and your wickedness.

Jer 3:3  Therefore the showers have been withheld, And there has been no latter rain. You have had a harlot’s forehead; You refuse to be ashamed.

Jer 3:4  Will you not from this time cry to Me, ‘My Father, You are the guide of my youth?

Jer 3:5  Will He remain angry forever? Will He keep it to the end?’ Behold, you have spoken and done evil things, As you were able.”

Jer 3:6  The LORD said also to me in the days of Josiah the king: “Have you seen what backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there played the harlot.

Jer 3:7  And I said, after she had done all these things, ‘Return to Me.’ But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.

Jer 3:8  Then I saw that for all the causes for which backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but went and played the harlot also.

Jer 3:9  So it came to pass, through her casual harlotry, that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

Jer 3:10  And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah has not turned to Me with her whole heart, but in pretense,” says the LORD.

Jer 3:11  Then the LORD said to me, “Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.

Jer 3:12  Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say: ‘Return, backsliding Israel,’ says the LORD; ‘I will not cause My anger to fall on you. For I am merciful,’ says the LORD; ‘I will not remain angry forever.

Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge your iniquity, That you have transgressed against the LORD your God, And have scattered your charms To alien deities under every green tree, And you have not obeyed My voice,’ says the LORD.

Jer 3:14  “Return, O backsliding children,” says the LORD; “for I am married to you. I will take you, one from a city and two from a family, and I will bring you to Zion.

Jer 3:15  And I will give you shepherds according to My heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Jer 3:16  “Then it shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land in those days,” says the LORD, “that they will say no more, ‘The ark of the covenant of the LORD.’ It shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they visit it, nor shall it be made anymore.

Jer 3:17  “At that time Jerusalem shall be called The Throne of the LORD, and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the LORD, to Jerusalem. No more shall they follow the dictates of their evil hearts.

Jer 3:18  “In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given as an inheritance to your fathers.

Jer 3:19  “But I said: ‘How can I put you among the children And give you a pleasant land, A beautiful heritage of the hosts of nations?’ “And I said: ‘You shall call Me, “My Father,” And not turn away from Me.’

Jer 3:20  Surely, as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, So have you dealt treacherously with Me, O house of Israel,” says the LORD.

Jer 3:21  A voice was heard on the desolate heights, Weeping and supplications of the children of Israel. For they have perverted their way; They have forgotten the LORD their God.

Jer 3:22  “Return, you backsliding children, And I will heal your backslidings.” “Indeed we do come to You, For You are the LORD our God.

Jer 3:23  Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, And from the multitude of mountains; Truly, in the LORD our God Is the salvation of Israel.

Jer 3:24  For shame has devoured The labor of our fathers from our youth— Their flocks and their herds, Their sons and their daughters.

Jer 3:25  We lie down in our shame, And our reproach covers us. For we have sinned against the LORD our God, We and our fathers, From our youth even to this day, And have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God.”

Jer 4:1  “If you will return, O Israel,” says the LORD, “Return to Me; And if you will put away your abominations out of My sight, Then you shall not be moved.

Jer 4:2  And you shall swear, ‘The LORD lives,’ In truth, in judgment, and in righteousness; The nations shall bless themselves in Him, And in Him they shall glory.”

Jer 4:3  For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your fallow ground, And do not sow among thorns.

Jer 4:4  Circumcise yourselves to the LORD, And take away the foreskins of your hearts, You men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, Lest My fury come forth like fire, And burn so that no one can quench it, Because of the evil of your doings.”

Jer 4:5  Declare in Judah and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say: “Blow the trumpet in the land; Cry, ‘Gather together,’ And say, ‘Assemble yourselves, And let us go into the fortified cities.’

Jer 4:6  Set up the standard toward Zion. Take refuge! Do not delay! For I will bring disaster from the north, And great destruction.”

Jer 4:7  The lion has come up from his thicket, And the destroyer of nations is on his way. He has gone forth from his place To make your land desolate. Your cities will be laid waste, Without inhabitant.

Jer 4:8  For this, clothe yourself with sackcloth, Lament and wail. For the fierce anger of the LORD— Has not turned back from us.

Jer 4:9  “And it shall come to pass in that day,” says the LORD, “That the heart of the king shall perish, And the heart of the princes; The priests shall be astonished, And the prophets shall wonder.”

Jer 4:10  Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Surely You have greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, Saying, ‘You shall have peace,’ Whereas the sword reaches to the heart.”

Jer 4:11  At that time it will be said To this people and to Jerusalem, “A dry wind of the desolate heights blows in the wilderness— Toward the daughter of My people— Not to fan or to cleanse—

Jer 4:12  A wind too strong for these will come for Me; Now I will also speak judgment against them.”

Jer 4:13  “Behold, he shall come up like clouds, And his chariots like a whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are plundered!”

Jer 4:14  O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, That you may be saved. How long shall your evil thoughts lodge within you?

Jer 4:15  For a voice declares from Dan And proclaims affliction from Mount Ephraim:

Jer 4:16  “Make mention to the nations, Yes, proclaim against Jerusalem, That watchers come from a far country And raise their voice against the cities of Judah.

Jer 4:17  Like keepers of a field they are against her all around, Because she has been rebellious against Me,” says the LORD.

Jer 4:18  “Your ways and your doings Have procured these things for you. This is your wickedness, Because it is bitter, Because it reaches to your heart.”

Jer 4:19  O my soul, my soul! I am pained in my very heart! My heart makes a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, Because you have heard, O my soul, The sound of the trumpet, The alarm of war.

Jer 4:20  Destruction upon destruction is cried, For the whole land is plundered. Suddenly my tents are plundered, And my curtains in a moment.

Jer 4:21  How long will I see the standard, And hear the sound of the trumpet?

Jer 4:22  “For My people are foolish, They have not known Me. They are silly children, And they have no understanding. They are wise to do evil, But to do good they have no knowledge.”

Jer 4:23  I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void; And the heavens, they had no light.

Jer 4:24  I beheld the mountains, and indeed they trembled, And all the hills moved back and forth.

Jer 4:25  I beheld, and indeed there was no man, And all the birds of the heavens had fled.

Jer 4:26  I beheld, and indeed the fruitful land was a wilderness, And all its cities were broken down At the presence of the LORD, By His fierce anger.

Jer 4:27  For thus says the LORD: “The whole land shall be desolate; Yet I will not make a full end.

Jer 4:28  For this shall the earth mourn, And the heavens above be black, Because I have spoken. I have purposed and will not relent, Nor will I turn back from it.

Jer 4:29  The whole city shall flee from the noise of the horsemen and bowmen. They shall go into thickets and climb up on the rocks. Every city shall be forsaken, And not a man shall dwell in it.

Jer 4:30  “And when you are plundered, What will you do? Though you clothe yourself with crimson, Though you adorn yourself with ornaments of gold, Though you enlarge your eyes with paint, In vain you will make yourself fair; Your lovers will despise you; They will seek your life.

Jer 4:31  “For I have heard a voice as of a woman in labor, The anguish as of her who brings forth her first child, The voice of the daughter of Zion bewailing herself; She spreads her hands, saying, ‘Woe is me now, for my soul is weary Because of murderers!’

Jer 5:1  “Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem; See now and know; And seek in her open places If you can find a man, If there is anyone who executes judgment, Who seeks the truth, And I will pardon her.

Jer 5:2  Though they say, ‘As the LORD lives,’ Surely they swear falsely.”

Jer 5:3  O LORD, are not Your eyes on the truth? You have stricken them, But they have not grieved; You have consumed them, But they have refused to receive correction. They have made their faces harder than rock; They have refused to return.

Jer 5:4  Therefore I said, “Surely these are poor. They are foolish; For they do not know the way of the LORD, The judgment of their God.

Jer 5:5  I will go to the great men and speak to them, For they have known the way of the LORD, The judgment of their God.” But these have altogether broken the yoke And burst the bonds.

Jer 5:6  Therefore a lion from the forest shall slay them, A wolf of the deserts shall destroy them; A leopard will watch over their cities. Everyone who goes out from there shall be torn in pieces, Because their transgressions are many; Their backslidings have increased.

Jer 5:7  “How shall I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken Me And sworn by those that are not gods. When I had fed them to the full, Then they committed adultery And assembled themselves by troops in the harlots’ houses.

Jer 5:8  They were like well-fed lusty stallions; Every one neighed after his neighbor’s wife.

Jer 5:9  Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the LORD. “And shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?

Jer 5:10  “Go up on her walls and destroy, But do not make a complete end. Take away her branches, For they are not the LORD’s.

Jer 5:11  For the house of Israel and the house of Judah Have dealt very treacherously with Me,” says the LORD.

Jer 5:12  They have lied about the LORD, And said, “It is not He. Neither will evil come upon us, Nor shall we see sword or famine.

Jer 5:13  And the prophets become wind, For the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them.”

Jer 5:14  Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts: “Because you speak this word, Behold, I will make My words in your mouth fire, And this people wood, And it shall devour them.

Jer 5:15  Behold, I will bring a nation against you from afar, O house of Israel,” says the LORD. “It is a mighty nation, It is an ancient nation, A nation whose language you do not know, Nor can you understand what they say.

Jer 5:16  Their quiver is like an open tomb; They are all mighty men.

Jer 5:17  And they shall eat up your harvest and your bread, Which your sons and daughters should eat. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds; They shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; They shall destroy your fortified cities, In which you trust, with the sword.

Jer 5:18  “Nevertheless in those days,” says the LORD, “I will not make a complete end of you.

Jer 5:19  And it will be when you say, ‘Why does the LORD our God do all these things to us?’ then you shall answer them, ‘Just as you have forsaken Me and served foreign gods in your land, so you shall serve aliens in a land that is not yours.’

Jer 5:20  “Declare this in the house of Jacob And proclaim it in Judah, saying,

Jer 5:21  ‘Hear this now, O foolish people, Without understanding, Who have eyes and see not, And who have ears and hear not:

Jer 5:22  Do you not fear Me?’ says the LORD. ‘Will you not tremble at My presence, Who have placed the sand as the bound of the sea, By a perpetual decree, that it cannot pass beyond it? And though its waves toss to and fro, Yet they cannot prevail; Though they roar, yet they cannot pass over it.

Jer 5:23  But this people has a defiant and rebellious heart; They have revolted and departed.

Jer 5:24  They do not say in their heart, “Let us now fear the LORD our God, Who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.”

Jer 5:25  Your iniquities have turned these things away, And your sins have withheld good from you.

Jer 5:26  ‘For among My people are found wicked men; They lie in wait as one who sets snares; They set a trap; They catch men.

Jer 5:27  As a cage is full of birds, So their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become great and grown rich.

Jer 5:28  They have grown fat, they are sleek; Yes, they surpass the deeds of the wicked; They do not plead the cause, The cause of the fatherless; Yet they prosper, And the right of the needy they do not defend.

Jer 5:29  Shall I not punish them for these things?’ says the LORD. ‘Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?’

Jer 5:30  “An astonishing and horrible thing Has been committed in the land:

Jer 5:31  The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule by their own power; And My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?

Jer 6:1  “O you children of Benjamin, Gather yourselves to flee from the midst of Jerusalem! Blow the trumpet in Tekoa, And set up a signal-fire in Beth Haccerem; For disaster appears out of the north, And great destruction.

Jer 6:2  I have likened the daughter of Zion To a lovely and delicate woman.

Jer 6:3  The shepherds with their flocks shall come to her. They shall pitch their tents against her all around. Each one shall pasture in his own place.”

Jer 6:4  “Prepare war against her; Arise, and let us go up at noon. Woe to us, for the day goes away, For the shadows of the evening are lengthening.

Jer 6:5  Arise, and let us go by night, And let us destroy her palaces.”

Jer 6:6  For thus has the LORD of hosts said: “Cut down trees, And build a mound against Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished. She is full of oppression in her midst.

Jer 6:7  As a fountain wells up with water, So she wells up with her wickedness. Violence and plundering are heard in her. Before Me continually are grief and wounds.

Jer 6:8  Be instructed, O Jerusalem, Lest My soul depart from you; Lest I make you desolate, A land not inhabited.”

Jer 6:9  Thus says the LORD of hosts: “They shall thoroughly glean as a vine the remnant of Israel; As a grape-gatherer, put your hand back into the branches.”

