Jeremiah 21–52

A Message for Zedekiah

21The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh when King Zedekiah sent to him Pashhur, the son of Malchiah, and Zephaniah, the son of Maaseiah, the priest, saying,^{a 2}“Please inquire of Yahweh on behalf of us, for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon is fighting against us. Perhaps Yahweh will do with us according to all his miraculous acts, so that he may withdraw from^b us.”

³Then Jeremiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to Zedekiah: ⁴‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: “Look, I am about to turn back the weapons of war that are in your hands,^c with which you are fighting against them, the king of Babylon and the Chaldeans who are laying siege to you from outside the wall, and I will gather them into the center of this city. ⁵And I myself will fight against you with outstretched hand, and with strong arm, and in anger,^d and in fury, and in great wrath. ⁶And I will strike the inhabitants of this city, both humankind and animal; by a great plague they will die. ⁷And afterward,”^e declares^f Yahweh, “I will give Zedekiah, the king of Judah, and his servants, and the people, and those who remain in this city from the plague, from the sword, and from the famine, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their lives, and he will strike them with the edge^g of the sword. He will not take pity on them, and he will not have compassion, nor will he show compassion.” ’

The Way of Life and the Way of Death

⁸“And to this people you shall say, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Look, I am setting before you^h the way of life and the way of death. ⁹He who stays in this city will die by the sword, or by the famine, or by the plague. And he who goes out and goes over to the Chaldeans who are laying siege to you will live, and his life will be to him as booty. ¹⁰For I have set my face against this city for evil and not for good,” declaresⁱ Yahweh. It will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it with fire.” ’

A Series of Messages for the House of the King of Judah

¹¹“And to the house of the king of Judah, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, ¹²O house of David, thus says Yahweh,

“Execute judgment in the morning, justice,

and deliver the one who has been seized

from the hand of the oppressor,

lest my wrath goes forth like the fire and it burns,

and there is no one who quenches it^j

because of the evil of your deeds.

¹³Look, I am against you,

O inhabitants^k of the valley,

O rock of the plain,” declares^l Yahweh;

“you who say, ‘Who can descend against us,

or who can enter into our hiding place?’

¹⁴And I will punish you

according to the fruit of your deeds,” declares^m Yahweh,

“And I will kindle a fire in its forest,

and it will devour all its surroundings.” ’ ”

22Thus says Yahweh: “Go down to the house of the king of Judah and you must speak this word there. ²And you must say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, O king of Judah, who sits on the throne of David, you, and your servants, and your people who enter through these gates. ³Thus says Yahweh, “Act with justice and righteousness, and deliver the one who has been seized from the hand of the oppressor. And you must not oppress or treat violently the immigrant, the orphan, and the widow. And you must not shed innocent blood in this place. ⁴And if you indeed obey this word, then kings who sit for David on his throne will enter through the gates of this house, riding in chariots^a and on horses, he, and his servants, and his people. ⁵But if you do not obey these words, I swear by myself,” declares^b Yahweh, “that this house will become a site of ruins.” ’ ”

⁶For thus says Yahweh concerning the house of the king of Judah,

“You are like Gilead to me,

like the head of the Lebanon.

Surely^c I will make you a desert,^d

like cities that are not inhabited.

⁷And I will consecrate against you destroyers,

everyone with his weapons,

and they will cut down your choicest cedars,^e

and cast them^f on the fire.

⁸And many nations will pass by this city and they will say each one to his neighbor, ‘Why^g has Yahweh done in this manner to this great city?’ ⁹Then they will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the covenant of Yahweh their God, and bowed down in worship to other gods, and served them.’ ”

¹⁰You must not weep for the dead person,

and you must not show sympathy for him.

Weep bitterly for the one who goes away,

for he will not return, or see the land of his birth again.

¹¹For thus says Yahweh concerning Shallum, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, who reigned as king in place of Josiah his father, who went out from this place: “He will not return here again. ¹²But in the place where they have deported him, there he will die, and he will not see this land again.

¹³Woe to the one who builds his house without righteousness,

and his upper rooms without justice.

His fellow countryman, he works for nothing,

and he does not give to him his wages.^h

¹⁴Who says ‘I will build for myself

a spacious house with large upper rooms,’

and he cuts windows for it,

and it isⁱ paneled with cedar,

and he paints it^j with vermilion.

¹⁵Do you reign as king because you are competing in cedar?

