Jeremiah 15:1–16:21
1 Then the Lord said to me, “Even athough bMoses and cSamuel were to dstand before Me, My 1heart would not be 2with this people; esend them away from My presence and let them go!
2 “And it shall be that when they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you are to tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord:
“Those destined afor death, to death;
And those destined for the sword, to the sword;
And those destined for famine, to famine;
And those destined for captivity, to captivity.” ’
3 “I will aappoint over them four kinds of doom,” declares the Lord: “the sword to slay, the bdogs to drag off, and the cbirds of the sky and the beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.
4 “I will amake them an object of horror among all the kingdoms of the earth because of bManasseh, the son of Hezekiah, the king of Judah, for what he did in Jerusalem.
5 “Indeed, who will have apity on you, O Jerusalem,
Or who will bmourn for you,
Or who will turn aside to ask about your welfare?
6 “You who have aforsaken Me,” declares the Lord,
“You keep bgoing backward.
So I will cstretch out My hand against you and destroy you;
I am dtired of relenting!
7 “I will awinnow them with a winnowing fork
At the gates of the land;
I will bbereave them of children, I will destroy My people;
cThey did not 1repent of their ways.
8 “Their awidows will be more numerous before Me
Than the sand of the seas;
I will bring against them, against the mother of a young man,
A bdestroyer at noonday;
I will suddenly bring down on her
Anguish and dismay.
9 “She who abore seven sons pines away;
1Her breathing is labored.
Her bsun has set while it was yet day;
She has been cshamed and humiliated.
So I will dgive over their survivors to the sword
Before their enemies,” declares the Lord.
10 aWoe to me, my mother, that you have borne me
As a bman of strife and a man of contention to all the land!
I have not clent, nor have men lent money to me,
Yet everyone curses me.
11 The Lord said, “Surely I will aset you free for purposes of good;
Surely I will cause the benemy to make supplication to you
In a time of disaster and a time of distress.
aIron from the north, or bronze?
13 “Your awealth and your treasures
I will give for booty bwithout cost,
Even for all your sins
And within all your borders.
14 “Then I will cause your enemies to bring 1it
Into a aland you do not know;
For a bfire has been kindled in My anger,
It will burn upon you.”
Jeremiah’s Prayer and God’s Answer
15 aYou who know, O Lord,
Remember me, take notice of me,
And btake vengeance for me on my persecutors.
Do not, in view of Your patience, take me away;
Know that cfor Your sake I endure reproach.
16 Your words were found and I aate them,
And Your bwords became for me a joy and the delight of my heart;
For I have been ccalled by Your name,
O Lord God of hosts.
17 I adid not sit in the circle of merrymakers,
Nor did I exult.
Because of Your hand upon me I sat balone,
For You cfilled me with indignation.
18 Why has my pain been perpetual
And my awound incurable, refusing to be healed?
Will You indeed be to me blike a deceptive stream
With water that is unreliable?
19 Therefore, thus says the Lord,
“aIf you return, then I will restore you—
bBefore Me you will stand;
And cif you extract the precious from the worthless,
You will become 1My spokesman.
They for their part may turn to you,
But as for you, you must not turn to them.
20 “Then I will amake you to this people
A fortified wall of bronze;
And though they fight against you,
They will not prevail over you;
For bI am with you to save you
And deliver you,” declares the Lord.
21 “So I will adeliver you from the hand of the wicked,
And I will bredeem you from the 1grasp of the violent.”
1 The word of the Lord also came to me saying,
2 “You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place.”
3 For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their amothers who bear them, and their bfathers who beget them in this land:
4 “They will adie of deadly diseases, they bwill not be lamented or buried; they will be as cdung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the dbirds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth.”
5 For thus says the Lord, “Do not enter a house of 1amourning, or go to lament or to console them; for I have bwithdrawn My peace from this people,” declares the Lord, “My clovingkindness and compassion.
6 “Both agreat men and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, they will not be lamented, nor will anyone bgash himself or cshave his head for them.
7 “Men will not abreak bread in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead, nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone’s father or mother.
8 “Moreover you shall anot go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink.”
9 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I am going to 1aeliminate from this place, before your eyes and in your time, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.
10 “Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘aFor what reason has the Lord declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the Lord our God?’
11 “Then you are to say to them, ‘It is abecause your forefathers have forsaken Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and have followed bother gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law.
12 ‘You too have done evil, even amore than your forefathers; for behold, you are each one walking according to the bstubbornness of his own cevil heart, without listening to Me.
13 ‘So I will ahurl you out of this land into the bland which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will cserve other gods day and night, for I will grant you no favor.’
14 “aTherefore behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who bbrought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’
15 but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the aland of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.
16 “Behold, I am going to send for many afishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will bhunt them cfrom every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks.
17 “aFor My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, bnor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes.
18 “I will first adoubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have bpolluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their cdetestable idols and with their abominations.”
19 O Lord, my astrength and my stronghold,
And my brefuge in the day of distress,
To You the cnations will come
From the ends of the earth and say,
“Our fathers have inherited nothing but dfalsehood,
Futility and 1ethings of no profit.”
20 Can man make gods for himself?
Yet they are anot gods!
21 “Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—
This time I will amake them know
My 1power and My might;
And they shall bknow that My name is the Lord.”