Jer 6:10  To whom shall I speak and give warning, That they may hear? Indeed their ear is uncircumcised, And they cannot give heed. Behold, the word of the LORD is a reproach to them; They have no delight in it.

Jer 6:11  Therefore I am full of the fury of the LORD. I am weary of holding it in. “I will pour it out on the children outside, And on the assembly of young men together; For even the husband shall be taken with the wife, The aged with him who is full of days.

Jer 6:12  And their houses shall be turned over to others, Fields and wives together; For I will stretch out My hand Against the inhabitants of the land,” says the LORD.

Jer 6:13  “Because from the least of them even to the greatest of them, Everyone is given to covetousness; And from the prophet even to the priest, Everyone deals falsely.

Jer 6:14  They have also healed the hurt of My people slightly, Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace.

Jer 6:15  Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed; Nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; At the time I punish them, They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.

Jer 6:16  Thus says the LORD: “Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’

Jer 6:17  Also, I set watchmen over you, saying, ‘Listen to the sound of the trumpet!’ But they said, ‘We will not listen.’

Jer 6:18  Therefore hear, you nations, And know, O congregation, what is among them.

Jer 6:19  Hear, O earth! Behold, I will certainly bring calamity on this people— The fruit of their thoughts, Because they have not heeded My words Nor My law, but rejected it.

Jer 6:20  For what purpose to Me Comes frankincense from Sheba, And sweet cane from a far country? Your burnt offerings are not acceptable, Nor your sacrifices sweet to Me.”

Jer 6:21  Therefore thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will lay stumbling blocks before this people, And the fathers and the sons together shall fall on them. The neighbor and his friend shall perish.”

Jer 6:22  Thus says the LORD: “Behold, a people comes from the north country, And a great nation will be raised from the farthest parts of the earth.

Jer 6:23  They will lay hold on bow and spear; They are cruel and have no mercy; Their voice roars like the sea; And they ride on horses, As men of war set in array against you, O daughter of Zion.”

Jer 6:24  We have heard the report of it; Our hands grow feeble. Anguish has taken hold of us, Pain as of a woman in labor.

Jer 6:25  Do not go out into the field, Nor walk by the way. Because of the sword of the enemy, Fear is on every side.

Jer 6:26  O daughter of my people, Dress in sackcloth And roll about in ashes! Make mourning as for an only son, most bitter lamentation; For the plunderer will suddenly come upon us.

Jer 6:27  “I have set you as an assayer and a fortress among My people, That you may know and test their way.

Jer 6:28  They are all stubborn rebels, walking as slanderers. They are bronze and iron, They are all corrupters;

Jer 6:29  The bellows blow fiercely, The lead is consumed by the fire; The smelter refines in vain, For the wicked are not drawn off.

Jer 6:30  People will call them rejected silver, Because the LORD has rejected them.”

Jer 7:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

Jer 7:2  “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD!’ ”

Jer 7:3  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.

Jer 7:4  Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.’

Jer 7:5  “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor,

Jer 7:6  if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt,

Jer 7:7  then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

Jer 7:8  “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.

Jer 7:9  Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know,

Jer 7:10  and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’?

Jer 7:11  Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the LORD.

Jer 7:12  “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

Jer 7:13  And now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer,

Jer 7:14  therefore I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to this place which I gave to you and your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.

Jer 7:15  And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brethren—the whole posterity of Ephraim.

Jer 7:16  “Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you.

Jer 7:17  Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?

Jer 7:18  The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger.

Jer 7:19  Do they provoke Me to anger?” says the LORD. “Do they not provoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?”

Jer 7:20  Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched.”

Jer 7:21  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat.

Jer 7:22  For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.

Jer 7:23  But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.’

Jer 7:24  Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward.

Jer 7:25  Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them.

Jer 7:26  Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

Jer 7:27  “Therefore you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.

Jer 7:28  “So you shall say to them, ‘This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.

Jer 7:29  Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.’

Jer 7:30  For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the LORD. “They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to pollute it.

Jer 7:31  And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.

Jer 7:32  “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “when it will no more be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Tophet until there is no room.

Jer 7:33  The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. And no one will frighten them away.

Jer 7:34  Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. For the land shall be desolate.

Jer 8:1  “At that time,” says the LORD, “they shall bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, and the bones of its princes, and the bones of the priests, and the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, out of their graves.

Jer 8:2  They shall spread them before the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven, which they have loved and which they have served and after which they have walked, which they have sought and which they have worshiped. They shall not be gathered nor buried; they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth.

Jer 8:3  Then death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of those who remain of this evil family, who remain in all the places where I have driven them,” says the LORD of hosts.

Jer 8:4  “Moreover you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Will they fall and not rise? Will one turn away and not return?

Jer 8:5  Why has this people slidden back, Jerusalem, in a perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit, They refuse to return.

Jer 8:6  I listened and heard, But they do not speak aright. No man repented of his wickedness, Saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turned to his own course, As the horse rushes into the battle.

Jer 8:7  “Even the stork in the heavens Knows her appointed times; And the turtledove, the swift, and the swallow Observe the time of their coming. But My people do not know the judgment of the LORD.

Jer 8:8  “How can you say, ‘We are wise, And the law of the LORD is with us’? Look, the false pen of the scribe certainly works falsehood.

Jer 8:9  The wise men are ashamed, They are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD; So what wisdom do they have?

Jer 8:10  Therefore I will give their wives to others, And their fields to those who will inherit them; Because from the least even to the greatest Everyone is given to covetousness; From the prophet even to the priest Everyone deals falsely.

Jer 8:11  For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of My people slightly, Saying, ‘Peace, peace!’ When there is no peace.

Jer 8:12  Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No! They were not at all ashamed, Nor did they know how to blush. Therefore they shall fall among those who fall; In the time of their punishment They shall be cast down,” says the LORD.

Jer 8:13  “I will surely consume them,” says the LORD. “No grapes shall be on the vine, Nor figs on the fig tree, And the leaf shall fade; And the things I have given them shall pass away from them.” ’ ”

Jer 8:14  “Why do we sit still? Assemble yourselves, And let us enter the fortified cities, And let us be silent there. For the LORD our God has put us to silence And given us water of gall to drink, Because we have sinned against the LORD.

Jer 8:15  “We looked for peace, but no good came; And for a time of health, and there was trouble!

Jer 8:16  The snorting of His horses was heard from Dan. The whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of His strong ones; For they have come and devoured the land and all that is in it, The city and those who dwell in it.”

Jer 8:17  “For behold, I will send serpents among you, Vipers which cannot be charmed, And they shall bite you,” says the LORD.

Jer 8:18  I would comfort myself in sorrow; My heart is faint in me.

Jer 8:19  Listen! The voice, The cry of the daughter of My people— From a far country: “Is not the LORD in Zion? Is not her King in her?” “Why have they provoked Me to anger With their carved images— With foreign idols?”

Jer 8:20  “The harvest is past, The summer is ended, And we are not saved!”

Jer 8:21  For the hurt of the daughter of my people I am hurt. I am mourning; Astonishment has taken hold of me.

Jer 8:22  Is there no balm in Gilead, Is there no physician there? Why then is there no recovery For the health of the daughter of my people?

Jer 9:1  Oh, that my head were waters, And my eyes a fountain of tears, That I might weep day and night For the slain of the daughter of my people!

Jer 9:2  Oh, that I had in the wilderness— A lodging place for travelers; That I might leave my people, And go from them! For they are all adulterers, An assembly of treacherous men.

Jer 9:3  “And like their bow they have bent their tongues for lies. They are not valiant for the truth on the earth. For they proceed from evil to evil, And they do not know Me,” says the LORD.

Jer 9:4  “Everyone take heed to his neighbor, And do not trust any brother; For every brother will utterly supplant, And every neighbor will walk with slanderers.

Jer 9:5  Everyone will deceive his neighbor, And will not speak the truth; They have taught their tongue to speak lies; They weary themselves to commit iniquity.

Jer 9:6  Your dwelling place is in the midst of deceit; Through deceit they refuse to know Me,” says the LORD.

Jer 9:7  Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: “Behold, I will refine them and try them; For how shall I deal with the daughter of My people?

Jer 9:8  Their tongue is an arrow shot out; It speaks deceit; One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, But in his heart he lies in wait.

Jer 9:9  Shall I not punish them for these things?” says the LORD. “Shall I not avenge Myself on such a nation as this?”

Jer 9:10  I will take up a weeping and wailing for the mountains, And for the dwelling places of the wilderness a lamentation, Because they are burned up, So that no one can pass through; Nor can men hear the voice of the cattle. Both the birds of the heavens and the beasts have fled; They are gone.

Jer 9:11  “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a den of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.”

Jer 9:12  Who is the wise man who may understand this? And who is he to whom the mouth of the LORD has spoken, that he may declare it? Why does the land perish and burn up like a wilderness, so that no one can pass through?

Jer 9:13  And the LORD said, “Because they have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice, nor walked according to it,

Jer 9:14  but they have walked according to the dictates of their own hearts and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them,”

Jer 9:15  therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will feed them, this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

Jer 9:16  I will scatter them also among the Gentiles, whom neither they nor their fathers have known. And I will send a sword after them until I have consumed them.”

Jer 9:17  Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Consider and call for the mourning women, That they may come; And send for skillful wailing women, That they may come.

Jer 9:18  Let them make haste And take up a wailing for us, That our eyes may run with tears, And our eyelids gush with water.

Jer 9:19  For a voice of wailing is heard from Zion: ‘How we are plundered! We are greatly ashamed, Because we have forsaken the land, Because we have been cast out of our dwellings.’ ”

Jer 9:20  Yet hear the word of the LORD, O women, And let your ear receive the word of His mouth; Teach your daughters wailing, And everyone her neighbor a lamentation.

Jer 9:21  For death has come through our windows, Has entered our palaces, To kill off the children—no longer to be outside! And the young men—no longer on the streets!

Jer 9:22  Speak, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Even the carcasses of men shall fall as refuse on the open field, Like cuttings after the harvester, And no one shall gather them.’ ”

Jer 9:23  Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, Let not the mighty man glory in his might, Nor let the rich man glory in his riches;

Jer 9:24  But let him who glories glory in this, That he understands and knows Me, That I am the LORD, exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight,” says the LORD.

Jer 9:25  “Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that I will punish all who are circumcised with the uncircumcised—

Jer 9:26  Egypt, Judah, Edom, the people of Ammon, Moab, and all who are in the farthest corners, who dwell in the wilderness. For all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in the heart.”

Jer 10:1  Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel.

Jer 10:2  Thus says the LORD: “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, For the Gentiles are dismayed at them.

Jer 10:3  For the customs of the peoples are futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, The work of the hands of the workman, with the ax.

Jer 10:4  They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers So that it will not topple.

Jer 10:5  They are upright, like a palm tree, And they cannot speak; They must be carried, Because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, For they cannot do evil, Nor can they do any good.”

Jer 10:6  Inasmuch as there is none like You, O LORD (You are great, and Your name is great in might),

Jer 10:7  Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For this is Your rightful due. For among all the wise men of the nations, And in all their kingdoms, There is none like You.

Jer 10:8  But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish; A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine.

Jer 10:9  Silver is beaten into plates; It is brought from Tarshish, And gold from Uphaz, The work of the craftsman And of the hands of the metalsmith; Blue and purple are their clothing; They are all the work of skillful men.

Jer 10:10  But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth will tremble, And the nations will not be able to endure His indignation.

Jer 10:11  Thus you shall say to them: “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.”

Jer 10:12  He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, And has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.

Jer 10:13  When He utters His voice, There is a multitude of waters in the heavens: “And He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”

Jer 10:14  Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge; Every metalsmith is put to shame by an image; For his molded image is falsehood, And there is no breath in them.

Jer 10:15  They are futile, a work of errors; In the time of their punishment they shall perish.

Jer 10:16  The Portion of Jacob is not like them, For He is the Maker of all things, And Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; The LORD of hosts is His name.

Jer 10:17  Gather up your wares from the land, O inhabitant of the fortress!

Jer 10:18  For thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will throw out at this time The inhabitants of the land, And will distress them, That they may find it so.”

Jer 10:19  Woe is me for my hurt! My wound is severe. But I say, “Truly this is an infirmity, And I must bear it.”

