Jeremiah 1:4–50:46

The Lord Gives Jeremiah a Message for His People

⁴The Lord spoke his word to me, 

⁵“Before I formed you in the womb, 

I knew you. 

Before you were born, 

I set you apart for my holy purpose. 

I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations.” 

⁶I, Jeremiah, said, “Almighty Lord, I do not know how to speak. I am only a boy!” 

⁷But the Lord said to me, “Don’t say that you are only a boy. You will go wherever I send you. You will say whatever I command you to say. ⁸Don’t be afraid of people. I am with you, and I will rescue you,” declares the Lord. 

⁹Then the Lord stretched out his hand and touched my mouth. The Lord said to me, 

“Now I have put my words in your mouth. 

¹⁰Today I have put you in charge of nations and kingdoms. 

You will uproot and tear down. 

You will destroy and overthrow. 

You will build and plant.” 

¹¹Again the Lord spoke his word to me and asked, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” 

I answered, “I see a branch of an almond tree.” 

¹²Then the Lord said to me, “Right. I am watching to make sure that my words come true.”^a

¹³Again the Lord spoke his word to me and asked, “What do you see?” 

I answered, “I see a boiling pot, and its top is tilted away from the north.” 

¹⁴Then the Lord said to me, 

“Disaster will be poured out from the north 

on all those who live in the land. 

¹⁵I am going to call every family and kingdom from the north,” 

declares the Lord. 

“They will come, and they will set up their thrones 

at the entrance of Jerusalem’s gates. 

They will attack all the walls around the city 

and all the cities of Judah. 

¹⁶I will pass sentence on my people because of all their wickedness. 

They abandoned me, 

burned incense to other gods, 

and worshiped what their hands have made. 

¹⁷Brace yourself, Jeremiah! 

Stand up, and say to them whatever I tell you to say. 

Don’t be terrified in their presence, 

or I will make you ⸤even more⸥ terrified in their presence. 

¹⁸Today I have made you like a fortified city, 

an iron pillar, and a bronze wall. 

You will be able to stand up to the whole land. 

You will be able to stand up to Judah’s kings, 

its officials, its priests, and ⸤all⸥ the common people. 

¹⁹They will fight you, but they will not defeat you. 

I am with you, and I will rescue you,” declares the Lord. 

2ND CHAPTER

The People Continue to Reject the Lord’s Love for Them

¹The Lord spoke his word to me, 

²“Go and announce to Jerusalem, 

‘This is what the Lord says: 

I remember the unfailing loyalty of your youth, 

the love you had for me as a bride. 

I remember how you followed me into the desert, 

into a land that couldn’t be farmed. 

³Israel was set apart for the Lord. 

It was the best part of the harvest. 

All who devoured it became guilty, 

and disaster struck them,’ ” declares the Lord. 

⁴Listen to the Lord’s word, descendants of Jacob, 

all the families in the nation of Israel. 

⁵This is what the Lord says: 

What did your ancestors find wrong with me 

that they went so far away from me? 

They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. 

⁶They didn’t ask, “Where is the Lord, 

who brought us from Egypt? 

He led us through the desert, 

through a wasteland and its pits, 

a land of drought and the shadow of death. 

No one lives there or travels there.” 

⁷I brought them into a fertile land 

to eat its fruit and its produce. 

They came and made my land unclean.^a

They made my property disgusting. 

⁸The priests didn’t ask, “Where is the Lord?” 

Those who deal with my teachings didn’t know me. 

The rulers rebelled against me. 

The prophets prophesied in the name of Baal 

and followed statues that couldn’t help them. 

⁹“That is why I am bringing charges against you,” declares the Lord, 

“and I am bringing charges against your grandchildren. 

¹⁰Go over to the coasts of Cyprus, and see. 

Send ⸤someone⸥ to Kedar, and observe closely. 

See if there has ever been anything like this. 

¹¹Has any nation ever exchanged gods? 

(Their gods aren’t really gods.) 

Yet, my people have exchanged their Glory 

for something that doesn’t help them. 

¹²Be horrified over this, heaven. 

Be terribly afraid,” declares the Lord. 

¹³“My people have done two things wrong. 

They have abandoned me, 

the fountain of life-giving water. 

They have also dug their own cisterns, 

broken cisterns that can’t hold water. 

¹⁴“Are the people of Israel slaves? 

Were they born into slavery? 

Why, then, have they become someone’s property? 

¹⁵Young lions have roared very loudly at them. 

Young lions have turned the land into a wasteland. 

The cities have been burned down, and everyone has left. 

¹⁶People from Noph and Tahpanhes have cracked your skulls, Israel. 

¹⁷You have brought this on yourself 

by abandoning the Lord your God 

when he led you on his way. 

¹⁸You won’t gain anything by going to Egypt 

to drink water from the Nile River. 

You won’t gain anything by going to Assyria 

to drink water from the Euphrates River. 

¹⁹Your own wickedness will correct you, 

and your unfaithful ways will punish you. 

