Jeremiah 17–19

CHAPTER 17

The Deceitful Heart

¹The ^asin of Judah is written down with an ^biron stylus;

With a diamond point it is ^cengraved upon the tablet of their heart

And on the horns of ¹their altars,

²As they remember their ^achildren,

So they remember their altars and their ^1bAsherim

By ^cgreen trees on the high hills.

³O ^amountain of Mine in the countryside,

I will ^bgive over your wealth and all your treasures for plunder,

Your high places for sin throughout your borders.

⁴And you will, even of yourself, ^alet go of your inheritance

That I gave you;

And I will make you serve your ^benemies

In the ^cland which you do not know,

For you have ^dkindled a fire in My anger

Which will burn forever.

⁵Thus says Yahweh,

“^aCursed is the man who trusts in mankind

And makes ^bflesh his ¹strength,

And whose heart turns away from Yahweh.

⁶“And he will be like a ^ajuniper in the desert

And will not see when prosperity comes,

But will dwell in stony wastes in the wilderness,

A ^bland of salt ¹which is not inhabited.

⁷“^aBlessed is the man who trusts in Yahweh

And whose ^btrust is Yahweh.

⁸“And he will be like a ^atree planted by the water,

That sends forth its roots by a stream

And will not fear when the heat comes;

But its leaves will be green,

And it will not be anxious in a year of ^bdrought

Nor refrain from yielding fruit.

⁹“The ^aheart is more ^bdeceitful than all else

And is ¹desperately ^csick;

Who can know it?

¹⁰“I, Yahweh, ^asearch the heart;

I test the ¹inmost being,

Even ^bto give to each man according to his ways,

According to the fruit of his deeds.

¹¹“As a partridge that hatches eggs which it has not laid,

So is he who ^amakes a fortune, but unjustly;

In the midst of his days it will forsake him,

And in ¹the end he will be a ^bwicked fool.”

^12aA glorious throne on high from the beginning

Is the place of our sanctuary.

¹³O Yahweh, the ^ahope of Israel,

All who ^bforsake You will be put to shame.

Those who turn ¹away on earth will be ^cwritten down

Because they have forsaken the fountain of living water, even Yahweh.

^14aHeal me, O Yahweh, and I will be healed;

^bSave me and I will be saved,

For You are my ^cpraise.

¹⁵Behold, they keep ^asaying to me,

“Where is the word of Yahweh?

Let it come now!”

¹⁶But as for me, I have not hurried away from being a shepherd after You,

Nor have I longed for the ¹sickening day;

^aYou Yourself know that the utterance of my lips

Was in Your presence.

¹⁷Do not be a ^aterror to me;

You are my ^brefuge in the day of calamity.

¹⁸Let those who pursue me be ^aput to shame, but as for me, ^blet me not be put to shame;

Let them be dismayed, but let me not be dismayed.

^cBring on them a day of calamity,

And ¹crush them with twofold ²crushing!

Keep the Sabbath Day Holy

¹⁹Thus Yahweh said to me, “Go and stand in the ¹public gate, through which the kings of Judah come in and go out, as well as in all the gates of Jerusalem,

²⁰and say to them, ‘^aListen to the word of Yahweh, ^bkings of Judah and all Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem who come in through these gates:

²¹‘Thus says Yahweh, “^aTake care of yourselves, and ^bdo not carry any load on the sabbath day or bring anything in through the gates of Jerusalem.

²²“You shall not bring a load out of your houses on the sabbath day ^anor do any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I ^bcommanded your fathers.

²³“Yet they ^adid not listen or incline their ears, but ^bstiffened their necks in order not to listen or receive discipline.

²⁴“But it will be, if you ^alisten carefully to Me,” declares Yahweh, “to ^bbring no load in through the gates of this city on the sabbath day, ^cbut to keep the sabbath day holy by doing no work on it,

^25athen there will come in through the gates of this city kings and princes ^1bsitting on the throne of David, riding in chariots and on horses, they and their princes, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and this ^ccity will be inhabited forever.

²⁶“And they will come in from the ^acities of Judah and from all around Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the ^1bShephelah, from the hill country, and from the ^cNegev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, and frankincense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of Yahweh.

²⁷“But ^aif you do not listen to Me to keep the sabbath day holy by not carrying a load and coming in through the gates of Jerusalem on the sabbath day, then ^bI will kindle a fire in its gates, and it will ^cdevour the palaces of Jerusalem and ^dnot be quenched.” ’ ”

CHAPTER 18

The Potter and the Clay

¹The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh saying,

²“Arise and ^ago down to the potter’s house, and there I will make you hear My words.”