Jer 10:20  My tent is plundered, And all my cords are broken; My children have gone from me, And they are no more. There is no one to pitch my tent anymore, Or set up my curtains.

Jer 10:21  For the shepherds have become dull-hearted, And have not sought the LORD; Therefore they shall not prosper, And all their flocks shall be scattered.

Jer 10:22  Behold, the noise of the report has come, And a great commotion out of the north country, To make the cities of Judah desolate, a den of jackals.

Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.

Jer 10:24  O LORD, correct me, but with justice; Not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing.

Jer 10:25  Pour out Your fury on the Gentiles, who do not know You, And on the families who do not call on Your name; For they have eaten up Jacob, Devoured him and consumed him, And made his dwelling place desolate.

Jer 11:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

Jer 11:2  “Hear the words of this covenant, and speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem;

Jer 11:3  and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: “Cursed is the man who does not obey the words of this covenant

Jer 11:4  which I commanded your fathers in the day I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the iron furnace, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and do according to all that I command you; so shall you be My people, and I will be your God,’

Jer 11:5  that I may establish the oath which I have sworn to your fathers, to give them ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ as it is this day.” ’ ” And I answered and said, “So be it, LORD.”

Jer 11:6  Then the LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying: ‘Hear the words of this covenant and do them.

Jer 11:7  For I earnestly exhorted your fathers in the day I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, until this day, rising early and exhorting, saying, “Obey My voice.”

Jer 11:8  Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but everyone followed the dictates of his evil heart; therefore I will bring upon them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but which they have not done.’ ”

Jer 11:9  And the LORD said to me, “A conspiracy has been found among the men of Judah and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Jer 11:10  They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers who refused to hear My words, and they have gone after other gods to serve them; the house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken My covenant which I made with their fathers.”

Jer 11:11  Therefore thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will surely bring calamity on them which they will not be able to escape; and though they cry out to Me, I will not listen to them.

Jer 11:12  Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry out to the gods to whom they offer incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble.

Jer 11:13  For according to the number of your cities were your gods, O Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to that shameful thing, altars to burn incense to Baal.

Jer 11:14  “So do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them; for I will not hear them in the time that they cry out to Me because of their trouble.

Jer 11:15  “What has My beloved to do in My house, Having done lewd deeds with many? And the holy flesh has passed from you. When you do evil, then you rejoice.

Jer 11:16  The LORD called your name, Green Olive Tree, Lovely and of Good Fruit. With the noise of a great tumult He has kindled fire on it, And its branches are broken.

Jer 11:17  “For the LORD of hosts, who planted you, has pronounced doom against you for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke Me to anger in offering incense to Baal.”

Jer 11:18  Now the LORD gave me knowledge of it, and I know it; for You showed me their doings.

Jer 11:19  But I was like a docile lamb brought to the slaughter; and I did not know that they had devised schemes against me, saying, “Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be remembered no more.”

Jer 11:20  But, O LORD of hosts, You who judge righteously, Testing the mind and the heart, Let me see Your vengeance on them, For to You I have revealed my cause.

Jer 11:21  “Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the men of Anathoth who seek your life, saying, ‘Do not prophesy in the name of the LORD, lest you die by our hand’—

Jer 11:22  therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Behold, I will punish them. The young men shall die by the sword, their sons and their daughters shall die by famine;

Jer 11:23  and there shall be no remnant of them, for I will bring catastrophe on the men of Anathoth, even the year of their punishment.’ ”

Jer 12:1  Righteous are You, O LORD, when I plead with You; Yet let me talk with You about Your judgments. Why does the way of the wicked prosper? Why are those happy who deal so treacherously?

Jer 12:2  You have planted them, yes, they have taken root; They grow, yes, they bear fruit. You are near in their mouth But far from their mind.

Jer 12:3  But You, O LORD, know me; You have seen me, And You have tested my heart toward You. Pull them out like sheep for the slaughter, And prepare them for the day of slaughter.

Jer 12:4  How long will the land mourn, And the herbs of every field wither? The beasts and birds are consumed, For the wickedness of those who dwell there, Because they said, “He will not see our final end.”

Jer 12:5  “If you have run with the footmen, and they have wearied you, Then how can you contend with horses? And if in the land of peace, In which you trusted, they wearied you, Then how will you do in the floodplain of the Jordan?

Jer 12:6  For even your brothers, the house of your father, Even they have dealt treacherously with you; Yes, they have called a multitude after you. Do not believe them, Even though they speak smooth words to you.

Jer 12:7  “I have forsaken My house, I have left My heritage; I have given the dearly beloved of My soul into the hand of her enemies.

Jer 12:8  My heritage is to Me like a lion in the forest; It cries out against Me; Therefore I have hated it.

Jer 12:9  My heritage is to Me like a speckled vulture; The vultures all around are against her. Come, assemble all the beasts of the field, Bring them to devour!

Jer 12:10  “Many rulers have destroyed My vineyard, They have trodden My portion underfoot; They have made My pleasant portion a desolate wilderness.

Jer 12:11  They have made it desolate; Desolate, it mourns to Me; The whole land is made desolate, Because no one takes it to heart.

Jer 12:12  The plunderers have come On all the desolate heights in the wilderness, For the sword of the LORD shall devour From one end of the land to the other end of the land; No flesh shall have peace.

Jer 12:13  They have sown wheat but reaped thorns; They have put themselves to pain but do not profit. But be ashamed of your harvest Because of the fierce anger of the LORD.”

Jer 12:14  Thus says the LORD: “Against all My evil neighbors who touch the inheritance which I have caused My people Israel to inherit—behold, I will pluck them out of their land and pluck out the house of Judah from among them.

Jer 12:15  Then it shall be, after I have plucked them out, that I will return and have compassion on them and bring them back, everyone to his heritage and everyone to his land.

Jer 12:16  And it shall be, if they will learn carefully the ways of My people, to swear by My name, ‘As the LORD lives,’ as they taught My people to swear by Baal, then they shall be established in the midst of My people.

Jer 12:17  But if they do not obey, I will utterly pluck up and destroy that nation,” says the LORD.

Jer 13:1  Thus the LORD said to me: “Go and get yourself a linen sash, and put it around your waist, but do not put it in water.”

Jer 13:2  So I got a sash according to the word of the LORD, and put it around my waist.

Jer 13:3  And the word of the LORD came to me the second time, saying,

Jer 13:4  “Take the sash that you acquired, which is around your waist, and arise, go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole in the rock.”

Jer 13:5  So I went and hid it by the Euphrates, as the LORD commanded me.

Jer 13:6  Now it came to pass after many days that the LORD said to me, “Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from there the sash which I commanded you to hide there.”

Jer 13:7  Then I went to the Euphrates and dug, and I took the sash from the place where I had hidden it; and there was the sash, ruined. It was profitable for nothing.

Jer 13:8  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Jer 13:9  “Thus says the LORD: ‘In this manner I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.

Jer 13:10  This evil people, who refuse to hear My words, who follow the dictates of their hearts, and walk after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be just like this sash which is profitable for nothing.

Jer 13:11  For as the sash clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me,’ says the LORD, ‘that they may become My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they would not hear.’

Jer 13:12  “Therefore you shall speak to them this word: ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: “Every bottle shall be filled with wine.” ’ “And they will say to you, ‘Do we not certainly know that every bottle will be filled with wine?’

Jer 13:13  “Then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land—even the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness!

Jer 13:14  And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together,” says the LORD. “I will not pity nor spare nor have mercy, but will destroy them.” ’ ”

Jer 13:15  Hear and give ear: Do not be proud, For the LORD has spoken.

Jer 13:16  Give glory to the LORD your God Before He causes darkness, And before your feet stumble On the dark mountains, And while you are looking for light, He turns it into the shadow of death And makes it dense darkness.

Jer 13:17  But if you will not hear it, My soul will weep in secret for your pride; My eyes will weep bitterly And run down with tears, Because the LORD’s flock has been taken captive.

Jer 13:18  Say to the king and to the queen mother, “Humble yourselves; Sit down, For your rule shall collapse, the crown of your glory.”

Jer 13:19  The cities of the South shall be shut up, And no one shall open them; Judah shall be carried away captive, all of it; It shall be wholly carried away captive.

Jer 13:20  Lift up your eyes and see Those who come from the north. Where is the flock that was given to you, Your beautiful sheep?

Jer 13:21  What will you say when He punishes you? For you have taught them To be chieftains, to be head over you. Will not pangs seize you, Like a woman in labor?

Jer 13:22  And if you say in your heart, “Why have these things come upon me?” For the greatness of your iniquity Your skirts have been uncovered, Your heels made bare.

Jer 13:23  Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the leopard its spots? Then may you also do good who are accustomed to do evil.

Jer 13:24  “Therefore I will scatter them like stubble That passes away by the wind of the wilderness.

Jer 13:25  This is your lot, The portion of your measures from Me,” says the LORD, “Because you have forgotten Me And trusted in falsehood.

Jer 13:26  Therefore I will uncover your skirts over your face, That your shame may appear.

Jer 13:27  I have seen your adulteries And your lustful neighings, The lewdness of your harlotry, Your abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe to you, O Jerusalem! Will you still not be made clean?”

Jer 14:1  The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah concerning the droughts.

Jer 14:2  “Judah mourns, And her gates languish; They mourn for the land, And the cry of Jerusalem has gone up.

Jer 14:3  Their nobles have sent their lads for water; They went to the cisterns and found no water. They returned with their vessels empty; They were ashamed and confounded And covered their heads.

Jer 14:4  Because the ground is parched, For there was no rain in the land, The plowmen were ashamed; They covered their heads.

Jer 14:5  Yes, the deer also gave birth in the field, But left because there was no grass.

Jer 14:6  And the wild donkeys stood in the desolate heights; They sniffed at the wind like jackals; Their eyes failed because there was no grass.”

Jer 14:7  O LORD, though our iniquities testify against us, Do it for Your name’s sake; For our backslidings are many, We have sinned against You.

Jer 14:8  O the Hope of Israel, his Savior in time of trouble, Why should You be like a stranger in the land, And like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night?

Jer 14:9  Why should You be like a man astonished, Like a mighty one who cannot save? Yet You, O LORD, are in our midst, And we are called by Your name; Do not leave us!

Jer 14:10  Thus says the LORD to this people: “Thus they have loved to wander; They have not restrained their feet. Therefore the LORD does not accept them; He will remember their iniquity now, And punish their sins.”

Jer 14:11  Then the LORD said to me, “Do not pray for this people, for their good.

Jer 14:12  When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and grain offering, I will not accept them. But I will consume them by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.”

Jer 14:13  Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, the prophets say to them, ‘You shall not see the sword, nor shall you have famine, but I will give you assured peace in this place.’ ”

Jer 14:14  And the LORD said to me, “The prophets prophesy lies in My name. I have not sent them, commanded them, nor spoken to them; they prophesy to you a false vision, divination, a worthless thing, and the deceit of their heart.

Jer 14:15  Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who prophesy in My name, whom I did not send, and who say, ‘Sword and famine shall not be in this land’—’By sword and famine those prophets shall be consumed!

Jer 14:16  And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword; they will have no one to bury them—them nor their wives, their sons nor their daughters—for I will pour their wickedness on them.’

Jer 14:17  “Therefore you shall say this word to them: ‘Let my eyes flow with tears night and day, And let them not cease; For the virgin daughter of my people Has been broken with a mighty stroke, with a very severe blow.

Jer 14:18  If I go out to the field, Then behold, those slain with the sword! And if I enter the city, Then behold, those sick from famine! Yes, both prophet and priest go about in a land they do not know.’ ”

Jer 14:19  Have You utterly rejected Judah? Has Your soul loathed Zion? Why have You stricken us so that there is no healing for us? We looked for peace, but there was no good; And for the time of healing, and there was trouble.

Jer 14:20  We acknowledge, O LORD, our wickedness And the iniquity of our fathers, For we have sinned against You.

Jer 14:21  Do not abhor us, for Your name’s sake; Do not disgrace the throne of Your glory. Remember, do not break Your covenant with us.

Jer 14:22  Are there any among the idols of the nations that can cause rain? Or can the heavens give showers? Are You not He, O LORD our God? Therefore we will wait for You, Since You have made all these.

Jer 15:1  Then the LORD said to me, “Even if Moses and Samuel stood before Me, My mind would not be favorable toward this people. Cast them out of My sight, and let them go forth.

