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 Lord said to me: “Go and stand at the People’s Gate of Jerusalem, where the kings of Judah go in and out. And then go to all the other gates of Jerusalem. ²⁰Say to them there: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, kings of Judah, all you people of Judah, and all who live in Jerusalem, who come through these gates into the city. ²¹This is what the Lord says: Be careful not to carry a load on the Sabbath day or bring it through the gates of Jerusalem. ²²Don’t take a load out of your houses on the Sabbath or do any work on that day. But keep the Sabbath as a holy day, as I commanded your ancestors. ²³But your ancestors did not listen or pay attention to me. They were very stubborn and did not listen. I punished them, but it didn’t do any good. ²⁴But you must be careful to obey me, says the Lord. You must not bring a load through the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath, but you must keep the Sabbath as a holy day and not do any work on that day.

²⁵“ ‘If you obey this command, kings who sit on David’s throne will come through the gates of Jerusalem with their officers. They will come riding in chariots and on horses, along with the people of Judah and Jerusalem. And the city of Jerusalem will have people living in it forever. ²⁶People will come to Jerusalem from the villages around it, from the towns of Judah, from the land of Benjamin, from the western hills, from the mountains, and from southern Judah. They will all bring to the Temple of the Lord burnt offerings, sacrifices, grain offerings, incense, and offerings to show thanks to God. ²⁷But you must obey me and keep the Sabbath day as a holy day. You must not carry any loads into Jerusalem on the Sabbath. If you don’t obey me, I will start a fire at the gates of Jerusalem, and it will burn until it burns even the strong towers. And it will not be put out.’ ”

The Potter and the Clay

18This is the word the Lord spoke to Jeremiah: ²“Go down to the potter’s house, and I will give you my message there.” ³So I went down to the potter’s house and saw him working at the potter’s wheel. ⁴He was using his hands to make a pot from clay, but something went wrong with it. So he used that clay to make another pot the way he wanted it to be.

⁵Then the Lord spoke his word to me: ⁶“Family of Israel, can’t I do the same thing with you?” says the Lord. “You are in my hands like the clay in the potter’s hands. ⁷There may come a time when I will speak about a nation or a kingdom that I will pull up by its roots or that I will pull down to destroy it. ⁸But if the people of that nation stop doing the evil they have done, I will change my mind and not carry out my plans to bring disaster to them. ⁹There may come another time when I will speak about a nation that I will build up and plant. ¹⁰But if I see it doing evil by not obeying me, I will change my mind and not carry out my plans to do good for them.

¹¹“So, say this to the people of Judah and those who live in Jerusalem: ‘This is what the Lord says: I am preparing disaster for you and making plans against you. So stop doing evil. Change your ways and do what is right.’ ¹²But the people of Judah will answer, ‘It won’t do any good to try! We will continue to do what we want. Each of us will do what his stubborn, evil heart wants!’ ”

¹³So this is what the Lord says:

“Ask the people in other nations this question:

‘Have you ever heard anything like this?’

The people of Israel have done a horrible thing.

¹⁴The snow on the mountains of Lebanon

never melts from the rocks.

Its cool, flowing streams

do not dry up.

¹⁵But my people have forgotten me.

They burn incense to worthless idols

and have stumbled in…

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This passage has been shortened. Keep reading Jeremiah 16–24 in Logos