³Then I went down to the potter’s house, and behold, he was making something on the ¹wheel.

⁴But the vessel that he was making of clay was ruined in the hand of the potter, so he turned around and made it into another vessel, according to what was right in the eyes of the potter to make.

⁵Then the word of Yahweh came to me saying,

⁶“Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares Yahweh. “Behold, like the ^aclay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.

⁷“At one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to ^auproot, to tear down, or to make it perish;

^8abut if that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will ^1brelent concerning the calamity I planned to do against it.

⁹“Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to ^abuild up or to plant it;

¹⁰but if it does ^aevil in My sight by not listening to My voice, then I will ^1brelent concerning the good which I promised, to do good to it.

¹¹“So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “Behold, I am ^aforming calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh ^bturn back, each of you from his evil way, and do good in your ways and your deeds.” ’

¹²“But ^athey will say, ‘It’s hopeless! For we are going to follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the ^bstubbornness of his evil heart.’

¹³“Therefore thus says Yahweh,

‘^aAsk now among the nations,

Who ever heard the like of ¹this?

The ^bvirgin of Israel

Has done a most ^cappalling thing.

¹⁴‘Does the snow of Lebanon forsake the rock of the open country?

Or is the cold flowing water from a strange land ever uprooted?

¹⁵‘For ^aMy people have forgotten Me;

^bThey burn incense ¹to worthless gods,

And they ²have stumbled ³from their ways,

⁴From the ^cancient paths,

To walk in bypaths,

Not on a ^dhighway,

¹⁶To make their land an ^aobject of horror,

An object of perpetual ^bhissing;

Everyone who passes by it will be ¹horrified

And ^cshake his head.

¹⁷‘Like an ^aeast wind I will ^bscatter them

Before the enemy;

I will ¹show them ^cMy back and not My face

^dIn the day of their disaster.’”

¹⁸Then they said, “Come and let us ^adevise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the ^blaw is not going to perish from the priest, nor ^ccounsel to the wise man, nor the divine ^dword to the prophet! Come on and let us ^estrike at him with our tongue, and let us ^fgive no heed to any of his words.”

¹⁹Do give heed to me, O Yahweh,

And listen to the voice of those who contend against me!

^20aShould good be repaid with evil?

For they have ^bdug a pit for ¹me.

Remember how I ^cstood before You

To speak good on their behalf,

So as to turn away Your wrath from them.

²¹Therefore, ^agive their children over to famine

And deliver them up to the ¹power of the sword;

And let their wives become ^bchildless and ^cwidowed.

Let their men also be ²smitten to death,

Their ^dyoung men struck down by the sword in battle.

²²May an ^aoutcry be heard from their houses,

When You suddenly bring raiders upon them;

^bFor they have dug a pit to capture me

And ^chidden snares for my feet.

²³Yet You, O Yahweh, know

All their ¹deadly counsel against me;

^aDo not atone for their iniquity

Or blot out their sin from before You.

But may they be ^2boverthrown before You;

Deal with them in the ^ctime of Your anger!

CHAPTER 19

The Broken Jar

¹Thus says Yahweh, “Go and buy a ^apotter’s earthenware ^bjar, and take some of the ^celders of the people and some of the ^delders of the priests.

²“Then go out to the ^avalley of Ben-hinnom, which is by the entrance of the potsherd gate, and there ^bcall out the words that I tell you

³and say, ‘Hear the word of Yahweh, O ^akings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am about to bring a ^bcalamity upon this place, at which the ^cears of everyone that hears of it will tingle.

⁴“Because they have ^aforsaken Me and have ^bmade this a foreign place and have burned incense in it to ^cother gods, that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah had ever known, and because they have filled this place with the ^dblood of the innocent

⁵and have built the ^ahigh places of Baal to burn their ^bsons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, a thing which I never commanded or spoke of, nor did it ever come upon My heart,

⁶therefore, behold, ^adays are coming,” declares Yahweh, “when this place will no longer be called ^bTopheth or ^cthe valley of Ben-hinnom, but rather the valley of Slaughter.

⁷“I will ^aempty out the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem to the point of destruction in this place, and ^bI will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will give over their ^ccarcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.

⁸“I will also make this city an ^aobject of horror and of hissing; ^beveryone who passes by it will be ¹horrified and hiss because of all its ²slaughtering.

⁹“I will make them ^aeat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life will distress them.” ’

¹⁰“Then you are to break the ^ajar in the sight of the men who accompany you,

¹¹and you shall say to them, ‘Thus says Yahweh of hosts, “Just so…