Jer 15:2  And it shall be, if they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Such as are for death, to death; And such as are for the sword, to the sword; And such as are for the famine, to the famine; And such as are for the captivity, to the captivity.” ’

Jer 15:3  “And I will appoint over them four forms of destruction,” says the LORD: “the sword to slay, the dogs to drag, the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.

Jer 15:4  I will hand them over to trouble, to all kingdoms of the earth, because of Manasseh the son of Hezekiah, king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.

Jer 15:5  “For who will have pity on you, O Jerusalem? Or who will bemoan you? Or who will turn aside to ask how you are doing?

Jer 15:6  You have forsaken Me,” says the LORD, “You have gone backward. Therefore I will stretch out My hand against you and destroy you; I am weary of relenting!

Jer 15:7  And I will winnow them with a winnowing fan in the gates of the land; I will bereave them of children; I will destroy My people, Since they do not return from their ways.

Jer 15:8  Their widows will be increased to Me more than the sand of the seas; I will bring against them, Against the mother of the young men, A plunderer at noonday; I will cause anguish and terror to fall on them suddenly.

Jer 15:9  “She languishes who has borne seven; She has breathed her last; Her sun has gone down While it was yet day; She has been ashamed and confounded. And the remnant of them I will deliver to the sword Before their enemies,” says the LORD.

Jer 15:10  Woe is me, my mother, That you have borne me, A man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth! I have neither lent for interest, Nor have men lent to me for interest. Every one of them curses me.

Jer 15:11  The LORD said: “Surely it will be well with your remnant; Surely I will cause the enemy to intercede with you In the time of adversity and in the time of affliction.

Jer 15:12  Can anyone break iron, The northern iron and the bronze?

Jer 15:13  Your wealth and your treasures I will give as plunder without price, Because of all your sins, Throughout your territories.

Jer 15:14  And I will make you cross over with your enemies Into a land which you do not know; For a fire is kindled in My anger, Which shall burn upon you.”

Jer 15:15  O LORD, You know; Remember me and visit me, And take vengeance for me on my persecutors. In Your enduring patience, do not take me away. Know that for Your sake I have suffered rebuke.

Jer 15:16  Your words were found, and I ate them, And Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart; For I am called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.

Jer 15:17  I did not sit in the assembly of the mockers, Nor did I rejoice; I sat alone because of Your hand, For You have filled me with indignation.

Jer 15:18  Why is my pain perpetual And my wound incurable, Which refuses to be healed? Will You surely be to me like an unreliable stream, As waters that fail?

Jer 15:19  Therefore thus says the LORD: “If you return, Then I will bring you back; You shall stand before Me; If you take out the precious from the vile, You shall be as My mouth. Let them return to you, But you must not return to them.

Jer 15:20  And I will make you to this people a fortified bronze wall; And they will fight against you, But they shall not prevail against you; For I am with you to save you And deliver you,” says the LORD.

Jer 15:21  “I will deliver you from the hand of the wicked, And I will redeem you from the grip of the terrible.”

Jer 16:1  The word of the LORD also came to me, saying,

Jer 16:2  “You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place.”

Jer 16:3  For thus says the LORD concerning the sons and daughters who are born in this place, and concerning their mothers who bore them and their fathers who begot them in this land:

Jer 16:4  “They shall die gruesome deaths; they shall not be lamented nor shall they be buried, but they shall be like refuse on the face of the earth. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, and their corpses shall be meat for the birds of heaven and for the beasts of the earth.”

Jer 16:5  For thus says the LORD: “Do not enter the house of mourning, nor go to lament or bemoan them; for I have taken away My peace from this people,” says the LORD, “lovingkindness and mercies.

Jer 16:6  Both the great and the small shall die in this land. They shall not be buried; neither shall men lament for them, cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for them.

Jer 16:7  Nor shall men break bread in mourning for them, to comfort them for the dead; nor shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for their father or their mother.

Jer 16:8  Also you shall not go into the house of feasting to sit with them, to eat and drink.”

Jer 16:9  For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will cause to cease from this place, before your eyes and in your days, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride.

Jer 16:10  “And it shall be, when you show this people all these words, and they say to you, ‘Why has the LORD pronounced all this great disaster against us? Or what is our iniquity? Or what is our sin that we have committed against the LORD our God?’

Jer 16:11  then you shall say to them, ‘Because your fathers have forsaken Me,’ says the LORD; ‘they have walked after other gods and have served them and worshiped them, and have forsaken Me and not kept My law.

Jer 16:12  And you have done worse than your fathers, for behold, each one follows the dictates of his own evil heart, so that no one listens to Me.

Jer 16:13  Therefore I will cast you out of this land into a land that you do not know, neither you nor your fathers; and there you shall serve other gods day and night, where I will not show you favor.’

Jer 16:14  “Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that it shall no more be said, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’

Jer 16:15  but, ‘The LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where He had driven them.’ For I will bring them back into their land which I gave to their fathers.

Jer 16:16  “Behold, I will send for many fishermen,” says the LORD, “and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.

Jer 16:17  For My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, nor is their iniquity hidden from My eyes.

Jer 16:18  And first I will repay double for their iniquity and their sin, because they have defiled My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable idols.”

Jer 16:19  O LORD, my strength and my fortress, My refuge in the day of affliction, The Gentiles shall come to You From the ends of the earth and say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, Worthlessness and unprofitable things.”

Jer 16:20  Will a man make gods for himself, Which are not gods?

Jer 16:21  “Therefore behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know My hand and My might; And they shall know that My name is the LORD.

Jer 17:1  “The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron; With the point of a diamond it is engraved On the tablet of their heart, And on the horns of your altars,

Jer 17:2  While their children remember Their altars and their wooden images By the green trees on the high hills.

Jer 17:3  O My mountain in the field, I will give as plunder your wealth, all your treasures, And your high places of sin within all your borders.

Jer 17:4  And you, even yourself, Shall let go of your heritage which I gave you; And I will cause you to serve your enemies In the land which you do not know; For you have kindled a fire in My anger which shall burn forever.”

Jer 17:5  Thus says the LORD: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the LORD.

Jer 17:6  For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, And shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, In a salt land which is not inhabited.

Jer 17:7  “Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD.

Jer 17:8  For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters, Which spreads out its roots by the river, And will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, And will not be anxious in the year of drought, Nor will cease from yielding fruit.

Jer 17:9  “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Jer 17:10  I, the LORD, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give every man according to his ways, According to the fruit of his doings.

Jer 17:11  “As a partridge that broods but does not hatch, So is he who gets riches, but not by right; It will leave him in the midst of his days, And at his end he will be a fool.”

Jer 17:12  A glorious high throne from the beginning Is the place of our sanctuary.

Jer 17:13  O LORD, the hope of Israel, All who forsake You shall be ashamed. “Those who depart from Me Shall be written in the earth, Because they have forsaken the LORD, The fountain of living waters.”

Jer 17:14  Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; Save me, and I shall be saved, For You are my praise.

Jer 17:15  Indeed they say to me, “Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come now!”

Jer 17:16  As for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd who follows You, Nor have I desired the woeful day; You know what came out of my lips; It was right there before You.

Jer 17:17  Do not be a terror to me; You are my hope in the day of doom.

Jer 17:18  Let them be ashamed who persecute me, But do not let me be put to shame; Let them be dismayed, But do not let me be dismayed. Bring on them the day of doom, And destroy them with double destruction!

Jer 17:19  Thus the LORD said to me: “Go and stand in the gate of the children of the people, by which the kings of Judah come in and by which they go out, and in all the gates of Jerusalem;

Jer 17:20  and say to them, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, you kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, who enter by these gates.

Jer 17:21  Thus says the LORD: “Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the Sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

Jer 17:22  nor carry a burden out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor do any work, but hallow the Sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers.

Jer 17:23  But they did not obey nor incline their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear nor receive instruction.

Jer 17:24  “And it shall be, if you heed Me carefully,” says the LORD, “to bring no burden through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but hallow the Sabbath day, to do no work in it,

Jer 17:25  then shall enter the gates of this city kings and princes sitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, accompanied by the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and this city shall remain forever.

Jer 17:26  And they shall come from the cities of Judah and from the places around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the lowland, from the mountains and from the South, bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, bringing sacrifices of praise to the house of the LORD.

Jer 17:27  “But if you will not heed Me to hallow the Sabbath day, such as not carrying a burden when entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I will kindle a fire in its gates, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.” ’ ”

Jer 18:1  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying:

Jer 18:2  “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause you to hear My words.”

Jer 18:3  Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something at the wheel.

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make.

Jer 18:5  Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying:

Jer 18:6  “O house of Israel, can I not do with you as this potter?” says the LORD. “Look, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel!

Jer 18:7  The instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, to pull down, and to destroy it,

Jer 18:8  if that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it.

Jer 18:9  And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it,

Jer 18:10  if it does evil in My sight so that it does not obey My voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it.

Jer 18:11  “Now therefore, speak to the men of Judah and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you. Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good.” ’ ”

Jer 18:12  And they said, “That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart.”

Jer 18:13  Therefore thus says the LORD: “Ask now among the Gentiles, Who has heard such things? The virgin of Israel has done a very horrible thing.

Jer 18:14  Will a man leave the snow water of Lebanon, Which comes from the rock of the field? Will the cold flowing waters be forsaken for strange waters?

Jer 18:15  “Because My people have forgotten Me, They have burned incense to worthless idols. And they have caused themselves to stumble in their ways, From the ancient paths, To walk in pathways and not on a highway,

Jer 18:16  To make their land desolate and a perpetual hissing; Everyone who passes by it will be astonished And shake his head.

Jer 18:17  I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will show them the back and not the face In the day of their calamity.”

Jer 18:18  Then they said, “Come and let us devise plans against Jeremiah; for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet. Come and let us attack him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.”

Jer 18:19  Give heed to me, O LORD, And listen to the voice of those who contend with me!

Jer 18:20  Shall evil be repaid for good? For they have dug a pit for my life. Remember that I stood before You To speak good for them, To turn away Your wrath from them.

Jer 18:21  Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, And pour out their blood By the force of the sword; Let their wives become widows And bereaved of their children. Let their men be put to death, Their young men be slain By the sword in battle.

Jer 18:22  Let a cry be heard from their houses, When You bring a troop suddenly upon them; For they have dug a pit to take me, And hidden snares for my feet.

Jer 18:23  Yet, LORD, You know all their counsel Which is against me, to slay me. Provide no atonement for their iniquity, Nor blot out their sin from Your sight; But let them be overthrown before You. Deal thus with them In the time of Your anger.

Jer 19:1  Thus says the LORD: “Go and get a potter’s earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests.

Jer 19:2  And go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you,

Jer 19:3  and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle.

Jer 19:4  “Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents

Jer 19:5  (they have also built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or speak, nor did it come into My mind),

Jer 19:6  therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that this place shall no more be called Tophet or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter.

Jer 19:7  And I will make void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth.

Jer 19:8  I will make this city desolate and a hissing; everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues.

Jer 19:9  And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.” ’

Jer 19:10  “Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you,

Jer 19:11  and say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury.

Jer 19:12  Thus I will do to this place,” says the LORD, “and to its inhabitants, and make this city like Tophet.

Jer 19:13  And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Tophet, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and poured out drink offerings to other gods.” ’ ”

Jer 19:14  Then Jeremiah came from Tophet, where the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people,

Jer 19:15  “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring on this city and on all her towns all the doom that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks that they might not hear My words.’ ”

Jer 20:1  Now Pashhur the son of Immer, the priest who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things.

Jer 20:2  Then Pashhur struck Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the high gate of Benjamin, which was by the house of the LORD.

Jer 20:3  And it happened on the next day that Pashhur brought Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then Jeremiah said to him, “The LORD has not called your name Pashhur, but Magor-Missabib.

Jer 20:4  For thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will make you a terror to yourself and to all your friends; and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and your eyes shall see it. I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon and slay them with the sword.

Jer 20:5  Moreover I will deliver all the wealth of this city, all its produce, and all its precious things; all the treasures of the kings of Judah I will give into the hand of their enemies, who will plunder them, seize them, and carry them to Babylon.

