Jeremiah 15–17

15Then the Lord said to me: “I would not feel sorry for the people of Judah even if Moses and Samuel prayed for them. Send them away from me! Tell them to go! ²When they ask you, ‘Where will we go?’ tell them: ‘This is what the Lord says:

Those who are meant to die

will die.

Those who are meant to die in war

will die in war.

Those who are meant to die from hunger

will die from hunger.

Those who are meant to be taken captive

will be taken captive.’

³“I will send four kinds of destroyers against them,” says the Lord. “I will send war to kill, dogs to drag the bodies away, and the birds of the air and wild animals to eat and destroy the bodies. ⁴I will make the people of Judah hated by everyone on earth because of what Manasseh did in Jerusalem. (Manasseh son of Hezekiah was king of the nation of Judah.)

⁵“Who will feel sorry for you, Jerusalem?

Who will be sad and cry for you?

Who will go out of his way to ask how you are?

⁶Jerusalem, you have left me,” says the Lord.

“You keep going farther and farther away,

so I have taken hold of you and destroyed you.

I was tired of holding back my anger.

⁷I have separated the people of Judah with my pitchfork

and scattered them at the city gates of the land.

My people haven’t changed their ways.

So I have destroyed them

and taken away their children.

⁸There are more widows than grains of sand in the sea.

I brought a destroyer at noontime

against the mothers of the young men of Judah.

I suddenly brought pain and fear

on the people of Judah.

⁹When the enemy attacked, a woman with seven sons felt faint because they would all die.

She became weak and unable to breathe.

Her bright day became dark from sadness.

She felt shame and disgrace.

And everyone else left alive in Judah

I will hand over to the enemies, too!” says the Lord.

Jeremiah’s Second Complaint

¹⁰Mother, I am sorry that you gave birth to me

since I must accuse and criticize the whole land.

I have not loaned or borrowed anything,

but everyone curses me.

¹¹The Lord said,

“I have saved you for a good reason.

I have made your enemies beg you

in times of disaster and trouble.

¹²No one can smash a piece of iron or bronze

that comes from the north.

¹³Your wealth and treasures

I will give to others free of charge,

because the people of Judah have sinned

throughout the country.

¹⁴I will make you slaves to your enemies

in a land you have never known.

My anger is like a hot fire,

and it will burn against you.”

¹⁵Lord, you understand.

Remember me and take care of me.

Punish for me those who are hurting me.

Don’t destroy me while you remain patient with them.

Think about the shame I suffer for you.

¹⁶Your words came to me, and I listened carefully to them.

Your words made me very happy,

because I am called by your name,

Lord God All-Powerful.

¹⁷I never sat with the crowd

as they laughed and had fun.

I sat by myself, because you were there,

and you filled me with anger at the evil around me.

¹⁸I don’t understand why my pain has no end.

I don’t understand why my injury is not cured or healed.

Will you be like a brook that goes dry?

Will you be like a spring that stops flowing?

¹⁹So this is what the Lord says:

“If you change your heart and return to me, I will take you back.

Then you may serve me.

And if you speak things that have worth,

not useless words,

then you may speak for me.

Let the people of Judah turn to you,

but you must not change and be like them.

²⁰I will make you as strong as a wall to this people,

as strong as a wall of bronze.

They will fight against you,

but they will not defeat you,

because I am with you.

I will rescue you and save you,” says the Lord.

²¹“I will save you from these wicked people

and rescue you from these cruel people.”

The Day of Disaster

16Then the Lord spoke his word to me: ²“You must not get married or have sons or daughters in this place.”

³The Lord says this about the sons and daughters born in this land and their mothers and fathers: ⁴“They will die of terrible diseases, and no one will cry for them or bury them. Their bodies will lie on the ground like dung. They will die in war, or they will starve to death. Their bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and for the wild animals.”

⁵So this is what the Lord says: “Jeremiah, do not go into a house where there is a funeral meal. Do not go there to cry for the dead or to show your sorrow for them, because I have taken back my blessing, my love, and my pity from these people,” says the Lord. ⁶“Important people and common people will die in the land of Judah. No one will bury them or cry for them or cut himself or shave his head to show sorrow for them. ⁷No one will bring food to comfort those who are crying for the dead. No one will offer a drink to comfort someone whose mother or father has died.

⁸“Do not go into a house where the people are having a feast to sit down to eat and drink, ⁹because this is what the Lord All-Powerful, the God of Israel, says: I will soon stop the sounds of joy and gladness and the happy sounds of brides and bridegrooms in this place. This will happen during your lifetime.

