Bible-Reading.comJeremiah 21
1The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD, when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying,
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 wondrous works, that he may withdraw from us.”
3Then Jeremiah said to them, “Tell Zedekiah:
4‘The LORD, the God of Israel says, “Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands, with which you fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans who besiege you outside the walls; and I will gather them into the middle of this city.
5I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation.
6I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both man and animal. They will die of a great pestilence.
7Afterward,” says the LORD, “I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, his servants, and the people, even those who are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life. He will strike them with the edge of the sword. He will not spare them, have pity, or have mercy.”’
8“You shall say to this people, ‘The LORD says: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.
9He who remains in this city will die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, but he who goes out and passes over to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he will live, and he will escape with his life.
10For I have set my face on this city for evil, and not for good,” says the LORD. “It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.”’
11“Concerning the house of the king of Judah, hear the LORD’s word:
12House of David, the LORD says, ‘Execute justice in the morning, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my wrath go out like fire, and burn so that no one can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.
13Behold, I am against you, O inhabitant of the valley, and of the rock of the plain,’ says the LORD. ‘You that say, “Who would come down against us?” or, “Who would enter into our homes?”
14I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings,’ says the LORD; ‘and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it will devour all that is around her.’”
Jeremiah 22
1The LORD said, “Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak this word there:
2‘Hear the LORD’s word, king of Judah, who sits on David’s throne—you, your servants, and your people who enter in by these gates.
3The LORD says: “Execute justice and righteousness, and deliver him who is robbed out of the hand of the oppressor. Do no wrong. Do no violence to the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. Don’t shed innocent blood in this place.
4For if you do this thing indeed, then kings sitting on David’s throne will enter in by the gates of this house, riding in chariots and on horses—they, their servants, and their people.
5But if you will not hear these words, I swear by myself,” says the LORD, “that this house will become a desolation.”’”
6For the LORD says concerning the house of the king of Judah: “You are Gilead to me, the head of Lebanon. Yet surely I will make you a wilderness, cities which are not inhabited.
7I will prepare destroyers against you, everyone with his weapons, and they will cut down your choice cedars, and cast them into the fire.
8“Many nations will pass by this city, and they will each ask his neighbor, ‘Why has the LORD done this to this great city?’
9Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD their God, worshiped other gods, and served them.’”
10Don’t weep for the dead. Don’t bemoan him; but weep bitterly for him who goes away, for he will return no more, and not see his native country.
11For the LORD says touching Shallum the son of Josiah, king of Judah, who reigned instead of Josiah his father, and who went out of this place: “He won’t return there any more.
12But he will die in the place where they have led him captive. He will see this land no more.”
13“Woe to him who builds his house by unrighteousness, and his rooms by injustice; who uses his neighbor’s service without wages, and doesn’t give him his hire;
14who says, ‘I will build myself a wide house and spacious rooms,’ and cuts out windows for himself, with a cedar ceiling, and painted with red.
15“Should you reign because you strive to excel in cedar? Didn’t your father eat and drink, and do justice and righteousness? Then it was well with him.
16He judged the cause of the poor and needy; so then it was well. Wasn’t this to know me?” says the LORD.
17But your eyes and your heart are only for your covetousness, for shedding innocent blood, for oppression, and for doing violence.”
18Therefore the LORD says concerning Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “They won’t lament for him, saying, ‘Ah my brother!’ or, ‘Ah sister!’ They won’t lament for him, saying ‘Ah lord!’ or, ‘Ah his glory!’
19He will be buried with the burial of a donkey, drawn and cast out beyond the gates of Jerusalem.”
20“Go up to Lebanon, and cry out. Lift up your voice in Bashan, and cry from Abarim; for all your lovers have been destroyed.
21I spoke to you in your prosperity, but you said, ‘I will not listen.’ This has been your way from your youth, that you didn’t obey my voice.
22The wind will feed all your shepherds, and your lovers will go into captivity. Surely then you will be ashamed and confounded for all your wickedness.
23Inhabitant of Lebanon, who makes your nest in the cedars, how greatly to be pitied you will be when pangs come on you, the pain as of a woman in travail!
24“As I live,” says the LORD, “though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet on my right hand, I would still pluck you from there.
25I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of them of whom you are afraid, even into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans.
26I will cast you out with your mother who bore you into another country, where you were not born; and there you will die.
27But to the land to which their soul longs to return, there they will not return.”
28Is this man Coniah a despised broken vessel? Is he a vessel in which no one delights? Why are they cast out, he and his offspring, and cast into a land which they don’t know?
29O earth, earth, earth, hear the LORD’s word!
30The LORD says, “Record this man as childless, a man who will not prosper in his days; for no more will a man of his offspring prosper, sitting on David’s throne and ruling in Judah.”