Jer 20:6  And you, Pashhur, and all who dwell in your house, shall go into captivity. You shall go to Babylon, and there you shall die, and be buried there, you and all your friends, to whom you have prophesied lies.’ ”

Jer 20:7  O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily; Everyone mocks me.

Jer 20:8  For when I spoke, I cried out; I shouted, “Violence and plunder!” Because the word of the LORD was made to me A reproach and a derision daily.

Jer 20:9  Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name.” But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.

Jer 20:10  For I heard many mocking: “Fear on every side!” “Report,” they say, “and we will report it!” All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying, “Perhaps he can be induced; Then we will prevail against him, And we will take our revenge on him.”

Jer 20:11  But the LORD is with me as a mighty, awesome One. Therefore my persecutors will stumble, and will not prevail. They will be greatly ashamed, for they will not prosper. Their everlasting confusion will never be forgotten.

Jer 20:12  But, O LORD of hosts, You who test the righteous, And see the mind and heart, Let me see Your vengeance on them; For I have pleaded my cause before You.

Jer 20:13  Sing to the LORD! Praise the LORD! For He has delivered the life of the poor From the hand of evildoers.

Jer 20:14  Cursed be the day in which I was born! Let the day not be blessed in which my mother bore me!

Jer 20:15  Let the man be cursed Who brought news to my father, saying, “A male child has been born to you!” Making him very glad.

Jer 20:16  And let that man be like the cities Which the LORD—overthrew, and did not relent; Let him hear the cry in the morning And the shouting at noon,

Jer 20:17  Because he did not kill me from the womb, That my mother might have been my grave, And her womb always enlarged with me.

Jer 20:18  Why did I come forth from the womb to see labor and sorrow, That my days should be consumed with shame?

Jer 21:1  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Melchiah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying,

Jer 21:2  “Please inquire of the LORD for us, for Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon makes war against us. Perhaps the LORD will deal with us according to all His wonderful works, that the king may go away from us.”

Jer 21:3  Then Jeremiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah,

Jer 21:4  ‘Thus says the LORD God of Israel: “Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls; and I will assemble them in the midst of this city.

Jer 21:5  I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger and fury and great wrath.

Jer 21:6  I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast; they shall die of a great pestilence.

Jer 21:7  And afterward,” says the LORD, “I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants and the people, and such as are left in this city from the pestilence and the sword and the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and he shall strike them with the edge of the sword. He shall not spare them, or have pity or mercy.” ’

Jer 21:8  “Now you shall say to this people, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.

Jer 21:9  He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him.

Jer 21:10  For I have set My face against this city for adversity and not for good,” says the LORD. “It shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.” ’

Jer 21:11  “And concerning the house of the king of Judah, say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD,

Jer 21:12  O house of David! Thus says the LORD: “Execute judgment in the morning; And deliver him who is plundered Out of the hand of the oppressor, Lest My fury go forth like fire And burn so that no one can quench it, Because of the evil of your doings.

Jer 21:13  “Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, And rock of the plain,” says the LORD, “Who say, ‘Who shall come down against us? Or who shall enter our dwellings?’

Jer 21:14  But I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings,” says the LORD; “I will kindle a fire in its forest, And it shall devour all things around it.” ’ ”

Jer 22:1  Thus says the LORD: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and there speak this word,

Jer 22:2  and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, you who sit on the throne of David, you and your servants and your people who enter these gates!

Jer 22:3  Thus says the LORD: “Execute judgment and righteousness, and deliver the plundered out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong and do no violence to the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place.

Jer 22:4  For if you indeed do this thing, then shall enter the gates of this house, riding on horses and in chariots, accompanied by servants and people, kings who sit on the throne of David.

Jer 22:5  But if you will not hear these words, I swear by Myself,” says the LORD, “that this house shall become a desolation.” ’ ”

Jer 22:6  For thus says the LORD to the house of the king of Judah: “You are Gilead to Me, The head of Lebanon; Yet I surely will make you a wilderness, Cities which are not inhabited.

Jer 22:7  I will prepare destroyers against you, Everyone with his weapons; They shall cut down your choice cedars And cast them into the fire.

Jer 22:8  And many nations will pass by this city; and everyone will say to his neighbor, ‘Why has the LORD done so to this great city?’

Jer 22:9  Then they will answer, ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD their God, and worshiped other gods and served them.’ ”

Jer 22:10  Weep not for the dead, nor bemoan him; Weep bitterly for him who goes away, For he shall return no more, Nor see his native country.

Jer 22:11  For thus says the LORD concerning Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, who went from this place: “He shall not return here anymore,

Jer 22:12  but he shall die in the place where they have led him captive, and shall see this land no more.

Jer 22:13  “Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness And his chambers by injustice, Who uses his neighbor’s service without wages And gives him nothing for his work,

Jer 22:14  Who says, ‘I will build myself a wide house with spacious chambers, And cut out windows for it, Paneling it with cedar And painting it with vermilion.’

Jer 22:15  “Shall you reign because you enclose yourself in cedar? Did not your father eat and drink, And do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.

Jer 22:16  He judged the cause of the poor and needy; Then it was well. Was not this knowing Me?” says the LORD.

Jer 22:17  “Yet your eyes and your heart are for nothing but your covetousness, For shedding innocent blood, And practicing oppression and violence.”

Jer 22:18  Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They shall not lament for him, Saying, ‘Alas, my brother!’ or ‘Alas, my sister!’ They shall not lament for him, Saying, ‘Alas, master!’ or ‘Alas, his glory!’

Jer 22:19  He shall be buried with the burial of a donkey, Dragged and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.

Jer 22:20  “Go up to Lebanon, and cry out, And lift up your voice in Bashan; Cry from Abarim, For all your lovers are destroyed.

Jer 22:21  I spoke to you in your prosperity, But you said, ‘I will not hear.’ This has been your manner from your youth, That you did not obey My voice.

Jer 22:22  The wind shall eat up all your rulers, And your lovers shall go into captivity; Surely then you will be ashamed and humiliated For all your wickedness.

Jer 22:23  O inhabitant of Lebanon, Making your nest in the cedars, How gracious will you be when pangs come upon you, Like the pain of a woman in labor?

Jer 22:24  “As I live,” says the LORD, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, were the signet on My right hand, yet I would pluck you off;

Jer 22:25  and I will give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those whose face you fear—the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and the hand of the Chaldeans.

Jer 22:26  So I will cast you out, and your mother who bore you, into another country where you were not born; and there you shall die.

Jer 22:27  But to the land to which they desire to return, there they shall not return.

Jer 22:28  “Is this man Coniah a despised, broken idol— A vessel in which is no pleasure? Why are they cast out, he and his descendants, And cast into a land which they do not know?

Jer 22:29  O earth, earth, earth, Hear the word of the LORD!

Jer 22:30  Thus says the LORD: ‘Write this man down as childless, A man who shall not prosper in his days; For none of his descendants shall prosper, Sitting on the throne of David, And ruling anymore in Judah.’ ”

Jer 23:1  “Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!” says the LORD.

Jer 23:2  Therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people: “You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings,” says the LORD.

Jer 23:3  “But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.

Jer 23:4  I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking,” says the LORD.

Jer 23:5  “Behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; A King shall reign and prosper, And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

Jer 23:6  In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell safely; Now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Jer 23:7  “Therefore, behold, the days are coming,” says the LORD, “that they shall no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’

Jer 23:8  but, ‘As the LORD lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own land.”

Jer 23:9  My heart within me is broken Because of the prophets; All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, And like a man whom wine has overcome, Because of the LORD, And because of His holy words.

Jer 23:10  For the land is full of adulterers; For because of a curse the land mourns. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. Their course of life is evil, And their might is not right.

Jer 23:11  “For both prophet and priest are profane; Yes, in My house I have found their wickedness,” says the LORD.

Jer 23:12  “Therefore their way shall be to them Like slippery ways; In the darkness they shall be driven on And fall in them; For I will bring disaster on them, The year of their punishment,” says the LORD.

Jer 23:13  “And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: They prophesied by Baal And caused My people Israel to err.

Jer 23:14  Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: They commit adultery and walk in lies; They also strengthen the hands of evildoers, So that no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to Me, And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.

Jer 23:15  “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the prophets: ‘Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, And make them drink the water of gall; For from the prophets of Jerusalem Profaneness has gone out into all the land.’ ”

Jer 23:16  Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you. They make you worthless; They speak a vision of their own heart, Not from the mouth of the LORD.

Jer 23:17  They continually say to those who despise Me, ‘The LORD has said, “You shall have peace” ‘; And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say, ‘No evil shall come upon you.’ ”

Jer 23:18  For who has stood in the counsel of the LORD, And has perceived and heard His word? Who has marked His word and heard it?

Jer 23:19  Behold, a whirlwind of the LORD has gone forth in fury— A violent whirlwind! It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.

Jer 23:20  The anger of the LORD will not turn back Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart. In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.

Jer 23:21  “I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran. I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

Jer 23:22  But if they had stood in My counsel, And had caused My people to hear My words, Then they would have turned them from their evil way And from the evil of their doings.

Jer 23:23  “Am I a God near at hand,” says the LORD, “And not a God afar off?

Jer 23:24  Can anyone hide himself in secret places, So I shall not see him?” says the LORD; “Do I not fill heaven and earth?” says the LORD.

Jer 23:25  “I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying, ‘I have dreamed, I have dreamed!’

Jer 23:26  How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart,

Jer 23:27  who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal.

Jer 23:28  “The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream; And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat?” says the LORD.

Jer 23:29  “Is not My word like a fire?” says the LORD, “And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?

Jer 23:30  “Therefore behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who steal My words every one from his neighbor.

Jer 23:31  Behold, I am against the prophets,” says the LORD, “who use their tongues and say, ‘He says.’

Jer 23:32  Behold, I am against those who prophesy false dreams,” says the LORD, “and tell them, and cause My people to err by their lies and by their recklessness. Yet I did not send them or command them; therefore they shall not profit this people at all,” says the LORD.

Jer 23:33  “So when these people or the prophet or the priest ask you, saying, ‘What is the oracle of the LORD?’ you shall then say to them, ‘What oracle?’ I will even forsake you,” says the LORD.

Jer 23:34  “And as for the prophet and the priest and the people who say, ‘The oracle of the LORD!’ I will even punish that man and his house.

Jer 23:35  Thus every one of you shall say to his neighbor, and every one to his brother, ‘What has the LORD answered?’ and, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’

Jer 23:36  And the oracle of the LORD you shall mention no more. For every man’s word will be his oracle, for you have perverted the words of the living God, the LORD of hosts, our God.

Jer 23:37  Thus you shall say to the prophet, ‘What has the LORD answered you?’ and, ‘What has the LORD spoken?’

Jer 23:38  But since you say, ‘The oracle of the LORD!’ therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Because you say this word, “The oracle of the LORD!” and I have sent to you, saying, “Do not say, ‘The oracle of the LORD!’ ”

Jer 23:39  therefore behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you and forsake you, and the city that I gave you and your fathers, and will cast you out of My presence.

Jer 23:40  And I will bring an everlasting reproach upon you, and a perpetual shame, which shall not be forgotten.’ ”

Jer 24:1  The LORD showed me, and there were two baskets of figs set before the temple of the LORD, after Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, and the princes of Judah with the craftsmen and smiths, from Jerusalem, and had brought them to Babylon.

Jer 24:2  One basket had very good figs, like the figs that are first ripe; and the other basket had very bad figs which could not be eaten, they were so bad.

Jer 24:3  Then the LORD said to me, “What do you see, Jeremiah?” And I said, “Figs, the good figs, very good; and the bad, very bad, which cannot be eaten, they are so bad.”

Jer 24:4  Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Jer 24:5  “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge those who are carried away captive from Judah, whom I have sent out of this place for their own good, into the land of the Chaldeans.

Jer 24:6  For I will set My eyes on them for good, and I will bring them back to this land; I will build them and not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up.

Jer 24:7  Then I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the LORD; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God, for they shall return to Me with their whole heart.

Jer 24:8  ‘And as the bad figs which cannot be eaten, they are so bad’—surely thus says the LORD—’so will I give up Zedekiah the king of Judah, his princes, the residue of Jerusalem who remain in this land, and those who dwell in the land of Egypt.

Jer 24:9  I will deliver them to trouble into all the kingdoms of the earth, for their harm, to be a reproach and a byword, a taunt and a curse, in all places where I shall drive them.