You should know and see how evil and bitter it is for you 

if you abandon the Lord your God and do not fear me,” 

declares the Almighty Lord of Armies. 

²⁰“Long ago you broke off your yoke,^btore off your chains, 

and said that you wouldn’t be a slave. 

You lay down and acted like a prostitute 

on every high hill and under every large tree. 

²¹I planted you like a choice grapevine from the very best seed. 

Now you have turned against me and have become a wild vine. 

²²Even if you wash with detergent and use a lot of soap, 

I would still see the stains from your wickedness,” 

declares the Almighty Lord. 

²³“How can you say that you haven’t dishonored yourselves 

and haven’t followed other gods—the Baals? 

Look how you’ve behaved in the valley. 

Acknowledge what you’ve done. 

You are like a young camel that swiftly runs here and there. 

²⁴You are like a wild donkey that is used to the desert, 

sniffing the wind while in heat. 

All who look for you won’t get tired. 

They will find you during your monthly period. 

²⁵Don’t run until your feet are bare and your throats are dry. 

But you say that it’s useless. 

You love foreign gods and follow them. 

²⁶“As a thief feels ashamed when he’s caught, 

so the nation of Israel will feel ashamed. 

Their kings, princes, priests, 

and prophets will also feel ashamed. 

²⁷You call wood your father. 

You call stone your mother. 

You’ve turned your backs, not your faces, to me. 

But when you’re in trouble, you ask me to come and rescue you. 

²⁸Where are the gods that you made for yourselves? 

Let them come and rescue you when you’re in trouble. 

You have as many gods as you have cities, Judah! 

²⁹“Why do you complain about me? 

All of you have rebelled against me,” declares the Lord. 

³⁰“I have punished your children without results. 

They didn’t respond to correction. 

You killed my prophets like a raging lion. 

³¹“Consider the Lord’s word, people of this generation. 

Haven’t I been a desert, a land of thick darkness, for Israel? 

Why do my people say that they are free to wander around 

and no longer come to me? 

³²A young woman can’t forget her jewelry or a bride her veils. 

Yet, my people have forgotten me for countless days. 

³³You carefully planned ways to look for love. 

You taught your ways to wicked women. 

³⁴You have the blood from poor and innocent people 

on your clothes. 

You didn’t kill them for breaking into your home. 

³⁵In spite of all this you say, ‘I’m innocent. 

God will turn his anger from me, 

because I haven’t sinned.’ 

³⁶You change your mind so easily. 

You will be put to shame by Egypt 

as you were put to shame by Assyria. 

³⁷You will also leave this place with your hands over your head, 

because the Lord has rejected those you trust. 

You will not be helped by them.” 

3RD CHAPTER

¹A saying: 

If a man divorces his wife 

and she leaves him and marries another man, 

her first husband shouldn’t go back to her again. 

The land would become thoroughly polluted. 

“You have acted like a prostitute who has many lovers. 

And now you want to come back to me!” declares the Lord. 

²“Look at the bare hills, and see. 

You have had sex with men in every place. 

You sat by the roadside waiting for them like a nomad in the desert. 

You have polluted the land with your prostitution and wickedness. 

³So the rain has been withheld, and there have been no spring showers. 

Yet, you have the shameless look of a prostitute, 

and you refuse to blush. 

⁴But now you are calling to me. 

You say, ‘Father! You have been my companion 

ever since I was young. 

⁵He won’t hold a grudge forever. 

He won’t always be angry.’ 

You have said and done all the evil things that you could.” 

The Lord Offers to Forgive the Ten Tribes of Israel despite Their Idolatry

⁶When Josiah was king, the Lord asked me, “Did you see what unfaithful Israel did? She went up every high mountain and under every large tree, and she acted like a prostitute there. ⁷I thought that after she had done all this that she would come back to me. But she didn’t come back, and her treacherous sister Judah saw her. ⁸Judah saw that I sent unfaithful Israel away because of her adultery and that I gave Israel her divorce papers. But treacherous Judah, her sister, wasn’t afraid. She also acted like a prostitute. ⁹Because she wasn’t concerned about acting like a prostitute, she polluted the land and committed adultery with standing stones and wood pillars. ¹⁰Even after all this, Israel’s treacherous sister Judah didn’t wholeheartedly come back to me.She was deceitful,” declares the Lord. 

¹¹Then the Lord said to me, “Unfaithful Israel was less guilty than treacherous Judah. ¹²Go and proclaim these things to the north: 

“ ‘Come back, unfaithful Israel. 

It is the Lord speaking. 

I will no longer frown on you 

because I’m merciful,’ declares the Lord. 

‘I will no longer be angry with you. 

¹³Admit that you’ve done wrong! 

You have rebelled against the Lord your God. 

You have given yourself to strangers under every large tree. 

You have not obeyed me,’ declares the Lord. 

¹⁴“Come back, you rebellious people,” declares the Lord. “I’m your husband. I will take you, one from every city and…