Did not your father eat and drink,

and he did justice and righteousness,

then it was well with him?

¹⁶He judged the legal cause of the needy and the poor,

and then it was well.

Is that not what it means to know me?^k” declares^l Yahweh.

¹⁷“But there is nothing in your eyes and your heart

except^m your unlawful gain,

and on shedding the blood of the innocent,

and on committing oppression and extortion.”

¹⁸Thereforeⁿ thus says Yahweh concerning Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, the king of Judah:

“They will not lament for him,

‘Alas, my brother,’ or ‘Alas, sister.’

They will not lament for him,

‘Alas, lord,’ or ‘alas, his majesty.’

¹⁹He will be buried with the burial of a donkey.

He will be^o dragged away and thrown outside^p the gates of Jerusalem.

²⁰Go up to Lebanon and cry out,

and in Bashan lift up your voice,

and cry out from Abarim,

for all your lovers are shattered.

²¹I spoke to you in the times you were secure,^q

and you said, ‘I will not listen!’

This was your way from your youth,

for you have not obeyed my voice.

²²All your shepherds will shepherd the wind,

and your lovers will go into captivity.

Yes, then you will be ashamed and humiliated

because of all your wickedness.

²³Inhabitants^r of Lebanon,

nestled among the cedars,

how you will groan when labor pains come to you,

anguish as the woman who gives birth.

²⁴“As I live,” declares^s Yahweh, “surely if Coniah, the son of Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, were the seal on my right hand, surely from there I would wrench you off. ²⁵And I would give you into the hand of those who seek your life, and into the hand of those from whom you are frightened by their presence, and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, and into the hand of the Chaldeans. ²⁶And I will throw you and your mother who gave birth to you to another country where you were not born, and there you will die. ²⁷As for the land to which they are longing^t to return, they will not return.

²⁸Is this man Coniah a despised, shattered vessel?

Or a vessel in which there is no delight?

Why are he and his offspring thrown far,

and cast away to the land that they do not know?”

²⁹O land, land, land, hear the word of Yahweh. ³⁰Thus says Yahweh:

“Record this man as childless,

a man who will not succeed in his days,

for no man from his offspring will succeed him,^u

sitting on the throne of David and ruling again in Judah.”

Woe to the Evil Shepherds

23“Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the flock of my pasture,” declares^a Yahweh. ²Therefore^b thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel concerning the shepherds who shepherd my people, “You yourselves have scattered my flock, and you have driven them away, and you do not attend to them. Look, I will punish you for the evil of your deeds,” declares^c Yahweh. ³“Then I myself will gather together the remnant of my flock from all the lands where I have driven them, and I will bring them back to their grazing place, and they will be fruitful, and they will become numerous. ⁴And I will raise up over them shepherds, and they will shepherd them, and they will no longer fear, and they will not be dismayed, and they will not be missing,” declares^d Yahweh.

The Righteous Branch

⁵“Look, days are coming,” declares^e Yahweh,

“when I will raise up for David a righteous branch,

and he will reign as king, and he will achieve success,

and he will do justice and righteousness in the land.

⁶In his days Judah will be saved,

and Israel will dwell in safety,^f

and this is his name by which he will be called:

‘Yahweh is our righteousness.’

⁷“Therefore^g look, days are coming,” declares^h Yahweh, “when they will no longer say, ‘As Yahweh lives,ⁱ who led up the Israelites^j from the land of Egypt,’ ⁸but ‘As Yahweh lives,^k who led up, and who brought the offspring of the house of Israel from the land of the north and from all the lands where he had driven them.’ Then they will live in their land.”

The Unfaithful Prophets

⁹Concerning the prophets:

My heart is broken in my midst.

All my bones tremble.

I have become like a drunken man,

even like a man over whom wine has passed,

because of Yahweh,

and because of his holy words.^l

¹⁰For the land is full of adulterers;

for the land mourns because of a curse.

The pastures of the desert^m are dry,

and their evil has been their way of running,

and their power is not right.

¹¹“For both prophet as well as priest are godless,

even in my temple I have found their wickedness,” declaresⁿ Yahweh.

¹²“Therefore^o their way will be to them like the slippery places,

they will be pushed in the darkness,

and they will fall into it,

for I will bring disaster on them in the year of their punishment,” declares^p Yahweh.

¹³“Now in the prophets of Samaria I saw a disgusting thing.

They prophesied by Baal and they caused my people Israel to err.

¹⁴And in the…