Jer 24:10  And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence among them, till they are consumed from the land that I gave to them and their fathers.’ ”

Jer 25:1  The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah (which was the first year of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon),

Jer 25:2  which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to all the people of Judah and to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying:

Jer 25:3  “From the thirteenth year of Josiah the son of Amon, king of Judah, even to this day, this is the twenty-third year in which the word of the LORD has come to me; and I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, but you have not listened.

Jer 25:4  And the LORD has sent to you all His servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, but you have not listened nor inclined your ear to hear.

Jer 25:5  They said, ‘Repent now everyone of his evil way and his evil doings, and dwell in the land that the LORD has given to you and your fathers forever and ever.

Jer 25:6  Do not go after other gods to serve them and worship them, and do not provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands; and I will not harm you.’

Jer 25:7  Yet you have not listened to Me,” says the LORD, “that you might provoke Me to anger with the works of your hands to your own hurt.

Jer 25:8  “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘Because you have not heard My words,

Jer 25:9  behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ says the LORD, ‘and Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land, against its inhabitants, and against these nations all around, and will utterly destroy them, and make them an astonishment, a hissing, and perpetual desolations.

Jer 25:10  Moreover I will take from them the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp.

Jer 25:11  And this whole land shall be a desolation and an astonishment, and these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years.

Jer 25:12  ‘Then it will come to pass, when seventy years are completed, that I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation, the land of the Chaldeans, for their iniquity,’ says the LORD; ‘and I will make it a perpetual desolation.

Jer 25:13  So I will bring on that land all My words which I have pronounced against it, all that is written in this book, which Jeremiah has prophesied concerning all the nations.

Jer 25:14  (For many nations and great kings shall be served by them also; and I will repay them according to their deeds and according to the works of their own hands.)’ ”

Jer 25:15  For thus says the LORD God of Israel to me: “Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it.

Jer 25:16  And they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.”

Jer 25:17  Then I took the cup from the LORD’s hand, and made all the nations drink, to whom the LORD had sent me:

Jer 25:18  Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day;

Jer 25:19  Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes, and all his people;

Jer 25:20  all the mixed multitude, all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines (namely, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod);

Jer 25:21  Edom, Moab, and the people of Ammon;

Jer 25:22  all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastlands which are across the sea;

Jer 25:23  Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who are in the farthest corners;

Jer 25:24  all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mixed multitude who dwell in the desert;

Jer 25:25  all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes;

Jer 25:26  all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth. Also the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.

Jer 25:27  “Therefore you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Drink, be drunk, and vomit! Fall and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.” ’

Jer 25:28  And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “You shall certainly drink!

Jer 25:29  For behold, I begin to bring calamity on the city which is called by My name, and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth,” says the LORD of hosts.’

Jer 25:30  “Therefore prophesy against them all these words, and say to them: ‘The LORD will roar from on high, And utter His voice from His holy habitation; He will roar mightily against His fold. He will give a shout, as those who tread the grapes, Against all the inhabitants of the earth.

Jer 25:31  A noise will come to the ends of the earth— For the LORD has a controversy with the nations; He will plead His case with all flesh. He will give those who are wicked to the sword,’ says the LORD.”

Jer 25:32  Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Behold, disaster shall go forth From nation to nation, And a great whirlwind shall be raised up From the farthest parts of the earth.

Jer 25:33  “And at that day the slain of the LORD shall be from one end of the earth even to the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented, or gathered, or buried; they shall become refuse on the ground.

Jer 25:34  “Wail, shepherds, and cry! Roll about in the ashes, You leaders of the flock! For the days of your slaughter and your dispersions are fulfilled; You shall fall like a precious vessel.

Jer 25:35  And the shepherds will have no way to flee, Nor the leaders of the flock to escape.

Jer 25:36  A voice of the cry of the shepherds, And a wailing of the leaders to the flock will be heard. For the LORD has plundered their pasture,

Jer 25:37  And the peaceful dwellings are cut down Because of the fierce anger of the LORD.

Jer 25:38  He has left His lair like the lion; For their land is desolate Because of the fierceness of the Oppressor, And because of His fierce anger.”

Jer 26:1  In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came from the LORD, saying,

Jer 26:2  “Thus says the LORD: ‘Stand in the court of the LORD’s house, and speak to all the cities of Judah, which come to worship in the LORD’s house, all the words that I command you to speak to them. Do not diminish a word.

Jer 26:3  Perhaps everyone will listen and turn from his evil way, that I may relent concerning the calamity which I purpose to bring on them because of the evil of their doings.’

Jer 26:4  And you shall say to them, ‘Thus says the LORD: “If you will not listen to Me, to walk in My law which I have set before you,

Jer 26:5  to heed the words of My servants the prophets whom I sent to you, both rising up early and sending them (but you have not heeded),

Jer 26:6  then I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth.” ’ ”

Jer 26:7  So the priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the house of the LORD.

Jer 26:8  Now it happened, when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking all that the LORD had commanded him to speak to all the people, that the priests and the prophets and all the people seized him, saying, “You will surely die!

Jer 26:9  Why have you prophesied in the name of the LORD, saying, ‘This house shall be like Shiloh, and this city shall be desolate, without an inhabitant’?” And all the people were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the LORD.

Jer 26:10  When the princes of Judah heard these things, they came up from the king’s house to the house of the LORD and sat down in the entry of the New Gate of the LORD’s house.

Jer 26:11  And the priests and the prophets spoke to the princes and all the people, saying, “This man deserves to die! For he has prophesied against this city, as you have heard with your ears.”

Jer 26:12  Then Jeremiah spoke to all the princes and all the people, saying: “The LORD sent me to prophesy against this house and against this city with all the words that you have heard.

Jer 26:13  Now therefore, amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the LORD your God; then the LORD will relent concerning the doom that He has pronounced against you.

Jer 26:14  As for me, here I am, in your hand; do with me as seems good and proper to you.

Jer 26:15  But know for certain that if you put me to death, you will surely bring innocent blood on yourselves, on this city, and on its inhabitants; for truly the LORD has sent me to you to speak all these words in your hearing.”

Jer 26:16  So the princes and all the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man does not deserve to die. For he has spoken to us in the name of the LORD our God.”

Jer 26:17  Then certain of the elders of the land rose up and spoke to all the assembly of the people, saying:

Jer 26:18  “Micah of Moresheth prophesied in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah, and spoke to all the people of Judah, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Zion shall be plowed like a field, Jerusalem shall become heaps of ruins, And the mountain of the temple Like the bare hills of the forest.” ’

Jer 26:19  Did Hezekiah king of Judah and all Judah ever put him to death? Did he not fear the LORD and seek the LORD’s favor? And the LORD—relented concerning the doom which He had pronounced against them. But we are doing great evil against ourselves.”

Jer 26:20  Now there was also a man who prophesied in the name of the LORD, Urijah the son of Shemaiah of Kirjath Jearim, who prophesied against this city and against this land according to all the words of Jeremiah.

Jer 26:21  And when Jehoiakim the king, with all his mighty men and all the princes, heard his words, the king sought to put him to death; but when Urijah heard it, he was afraid and fled, and went to Egypt.

Jer 26:22  Then Jehoiakim the king sent men to Egypt: Elnathan the son of Achbor, and other men who went with him to Egypt.

Jer 26:23  And they brought Urijah from Egypt and brought him to Jehoiakim the king, who killed him with the sword and cast his dead body into the graves of the common people.

Jer 26:24  Nevertheless the hand of Ahikam the son of Shaphan was with Jeremiah, so that they should not give him into the hand of the people to put him to death.

Jer 27:1  In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

Jer 27:2  “Thus says the LORD to me: ‘Make for yourselves bonds and yokes, and put them on your neck,

Jer 27:3  and send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon, by the hand of the messengers who come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.

Jer 27:4  And command them to say to their masters, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel—thus you shall say to your masters:

Jer 27:5  ‘I have made the earth, the man and the beast that are on the ground, by My great power and by My outstretched arm, and have given it to whom it seemed proper to Me.

Jer 27:6  And now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant; and the beasts of the field I have also given him to serve him.

Jer 27:7  So all nations shall serve him and his son and his son’s son, until the time of his land comes; and then many nations and great kings shall make him serve them.

Jer 27:8  And it shall be, that the nation and kingdom which will not serve Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, and which will not put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, that nation I will punish,’ says the LORD, ‘with the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand.

Jer 27:9  Therefore do not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers, your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who speak to you, saying, “You shall not serve the king of Babylon.”

Jer 27:10  For they prophesy a lie to you, to remove you far from your land; and I will drive you out, and you will perish.

Jer 27:11  But the nations that bring their necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will let them remain in their own land,’ says the LORD, ‘and they shall till it and dwell in it.’ ” ’ ”

Jer 27:12  I also spoke to Zedekiah king of Judah according to all these words, saying, “Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live!

Jer 27:13  Why will you die, you and your people, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, as the LORD has spoken against the nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?

Jer 27:14  Therefore do not listen to the words of the prophets who speak to you, saying, ‘You shall not serve the king of Babylon,’ for they prophesy a lie to you;

Jer 27:15  for I have not sent them,” says the LORD, “yet they prophesy a lie in My name, that I may drive you out, and that you may perish, you and the prophets who prophesy to you.”

Jer 27:16  Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, “Behold, the vessels of the LORD’s house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon”; for they prophesy a lie to you.

Jer 27:17  Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon, and live! Why should this city be laid waste?

Jer 27:18  But if they are prophets, and if the word of the LORD is with them, let them now make intercession to the LORD of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the LORD, in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, do not go to Babylon.’

Jer 27:19  “For thus says the LORD of hosts concerning the pillars, concerning the Sea, concerning the carts, and concerning the remainder of the vessels that remain in this city,

Jer 27:20  which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem—

Jer 27:21  yes, thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the LORD, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem:

Jer 27:22  ‘They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall be until the day that I visit them,’ says the LORD. ‘Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.’ ”

Jer 28:1  And it happened in the same year, at the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, who was from Gibeon, spoke to me in the house of the LORD in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,

Jer 28:2  “Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

Jer 28:3  Within two full years I will bring back to this place all the vessels of the LORD’s house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place and carried to Babylon.

Jer 28:4  And I will bring back to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah who went to Babylon,’ says the LORD, ‘for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.’ ”

Jer 28:5  Then the prophet Jeremiah spoke to the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests and in the presence of all the people who stood in the house of the LORD,

Jer 28:6  and the prophet Jeremiah said, “Amen! The LORD do so; the LORD perform your words which you have prophesied, to bring back the vessels of the LORD’s house and all who were carried away captive, from Babylon to this place.

Jer 28:7  Nevertheless hear now this word that I speak in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people:

Jer 28:8  The prophets who have been before me and before you of old prophesied against many countries and great kingdoms—of war and disaster and pestilence.

Jer 28:9  As for the prophet who prophesies of peace, when the word of the prophet comes to pass, the prophet will be known as one whom the LORD has truly sent.”

Jer 28:10  Then Hananiah the prophet took the yoke off the prophet Jeremiah’s neck and broke it.

Jer 28:11  And Hananiah spoke in the presence of all the people, saying, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Even so I will break the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon from the neck of all nations within the space of two full years.’ ” And the prophet Jeremiah went his way.

Jer 28:12  Now the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after Hananiah the prophet had broken the yoke from the neck of the prophet Jeremiah, saying,

Jer 28:13  “Go and tell Hananiah, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD: “You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made in their place yokes of iron.”

Jer 28:14  For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “I have put a yoke of iron on the neck of all these nations, that they may serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and they shall serve him. I have given him the beasts of the field also.” ’ ”

Jer 28:15  Then the prophet Jeremiah said to Hananiah the prophet, “Hear now, Hananiah, the LORD has not sent you, but you make this people trust in a lie.

Jer 28:16  Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will cast you from the face of the earth. This year you shall die, because you have taught rebellion against the LORD.’ ”

Jer 28:17  So Hananiah the prophet died the same year in the seventh month.

Jer 29:1  Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the remainder of the elders who were carried away captive—to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Jer 29:2  (This happened after Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the eunuchs, the princes of Judah and Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the smiths had departed from Jerusalem.)

Jer 29:3  The letter was sent by the hand of Elasah the son of Shaphan, and Gemariah the son of Hilkiah, whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to Babylon, to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, saying,

Jer 29:4  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:

Jer 29:5  Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit.

