Jeremiah 17–19

THE PERSISTENT SIN OF JUDAH

17The sin of Judah is inscribed

with an iron stylus.^p

With a diamond point

it is engraved on the tablet of their hearts^q

and on the horns of their^A altars,

²while their children remember their altars

and their Asherah poles, by the green trees

on the high hills^r—

³my mountains in the countryside.

I will give up your wealth

and all your treasures as plunder^s

because of the sin of your high places^B

in all your borders.^t

⁴You will, on your own, relinquish your inheritance

that I gave you.

I will make you serve your enemies

in a land you do not know,^u

for you have set my anger on fire;^v

it will burn forever.

CURSE AND BLESSING

⁵This is what the Lord says:

Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind.^w

He makes human flesh his strength,^x

and his heart turns from the Lord.

⁶He will be like a juniper in the Arabah;^y

he cannot see when good comes

but dwells in the parched places in the wilderness,

in a salt land where no one lives.^z

⁷The person who trusts in the Lord,

whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed.^aa

⁸He will be like a tree planted by water:^ab

it sends its roots out toward a stream,

it doesn’t fear when heat comes,

and its foliage remains green.

It will not worry in a year of drought

or cease producing fruit.

THE DECEITFUL HEART

⁹The heart is more deceitful than anything else,^ac

and incurable—who can understand it?^ad

¹⁰I, the Lord, examine the mind,

I test the heart^Aae

to give to each according to his way,

according to what his actions deserve.^a

¹¹He who makes a fortune unjustly

is like a partridge that hatches eggs it didn’t lay.

In the middle of his life

his riches will abandon him,

so in the end he will be a fool.^b

¹²A glorious throne^c

on high^d from the beginning

is the place of our sanctuary.^e

¹³Lord, the hope of Israel,^f

all who abandon you

will be put to shame.

All who turn away from me

will be written in the dirt,

for they have abandoned

the Lord, the fountain of living water.^g

JEREMIAH’S PLEA

¹⁴Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed;

save me, and I will be saved,

for you are my praise.^h

¹⁵Hear how they keep challenging me,ⁱ

“Where is the word of the Lord?

Let it come!”

¹⁶But I have not run away from being your shepherd,

and I have not longed for the fatal day.^j

You know my words were spoken in your presence.

¹⁷Don’t become a terror to me.

You are my refuge^k in the day of disaster.

¹⁸Let my persecutors be put to shame,^l

but don’t let me be put to shame.

Let them be terrified, but don’t let me be terrified.

Bring on them the day of disaster;^m

shatter them with total^B destruction.

OBSERVING THE SABBATH

¹⁹This is what the Lord said to me, “Go and stand at the People’s Gate, through which the kings of Judah enter and leave, as well as at all the gates of Jerusalem. ²⁰Announce to them, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah, all Judah, and all the residents of Jerusalem who enter through these gates. ²¹This is what the Lord says: Watch yourselves; do not pick up a load and bring it in through Jerusalem’s gates on the Sabbath day.^{n 22}Do not carry a load out of your houses on the Sabbath day or do any work,^o but keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I commanded your ancestors.^{p 23}They wouldn’t listen or pay attention but became obstinate,^q not listening or accepting discipline.

²⁴“ ‘However, if you listen to me—this is the Lord’s declaration—and do not bring loads through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, but keep the Sabbath day holy and do no work on it, ²⁵kings and princes will enter through the gates of this city. They will sit on the throne of David;^r they will ride in chariots and on horses^s with their officials, the men of Judah, and the residents of Jerusalem. This city will be inhabited forever. ²⁶Then people will come from the cities of Judah and from the area around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin and from the Judean foothills, from the hill country and from the Negev^t bringing burnt offerings and sacrifices, grain offerings and frankincense, and thanksgiving sacrifices to the house of the Lord. ²⁷But if you do not listen to me to keep the Sabbath day holy by not carrying a load while entering the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, I will set fire to its gates,^u and it will consume the citadels^v of Jerusalem^w and not be extinguished.’ ”^x

PARABLE OF THE POTTER

18This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ²“Go down at once to the potter’s house;^y there I will reveal my words to you.” ³So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, working away at the wheel.^{A 4}But the jar that he was making from the clay became flawed in the potter’s hand, so he made it into another jar, as it seemed right for him to do.^z

