Jeremiah 26–52

Jeremiah Is Brought to Trial

26^*Soon after Jehoiakim son of Josiah became king of Judah, ²the Lord said to me, “Stand in the court of the Temple and proclaim all I have commanded you to say to the people who come from the towns of Judah to worship there. Do not leave out anything. ³Perhaps the people will listen and give up their evil ways. If they do, then I will change my mind about the destruction I plan to bring on them for all their wicked deeds.”

⁴The Lord told me to say to the people, “I, the Lord, have said that you must obey me by following the teaching that I gave you, ⁵and by paying attention to the words of my servants, the prophets, whom I have kept on sending to you. You have never obeyed what they said. ^6*If you continue to disobey, then I will do to this Temple what I did to Shiloh,^f and all the nations of the world will use the name of this city as a curse.”

⁷The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard me saying these things in the Temple, ⁸and as soon as I had finished all that the Lord had commanded me to speak, they seized me and shouted, “You ought to be killed for this! ⁹Why have you said in the Lord’s name that this Temple will become like Shiloh and that this city will be destroyed and no one will live in it?” Then the people crowded round me.

¹⁰When the leaders of Judah heard what had happened, they hurried from the royal palace to the Temple and took their places at the New Gate. ¹¹Then the priests and the prophets said to the leaders and to the people, “This man deserves to be sentenced to death because he has spoken against our city. You heard him with your own ears.”

¹²Then I said, “The Lord sent me to proclaim everything that you heard me say against this Temple and against this city. ¹³You must change the way you are living and the things you are doing, and must obey the Lord your God. If you do, he will change his mind about the destruction that he said he would bring on you. ¹⁴As for me, I am in your power! Do with me whatever you think is fair and right. ¹⁵But be sure of this: if you kill me, you and the people of this city will be guilty of killing an innocent man, because it is the Lord who sent me to give you this warning.”

¹⁶Then the leaders and the people said to the priests and the prophets, “This man spoke to us in the name of the Lord our God; he should not be put to death.”

¹⁷After that, some of the elders stood up and said to the people who had assembled, ^18*“When Hezekiah was king of Judah, the prophet Micah of Moresheth told all the people that the Lord Almighty had said,

‘Zion will be ploughed like a field,

Jerusalem will become a pile of ruins,

and the Temple hill will become a forest.’ ¹⁹King Hezekiah and the people of Judah did not put Micah to death. Instead, Hezekiah honoured the Lord and tried to win his favour. And the Lord changed his mind about the disaster that he said he would bring on them. Now we are about to bring a terrible disaster on ourselves.”

²⁰(There was another man, Uriah son of Shemaiah from Kiriath Jearim, who spoke in the name of the Lord against this city and nation just as Jeremiah did. ²¹When King Jehoiakim and his soldiers and officials heard what Uriah had said, the king tried to have him killed. But Uriah heard about it; so he fled in terror and escaped to Egypt. ²²King Jehoiakim, however, sent Elnathan son of Achbor and some other men to Egypt to get Uriah. ²³They brought him back to King Jehoiakim, who had him killed and his body thrown into the public burial ground.)

²⁴But because I had the support of Ahikam son of Shaphan, I was not handed over to the people and killed.

Jeremiah Wears an Ox Yoke

27^*Soon after Josiah’s son Zedekiah became king of Judah, the Lord told me ²to make myself a yoke out of leather straps and wooden crossbars and to put it on my neck. ³Then the Lord told me to send a message^g to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through their ambassadors who had come to Jerusalem to see King Zedekiah. ⁴The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, told me to command them to tell their kings that the Lord had said: ⁵“By my great power and strength I created the world, the human race, and all the animals that live on the earth; and I give it to anyone I choose. ⁶I am the one who has placed all these nations under the power of my servant, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia, and I have made even the wild animals serve him. ⁷All nations will serve him, and they will serve his son and his grandson until the time comes for his own nation to fall. Then his nation will serve powerful nations and great kings.