Jer 29:6  Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished.

Jer 29:7  And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.

Jer 29:8  For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let your prophets and your diviners who are in your midst deceive you, nor listen to your dreams which you cause to be dreamed.

Jer 29:9  For they prophesy falsely to you in My name; I have not sent them, says the LORD.

Jer 29:10  For thus says the LORD: After seventy years are completed at Babylon, I will visit you and perform My good word toward you, and cause you to return to this place.

Jer 29:11  For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Jer 29:12  Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.

Jer 29:13  And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.

Jer 29:14  I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captive.

Jer 29:15  Because you have said, “The LORD has raised up prophets for us in Babylon”—

Jer 29:16  therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king who sits on the throne of David, concerning all the people who dwell in this city, and concerning your brethren who have not gone out with you into captivity—

Jer 29:17  thus says the LORD of hosts: Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that cannot be eaten, they are so bad.

Jer 29:18  And I will pursue them with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence; and I will deliver them to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth—to be a curse, an astonishment, a hissing, and a reproach among all the nations where I have driven them,

Jer 29:19  because they have not heeded My words, says the LORD, which I sent to them by My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them; neither would you heed, says the LORD.

Jer 29:20  Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all you of the captivity, whom I have sent from Jerusalem to Babylon.

Jer 29:21  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning Ahab the son of Kolaiah, and Zedekiah the son of Maaseiah, who prophesy a lie to you in My name: Behold, I will deliver them into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall slay them before your eyes.

Jer 29:22  And because of them a curse shall be taken up by all the captivity of Judah who are in Babylon, saying, “The LORD make you like Zedekiah and Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire”;

Jer 29:23  because they have done disgraceful things in Israel, have committed adultery with their neighbors’ wives, and have spoken lying words in My name, which I have not commanded them. Indeed I know, and am a witness, says the LORD.

Jer 29:24  You shall also speak to Shemaiah the Nehelamite, saying,

Jer 29:25  Thus speaks the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: You have sent letters in your name to all the people who are at Jerusalem, to Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, and to all the priests, saying,

Jer 29:26  “The LORD has made you priest instead of Jehoiada the priest, so that there should be officers in the house of the LORD over every man who is demented and considers himself a prophet, that you should put him in prison and in the stocks.

Jer 29:27  Now therefore, why have you not rebuked Jeremiah of Anathoth who makes himself a prophet to you?

Jer 29:28  For he has sent to us in Babylon, saying, ‘This captivity is long; build houses and dwell in them, and plant gardens and eat their fruit.’ ”

Jer 29:29  Now Zephaniah the priest read this letter in the hearing of Jeremiah the prophet.

Jer 29:30  Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying:

Jer 29:31  Send to all those in captivity, saying, Thus says the LORD concerning Shemaiah the Nehelamite: Because Shemaiah has prophesied to you, and I have not sent him, and he has caused you to trust in a lie—

Jer 29:32  therefore thus says the LORD: Behold, I will punish Shemaiah the Nehelamite and his family: he shall not have anyone to dwell among this people, nor shall he see the good that I will do for My people, says the LORD, because he has taught rebellion against the LORD.

Jer 30:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

Jer 30:2  “Thus speaks the LORD God of Israel, saying: ‘Write in a book for yourself all the words that I have spoken to you.

Jer 30:3  For behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will bring back from captivity My people Israel and Judah,’ says the LORD. ‘And I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it.’ ”

Jer 30:4  Now these are the words that the Lord spoke concerning Israel and Judah.

Jer 30:5  “For thus says the LORD: ‘We have heard a voice of trembling, Of fear, and not of peace.

Jer 30:6  Ask now, and see, Whether a man is ever in labor with child? So why do I see every man with his hands on his loins Like a woman in labor, And all faces turned pale?

Jer 30:7  Alas! For that day is great, So that none is like it; And it is the time of Jacob’s trouble, But he shall be saved out of it.

Jer 30:8  ‘For it shall come to pass in that day,’ Says the LORD of hosts, ‘That I will break his yoke from your neck, And will burst your bonds; Foreigners shall no more enslave them.

Jer 30:9  But they shall serve the LORD their God, And David their king, Whom I will raise up for them.

Jer 30:10  ‘Therefore do not fear, O My servant Jacob,’ says the LORD, ‘Nor be dismayed, O Israel; For behold, I will save you from afar, And your seed from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return, have rest and be quiet, And no one shall make him afraid.

Jer 30:11  For I am with you,’ says the LORD, ‘to save you; Though I make a full end of all nations where I have scattered you, Yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will correct you in justice, And will not let you go altogether unpunished.’

Jer 30:12  “For thus says the LORD: ‘Your affliction is incurable, Your wound is severe.

Jer 30:13  There is no one to plead your cause, That you may be bound up; You have no healing medicines.

Jer 30:14  All your lovers have forgotten you; They do not seek you; For I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, With the chastisement of a cruel one, For the multitude of your iniquities, Because your sins have increased.

Jer 30:15  Why do you cry about your affliction? Your sorrow is incurable. Because of the multitude of your iniquities, Because your sins have increased, I have done these things to you.

Jer 30:16  ‘Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; And all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; Those who plunder you shall become plunder, And all who prey upon you I will make a prey.

Jer 30:17  For I will restore health to you And heal you of your wounds,’ says the LORD, ‘Because they called you an outcast saying: “This is Zion; No one seeks her.” ’

Jer 30:18  “Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will bring back the captivity of Jacob’s tents, And have mercy on his dwelling places; The city shall be built upon its own mound, And the palace shall remain according to its own plan.

Jer 30:19  Then out of them shall proceed thanksgiving And the voice of those who make merry; I will multiply them, and they shall not diminish; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.

Jer 30:20  Their children also shall be as before, And their congregation shall be established before Me; And I will punish all who oppress them.

Jer 30:21  Their nobles shall be from among them, And their governor shall come from their midst; Then I will cause him to draw near, And he shall approach Me; For who is this who pledged his heart to approach Me?’ says the LORD.

Jer 30:22  ‘You shall be My people, And I will be your God.’ ”

Jer 30:23  Behold, the whirlwind of the LORD— Goes forth with fury, A continuing whirlwind; It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.

Jer 30:24  The fierce anger of the LORD will not return until He has done it, And until He has performed the intents of His heart. In the latter days you will consider it.

Jer 31:1  “At the same time,” says the LORD, “I will be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be My people.”

Jer 31:2  Thus says the LORD: “The people who survived the sword Found grace in the wilderness Israel, when I went to give him rest.”

Jer 31:3  The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.

Jer 31:4  Again I will build you, and you shall be rebuilt, O virgin of Israel! You shall again be adorned with your tambourines, And shall go forth in the dances of those who rejoice.

Jer 31:5  You shall yet plant vines on the mountains of Samaria; The planters shall plant and eat them as ordinary food.

Jer 31:6  For there shall be a day When the watchmen will cry on Mount Ephraim, ‘Arise, and let us go up to Zion, To the LORD our God.’ ”

Jer 31:7  For thus says the LORD: “Sing with gladness for Jacob, And shout among the chief of the nations; Proclaim, give praise, and say, ‘O LORD, save Your people, The remnant of Israel!’

Jer 31:8  Behold, I will bring them from the north country, And gather them from the ends of the earth, Among them the blind and the lame, The woman with child And the one who labors with child, together; A great throng shall return there.

Jer 31:9  They shall come with weeping, And with supplications I will lead them. I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters, In a straight way in which they shall not stumble; For I am a Father to Israel, And Ephraim is My firstborn.

Jer 31:10  “Hear the word of the LORD, O nations, And declare it in the isles afar off, and say, ‘He who scattered Israel will gather him, And keep him as a shepherd does his flock.’

Jer 31:11  For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, And ransomed him from the hand of one stronger than he.

Jer 31:12  Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, Streaming to the goodness of the LORD For wheat and new wine and oil, For the young of the flock and the herd; Their souls shall be like a well-watered garden, And they shall sorrow no more at all.

Jer 31:13  “Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, And the young men and the old, together; For I will turn their mourning to joy, Will comfort them, And make them rejoice rather than sorrow.

Jer 31:14  I will satiate the soul of the priests with abundance, And My people shall be satisfied with My goodness, says the LORD.”

Jer 31:15  Thus says the LORD: “A voice was heard in Ramah, Lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel weeping for her children, Refusing to be comforted for her children, Because they are no more.”

Jer 31:16  Thus says the LORD: “Refrain your voice from weeping, And your eyes from tears; For your work shall be rewarded, says the LORD, And they shall come back from the land of the enemy.

Jer 31:17  There is hope in your future, says the LORD, That your children shall come back to their own border.

Jer 31:18  “I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself: ‘You have chastised me, and I was chastised, Like an untrained bull; Restore me, and I will return, For You are the LORD my God.

Jer 31:19  Surely, after my turning, I repented; And after I was instructed, I struck myself on the thigh; I was ashamed, yes, even humiliated, Because I bore the reproach of my youth.’

Jer 31:20  Is Ephraim My dear son? Is he a pleasant child? For though I spoke against him, I earnestly remember him still; Therefore My heart yearns for him; I will surely have mercy on him, says the LORD.

Jer 31:21  “Set up signposts, Make landmarks; Set your heart toward the highway, The way in which you went. Turn back, O virgin of Israel, Turn back to these your cities.

Jer 31:22  How long will you gad about, O you backsliding daughter? For the LORD has created a new thing in the earth— A woman shall encompass a man.”

Jer 31:23  Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “They shall again use this speech in the land of Judah and in its cities, when I bring back their captivity: ‘The LORD bless you, O home of justice, and mountain of holiness!’

Jer 31:24  And there shall dwell in Judah itself, and in all its cities together, farmers and those going out with flocks.

Jer 31:25  For I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul.”

Jer 31:26  After this I awoke and looked around, and my sleep was sweet to me.

Jer 31:27  “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man and the seed of beast.

Jer 31:28  And it shall come to pass, that as I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to throw down, to destroy, and to afflict, so I will watch over them to build and to plant, says the LORD.

Jer 31:29  In those days they shall say no more: ‘The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children’s teeth are set on edge.’

Jer 31:30  But every one shall die for his own iniquity; every man who eats the sour grapes, his teeth shall be set on edge.

Jer 31:31  “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—

Jer 31:32  not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.

Jer 31:33  But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

Jer 31:34  No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

Jer 31:35  Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for a light by day, The ordinances of the moon and the stars for a light by night, Who disturbs the sea, And its waves roar (The LORD of hosts is His name):

Jer 31:36  “If those ordinances depart From before Me, says the LORD, Then the seed of Israel shall also cease From being a nation before Me forever.”

Jer 31:37  Thus says the LORD: “If heaven above can be measured, And the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel For all that they have done, says the LORD.

Jer 31:38  “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that the city shall be built for the LORD—from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.

Jer 31:39  The surveyor’s line shall again extend straight forward over the hill Gareb; then it shall turn toward Goath.

Jer 31:40  And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever.”

Jer 32:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD—in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar.

Jer 32:2  For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house.

Jer 32:3  For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it;

Jer 32:4  and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face, and see him eye to eye;

Jer 32:5  then he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall be until I visit him,” says the LORD; “though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed” ’?”

Jer 32:6  And Jeremiah said, “The word of the LORD came to me, saying,

Jer 32:7  ‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, “Buy my field which is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.” ’

Jer 32:8  Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.

Jer 32:9  So I bought the field from Hanamel, the son of my uncle who was in Anathoth, and weighed out to him the money—seventeen shekels of silver.

Jer 32:10  And I signed the deed and sealed it, took witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales.

Jer 32:11  So I took the purchase deed, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open;

Jer 32:12  and I gave the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the purchase deed, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the prison.

Jer 32:13  “Then I charged Baruch before them, saying,

Jer 32:14  ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Take these deeds, both this purchase deed which is sealed and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days.”

Jer 32:15  For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.” ’

Jer 32:16  “Now when I had delivered the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD, saying:

Jer 32:17  ‘Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You.

Jer 32:18  You show lovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them—the Great, the Mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts.

Jer 32:19  You are great in counsel and mighty in work, for your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings.

Jer 32:20  You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, to this day, and in Israel and among other men; and You have made Yourself a name, as it is this day.

