Jeremiah 17-21

Jeremiah 17

¹The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;

²whilst their children remember their altars and their Asherim by the green trees upon the high hills.

³O my mountain in the field, I will give thy substance and all thy treasures for a spoil, and thy high places, because of sin, throughout all thy borders.

⁴And thou, even of thyself, shalt discontinue from thine heritage that I gave thee; and I will cause thee to serve thine enemies in the land which thou knowest not: for ye have kindled a fire in mine anger which shall burn for ever.

⁵Thus saith the LORD: Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

⁶For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, a salt land and not inhabited.

⁷Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

⁸For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out his roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat cometh, but his leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

⁹The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is desperately sick: who can know it?

¹⁰I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

¹¹As the partridge that gathereth young which she hath not brought forth, so is he that getteth riches, and not by right; in the midst of his days they shall leave him, and at his end he shall be a fool.

¹²A glorious throne, set on high from the beginning, is the place of our sanctuary.

¹³O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed; they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters.

¹⁴Heal me, O LORD, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved: for thou art my praise.

¹⁵Behold, they say unto me, Where is the word of the LORD? let it come now.

¹⁶As for me, I have not hastened from being a shepherd after thee; neither have I desired the woeful day; thou knowest: that which came out of my lips was before thy face.

¹⁷Be not a terror unto me: thou art my refuge in the day of evil.

¹⁸Let them be ashamed that persecute me, but let not me be ashamed; let them be dismayed, but let not me be dismayed: bring upon them the day of evil, and destroy them with double destruction.

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

²⁰and say unto them, Hear ye the word of the LORD, ye kings of Judah, and all Judah, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that enter in by these gates;

²¹Thus saith the LORD: Take heed to yourselves, and bear no burden on the sabbath day, nor bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem;

²²neither carry forth a burden out of your houses on the sabbath day, neither do ye any work: but hallow ye the sabbath day, as I commanded your fathers;

²³But they hearkened not, neither inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff, that they might not hear, and might not receive instruction.

²⁴And it shall come to pass, if ye diligently hearken unto me, saith the LORD, to bring in no burden through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, but to hallow the sabbath day, to do no work therein;

²⁵then shall there enter in by the gates of this city kings and princes sitting upon the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they, and their princes, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: and this city shall remain for ever.

²⁶And they shall come from the cities of Judah, and from the places round about Jerusalem, and from the land of Benjamin, and from the lowland, and from the mountains, and from the South, bringing burnt offerings, and sacrifices, and oblations, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving, unto the house of the LORD.

²⁷But if ye will not hearken unto me to hallow the sabbath day, and not to bear a burden and enter in at the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day; then will I kindle a fire in the gates thereof, and it shall devour the palaces of Jerusalem, and it shall not be quenched.

Jeremiah 18

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

²Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words.

³Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought his work on the wheels.

⁴And when the vessel that he made of the clay was marred in the hand of the potter, he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

⁵Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying,

⁶O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.

⁷At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up and to break down and to destroy it;

⁸if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them.

⁹And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it;

¹⁰if it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.

¹¹Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD: Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

¹²But they say, There is no hope: for we will walk after our own devices, and we will do every one after the stubbornness of his evil heart.

¹³Therefore thus saith the LORD: Ask ye now among the nations, who hath heard such things; the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing.

¹⁴Shall the snow of Lebanon fail from the rock of the field? or shall the cold waters that flow down from afar be dried up?

¹⁵For my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity; and they have caused them to stumble in their ways, in the ancient paths, to walk in bypaths, in a way not cast up;

¹⁶to make their land an astonishment, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and shake his head.

¹⁷I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will look upon their back, and not their face, in the day of their calamity.

¹⁸Then said they, Come, and let us devise devices 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 smite him with the tongue, and let us not give heed to any of his words.

¹⁹Give heed to me, O LORD, and hearken to the voice of them that contend with me.

²⁰Shall evil be recompensed for good? for they have digged a pit for my soul. Remember how I stood before thee to speak good for them, to turn away thy fury from them.

²¹Therefore deliver up their children to the famine, and give them over to the power of the sword; and let their wives become childless, and widows; and let their men be slain of death, and their young men smitten of the sword in battle.

²²Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.

²³Yet, LORD, thou knowest all their counsel against me to slay me; forgive not their iniquity, neither blot out their sin from thy sight: but let them be overthrown before thee; deal thou with them in the time of thine anger.

Jeremiah 19

¹Thus said the LORD, Go, and buy a potter’s earthen bottle, and take of the elders of the people, and of the elders of the priests;

²and go forth unto the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words that I shall tell thee:

³and say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem; thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, the which whosoever heareth, his ears shall tingle.

⁴Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom they knew not, they and their fathers and the kings of Judah; and have filled this place with the blood of innocents;

⁵and have built the high places of Baal, to burn their sons in the fire for burnt offerings unto Baal; which I commanded not, nor spake it, neither came it into my mind:

⁶therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter.

⁷And 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 hand of them that seek their life: and their carcases will I give to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth.

⁸And I will make this city an astonishment, and an hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of all the plagues thereof.

⁹And I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend, in the siege and in the straitness, wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their life, shall straiten them.