⁸“But if any nation or kingdom will not submit to his rule, then I will punish that nation by war, starvation, and disease until I have let Nebuchadnezzar destroy it completely. ⁹Do not listen to your prophets or to anyone who claims he can predict the future, either by dreams or by calling up the spirits of the dead or by magic. They all tell you not to submit to the king of Babylonia. ¹⁰They are deceiving you and will cause you to be taken far away from your country. I will drive you out, and you will be destroyed. ¹¹But if any nation submits to the king of Babylonia and serves him, then I will let it stay on in its own land, to farm it and live there. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

¹²I said the same thing to King Zedekiah of Judah, “Submit to the king of Babylonia. Serve him and his people, and you will live. ¹³Why should you and your people die in war or of starvation or disease? That is what the Lord has said will happen to any nation that does not submit to the king of Babylonia. ¹⁴Do not listen to the prophets who tell you not to surrender to him. They are deceiving you. ¹⁵The Lord himself has said that he did not send them and that they are lying to you in his name. And so he will drive you out, and you will be killed, you and the prophets who are telling you these lies.”

¹⁶Then I told the priests and the people that the Lord had said: “Do not listen to the prophets who say that the temple treasures will soon be brought back from Babylonia. They are lying to you. ¹⁷Don’t listen to them! Submit to the king of Babylonia and you will live! Why should this city become a pile of ruins? ¹⁸If they are really prophets and if they have my message, let them ask me, the Lord Almighty, not to allow the treasures that remain in the Temple and in the royal palace to be taken to Babylonia.”

^19–20(When King Nebuchadnezzar took away to Babylonia the king of Judah, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, and the leading men of Judah and Jerusalem, he left the columns, the bronze tank, the carts, and some of the other temple treasures.)

²¹“Listen to what I, the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, say about the treasures that are left in the Temple and in the royal palace in Jerusalem: ²²They will be taken to Babylonia and will remain there until I turn my attention to them. Then I will bring them back and restore them to this place. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

Jeremiah and the Prophet Hananiah

28^*That same year,^h in the fifth month of the fourth year that Zedekiah was king, Hananiah son of Azzur, a prophet from the town of Gibeon, spoke to me in the Temple. In the presence of the priests and of the people he told me ²that the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, had said: “I have broken the power of the king of Babylonia. ³Within two years I will bring back to this place all the temple treasures that King Nebuchadnezzar took to Babylonia. ⁴I will also bring back the king of Judah, Jehoiachin son of Jehoiakim, along with all the people of Judah who went into exile in Babylonia. Yes, I will break the power of the king of Babylonia. I, the Lord, have spoken.”

⁵Then in the presence of the priests and of all the people who were standing in the Temple, I said to Hananiah: ⁶“Wonderful! I hope the Lord will do this! I certainly hope he will make your prophecy come true and will bring back from Babylonia all the temple treasures and all the people who were taken away as prisoners. ⁷But listen to what I say to you and to the people. ⁸The prophets who spoke long ago, before my time and yours, predicted that war, starvation, and disease would come to many nations and powerful kingdoms. ⁹But a prophet who predicts peace can only be recognized as a prophet whom the Lord has truly sent when that prophet’s predictions come true.”

¹⁰Then Hananiah took the yoke off my neck, broke it in pieces, ¹¹and said in the presence of all the people: “The Lord has said that this is how he will break the yoke that King Nebuchadnezzar has put on the neck of all the nations; and he will do this within two years.” Then I left.

¹²Some time after this the Lord told me ¹³to go and say to Hananiah: “The Lord has said that you may be able to break a wooden yoke, but heⁱ will replace it with an iron yoke. ¹⁴The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, has said that he will put an iron yoke on all these nations and that they will serve King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. The Lord has said that he will make even the wild animals serve Nebuchadnezzar.”

¹⁵Then I told Hananiah this, and added, “Listen, Hananiah! The Lord did not send you, and you are making these people believe a lie. ¹⁶And so the Lord himself says that he is going to get rid of you. Before this year is over you will die because you have told the people to rebel against the Lord.”

¹⁷And Hananiah died in the seventh month of that same year.

Jeremiah’s Letter to the Jews in Babylonia

29^*I wrote a letter to the priests, the prophets, the leaders of the people, and to all the others whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken away as prisoners from Jerusalem to Babylonia. ^2*I wrote it after King Jehoiachin, his mother, the palace officials, the leaders of Judah and of Jerusalem, the craftsmen, and the skilled workmen had been taken into exile. ³I gave the letter to Elasah son of Shaphan and to Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah was sending to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia. It said:

⁴“The Lord Almighty, the God…