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 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 ever snatched away?

¹⁵‘For ^aMy people have forgotten Me,

^bThey burn incense ¹to worthless gods

And they ²have stumbled ³from their ways,

From the ^cancient paths,

To walk in bypaths,

Not on a ^dhighway,

¹⁶To make their land a ^adesolation,

An object of perpetual ^bhissing;

Everyone who passes by it will be astonished

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 calamity.’ ”

¹⁸Then they said, “Come and let us ^adevise plans against Jeremiah. Surely the ^blaw is not going to be lost to the priest, nor ^ccounsel to the sage, 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 Lord,

And listen to ¹what my opponents are saying!

^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 smitten 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 Lord, know

All their ¹deadly designs against me;

^aDo not ²forgive their iniquity

Or blot out their sin from Your sight.

But may they be ^3boverthrown before You;

Deal with them in the ^ctime of Your anger!

Chapter 19

The Broken Jar

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

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

³and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O ^akings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem: thus says the Lord 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 an alien place and have burned ¹sacrifices in it to ^cother gods, that neither they nor their forefathers 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 enter My ¹mind;

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

⁷“I will ^amake void the counsel of Judah and Jerusalem 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 a ^adesolation and an object of hissing; ^beveryone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its ¹disasters.

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 say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, “Just so will I ^abreak this people and this city, even as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot again be repaired; and…