¹⁰“When you tell the people of Judah these things, they will ask you, ‘Why has the Lord said these terrible things to us? What have we done wrong? What sin have we done against the Lord our God?’

¹¹“Then say to them: ‘This is because your ancestors quit following me,’ says the Lord. ‘And they followed other gods and served and worshiped them. Your ancestors left me and quit obeying my teaching. ¹²But you have done even more evil than your ancestors. You are very stubborn and do only what you want to do; you have not obeyed me. ¹³So I will throw you out of this country and send you into a land that you and your ancestors never knew. There you can serve other gods day and night, because I will not help you or show you any favors.’

¹⁴“People say, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the people of Israel out of Egypt …’ But the time is coming,” says the Lord, “when people will not say this anymore. ¹⁵They will say instead, ‘As surely as the Lord lives, who brought the Israelites from the northern land and from all the countries where he had sent them …’ And I will bring them back to the land I gave to their ancestors.

¹⁶“I will soon send for many fishermen to come to this land,” says the Lord. “And they will catch the people of Judah. After that, I will send for many hunters to come to this land. And they will hunt the people of Judah on every mountain and hill and in the cracks of the rocks. ¹⁷I see everything they do. They cannot hide from me the things they do; their sin is not hidden from my eyes. ¹⁸I will pay back the people of Judah twice for every one of their sins, because they have made my land unclean. They have filled my country with their hateful idols.”

¹⁹Lord, you are my strength and my protection,

my safe place in times of trouble.

The nations will come to you from all over the world

and say, “Our ancestors had only false gods,

useless idols that didn’t help them.

²⁰Can people make gods for themselves?

They will not really be gods!”

²¹The Lord says, “So I will teach those who make idols.

This time I will teach them

about my power and my strength.

Then they will know

that my name is the Lord.

Judah’s Guilty Heart

17“The sin of the people of Judah is written with an iron tool.

Their sins were cut with a hard point into the stone that is their hearts.

Their sins were cut into the corners of their altars.

²Even their children remember

their altars to idols and their Asherah idols

beside the green trees

and on the high hills.

³My mountain in the open country

and your wealth and treasures

I will give away to other people.

I will give away the places of worship in your country,

because you sinned by worshiping there.

⁴You will lose the land I gave you,

and it is your own fault.

I will let your enemies take you as their slaves

to a land you have never known.

This is because you have made my anger burn like a hot fire,

and it will burn forever.”

Trusting in Humans or God

⁵This is what the Lord says:

“A curse is placed on those who trust other people,

who depend on humans for strength,

who have stopped trusting the Lord.

⁶They are like a bush in a desert

that grows in a land where no one lives,

a hot and dry land with bad soil.

They don’t know about the good things God can give.

⁷“But the person who trusts in the Lord will be blessed.

The Lord will show him that he can be trusted.

⁸He will be strong, like a tree planted near water

that sends its roots by a stream.

It is not afraid when the days are hot;

its leaves are always green.

It does not worry in a year when no rain comes;

it always produces fruit.

⁹“More than anything else, a person’s mind is evil

and cannot be healed.

Who can understand it?

¹⁰But I, the Lord, look into a person’s heart

and test the mind.

So I can decide what each one deserves;

I can give each one the right payment for what he does.”

¹¹Like a bird hatching an egg it did not lay,

so are the people who get rich by cheating.

When their lives are half finished, they will lose their riches.

At the end of their lives, it will be clear they were fools.

¹²From the beginning, our Temple has been honored

as a glorious throne for God.

¹³Lord, hope of Israel,

those who leave you will be shamed.

People who quit following the Lord will be like a name written in the dust,

because they have left the Lord, the spring of living water.

Jeremiah’s Third Complaint

¹⁴Lord, heal me, and I will truly be healed.

Save me, and I will truly be saved.

You are the one I praise.

¹⁵The people of Judah keep asking me,

“Where is the word from the Lord?

Let’s see that message come true!”

¹⁶Lord, I didn’t run away from being the shepherd you wanted.

I didn’t want the terrible day to come.

You know everything I have said;

you see all that is happening.

¹⁷Don’t be a terror to me.

I run to you for safety in times of trouble.

¹⁸Make those who are hurting me be ashamed,

but don’t bring shame to me.

Let them be terrified,

but keep me from terror.

Bring the day of disaster on my enemies.

Destroy them, and destroy them again.

Keeping the Sabbath Holy

¹⁹This is what the …