Jer 32:21  You have brought Your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror;

Jer 32:22  You have given them this land, of which You swore to their fathers to give them— “a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Jer 32:23  And they came in and took possession of it, but they have not obeyed Your voice or walked in Your law. They have done nothing of all that You commanded them to do; therefore You have caused all this calamity to come upon them.

Jer 32:24  ‘Look, the siege mounds! They have come to the city to take it; and the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword and famine and pestilence. What You have spoken has happened; there You see it!

Jer 32:25  And You have said to me, O Lord GOD, “Buy the field for money, and take witnesses”!—yet the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ ”

Jer 32:26  Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying,

Jer 32:27  “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?

Jer 32:28  Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it.

Jer 32:29  And the Chaldeans who fight against this city shall come and set fire to this city and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke Me to anger;

Jer 32:30  because the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only evil before Me from their youth. For the children of Israel have provoked Me only to anger with the work of their hands,’ says the LORD.

Jer 32:31  ‘For this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My fury from the day that they built it, even to this day; so I will remove it from before My face

Jer 32:32  because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke Me to anger—they, their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Jer 32:33  And they have turned to Me the back, and not the face; though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction.

Jer 32:34  But they set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to defile it.

Jer 32:35  And they built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.’

Jer 32:36  “Now therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, ‘It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:

Jer 32:37  Behold, I will gather them out of all countries where I have driven them in My anger, in My fury, and in great wrath; I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely.

Jer 32:38  They shall be My people, and I will be their God;

Jer 32:39  then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them.

Jer 32:40  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.

Jer 32:41  Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul.’

Jer 32:42  “For thus says the LORD: ‘Just as I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them.

Jer 32:43  And fields will be bought in this land of which you say, “It is desolate, without man or beast; it has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.”

Jer 32:44  Men will buy fields for money, sign deeds and seal them, and take witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South; for I will cause their captives to return,’ says the LORD.”

Jer 33:1  Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still shut up in the court of the prison, saying,

Jer 33:2  “Thus says the LORD who made it, the LORD who formed it to establish it (the LORD is His name):

Jer 33:3  ‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

Jer 33:4  “For thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning the houses of this city and the houses of the kings of Judah, which have been pulled down to fortify against the siege mounds and the sword:

Jer 33:5  ‘They come to fight with the Chaldeans, but only to fill their places with the dead bodies of men whom I will slay in My anger and My fury, all for whose wickedness I have hidden My face from this city.

Jer 33:6  Behold, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.

Jer 33:7  And I will cause the captives of Judah and the captives of Israel to return, and will rebuild those places as at the first.

Jer 33:8  I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned and by which they have transgressed against Me.

Jer 33:9  Then it shall be to Me a name of joy, a praise, and an honor before all nations of the earth, who shall hear all the good that I do to them; they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and all the prosperity that I provide for it.’

Jer 33:10  “Thus says the LORD: ‘Again there shall be heard in this place—of which you say, “It is desolate, without man and without beast”—in the cities of Judah, in the streets of Jerusalem that are desolate, without man and without inhabitant and without beast,

Jer 33:11  the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who will say: “Praise the LORD of hosts, For the LORD is good, For His mercy endures forever”— and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the LORD. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,’ says the LORD.

Jer 33:12  “Thus says the LORD of hosts: ‘In this place which is desolate, without man and without beast, and in all its cities, there shall again be a dwelling place of shepherds causing their flocks to lie down.

Jer 33:13  In the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the lowland, in the cities of the South, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, the flocks shall again pass under the hands of him who counts them,’ says the LORD.

Jer 33:14  ‘Behold, the days are coming,’ says the LORD, ‘that I will perform that good thing which I have promised to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah:

Jer 33:15  ‘In those days and at that time I will cause to grow up to David A Branch of righteousness; He shall execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

Jer 33:16  In those days Judah will be saved, And Jerusalem will dwell safely. And this is the name by which she will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’

Jer 33:17  “For thus says the LORD: ‘David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel;

Jer 33:18  nor shall the priests, the Levites, lack a man to offer burnt offerings before Me, to kindle grain offerings, and to sacrifice continually.’ ”

Jer 33:19  And the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying,

Jer 33:20  “Thus says the LORD: ‘If you can break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season,

Jer 33:21  then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant, so that he shall not have a son to reign on his throne, and with the Levites, the priests, My ministers.

Jer 33:22  As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me.’ ”

Jer 33:23  Moreover the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying,

Jer 33:24  “Have you not considered what these people have spoken, saying, ‘The two families which the LORD has chosen, He has also cast them off’? Thus they have despised My people, as if they should no more be a nation before them.

Jer 33:25  “Thus says the LORD: ‘If My covenant is not with day and night, and if I have not appointed the ordinances of heaven and earth,

Jer 33:26  then I will cast away the descendants of Jacob and David My servant, so that I will not take any of his descendants to be rulers over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will cause their captives to return, and will have mercy on them.’ ”

Jer 34:1  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army, all the kingdoms of the earth under his dominion, and all the people, fought against Jerusalem and all its cities, saying,

Jer 34:2  “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

Jer 34:3  And you shall not escape from his hand, but shall surely be taken and delivered into his hand; your eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon, he shall speak with you face to face, and you shall go to Babylon.’ ” ’

Jer 34:4  Yet hear the word of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah! Thus says the LORD concerning you: ‘You shall not die by the sword.

Jer 34:5  You shall die in peace; as in the ceremonies of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so they shall burn incense for you and lament for you, saying, “Alas, lord!” For I have pronounced the word, says the LORD.’ ”

Jer 34:6  Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem,

Jer 34:7  when the king of Babylon’s army fought against Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and Azekah; for only these fortified cities remained of the cities of Judah.

Jer 34:8  This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them:

Jer 34:9  that every man should set free his male and female slave—a Hebrew man or woman—that no one should keep a Jewish brother in bondage.

Jer 34:10  Now when all the princes and all the people, who had entered into the covenant, heard that everyone should set free his male and female slaves, that no one should keep them in bondage anymore, they obeyed and let them go.

Jer 34:11  But afterward they changed their minds and made the male and female slaves return, whom they had set free, and brought them into subjection as male and female slaves.

Jer 34:12  Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,

Jer 34:13  “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: ‘I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying,

Jer 34:14  “At the end of seven years let every man set free his Hebrew brother, who has been sold to him; and when he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you.” But your fathers did not obey Me nor incline their ear.

Jer 34:15  Then you recently turned and did what was right in My sight—every man proclaiming liberty to his neighbor; and you made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My name.

Jer 34:16  Then you turned around and profaned My name, and every one of you brought back his male and female slaves, whom he had set at liberty, at their pleasure, and brought them back into subjection, to be your male and female slaves.’

Jer 34:17  “Therefore thus says the LORD: ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother and every one to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim liberty to you,’ says the LORD ‘to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine! And I will deliver you to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth.

Jer 34:18  And I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it—

Jer 34:19  the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf—

Jer 34:20  I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies shall be for meat for the birds of the heaven and the beasts of the earth.

Jer 34:21  And I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army which has gone back from you.

Jer 34:22  Behold, I will command,’ says the LORD, ‘and cause them to return to this city. They will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.’ ”

Jer 35:1  The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,

Jer 35:2  “Go to the house of the Rechabites, speak to them, and bring them into the house of the LORD, into one of the chambers, and give them wine to drink.”

Jer 35:3  Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, his brothers and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites,

Jer 35:4  and I brought them into the house of the LORD, into the chamber of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, a man of God, which was by the chamber of the princes, above the chamber of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the door.

Jer 35:5  Then I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls full of wine, and cups; and I said to them, “Drink wine.”

Jer 35:6  But they said, “We will drink no wine, for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, ‘You shall drink no wine, you nor your sons, forever.

Jer 35:7  You shall not build a house, sow seed, plant a vineyard, nor have any of these; but all your days you shall dwell in tents, that you may live many days in the land where you are sojourners.’

Jer 35:8  Thus we have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he charged us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters,

Jer 35:9  nor to build ourselves houses to dwell in; nor do we have vineyard, field, or seed.

Jer 35:10  But we have dwelt in tents, and have obeyed and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us.

Jer 35:11  But it came to pass, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, ‘Come, let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans and for fear of the army of the Syrians.’ So we dwell at Jerusalem.”

Jer 35:12  Then came the word of the LORD to Jeremiah, saying,

Jer 35:13  “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Go and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, “Will you not receive instruction to obey My words?” says the LORD.

Jer 35:14  “The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, which he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are performed; for to this day they drink none, and obey their father’s commandment. But although I have spoken to you, rising early and speaking, you did not obey Me.

Jer 35:15  I have also sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, ‘Turn now everyone from his evil way, amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them; then you will dwell in the land which I have given you and your fathers.’ But you have not inclined your ear, nor obeyed Me.

Jer 35:16  Surely the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father, which he commanded them, but this people has not obeyed Me.” ’

Jer 35:17  “Therefore thus says the LORD God of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the doom that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them but they have not heard, and I have called to them but they have not answered.’ ”

Jer 35:18  And Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: ‘Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts and done according to all that he commanded you,

Jer 35:19  therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not lack a man to stand before Me forever.” ’ ”

Jer 36:1  Now it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying:

Jer 36:2  “Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day.

Jer 36:3  It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the adversities which I purpose to bring upon them, that everyone may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

Jer 36:4  Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote on a scroll of a book, at the instruction of Jeremiah, all the words of the LORD which He had spoken to him.

Jer 36:5  And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am confined, I cannot go into the house of the LORD.

Jer 36:6  You go, therefore, and read from the scroll which you have written at my instruction, the words of the LORD, in the hearing of the people in the LORD’s house on the day of fasting. And you shall also read them in the hearing of all Judah who come from their cities.

Jer 36:7  It may be that they will present their supplication before the LORD, and everyone will turn from his evil way. For great is the anger and the fury that the LORD has pronounced against this people.”

Jer 36:8  And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from the book the words of the LORD in the LORD’s house.

Jer 36:9  Now it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the LORD to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem.

Jer 36:10  Then Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court at the entry of the New Gate of the LORD’s house, in the hearing of all the people.

Jer 36:11  When Michaiah the son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the book,

Jer 36:12  he then went down to the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber; and there all the princes were sitting—Elishama the scribe, Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, Elnathan the son of Achbor, Gemariah the son of Shaphan, Zedekiah the son of Hananiah, and all the princes.

Jer 36:13  Then Michaiah declared to them all the words that he had heard when Baruch read the book in the hearing of the people.

Jer 36:14  Therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to Baruch, saying, “Take in your hand the scroll from which you have read in the hearing of the people, and come.” So Baruch the son of Neriah took the scroll in his hand and came to them.

Jer 36:15  And they said to him, “Sit down now, and read it in our hearing.” So Baruch read it in their hearing.

Jer 36:16  Now it happened, when they had heard all the words, that they looked in fear from one to another, and said to Baruch, “We will surely tell the king of all these words.”

Jer 36:17  And they asked Baruch, saying, “Tell us now, how did you write all these words—at his instruction?”

Jer 36:18  So Baruch answered them, “He proclaimed with his mouth all these words to me, and I wrote them with ink in the book.”

Jer 36:19  Then the princes said to Baruch, “Go and hide, you and Jeremiah; and let no one know where you are.”

Jer 36:20  And they went to the king, into the court; but they stored the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the hearing of the king.

Jer 36:21  So the king sent Jehudi to bring the scroll, and he took it from Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and in the hearing of all the princes who stood beside the king.

Jer 36:22  Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning on the hearth before him.

Jer 36:23  And it happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that the king cut it with the scribe’s knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth.

Jer 36:24  Yet they were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments, the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words.

Jer 36:25  Nevertheless Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah implored the king not to burn the scroll; but he would not listen to them.

Jer 36:26  And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet, but the LORD hid them.

Jer 36:27  Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch had written at the instruction of Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying:

Jer 36:28  “Take yet another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned.

Jer 36:29  And you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, ‘Thus says the LORD: “You have burned this scroll, saying, ‘Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and cause man and beast to cease from here?’ ”

Jer 36:30  Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: “He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night.

Jer 36:31  I will punish him, his family, and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah all the doom that I have pronounced against them; but they did not heed.” ’ ”

Jer 36:32  Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the instruction of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And besides, there were added to them many similar words.