⁵The word of the Lord came to me: ⁶“House of Israel, can I not treat you as this potter treats his clay?”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “Just like clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, house of Israel.^{aa 7}At one moment I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will uproot, tear down, and destroy it.^{ab 8}However, if that nation about which I have made the announcement turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the disaster I had planned to do to it.^{ac 9}At another time I might announce concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it.^{a 10}However, if it does what is evil in my sight by not listening to me, I will relent concerning the good I had said I would do to it.^{b 11}So now, say to the men of Judah and to the residents of Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look, I am about to bring harm to you and make plans against you. Turn now, each from your evil way, and correct your ways and your deeds.’^{c 12}But they will say, ‘It’s hopeless.^d We will continue to follow our plans, and each of us will continue to act according to the stubbornness of his evil heart.’ ”

DELUDED ISRAEL

¹³Therefore, this is what the Lord says:

Ask among the nations,

who has heard things like these?

Virgin Israel has done a most horrible thing.^e

¹⁴Does the snow of Lebanon ever leave the highland crags?

Or does cold water flowing from a distance ever fail?

¹⁵Yet my people have forgotten me.^f

They burn incense to worthless idols

that make them stumble in their ways^g

on the ancient roads,^h

and make them walk on new paths, not the highway.

¹⁶They have made their land a horror,ⁱ

a perpetual object of scorn;^Aj

all who pass by it will be appalled^k

and shake their heads.^l

¹⁷I will scatter them before the enemy like the east wind.^m

I will show them^B my back and not my faceⁿ

on the day of their calamity.

PLOT AGAINST JEREMIAH

¹⁸Then certain ones said, “Come, let’s make plans against Jeremiah,^o for instruction will never be lost from the priest,^p or counsel from the wise, or a word from the prophet.^q Come, let’s denounce him^C and pay no attention to all his words.”

¹⁹Pay attention to me, Lord.

Hear what my opponents are saying!^r

²⁰Should good be repaid with evil?

Yet they have dug a pit for me.^s

Remember how I stood before you

to speak good on their behalf,

to turn your anger from them.

²¹Therefore, hand their children over to famine,^t

and give them over to the power of the sword.

Let their wives become childless and widowed,

their husbands slain by deadly disease,^D

their young men struck down by the sword in battle.

²²Let a cry be heard from their houses

when you suddenly bring raiders against them,

for they have dug a pit to capture me

and have hidden snares for my feet.^u

²³But you, Lord, know

all their deadly plots against me.

Do not wipe out their iniquity;^v

do not blot out their sin before you.

Let them be forced to stumble before you;

deal with them in the time of your anger.

THE CLAY JAR

19This is what the Lord says: “Go, buy a potter’s clay^w jar. Take^E some of the elders of the people and some of the leading priests^{x 2}and go out to Ben Hinnom Valley^y near the entrance of the Potsherd Gate. Proclaim there the words I speak to you. ³Say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah and residents of Jerusalem.^z This is what the Lord of Armies, the God of Israel, says: I am going to bring such a disaster on this place that everyone who hears about it will shudder^{Faa 4}because they have abandoned me^ab and made this a foreign place. They have burned incense in it to other gods that they, their ancestors, and the kings of Judah have never known. They have filled this place with the blood of the innocent.^{ac 5}They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, something I have never commanded or mentioned; I never entertained the thought.^Aad

⁶“ ‘Therefore, look, the days are coming^ae—this is the Lord’s declaration—when this place will no longer be called Topheth and Ben Hinnom Valley, but Slaughter Valley.^{a 7}I will spoil the plans of Judah and Jerusalem in this place. I will make them fall by the sword before their enemies, by the hand of those who intend to take their life. I will provide their corpses as food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals of the land.^{b 8}I will make this city desolate, an object of scorn. Everyone who passes by it will be appalled and scoff because of all its wounds.^{c 9}I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and they will eat each other’s flesh in the distressing siege inflicted on them by their enemies who intend to take their life.’^d

¹⁰“Then you are to shatter the jar in the presence of the people going with you, ¹¹and you are to proclaim to them, ‘This is what the Lord of Armies says: I will shatter these people and this city, like one shatters a potter’s jar that can never again be mended. They will bury the dead in Topheth because there is no other place for burials.^{e 12}That is what I will do to this place—this is the declaration of the Lord—and to its residents, making this city like Topheth. ¹³The houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah will become impure like that place Topheth—all the houses on whose rooftops they have burned…