Jeremiah 16–24

Chapter 16

Distresses Foretold

¹The word of the Lord also came to me saying,

²“You shall not take a wife for yourself nor have sons or daughters in this place.”

³For thus says the Lord concerning the sons and daughters born in this place, and concerning their ^amothers who bear them, and their ^bfathers who beget them in this land:

⁴“They will ^adie of deadly diseases, they ^bwill not be lamented or buried; they will be as ^cdung on the surface of the ground and come to an end by sword and famine, and their carcasses will become food for the ^dbirds of the sky and for the beasts of the earth.”

⁵For thus says the Lord, “Do not enter a house of ^1amourning, or go to lament or to console them; for I have ^bwithdrawn My peace from this people,” declares the Lord, “My ^clovingkindness and compassion.

⁶“Both ^agreat men and small will die in this land; they will not be buried, they will not be lamented, nor will anyone ^bgash himself or ^cshave his head for them.

⁷“Men will not ^abreak bread in mourning for them, to comfort anyone for the dead, nor give them a cup of consolation to drink for anyone’s father or mother.

⁸“Moreover you shall ^anot go into a house of feasting to sit with them to eat and drink.”

⁹For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I am going to ^1aeliminate from this place, before your eyes and in your time, the voice of rejoicing and the voice of gladness, the voice of the groom and the voice of the bride.

¹⁰“Now when you tell this people all these words, they will say to you, ‘^aFor what reason has the Lord declared all this great calamity against us? And what is our iniquity, or what is our sin which we have committed against the Lord our God?’

¹¹“Then you are to say to them, ‘It is ^abecause your forefathers have forsaken Me,’ declares the Lord, ‘and have followed ^bother gods and served them and bowed down to them; but Me they have forsaken and have not kept My law.

¹²‘You too have done evil, even ^amore than your forefathers; for behold, you are each one walking according to the ^bstubbornness of his own ^cevil heart, without listening to Me.

¹³‘So I will ^ahurl you out of this land into the ^bland which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers; and there you will ^cserve other gods day and night, for I will grant you no favor.’

God Will Restore Them

¹⁴“^aTherefore behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when it will no longer be said, ‘As the Lord lives, who ^bbrought up the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’

¹⁵but, ‘As the Lord lives, who brought up the sons of Israel from the ^aland of the north and from all the countries where He had banished them.’ For I will restore them to their own land which I gave to their fathers.

¹⁶“Behold, I am going to send for many ^afishermen,” declares the Lord, “and they will fish for them; and afterwards I will send for many hunters, and they will ^bhunt them ^cfrom every mountain and every hill and from the clefts of the rocks.

¹⁷“^aFor My eyes are on all their ways; they are not hidden from My face, ^bnor is their iniquity concealed from My eyes.

¹⁸“I will first ^adoubly repay their iniquity and their sin, because they have ^bpolluted My land; they have filled My inheritance with the carcasses of their ^cdetestable idols and with their abominations.”

¹⁹O Lord, my ^astrength and my stronghold,

And my ^brefuge in the day of distress,

To You the ^cnations will come

From the ends of the earth and say,

“Our fathers have inherited nothing but ^dfalsehood,

Futility and ^1ethings of no profit.”

²⁰Can man make gods for himself?

Yet they are ^anot gods!

²¹“Therefore behold, I am going to make them know—

This time I will ^amake them know

My ¹power and My might;

And they shall ^bknow that My name is the Lord.”

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 booty,

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 the Lord,

“^aCursed is the man who trusts in mankind

And makes ^bflesh his ¹strength,

And whose heart turns away from the Lord.

⁶“For he will be like a ^abush in the desert

And will not see when prosperity comes,

But will live in stony wastes in the wilderness,

A ^bland of salt ¹without inhabitant.

⁷“^aBlessed is the man who trusts in the Lord

And whose ^btrust is the Lord.

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

That extends 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 cease to yield fruit.

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

And is desperately ^csick;

Who can understand it?

¹⁰“I, the Lord, ^asearch the heart,

I test the ¹mind,

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

According to the ²results 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 ^bfool.”

^12aA glorious throne on high from the beginning

Is the place of our sanctuary.

¹³O Lord, 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 the Lord.

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

^bSave me and I will be saved,

For You are my ^cpraise.

¹⁵Look, they keep ^asaying to me,

“Where is the word of the Lord?

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 woeful 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 disaster.

¹⁸Let those who persecute 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 disaster,

And crush them with twofold destruction!

The Sabbath Must Be Kept

¹⁹Thus the Lord 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 the Lord, ^bkings of Judah, and all Judah and all inhabitants of Jerusalem who come in through these gates:

²¹‘Thus says the Lord, “^aTake heed for 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 ¹forefathers.

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

²⁴“But it will come about, if you ^alisten attentively to Me,” declares the Lord, “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 ^bsitting 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“They will come in from the ^acities of Judah and from the environs of Jerusalem, from the land of Benjamin, from the ^blowland, from the hill country and from the ^cNegev, bringing burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings and incense, and bringing sacrifices of thanksgiving to the house of the Lord.

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 the Lord saying,

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

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

⁴But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.

⁵Then the word of the Lord came to me saying,

⁶“Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “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 pull down, or to destroy it;

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

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

¹⁰if it does ^aevil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will ^1bthink better of the good with which I had promised to ²bless it.

¹¹“So now then, speak to the men of Judah and against the inhabitants of Jerusalem saying, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Behold, I am ^afashioning calamity against you and devising a plan against you. Oh ^bturn back, each of you from his evil way, and ¹reform 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 the Lord,

‘^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 foreign land…