¹⁰Then shalt thou break the bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee,

¹¹and shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter’s vessel, that cannot be made whole again: and they shall bury in Topheth, till there be no place to bury.

¹²Thus will I do unto this place, saith the LORD, and to the inhabitants thereof, even making this city as Topheth:

¹³and the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of the kings of Judah, which are defiled, shall be as the place of Topheth, even all the houses upon whose roofs they have burned incense unto all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings unto other gods.

¹⁴Then came Jeremiah from Topheth, whither the LORD had sent him to prophesy; and he stood in the court of the LORD’S house, and said to all the people:

¹⁵Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Behold, I will bring upon this city and upon all her towns all the evil that I have pronounced against it; because they have made their neck stiff, that they might not hear my words.

Jeremiah 20

¹Now Pashhur the son of Immer the priest, who was chief officer in the house of the LORD, heard Jeremiah prophesying these things.

²Then Pashhur smote Jeremiah the prophet, and put him in the stocks that were in the upper gate of Benjamin, which was in the house of the LORD.

³And it came to pass on the morrow, that Pashhur brought forth Jeremiah out of the stocks. Then said Jeremiah unto him, The LORD hath not called thy name Pashhur, but Magor-missabib.

⁴For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will make thee a terror to thyself, and to all thy friends: and they shall fall by the sword of their enemies, and thine eyes shall behold it: and I will give all Judah into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall carry them captive to Babylon, and shall slay them with the sword.

⁵Moreover I will give all the riches of this city, and all the gains thereof, and all the precious things thereof, yea, all the treasures of the kings of Judah will I give into the hand of their enemies, which shall spoil them, and take them, and carry them to Babylon.

⁶And thou, Pashhur, and all that dwell in thine house shall go into captivity: and thou shalt come to Babylon, and there thou shalt die, and there shalt thou be buried, thou, and all thy friends, to whom thou hast prophesied falsely.

⁷O LORD, thou hast deceived me, and I was deceived: thou art stronger than I, and hast prevailed: I am become a laughingstock all the day, every one mocketh me.

⁸For as often as I speak, I cry out; I cry, Violence and spoil: because the word of the LORD is made a reproach unto me, and a derision, all the day.

⁹And if I say, I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name, then there is in mine heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with forbearing, and I cannot contain.

¹⁰For I have heard the defaming of many, terror on every side. Denounce, and we will denounce him, say all my familiar friends, they that watch for my halting; peradventure he will be enticed, and we shall prevail against him, and we shall take our revenge on him.

¹¹But the LORD is with me as a mighty one and a terrible: therefore my persecutors shall stumble, and they shall not prevail: they shall be greatly ashamed, because they have not dealt wisely, even with an everlasting dishonour which shall never be forgotten.

¹²But, O LORD of hosts, that triest the righteous, that seest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them; for unto thee have I revealed my cause.

¹³Sing unto the LORD, praise ye the LORD: for he hath delivered the soul of the needy from the hand of evil-doers.

¹⁴Cursed be the day wherein I was born: let not the day wherein my mother bare me be blessed.

¹⁵Cursed be the man who brought tidings to my father, saying, A man child is born unto thee; making him very glad.

¹⁶And let that man be as the cities which the LORD overthrew, and repented not: and let him hear a cry in the morning, and shouting at noontide;

¹⁷because he slew me not from the womb; and so my mother should have been my grave, and her womb always great.

¹⁸Wherefore came I forth out of the womb to see labour and sorrow, that my days should be consumed with shame?

Jeremiah 21

¹The word which came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, when king Zedekiah sent unto him Pashhur the son of Malchijah, and Zephaniah the son of Maaseiah the priest, saying,

²Inquire, I pray thee, of the LORD for us; for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon maketh war against us: peradventure the LORD will deal with us according to all his wondrous works, that he may go up from us.

³Then said Jeremiah unto them, Thus shall ye say to Zedekiah:

⁴Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands; wherewith ye fight against the king of Babylon, and against the Chaldeans which besiege you, without the walls, and I will gather them into the midst of this city.

⁵And I myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and with a strong arm, even in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath.

⁶And I will smite the inhabitants of this city, both man and beast: they shall die of a great pestilence.

⁷And afterward, saith the LORD, I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, even such as are left in this city from the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those that seek their life: and he shall smite them with the edge of the sword; he shall not spare them, neither have pity, nor have mercy.

⁸And unto this people thou shalt say, Thus saith the LORD: Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death.

⁹He that abideth in this city shall die by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence: but he that goeth out, and falleth away to the Chaldeans that besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be unto him for a prey.

¹⁰For I have set my face upon this city for evil, and not for good, saith the LORD: it shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire.

¹¹And touching the house of the king of Judah, hear ye the word of the LORD:

¹²O house of David, thus saith the LORD, Execute judgment in the morning, and deliver the spoiled out of the hand of the oppressor, lest my fury go forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings.

¹³Behold, I am against thee, O inhabitant of the valley, and of the rock of the plain, saith the LORD; ye which say, Who shall come down against us? or who shall enter into our habitations?

¹⁴And I will punish you according to the fruit of your doings, saith the LORD: and I will kindle a fire in her forest, and it shall devour all that is round about her.